3 minute read
An Abnormal Load
a cart crossed the railway close to the “Stag and Castle” Inn, Thornton, and a train ran into it. After that, Mr. Smith tells us, “We had a whistle. It was a kind of steam trumpet.” And when the engines were first run at night, it caused the greatest consternation.
The old Ratby Station, which still stands upon the left side of the railway, has a history which is interesting. It is a brick building, probably about 10 feet by 12 feet. It served for weighing machine office, station master's office, and passengers' waiting-room; but, most strange of all, it was an old licensed public house. The stationmaster, in addition to all his other duties, was an innkeeper, and, as Mr. Smith remarks, “they wouldn't allow that sort of thing now.”
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There were no guards' vans in those days. Goods guards had to ride upon the waggons; and when they wanted to stop, they had to run along the tops, and apply the brakes, which they did with a kind of brake stick, which, Mr. Smith says, was known as a “sprigger.”
The early engines had loose eccentrics on the axles, and the levers on the footplate were in constant motion backwards and forwards, and care had to be taken to avoid getting some smart raps from them. In 1838, Mr. Smith went from West Bridge to take charge of a contractor's locomotive, the “Etna”, working at the construction of that portion of the Midland Counties Railway between Trent and Rugby.
When the Midland Counties line was opened throughout, on 1st July 1840, “Old Tom Smith” became one of that company's drivers, being stationed at Derby and working to Rugby and to Nottingham. When the Midland Counties - Birmingham and Derby - and North Midland Companies, in 1844, became amalgamated into the present Midland Railway, Mr. Smith was taken over with the rolling-stock and other property, and became a driver under the new company, and worked trains to Rugby, Leeds, Hunslet Lane, Hampton, Birmingham (Lawley Street); also, to Lincoln when that extension was opened.
In the spring of 1848, Mr. Smith was sent to Southwell to open and work a new branch. The passenger traffic, after about twelve months, was found not to pay, and locomotive working was given up, a horse being employed to draw a carriage. Mr. Smith returned once again to the West Bridge, Leicester, in March 1849, to work two passenger trains a day to Burton and back with engine No. 51, and in August of the same year the line from Desford to Leicester was opened. He then ran for many years with engines Nos. 41-45 and 100 between Leicester, Peterborough, Burton, and Derby.
On a modest estimate, it is probable that Mr. Smith must have ridden on the footplate as fireman and driver some 2,000,000 miles, or say eighty-five times round the world, and in all this long journey he had not met with any accident. However, on one occasion, when running to Kettering with a special train, he found the distant signal at Kibworth “all right”, but on sighting the “home” signal it was at “danger”. Being without the modern continuous brakes, his only hope was to reverse his engine (No. 190) and put steam against her. The catch flew out, and the lever dashed forward, crushing “Old Tom” between it and the weatherboard. He was laid up for some weeks and never drove on the main line again.
The Company placed him in charge of a stationary engine, working the coal stage at Leicester, and here he was of considerable use in moving engines, or doing a bit of shunting in the locomotive sidings up till 18S6, when, after fifty-five years' work, he retired, thinking, as he says, that he had done about enough railway work.
Mr. Smith, it is pleasing to know, enjoys excellent health. He is as active and vigorous as most men of sixty. He maintains, and, we think, with considerable reason, that enginedriving is a healthy occupation, and it will no doubt interest our readers to know that he has just become an honorary member of the Associated Society of Engineers and Firemen.
