The last BR steam crews still working

[Taunton]

Last BR steam was 1968. Given that school leaving age was 15 then, we seem to be just coming up to when the last of anyone who was on steam then (potentially as a Passed Cleaner) is going to retire at 65. Or has the final such man finally departed.

 

[yorksrob]

I remember at school in the late 80's (I think) the man from BR came to tell us all not to trespass on the railway. He was a driver who'd retired from front line service and he confirmed that he'd started out working with steam (which presumably would have been the early 60's given phase 2 of the Kent electrification happened in 62).

I know steam lingered on elsewhere, however, I'd be surprised if any of its practitioners were still on front line duties !

 

[theageofthetra]

It wouldn't be inconceivable that there are few in parts of Eastern Europe. I was lucky enough to get on the footplate on a steam excursion in Slovenia a few years ago and the fireman (who also drove local trains) had started on steam when it was the former Yugoslavia. At a guess he was only in his 50's. In the UK I wonder if there are any former NCB or British Steel steam era drivers still out there?

 

[westcoaster]

When did steam finish on the Cambrian. I'm sure there maybe a few younger guys from then.

1988 for the narrow guage steam.

 

[Dieseldriver]

There's a driver at my depot who started on steam.

 

[Springs Branch]

I know the original question refers to BR steam crews, and steam shunters at NCB collieries have already been mentioned.

In the mid to late 1970s I spent many hours hanging around Bickershaw colliery and the exchange sidings at Abram North watching the NCB 0-6-0 shunters in action. I believe steam continued here, off and on, until ~1983.

At the time the steam crews didn't seem to be made up of wizened old boys, as it was obviously quite a physical job. Maybe mostly in their early middle-age.

If someone was 35 y.o. in 1977, they would be 73 today, so there may very well be a few blokes who earned a wage driving steam locos still knocking about the Wigan / Leigh area, albeit as NCB rather than BR employees.

Vale of Rheidol is another example, and true-blue BR men in this case (weren't the VoR steam locos painted Rail Blue with double-arrow logos at one stage?)

 

[70014IronDuke]

There's a driver at my depot who started on steam.

Really? In BR days? I'm amazed (unless he was VoR?)

I remember a Virgin Trains driver (WCML) retiring 4-5? years ago, and the report said he'd started on steam, but I didn't think there could be any left now.

A few years ago I met an inspector on a Tornado special that had started at Faversham in steam days (I think it was, or perhaps he came from Faversham but started on BR at Hither Green, sorry for uncertainty) - but he was 73 then (I think) and obviously only hired on contract.

xxxxx
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I remember at school in the late 80's (I think) the man from BR came to tell us all not to trespass on the railway. He was a driver who'd retired from front line service and he confirmed that he'd started out working with steam (which presumably would have been the early 60's given phase 2 of the Kent electrification happened in 62).

I know steam lingered on elsewhere, however, I'd be surprised if any of its practitioners were still on front line duties !

I'm not sure if they were allocated to the depot, but Tonbridge certainly serviced steam in 63 and perhaps into 64 or even 65 - stuff working in from Guildford/Redhill.

It is interesting that, despite mass extinction caused by electrification, steam did indeed linger on on the Southern in small pockets for quite a while. This of course does not include the LSWR main lines, where it was a more obvious managerial decision.
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When did steam finish on the Cambrian. I'm sure there maybe a few younger guys from then.

I think it was still steam in 65, but I should think by winter TT 66 the Cambrian would have been diesel, quite possibly earlier.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Very few - if any by now - (I had some of the very senior old boys working for me in the mid-late 1990's who had started post war as cleaners at Watford and Camden / Willesden) - and their careers spanned steam , early diesel and electric.

Their personal staff files (consulted before retirement) , made fascinating reading - requests for information on why they had stalled a train on Camden bank due to lack of steam , and one guy who had been injured on a Brittania Pacific due to being clobbered by a large lump of coal hitting his hands whilst digging out the tender. Course he stayed on duty ...his driver fired and he drove !!!

 

[DarloRich]

Was there not an article about this recently - i cant find it now sadly

 

[steamybrian]

I believe there is a driver at Tonbridge depot who started his BR service as a steam fireman in the early 1960s who is still working now as a EMU driver today. He must be one of the oldest drivers working.
The final steam working to Tonbridge being precisely 50 years ago (June 1965)

 

[westcoaster]

I think it was still steam in 65, but I should think by winter TT 66 the Cambrian would have been diesel, quite possibly earlier.

I know a driver on southern who was a steam driver in 1988 on narrow guage steam in wales, he says it was under BR control. As I'm not 100% it might be the same line as the following picture , https://www.flickr.com/photos/loose_grip_99/195272693

Found the following from the vale or Rheidol railway

Ownership of the line passed to British Railways in 1948, and it survived through threats of closure to become the last steam railway owned by British Rail until privatised in 1989. The railway is now owned by a charitable trust, who set about renovating and improving the locomotives, carriages and track and opening up some of the views not seen for decades.

 

[yorksrob]

I believe there is a driver at Tonbridge depot who started his BR service as a steam fireman in the early 1960s who is still working now as a EMU driver today. He must be one of the oldest drivers working.
The final steam working to Tonbridge being precisely 50 years ago (June 1965)

My goodness. He'll have seen a few changes over the years then. Steam locos and Maunsell stock, maybe even the odd birdcage set from Brighton, electric slammers, thumpers, tadpole units Eurostars and finally - lots and lots of electrostars !

 

[steamybrian]

I know a driver on southern who was a steam driver in 1988 on narrow guage steam in wales, he says it was under BR control. As I'm not 100% it might be the same line as the following picture , https://www.flickr.com/photos/loose_grip_99/195272693

Found the following from the vale or Rheidol railway

Correct that is a photo of VoR at Aberystwyth.

Steam finished on the Cambrian Lines in March 1967

 

[Llama]

There is a driver at a coastal depot under Northern who started on steam, if I am not mistaken he is 70 or 71 years old.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

When did steam finish on the Cambrian. I'm sure there maybe a few younger guys from then.

.

March 1967

 

[LowLevel]

There's a guard at our place who is 65 who moved to the back of the train having been a steam cleaner or fireman when his shed shut.

 

[Galvanize]

Driver on Southern who started his railway career in 1961 at Norwood as an engine cleaner, then became a fireman on the steam locos on the former Southern region, becoming a driver just as a steam was replaced by diesels. He is still on the job today, and has absolutely no intention to hang up his uniform and relinquish his EP key, will continue driving as his health allows.

 

[A-driver]

There is a GN driver who was a fireman rather than driver, not sure he made driver before steam was abolished. He dosnt seem to be keen on retiring so keeps going.

 

[Busaholic]

In my local Penzance paper last week, someone just retired from FGW having been a fireman in the mid/late '60s, and saying he was the last with that company.

 

[Taunton]

In my local Penzance paper last week, someone just retired from FGW having been a fireman in the mid/late '60s, and saying he was the last with that company.

There were plenty of firemen in earlier diesel days, among other things they were responsible for the steam heating boiler in diesels in the 20 years from dieselisation until ETH became widespread, and also fully overnight rosters had to be double manned. Even more than in steam days, with the right driver they would get some considerable experience of driving before the official conversion course came around.

When Met-Cam DMUs substituted for the Class 27 Glasgow-Edinburgh push-pull trains in the 1970s, they were double manned with a fireman, and you as passengers got to see what their duties on such a roster were ...

 

[Turbo]

I remember watching the programme on Channel 5 about First Great Western and the driver was retiring. He had been on the railway since he was 15, I can't remember his retirement age but I think it was 67.