Bill Raine interviewed by Robert Aitchison (session 4 of 4)

Oral history interview with Bill Raine (session 4 of 4) conducted by Robert Aitchison on 21 June 2004, as part of the Time Tracks oral history collecting initiative. Duration: 25 minutes 49 seconds. Shildon railway works; working relationships between shop floor workers and foremen, pranking foremen [00:06:00]; works fire brigade, fire brigade dance, wagons shunted during the night when workers were not around, pranking workers on breaks, pranks on the shop floor, pranking foremen [00:10:00]; comparison how people work now and how people get jobs; at Shildon, that they were not afraid of the ‘bosses’ and would not have stood for how people are treated now [00:14:00]; locomotive fitter at North Road, Darlington, railway enthusiast, interest in classes and numbering of locomotives, Flying Scotsman [00:16:00]; renumbering of locomotives after World war 2 and after privatisation [00:18:00]; work at North Road Darlington, two locomotives at a time, two weeks on each, testing locomotives on a Friday, testing routes [00:20:00]; back-up pilot engines on turntable, V2s, if a locomotive was in trouble, the driver would make a particular whistle sound to tell the signaler, who would then let Darlington know, so that they were ready to swap engines when the train arrived [00:22:00]; signal boxes around Darlington; if there were issues such as leaves on the line or snow, would put another engine on the back to help push; how engines were changed on a journey up the East Coast Mainline [00:24:00]; use of corridor tenders on non-stop journeys, spare crew sitting in the first carriage; taking up water on non-stop journeys by scooping up from a trough between the lines; when this was happening, had to close carriages windows or else passengers got wet from spray [00:25:49] [end of interview].

Time Tracks, Shildon Railway Village Community Project was an initiative funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund that encouraged members of the public to bring photographs and documents at Locomotion to form a community archive, when Locomotion museum was opened in Shildon, 2004. Over 50 oral history interviews were also recorded with members of the community. They shared their memories of Shildon as they knew it in their childhood and throughout their lives, from as early as the 1920s, as well as their work experiences in local factories and industries, including Shildon railway works.