Pay Day At the Mill.

[9K43]

PAY DAY AT THE MILL CIRCA 1982.
In July 1982 I got a sideways move down the road to Healey Mills.
As a result I had 8 miles per day to travel and 50 pounds per week on my pay.
At this time at at The Mill, we had a massive allocation of locos on the shed, and the yard was was running thick and fast over the 24 hours a day.
At this time we had all the pits working in our area and out every Saturday night on loose coupled engineering trains that could go any place that required these trains.
On Sunday morning at 00:01hrs, guards a drivers were signing on to come out to relieve the ballast trains that started the night before.
During the week we had the pit trippers that loaded the coal out on the many pits sourounded The Mill, yet again all loose coupled work with a brake van in the rear
We also that the block trains of chemicals, steel, petrol trains from The Humber to Hunslet East, at Leeds, and customers to service all over the railway map.
All the trains had a guard, second man and a driver.
At his time my lad was 3 years old and mad keen on Thomas the Tank, and when not at work we wore the wheels off the trains, and went to Blackpool, Scarborough, Stafford, and many more places. This was the best years of my life.
One of th highlights of the week was on a Thursday at 11:00hrs, when we got paid.
The payment was in pound notes in cellophane packet.
At pay day we all lined up presented our pay cards to the pay clerk, there must have been hundreds of men waiting for their pay.
Each man looked at the hours paid on his pay slip, and if it was wrong went upstairs to the pay clerk about the discrepancy of what he had to what his calculation was.
Also Thursday dinner time the weekend sheets were posted, to what the engineering trains needed, also the Sunday Sheet was published.
I have seen many good slanging matches over these sheets.
My son and I would go in the mess room, and he would stand on a chair and look out into the Yard and ask where Thomas was today.
At The Mill we had a driver who had a nick name of Skelitor, and my son wanted to meet him, but he was never about to be seen.
At this time we did not realize what would be unleashed on us, with closures of many mainlines, steel works coke ovens and pits that would be on us in a few years time.
I can still remember the good times, but looking at the railways of today, I recon I took the money just at about the right time.
As someone remarked thez nowt left nar't mill as trees growing all over it, an't flood lites dunt shine anymore

 

[wbbminerals]

I wish I could have seen the railways back then... Sadly HM is now being demolished.

See here, at 1:18 onwards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7SiM9ma1Sw

 

[9K43]

For many years I have seen the trainspotters on the Storres Hill Railway Bridge when coming and going from The Mill, at all times of night and day.
Also worked the Sand Trains on a very regular basis to Monk Bretton.
The clips were very good. They were smashing up the locker room.
I made a trip down to The Mill in January 2012 to get my pics.
9K43 was he local trip train, that went as far as Castleford and Hebden Bridge

 

[AlexS]

Same everywhere I think with very few exceptions - you often get the old hands at my station reminiscing about the days when there were more men on nights than days (anywhere up to 30), handling parcels and mail traffic for the adjacent Royal Mail depot, banging vans on trains and chopping them off, changing engines and running round on peak time loco hauled local services, as well as the local TMD next door kicking out engines and taking them back at all hours of the day. Then retiring back to the shunters cabin under the bridge for a tot of rum in your tea and back for more later on.

Not to mention the huge number of grades of staff present to handle all the different jobs.

Nowadays on our circa 5 million passenger a year station, you have a maximum of 4 platform staff on duty, out of a link of 8 plus 4 GPR/RDR staff, quite often less, with a cleaner or two and a station supervisor, and that's it. Obviously the parcel, mail and newspaper traffic has vanished completely. The TMD has closed and the shunter's cabin is a concrete foundation block in the ground. The local signalboxes were demolished and even their replacement PSB has closed and recontrolled.

All that said, while I think it's a crying shame the 'old' railway has more or less vanished, I like to think we are the best ever at providing the passenger service now required - our team recently won the best overall team in the TOC for providing customer service, our punctuality and reliability in terms of getting the trains in and out on time is very good as well.9

So there is still much to have pride in your job about, I think.

 

[Johnuk123]

PAY DAY AT THE MILL CIRCA 1982.
In July 1982 I got a sideways move down the road to Healey Mills.
As a result I had 8 miles per day to travel and 50 pounds per week on my pay.
At this time at at The Mill, we had a massive allocation of locos on the shed, and the yard was was running thick and fast over the 24 hours a day.
At this time we had all the pits working in our area and out every Saturday night on loose coupled engineering trains that could go any place that required these trains.
On Sunday morning at 00:01hrs, guards a drivers were signing on to come out to relieve the ballast trains that started the night before.
During the week we had the pit trippers that loaded the coal out on the many pits sourounded The Mill, yet again all loose coupled work with a brake van in the rear
We also that the block trains of chemicals, steel, petrol trains from The Humber to Hunslet East, at Leeds, and customers to service all over the railway map.
All the trains had a guard, second man and a driver.
At his time my lad was 3 years old and mad keen on Thomas the Tank, and when not at work we wore the wheels off the trains, and went to Blackpool, Scarborough, Stafford, and many more places. This was the best years of my life.
One of th highlights of the week was on a Thursday at 11:00hrs, when we got paid.
The payment was in pound notes in cellophane packet.
At pay day we all lined up presented our pay cards to the pay clerk, there must have been hundreds of men waiting for their pay.
Each man looked at the hours paid on his pay slip, and if it was wrong went upstairs to the pay clerk about the discrepancy of what he had to what his calculation was.
Also Thursday dinner time the weekend sheets were posted, to what the engineering trains needed, also the Sunday Sheet was published.
I have seen many good slanging matches over these sheets.
My son and I would go in the mess room, and he would stand on a chair and look out into the Yard and ask where Thomas was today.
At The Mill we had a driver who had a nick name of Skelitor, and my son wanted to meet him, but he was never about to be seen.
At this time we did not realize what would be unleashed on us, with closures of many mainlines, steel works coke ovens and pits that would be on us in a few years time.
I can still remember the good times, but looking at the railways of today, I recon I took the money just at about the right time.
As someone remarked thez nowt left nar't mill as trees growing all over it, an't flood lites dunt shine anymore

"Those were the days my friend we thought they'd never end".

 

[9K43]

The water shed of decline started after the Miners Strike, in 1984/85.
The NCB spent millions of pounds linking pits around Barnsley and the Wakefield area so that coal came out of the pits at 1 or 2 locations in the region.
These pits had rapid load bunkers built with all the coal washing system to boot.
One such Bunker was a good stones throw from the The Mill at Wooley Pit Yard.
A RR road was built at Wooley as well.
HM men went into the bunker RR the train and then propelled the 36 MGRs through the rapid loading bunker, and then pulled the MGRs at a slow speed to load the HAA's.
Just after the miners strike all the pit which fed into Wooley were shut, and as a result Wooley Pit was shut and the bunker blown up.
This also happened at Grimethorpe where a Bunker was also built.
I took the first MGR train through Wooly Bunker and Grimethorpe Bunker and the last trains first and last trains through Grimethorpe and both locations shut within 18 months of the end of the Miners Strike.
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"Those were the days my friend we thought they'd never end".

Mary Hopkins cira 1967( ish)