Steve Valentine "Pongo"

"Pongo"

Pongo? What can you say about him? He's a good friend and workmate, even though he's an engineering supervisor he has never made that transition from being a worker to being a model example of management. He's a relic of a bygone era of British Railway's, he's worked he way up from the bottom and has forgotten more things about the work on the railway than most people have had hot dinners.

He talks to everyone in a decent manner, rather than a pile of crap like some do. And because of that and the fact he has a greater afinity to ordinary workers than you would be perhaps expect from someone in his position, he is liked and respected by many of his colleagues.

He's a solid dependable chap, if he can help someone out he will. He's a bloke you can have a good joke with, and he's not inclined to mince his words in the pursuit of political correctness, a spade is a spade and he'll say so.

Short video clip featuring Steve Valentine.

John Nutter "Nutter"

Nutter?

What can you same about him? He's a hard worker, never been afraid of a bit of hard graft in his life. Will give his colleagues a helping hand without thinking about it, unlike some. John is pretty much "what you see is what you get", hard working, helpful, and relatively quite spoken and mannered. Not often that you see him get agitated, most of the time he's quite placid. He's had quite a hard working life, as his face shows literally.

Years ago he was the victim of an accident that evaporated his faith in union's, and it was hardly surprising. Before the type's of lighting generators we have today, we used to have one's that you cranked to start which were mounted on a wheeled frame that you could push along much like a wheelbarrow, and before them there were some big old green ones that you cranked to start, mounted on a 4 wheeled frame.

It was one of these last one's that was the source of much pain and discomfort over the years to him. One night they were going through the worksite starting the generators up, when one of the cranking handles became stuck and proceeded to spin like a propeller blade. He saw some staff in the vacinity, and moved forward and shouted a warning to them to get out of the way. As he did so, the crank handle and generator parted company and he was struck straight between the eyes by the crank handle which resulted in severe and extensive damage to his face.

At the time he was a union member, and a claim for compensation was initiated. The faulty generator disappeared with out trace never to see the light of day again, and the union eventually told him that they wouldnt progress his case despite available eye witness evidence, expert advice and medical opinion. This was a blow for him, and one that rocked his faith in unions for ever. He didnt give up though, and ended up having to fight the case on his own, a process that became that much harder and difficult without the unions backing. He won eventually, no thamks to the union.

The union clearly let one of its members down very badly that day, speculation as to the reason why could go on and on, back-handers, union officials in the managements mockets, any number of things. One thing is clear, at the time the union was a extremely poor performer when it came to provision of services to its members, protecting its members interests, instead it collected union dues off of members effectively but did not want to do a lot else. Times have changed somewhat, the union has placed far more priority on the services it provides to members and looks to represent their interests far better than in the past.

No real down side, perhaps only that at times he's inclined to get a bee in his bonet sometimes over things, sometimes its a result of getting the wrong end of the handle on something.

An old dog soon to retire, mid October.

Alan Ferguson "Wingnut"

Wingnut?

What can you say about him? He could work hard for the size he was, but he wasn't cut out for the job being of very light build. Once his health started to deteriorate he still tried but just couldnt do the job and found it increasingly difficult to do.

He was very likeable, and wasn't adverse to a good joke and laugh. He did have a requirement to be accompanied at all times due to his apparent less than perfect hearing, this did cause some a bit of worry at times as he had a habit of disappearing off on his own. He could usually be located back on the crew bus having a sly drink or something to eat. Though if there was mention of a free beer going somewhere, his hearing seemed to improve dramatically.

He did have a passion for cricket, scittles and the like, and did lead an active social life. It was sad to see how that passion was denied him because of ill health.

Even when he was retired on ill health grounds, it was clear that he would have prefered to be doing something to earn his keep, and it was understandable that he felt some resentment over what he felt at "being tossed on the scrapheap of life"

A sad end to the working life of a bloke who did work hard, even if the work was perhaps a good bit harder for him than for some others.

Apart from his personal health problems, he did work when he was able to before his health started failing. Then what he was able to do gradually deminished

On the down side he his time keeping like many peoples left a lot to be desired, he'd turn up at the station well and truly late and start heading for the cabin because he was expecting a tea break. Like we didnt have anywhere to go most days.

Also he wasn't adverse to leaving early whenever the chance arose, many a day when we have languished in the cabin due to there being no work for us to do or a lack of a vehicle, he's turned up late by perhaps half an hour or more and been gone anytime from half nine onwards. Like many the amount of time he robbed at either end of the shift was seldom if ever merited by his actions whilst at work.

Another downside with him, was he was very partial to the old booze and many a weekend shift he'd come to work and you could smell it clearly, nothing like sailing close to the wind and tempting fate. Luckily for him his luck held, unlike some.

Ian Parker "Cack"

Cack?

What can you say about him?, well he can work hard when he has to and he's not afraid of a bit of shovelling. May not like it, but he'll get stuck into it and plod on doing it. Now if you give him something a bit on the technical side or a bit of responsibility like being in charge then he's prone to panic a bit about it.

He will always try his best at what ever task you give him, and you cant ask for more than that in a bloke.

He obtained the nick-name years ago on account of someone calling him cack handed when he was carrying out some task, and the name stuck. Also he's well known for posessing two left feet.

A story that illustrates this occured many years ago at Kibworth, and it would have done justice to any Keystone Cops film. The gang had been working on-track at Kibworth all day shovelling on a renewals job from a previous weekend. The work for that day was completed and the gang was making their way back to our relaying bus which was situated about about a half mile down the track atop a small grass bank into which some crude steps had been hacked. Everyone reached the grass bank where the bus was parked without anything untoward happening. Then the gang started to climb the grassy bank, with Cack in the lead. Then his aforementioned left feet came into play.

As he reached the top of the bank he fell over as he's quite prone to do, anyway everyone was in close proximity to the person in front and behind, the effect was rather like dominoes. The net result was a mass of bodies rollong down the grassy bank and all ending up in a tangled heap at the bottom of the bank link some scene out of Keystone Cops. There were a number of expletives directed at Cack as everyone untangled themselves and the sound advice from the point of view of everyone was that Cack should always bring up the rear in future.

He doesn't have a bad bone in his body, and he has taken a hell of lot of stick from colleagues over the year's, not all of it justified or warranted. He still takes a lot of stick from some people which is totally uncalled for, and it is very annoying to listen to some always slagging him off all the time. Truth be told he's a far better humanbeing than some of those slagging him off.

A short video clip featuring Ian Parker.

Michael R Faulkner "Micky Finn"

Micky Finn?

What can you say about him? He could work as hard as anyone when he had to,and he would willingly do a disproportionate amount of overtime if it was available.

On the down side he was very unreliable! He would have our 2nd man John Nutter and Hackett our Ganger waiting half an hour at the end of his street before deciding to show up, a good few times he wouldnt show at all. One time he claimed that he was in the papershop on Rocky road getting a paper and wanted to know why John didnt wait? The answer was that John was parked right outside the shop in question for about half an hour before he gave up waiting for him to turn up. While he was playing his silly little games, others could be freezing their nuts off waiting on a street corner or out front of the station for the van to turn up.

Even when he was doing the driving he was seldom ever on time, and thats before you took into account the fact that he should have at at the booking on point 15 mins before anyone else was checking the vehicle over, he never wanted to wait anywhere near the amount of time he had people waiting for him. For some he wouldnt wait even five minutes.

We did obtain a local arrangement where by the van didnt have to be on the road till 15 mins after the booking on time. This allowed a number of vital functions to be carried out, vehicle checks which should have been done on a daily basis but never ever were, fetching water for messing, fetching any kit needed that was stored in the cabin. It also allowed some the ability to arrive at the station at about the booking on time and then change into their workwear before getting on the van, for some all they ever worn was a mini vest and boots. For some wearing their own kit to work was never an option, and the changing facilities afforded in the van were inadequate. But he didnt want to arrive at the station at the proper time, do the mandatory vehicle checks that he should have done every day, fetching water if needed, fetching any kit if needed. No, he said fuck to the mandatory daily vehicle checks, getting water or anything else, he just wanted to turn up whenever he chose and everyone get on and he goes.

The arrangement also had the benefit of giving anyone a margin of fifteen minutes if they happened to be running late, but he started using it as an excuse to turn up even later at the station. Also others, because he was continually turning up late used it as an excuse to turn up later themselves. The upshot of it all this was that the 15 min local arrangement was done away with, with mandatory vehicle checks having to be done before the booking on time, water being fetched before the booking on time, any kit needed being fetched from the cabin before the booking on time and no margin for anyone who was late. And all because one individual didn't like to wait for anyone himself.

A case that illustrates how well he checked the vehicle over everyday, our 2nd man John Nutter happened to be driving the van on a rare day when Micky Finn was off. Before leaving the station he carried out a number of checks on the vehicle, one of them being the oil. He removed the dip stick and found that there was traces of oil visible on the very end of the dipstick well below the minimum level indication on it. The engine was practically dry, and when he mention it to Micky Finn the next day all Micky Finn said was, it was OK the day before. This was a blatant lie, as the engine never lost that amount of oil in a day ever! Also other things seem to comfirm peoples suspicions over that lack of checks, one being that subtle marks were made on certain items, and the position of the marks on later observation combined with a build up of undisturbed grime indicated to some that they had never ever moved since the introduction of the mark which was a clear sign that the vehicle checks were not getting done.

Then he had what he felt where a number of greivances that merited such action, and merited preferential treatment from others. First was drivers preparation time, this used to be a half an hour a day under BR T&C's, this was done away with completely by Mr Watson at Jarvis. After some discussion amongst union members, action was taken in the form of the threat that if they didnt reinstate the half hour, then the majority of drivers would hand their white tickets in. Mick not being a union member didnt want to get lumbered with driving any more than he was, so he adopted the same policy as the rest of the drivers. So for a while there was effective unity on the subject. Mr Watson sent everyone a snotty letter saying that he would reinstate 15 mins for drivers, saying it was a privilage and not a right. Everyone caved in on receiving the letter, attempts were made to maintain the unity and cohesive nature of the action but everyone caved in and accepted the 15 mins. If they hadnt and if they had stuck to their guns over the issue, then they would have got the half hour back, but they didnt and they got 15 mins instead.



Now for Mick this was a calamity,and he felt it was everyone else's fault that it happened and that he was suffering as a result. As a group they were in a position of strength when they acted as a group. But for a few who were non union members what was their position, the closest thing that I can think of, that illustrates it the clearest is to picture a piece of flotsom. It gets carried where ever the tide takes it, it has absolutely no influence over where the tide takes it. Now Mick had absolutely no imfluence whatsoever over that situation being a non union member of staff, but hes was always happy as a non union member of staff to accept a payrise that was negotiated collectively by the union, to accept the fruits of a process that he had no influence on.

But he felt he was eternally hard done by as a driver and felt everyone owed him something for it, they owed him absolutely nothing whatsoever. Hes was a member of an organisation where a democratic system operated, he was happy to accept anything good that system produced, but when that same system didnt produce anything of any good to him it was every one elses fault. It was his own fault pure and simple.

Another point he felt hard done on, was his inablility to get the level of overtime that he desired. He would have happily worked a hundred or more hours every week, he did for awhile when he drove for the Bedford gang, and he absolutely loved it. But in his regular gang the situation was different, he wanted to do as much overtime as God could send, a few in the gang wanted overtime but nowhere near that sort of level and on their terms and conditions, and the majority of the gang were not remotely interested in overtime on a regular basis whatsoever prefering to do it when they had a need. Now all that meant, that he didnt get the level of opportunity to do overtime that he would have liked. Was it unfair at the end of the day, the answer is no. He was a member of a gang, the majority of whom were not remotely interested in buckets of overtime all the time. The constraints imposed by this situation meant management couldnt oblige him with the level of overtime he wanted, and he blamed everyone else in the gang for it. But he overlooked the fact that he lived and worked somewhere, where it was the rule of the democracy not the rule of the individual that counted.

He also had the notion that because he drove the van, he didnt have to do any work. Wrong! On a weekend he could expect an hour's break during a shift, everyone else could expect just a 30 min break on a weekend shift. In the week he was in the same boat as everyone else, when there was work to do, he had to do it. End of. Many a time he was told to go and have his drivers break, and many a time he said he was OK and didnt want it. End of.

He often made the claim that everyone was forcing him to speed when he drove the van, that was one of the biggest load of bollocks he ever came out with. Most of the time he was speeding because he had turned up late himself and was trying to claw some time back. He even speeded when he didnt have too, which well and truely blows his claim out of the water. Many a time hes driven from Bedford back to Kettering in just over 20 minutes, yet hes had a couple of hours or more before the end of the shift so why the undue haste?

He frequently went on holidays to the states at Xmas, and on every ocassion came back late with some lame excuse. One Xmas he went and never came back. If he has the sort of wobblies he did here, throws the sort of little paddies he had here, then some yank is more than likely going to make him regret it.

Ian Fraser "Finger's"

Finger's?

What can you say about him? A true story that springs readily to mind which amply demonstrates the sort of bloke he is goes as follows:

Once on a weekend job, we had to take a load of gear from one end of the worksite to the other end. Everyone else apart from Finger's was loaded down with gear, everyone had at least four or five pieces of kit. All had a mixture of bars, panpullers, pansetters,hammers, duff jacks. The only piece of equipment that remained to be picked up and brought to the other end of the job along with everything else that the rest were carrying was a disc cutter.

John Nutter, our 2nd man instructed Finger's to bring the disc cutter as it was the only thing remaining to be brought. Finger's looked at the disc cutter and then John, saying "What carry it?". To this dumb arse question, John replied with the cutting remark "No! Its going to sprout legs and walk to the other end of the job all by itself! What do you think I meant?".

Fraser eventually took the disc cutter and carried it to the other end of the job, after much whinging and complaining about it. No one was overly concerned about it, as everyone was far more heavily loaded down with kit than Finger's was with just a disc cutter to carry. Thats Finger's all over, it there's some hard graft to do, he's at the back hoping by the time he gets to the front that there's nothing for him to do.

Of all the gang he has the worst time keeping record of the lot, the number of mornings he's late far exceeds the frequency of others, the number of ocassions he finishes early is equally no less excessive. And he think's he's got some entitlement, some right to do it. He would never have done it with Rylott, nor with Hackett before something would have been said to him sharpish. He's got a fool notion in his head that being based where we are out in the sticks so to speak, and he beleives no-one would ever be bothered to get off their asre's and come out and check on us, so he think that means he can get away with it readily and should be allowed to do so. He likes to take as much time as possible, a bit at the start, a bit at the end, and in the bit in between do as little as possible or at least do less than anyone else in the gang which is something he achieves in most cases, most of the time.

He knows my views upon the subject, be there on time when one is supposed to be there, not rolling into the carpark at that time in the car every morning. Pull your weight properly, if its six a piece, then its six a piece for every one, if one person does six overs then he and everyone else does six overs not two, not three but six. If one person stops till his time, then he stops also. To merit anything different, he's got to perform in a manner to merit such preferential treatment and he's never done that yet. He's quite happy to be carried all the way and reap whatever benefits he can gleam for himself, but he's never ever been prepared to do anything to warrant it, and has never ever done so. Dont take the piss, be on time which means both ends of the shift, work hard, dont let your mates carry you all the time, and expect nothing special or anything in return for that above your pay! When one goes above and beyond that, then one might merit some form of reward, Finger's never will.