April - Intercity Railway Society

Memoirs of a Railman
by Jim Fitch
Jim’s final railway memoirs are as a schoolboy from 1937 up to the start of his railway career in 1953
and the subject of his first article (January 2009).
I was born in London just a couple of months before the Coronation of King George VI in May 1937.
By the time I was 3 years old I had been evacuated from the capital to a village (then) Wigston Magna
just outside Leicester while my parents remained in London on wartime occupations.
My first memory of a railway engine is standing by the fence on the side of Wigston yards and seeing
ex-LNWR 0-8-0s working the goods trains while in the distance a tantalising glimpse of expresses
rushing by. In those days on your 5 th birthday you started school, so now I was walking to the village
school. I was also allowed to walk down the main road to the road overbridge at Wigston Station. Most
days there was a group of enthusiasts there and my railway education began. Soon I had a
vocabulary of Jubs, 8Fs and wouldn't it be great if a ‘streak’ (A4) came through.
During the war Wigston yards and junctions were crucial to the war effort as the cross country lines
meant that trains could travel North, East, South and West. Then in 1944, great excitement as
American engines appeared on the scene. These of course were the American army loco's being
brought over here for transhipment to the continent after D-Day. Apart from the look of the engine,
what intrigued us boys was their painted numbers were all straight lines and no curves.
In 1945, as war gradually came to an end I returned to London to live with my father and grandmother.
Having been bombed out of Paddington we now lived in Acton which turned out to be a treasure
house of railways. We lived close to Acton yards, so we could hear the wagons being shunted day and
night. Now I saw my first Great Western engines and after that the Midland was only my second
favourite railway. My school bordered the North London line so sometimes during the dinner hour we
would see a steam train in between the electrics. My fondest memory though is when I walked to and
from school, I walked over a road overbridge and I often saw an 0-6-0 ‘Charlie’ (Q1) pulling a heavy
goods train which was a picture of power and as steam often covered the stark lines of the loco, it did
not look as ugly as usual. Back at Acton yard it was also possible to see LNER tanks going up the
bank to join the North London line. With Willesden Junction just a bike ride away it was as good a
place to live as any.
During 1947 I kept hearing about nationalisation. Eventually I found out this meant that all the railway
companies were to be merged into one British Railways. Being now ten years old I could discuss with
the various groups of supporters at various locations, which railway was the best. When the
locomotive exchanges were announced everyone rubbed their hands with glee, each person
convinced their favourite company would show all the others up. In the event what was proven was
that each company had designed loco's suitable for what they required and overall there was not
much to choose between them. As I found out in later years, R A Riddles the new CME of BR was well
aware of this fact. He had been responsible during the war for the WD loco's and had been assisted
by engineers from all of the big four companies. From this experience he realised that basically
everyone was the same technically with only details differing depending on regional factors. As a
publicity stunt for the newly formed BR it was a great success arousing great interest around the
country.
More exciting for us spotters were the new liveries with familiar express engines appearing in blue.
The only engine I remember in blue was a King and I must admit it looked smart. However the
experiment was short lived and soon the green was back. In time many of the tank engines that
worked passenger trains were changed from black to green.
Meanwhile things stayed much the same. Former company designs such as Castles, Coronations and
A1s were still being built. A family sight in Acton yard would be a ‘dukedog’, known by us as ’sister
dukes’. There was still other outside frame 4-4-0s working all over the western. One day I was
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