Day Out - With a surprise

I'm a volunteer with the National Railway Museum with a remit to capture an oral history of railway signalling as Network Rail begins a programme of closing older signalboxes and replacing them with a small number of very large computer driver control centres.

The plan for today was to take two retired relief signalmen out to lunch on the Bluebell Railway. During the journey and then over a few beers and lunch, get them to talk about their careers. This gives me an idea of the sorts of stories they have. I can then prepare a script for some structured interviews in the coming weeks.

The day went to plan; the weather couldn't have been better. The beer was good so was the food. The stories re-told will (I hope) give a fascinating insight to the life of a railway signalman. My favourite was having to open a signal box very late at night and having the police think you were a burglar!

Then when we got back to East Grinstead we discovered that the driver was a fellow signalman! So hurried discussions on the platform until they had to take the train back to Sheffield Park.

In the picture are Steve Webb and Rodney Maynard (both retired Relief Signalman) and Paul Kemp (Driver and current Relief Signalman).