Eastleigh Works Web Site 

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Magic Memories Page

This page is for your memories, a page which I have wanted to do for a long time.  You may not feel you have any stories which anyone will be interested in, but please believe me, people will want to read them.  So if you have anything you remember which you want to share, please contact us

Contributors (click on the name to jump to their memory)

 

Roy Burford Poems Ken Hunt Mick Thurston            
                   

 Added 9/12/07

 

By Roy Burford (now living in New Zealand)

I started my working life in August 1950, first working as an office boy in the sawmills, in the Carriage Works, on the Bishopstoke Road until I was 16 years old. Then in 1951 moved to the Locomotive Works in Campbell Road, starting my apprenticeship my first job was on the dreaded nut taper this was a big cast iron machine belt driven from a big electric motor which also had two or three smaller lathes connected to it, it had three heads holding three taps mostly 5/8 ‘whitworth’ a blank nut was placed on top of the tap and then a heavy arm was lowered on to the nut and so the nut was threaded. These nuts were used in the boiler shop on boiler stays as I remember. I was so pleased a new apprentice was starting the next Monday taking over from me !

Next job was on a lathe facing the nuts before they went to the boilers, moving on to other jobs in the machine shop, fitting ‘keeps’ into axel boxes & from there learning how to fit piston rings. Into the brass shop learning about brass valve fittings that go on to the finished locomotive, and one very boring job making brass cap nuts that were used in the smoke box, why brass ? because they did not corrode, I think the order was for 10,000 of these nuts so it was a never ending job. lots of apprentices had a turn with this order.

Moving on again to the fitting shop things became more interesting starting with brakes, connecting & piston rods, motion and even safety valves, by this time I was 18 and time for the big move to the erecting shop. I well remember working on different ‘gangs’ fitting brass fitting to boilers, internal steam pipes and at the other end of the boiler fitting the grates, getting near the end of my apprenticeship I was lucky to be working on the conversions, and was lucky to go trial to Portsmouth. At the time I felt it was a great experience. Then on to the Royal Air Force to do national service. Coming back I was working on the gang doing fabrication, this is job I had, until I left to work at Pirelli General in Leigh road.

Some of the more unusual things I remember in the years I was working ín ‘the railway’. I am claustrophobic I hated fitting the grates in fire boxes and one time, I was asked to get into a boiler and fit the regulator to the internal steam pipe as I was the thinnest one on the gang [well not now] doing the job, but how to get out? the only way was to get the crane to pull me out much to my relief. One other thing that comes to mind - open day for the Railway Orphanage a locomotive was kept for that day to be ‘wheeled’. The charge hand was the one to lay out the wheels, the locomotive was lifted over the wheels, oh dear the driving wheels round the wrong way, a few red faces.

The railway works supported the Eastleigh carnival and I had a great time along with lots of others working on the tableau’s - mostly in our own time.

. Roy Burford

Poems

These verses were written by a driver who wanted no publicity and our thanks go to:

P.R. Lovelace ex S.R C&W Works (1945)

B.R.B. HQ (M.E. Design)

B.R.E.L (Eastleigh Works)

For sending them in.

 

Campbell! A famous name, So too our road, it is the same,

Artisans, Drivers, Signalman too, Apprentices, Tea boys making the brew.

Men like Sam and Alf and Jock, built the Southern's railway stock.

Loco's thundering on the line, Weymouth to London, right on time.

Here comes the Bournemouth Belle, Campbell's residents knew her well.

History is here and much beside - Railways opened the country-side.

Seaside places, little known, came suddenly into their own.

Millions of people, their children too, saw the environment, anew.

Ports around our Southern Coast, Part of Railway's proud boast.

It's true to say it was for the better, holiday came and time for leisure.

A hundred years changed the Southern Scene, happier then it had ever been.

Some of the credit has to be due, to the men and women, not a few,

Who over the years lived in Campbell Road, it was their workplace and abode.

What they achieved was a vital part, keeping it beating, the Nation's heart

 


 

Campbell Road - Present

Time has rolled the twentieth century on

Four generations of railway men, now gone.

From this road and other roads too,

Who cares about you and you and you?

What of this place you served so well?

What of the stories you could tell?

Of giant loco's built with pride,

Far better than a Disney ride.

Sleek carriages of every class,

Their proud livery, long since past,

Gone are the sons of Alf, Jock and Sam

Sacrificed to the greediness of man.

For man, must always pay the price of greed,

The things we cannot change, are above decreed.

Will the future of Campbell Road, still be there?

Will rail folk be sacrificed to the air?

Railwaymen of this Hampshire Town

You have left your mark - A Fitting Cown

ANON

 

Ken Hunt Memories

I remember the cotton waste!  And I also remember when in the carriage works and going to the loos people would put lighted cotton waste and send the it down the water trough. As it passed the cubicles if you were sat too comfy and for too long, it would burn your bum, (I wonder if it was the foreman!!!)

 

Mick Thurstons comments from a few emails

Dear Al - only discovered your astonishing website today and wanted to say thank you for so many mad (and some sad) memories. My name is Mick Thurston and I worked at the Railway Works between 1978 and 1985 (the first 4 years as VB apprentice). I know exactly what you mean when you praise the great men their incredible craftmanship and the skills and philosophies they imparted, I too have a lot to be thankful for.
 
I left BREL in September '85 and worked for BA for nearly 18 years followed by stints at Airbus UK and as an independent engineering consultant around the world. I currently reside in Jersey and France and act as consultant for The States of Jersey Environment Agency working on sustainable business models - not bad for a "Rock Ape". If I can help with names or anything else I will.
 
   You know what? I think you might be right! I do find myself harking back to "wise words" said during my time there and still recall to this day useful nuggets of information; info that perhaps at that moment had no (perceived) baring or relevence, but which in hindsight held many a truth. I have found that it's a bit like saying to your kids the things that your parents said to you, maybe not appreciated at the time but a seed has been sown! Also the beginning of the slippery slope!  
 
I think Richard K was a year above me but we did work on the door gang at the same time, a brilliant tradesman he was too - it was a period which I enjoyed greatly. I say that now but am I deluding myself and seeing these things through rose coloured glasses? As I also seem to recall the dread of going into that damned place on occasions.
 
Dick King spent some time running a pub in Brighton (The Black Lion I think) where I was living for a while during the 90's so I have actually seen him relatively recently.
 
I have a good mate who I still see and speak to quite a bit who also worked at the railway, Mick Cook. He would have been in the 1977-78 intake. He was a welder but I didn't see him on the welder list so maybe you could add him. 
 
There are many things we still laugh and wonder about to this day and when a few drinks have been consumed the reminiscing starts; you have already mentioned a couple of characters of note, Johnny Cutler and Bill Prior of course (what happened to them?). But whatever happened to Steve Cullem or Mick Collins (any idea?), or Charlie Whitlock (one of the funniest men I've ever met!). I was really surprise to see that Addie Dean is no longer with us, what happened?
 
It's not just the people tho', but the place and time. Can you imagine any works canteen (not many left I grant you) including a can of beer and two fags with your Christmas lunch, bloody crazy but brilliant as well. It must contravene some law or other. 
 
Please continue with the website, it's a pleasure to read.
 

v b rgds, Mick.