The Driver’s Story ... from Ted Letter May local elections

CHARLIE had been a Train Driver for many years and for the last few he had made it to the top link of drivers in his depot. Now he drove express trains to and from London. This involved driving the High Speed Trains from Sheffield to and from St. Pancras.

Today Charlie was heading out of St. Pancras with a High Speed Train heading for Sheffield. It was a cold winter’s day and heavy dark clouds hung over the city and Charlie thought it could only get worse the further north he went. Leaving Market Harborough far behind Charlie increases the train speed. A few more miles down the line is the next junction at Kilby Bridge where a third line branches off the main lines forming a reversible slow line.

As the train approaches the junction signal which is showing a bright green clear signal Charlie spots a lone figure beside the junction points waving a red light hand signal. Despite the main signal showing a green clear signal the fact that a red danger signal was being waved at him Charlie he had no choice but to put on the brakes, stop his train and contact the Signalman to find out what was going on.

Charlie brought the High Speed Train to a stand about a mile beyond the junction.

Charlie’s heart was beating twice the speed of normal and his hands holding the train brake were still shaking. Recovering his breath Charlie was thinking “What was the red light for when the main signal was green?” Charlie thought it did not add up. Charlie reached for the phone to call the Signalman in the Power Box at Leicester.

The Signalman answered straight away.

“Hello Signalman this is the Driver of One Echo One Four I have come to a stand between Kilby Bridge and Wigston the signal was green but someone at the side of the track was waving a red light at me do you know anything about it?” Charlie asked the Signalman.

A very relieved Signalman’s voice told Charlie that he was just about to put out an emergency call to stop all trains in the area where Charlie had brought his train to a stand when to his relief he had seen on his display panel that Charlie’s train had stopped anyway. The Signalman went onto tell Charlie why he had wanted his train to stop.

A lorry had skidded on the snow covered road and crashed through the side of the bridge at Wigston South Junction and ended up on the track and that Charlie would have found the next signal at red but he would not have had time to stop in time and would certainly have hit the lorry with terrible consequences!

Who the person was that had shown Charlie the red light to stop his train the Signalman did not know but he was thankful to whoever it was. Having said that, how could anyone right back there have known about the incident at Wigston South, as it had only just happened a few minutes before?

Charlie was to recount this story of the man with the red light many times over the next few weeks. To the British Transport Police, his own railway company and Network Rail.

No trace was ever found of the man waving the red light to stop Charlie’s train before the crash that would have surely happened. Weeks passed and the incident would have been confined to the annals of the Railway Archives were it not for a phone call to the Railway Company that Charlie worked for.

An anonymous caller said that he had heard the story of a train being stopped by a man waving a red light at Kilby Bridge that had prevented a certain crash.

Did they know that it was a hundred years to the day that the Signalman at Kilby Bridge had waved a red light at a train to try to stop it as the train in front had failed. Unfortunately in this case it was too late to stop the train and it crashed into the rear of the failed train killing the engine driver and the fireman.

The train company looked into the story with Network Rail and local newspaper records. It turned out that not only did the day match but also the times of day except both incidents were exactly 100 years apart!

So who was this man that waved the red light at Charlie on his High Speed Train could it have been the ghost of that fateful Signalman?

No one was ever found who admitted showing that red light that day but Charlie and his passengers on that train on that day will be forever thankful to who or whatever it was that showed that red light to show Charlie he needed to stop before it was too late!

MARY KAPADIA and I stood as the Green Party candidates in Glenfield Faire ward in the Blaby District Council elections in May.

We have both lived in the ward for decades and have previously stood in elections in that ward. The Green Party stood as many candidates as we could throughout Blaby District but could not stand a candidate in every ward. We are sorry we had no one to stand in Glenfield Ellis ward.

The Green Party stand candidates in order to give voters the opportunity to vote for fairer, greener policies or at least to have a choice – if Mary and I had not stood, there would have been no choice and no election in Fairestone.

We did not have any pacts with any other political party and the only ward where we were able to give extra time and support in the campaign (targeted) was Kirby Muxloe, where we already had a sitting councillor.

Our two candidates in Kirby Muxloe, Tony Deakin and Roger Stead, were subsequently elected by a large margin. Elsewhere we did our best, and Mary and I would like to thank the hundreds of residents who supported us and gave us their vote in May – we are not going away.

Part of an article lamented the loss of good councillors claiming that voters had seemingly deserted local Conservatives over national issues, resulting in the loss of Conservative working majorities in local councils.

One of Blaby’s new Green Councillors, Tony Deakin, says “Many of the new councillors will be taking up the reins of leadership for their part of Leicestershire, and I’m sure that all of them are more than capable of challenging the disappointing suggestion from my fellow Blaby Councillor that only Conservatives can be ‘bold and innovative’”

I, too, am sure that all the new councillors will be striving hard to represent their communities and help push local councils to work in the best interests of their local areas.

Councillor Deakin, who helps run the Blaby Green Party, added “Rather than ‘coasting’ (as indicated in the Gazette article), I’m sure our local councils of many colours will aim to bring about the vital changes necessary in our County as quickly as possible, especially if there is a Green Councillor or two in the room to help drive things forward.”

Nick Cox

Blaby Green Party

Council working to minimise disruption to waste collections

BLABY DISTRICT COUNCIL is actively working on contingency plans to minimise disruptions to waste collections during the strike action by GMB Union. Approximately 40 members of GMB Union working in the waste, recycling, district cleansing and open spaces team are taking strike action on four consecutive Wednesdays, which started on 28th June, and are set to continue until 19th July.

The strike action is over pay, with the GMB seeking an extra 15% local pay increase for its members, an average of £4,000 per year, on top of the national pay offer of £1,925.

For residents whose waste is scheduled to be collected on a Wednesday, please place all your scheduled bins out as usual. Bins will be emptied if sufficient crews are available. Please ensure bins are placed at the kerbside by 6.30am.

The Council will be updating the GMB Strike Action page and social media with any news on the strike action and waste collections. The Council will also be sending out email updates, so if residents would like to receive information on changes to collections, they can sign up to email updates at www.blaby.gov.uk/sign-up

I’m trying to get back to my original weight. 7lbs 8oz.

Free Your Mind: The new world of manipulation and how to resist it

by Laura Dodsworth and Patrick Fagan

LEARN HOW to recognise and resist the daily attempts to control and manipulate your mind.

There is a war on for your mind. You may not notice, but you are surrounded by manipulators: advertisers, politicians, big tech, even the humble waiter who asks, ‘Still or sparkling?’

Free Your Mind is your field manual to surviving the information battlefield. In this indispensable book, Laura Dodsworth and Patrick Fagan draw on interviews with mind-control experts ranging from monks to magicians, infiltrate cults and forums to uncover their most deceptive techniques and expose the hidden tactics used to influence you, from social media to subliminal messages.

Learn how to recognise the nudges, dispel efforts to brainwash you and always question those who say the choice is yours. If you don’t control your mind, someone else will.