Friends Reunited

On Friday, I heard from a person I'd not seen or spoken to for the best part of 30 years. All through the power of the internet; I'd seen some pictures taken by him posted on someone else's website. An approach from me to the website owner resulted in this contact from my friend.

A lot of time at the weekend was spent- thinking about that event. We've exchanged emails and I expect we'll be meeting up soon. I can't wait. I've remembered a lot of what we used to do, in the early days of railway preservation and on the big blue railway where we were both signalmen for a while. Many happy memories of the work have come back to me.

I've learned that my friend has worked hard and is now regarded in the highest esteem by his professional colleagues. Good on him; he always was very capable and knowledgeable. I'm sure the professional recognition is well deserved.

Back in harness - training again

Back to business for Worcester Management Centre. Days like yesterday feel like hard labour with no time off for good behaviour!

Firstly, it's getting back into the routine after the long break. Secondly it's the terror of having to keep a large group of local government people enthusiastic about their learning for seven hours. A number of them aren't afraid of expressing their view that they're only there because their manager has a "box to tick" that says the staff are undergoing training. The group is doing an Introductory Diploma in Management, a degree level course, and many of them haven't done anything acedemically since leaving school, say, 30 years ago. Talk about hard work. It's a shame, because several in the group are much more enthusiastic.

We were exploring leadership and motiation. The funny thing I observed with the group is that when told exactly what to do, the'd get on with it, to the letter of the instruction. However, when challenged a bit by asking them to think about something and hypothesise, or suggest options, I got a "can't do that" type reaction. Have the years in local government conditioned this response? The impression I have of organisations like anything touched by the government is that indivduals are actively discouraged from employing initiative. Days like yesterday have done nothing to change my mind. Individually, the people on this course are great - very interesting to talk to, and lively with it. But the collective culture is such a challenge to someone like me who's spent a lifetime thinking on the move.

More to do for the Management Centre again today - a small group taking the CILT Certificate. I'm looking forward to it.

Railways bringing home the milk in the 1940s

What a reminder of days gone by. Milk, in churns, is being trans-shipped from the railway lorry to a rail wagon to be transported to the dairy.

The Great Western largely served a rural, agricultural area, and much agricultural produce reached it's market in the city by train.

These days, nothing like this happens. No rail transport of milk from farms, no railway lorries going out to collect goods from outlying areas to bring them to the rail sidings. No milk churns. No railway wagons to carry such traffic. Precious few dairy farms these days, too.

In these "food safety" obsessed days, we have to wonder how the milk stayed fresh - a transit that would seem slow by today's standards, without refrigeration. It really does make you wonder.

A hint about a hero of mine

Some Dart Valley Railway Memories

Staverton Bridge Station (2006), where my interest in railways was confirmed, in 1969-70

Auto Trailers on the Dart Valley Railway, c. 1969

Why I like railways

A word about why I like railways.

My earliest memories of train travel are being taken by my mother and her mother to the seaside, courtesy of a ride by shiny green diesel unit from Bridgwater to either Burnham, or, more likely, Weston-super-Mare. I would have been about 4 years old at the time - I remember the pram with my baby brother in it.

Later we moved to Milverton, and it was a Saturday treat to go into Taunton on the train at about 9:45 am with my father and then to go swimming in St. James' Street Baths. This might have been followed by a trip to Morelli's Coffee Bar in East Reach, with a lime milk-shake and cheese sandwich - with tomato! I thought it was the food of the gods. Such simple pleasures seem way off now, but the enjoyment of a train ride remains with me. Luckily, I don't have to do a daily commute in a crowded train - I'm sure anything like that would wear my liking for rail travel a bit thin.

Anyway, years later, probably in 1969, the whole family was in deepest Devon, my father had brought us to Ipplepen to visit an old friend of his for the day. Steam trains had long been confined to the scrapyards, and Dr. Beeching's axe had fallen on much of the rail network in the west country. But, whilst we were in the garden, we heard the distinctive chime of a steam loco's whistle, echoing across the valley. My father's friend told us about the Dart Valley Railway. As only a teenager can, I nagged dad. A short drive away, we found ourselves at Staverton Bridge Station. Minutes later, a train huffed in - an ex-Great Western Class 45xx engine sandwiched between auto coaches. It was a train like no other I'd seen, but my mother recognised the coaches from her journeys on the Exe-Valley line, as a youngster.

The smell, the colours, the polished brass, the sound. It was magic; magic that captured me for ever.

A few years later I started volunteering on the Dart Valley Railway, and later became a full time railwayman. A story for another day.

Wow, this is me in the 21st Century. My kids think it's totally inappropriate for anyone ove the age of 25 to have a blog - so I'll delight in proving them wrong!

Life in the 21st Century can be confusing for us fiftysomethings. The youngsters seem to want the security and lifestile we love providing for them, but at the same time they crave independence and regard our "attempts" to "keep-up" with hostility, derision, or a mixture of both.

I'll add to the blog with stories about my days and the random thoughts that emerge from the daily round of being a self-employed seller is the biz-2-biz sector of environmentally friendly packaging, a trainer in Sales and Marketing Management and other areas of management, railway locomotive part-owner, enthusiast for various railway restoration projects and aficionado of old telly programmes.