RAILWAY REMINISCENCES

William Charles Grimes was known for most of his working life as "Jobey" a nickname first applied to his brother who was a shunter at Didcot. He was born in Radley, where he still [in 1994] lives spending most of his time tending his neat garden, one of twelve children including 7 sisters! He started on the railway at the age of sixteen when he worked at Littlemore as a lad porter. After two years his employer, the Great Western Railway, wanted to transfer him to Langley, but he resigned as he didn't fancy moving home. After a period at the Cowley car factory and helping out on a temporary basis at Radley station, he rejoined the GWR as a member of the permanent way gang, working in the Kennington and Radley area. He later transferred to driving and was based at Cowley depot for almost eight years during the Second World War in charge of a 7-tonner collecting, amongst other things, sugar beet from the local farms and worked a seven day week to make ends meet! When he got married he was earning 38 shillings a week (£1.90 in 'new money') of which 16 shillings was spent on two-roomed accomodation in Sunningwell.

After hostilities ceased, several vacancies occurred and Jobey applied for a transfer to Abingdon which was duly accepted. This was his second time at Abingdon, because in 1937, he drove a horse and cart around the town delivering goods to the local shops which had been transported by freight train from Paddington; seven wagons of perishables being attached to the 'Bunk' engine and coach at Radley, and arriving at Abingdon as a mixed train about 8am. When the goods stopped being sent by rail to Abingdon it was necessary to drive to Steventon station each day to collect the items for the Abingdon and Wantage areas. Ultimately the job was taken over by private carriers and from then on Jobey handled the M.G. Car workings, becoming foreman, and during the last four years he worked at the station alone; he was so popular that the Oxford Area Manager tried to persuade him to stay on when he retired.

In common with Wally Turner and most old railwaymen Jobey can recall many amusing and serious incidents which happened over the years...

One day some relief workers came from Reading to help out at Abingdon, and after
the coal train had arrived, one volunteered to help with the shunting. He assured our foreman that he was perfectly capable but unfortunately he switched the points before the free-wheeling wagons had traversed them, resulting in several of them coming off the rails. This was one of three derailments Jobey witnessed at Abingdon. On another occasion the local freight train, comprising about a dozen coal wagons and box vans, was approaching the station when Jobey turned to his mates the messroom and said: "He's never going to stop at that speed". He proved right when the driver and fireman leapt from the footplate the platform as the train hurtled into the buffers.

Once, when he was at Steventon, a regular non-stop passenger train was approaching more slowly than usual following a signal check, and as it accelerated through the station at about 40mph, a carriage door opened and a shovel and two rabbits were flung onto the platform! Their owner then decided to jump but missed the platform and finished up under the roadbridge badly injured. Apparently he told Jobey that he had got on the wrong train at Swindon and decided to jump out at Steventon when he realised the train was slowing down! Another incident which turned out to be much more tragic occurred when Didcot station rang to say a driver had hit something near Wantage Road station, and Jobey was asked to drive over and check. It was a very foggy morning and he eventually found a group of gangers at the lineside after driving down a farm track. They told him that one of their colleagues had been struck by a train but they were too scared to go and look at him. Jobey walked up the line and found the poor chap sitting up against a fence with his severed leg lying next to the track, but unfortunately he was already dead.

One of Jobey's in his early days on the railway was 'fogging', which involved placing detonators on the track. He vividly recalls the first ever occasion when he cycled to Kennington at 1 am to start his shift.

He was naturally nervous at the thought of being alone all night, and hardly reassured when one of his mates said he would have a ghost for company, in the form of a ganger who had committed suicide at the same spot! It was a cold, still night; the only sound being the swirling water of the weir at Sandford Lock. As he bent down over the stream at the side of the track to get some water to make a 'cuppa', the signal above his head was suddenly pulled off, and Jobey almost took off across the fields!!

One of his journeys as a lorry driver took him to High Wycombe on relief; he was sometimes concerned when visiting new areas whether he would be able to complete all his deliveries in time to get home to Radley on the train. He, therefore, asked the foreman at High Wycombe if he could have a mate to show him round, but was sternly told that it was not necessary. After loading his lorry he mentioned his plight to the station master who instantly agreed to accompany him. "Oh no, not you! " replied Jobey because he remembered that the regular driver once told him that he was always given a load of free cakes at a certain village shop, just one of several 'perks of the job'! When the station master queried Jobey's remark he decided not to say anything. Imagine his surprise therefore when, after they had been travelling a short time, the station master told him to go to a certain village shop where they would pick up some free lardy cakes! Not only that, but they had to make a detour because someone else had a bundle of beansticks for him!

Jobey was at Radley one day talking to Wally Turner in the signal box, when they noticed half a dozen gangers climb over the fence of a field adjoining the line and promptly start picking all the mushrooms. They were obviously observed by the farmer because shortly afterwards he came roaring down the station approach in his car and leapt out brandishing a double-barrelled shot gun which he discharged over their heads! Fortunately for the gangers, he did not report them but he did confiscate the mushrooms! Talking of mushrooms reminded Jobey, who had a reputation for being mischievous, but not a trouble maker, of the time when he collected bags of empty ice-cream tubs from the trackside where they had been thrown from passing trains. He took them into a field at Kennington armed with a load of sticks which he pushed into the earth, carefully placing the up-turned tubs over them. He then watched from the shelter of the platelayers' hut, grinning broadly at the expressions on the ladies' faces from Sandford who came down the lane with their baskets to pick the 'mushrooms'! Jobey still remembers the railway with affection and proudly wears his inscribed watch, presented to him at Reading to mark forty years service. One thing that does upset him, however, is the state of Radley station today, especially as he often used to cycle over from Abingdon on a quiet day to help keep the village station neat and tidy.

Memories linger on, but the days of 'taking a pride in the job' have long gone.