The Runaway Train

In 1942, at the age of 16, I started work for the Great Western Railway as an engine cleaner, the first step to becoming an engine driver. In 1943 I was promoted to locomotive fireman and sent to Newbury in Berkshire. At the tender age of 17 I left home for the first time and with my ration book in my pocket set off to live with total strangers.

During the war, train crews had some hair-raising experiences. In 1944 my driver and I were working a train of petrol to Southampton Docks: 46 wagons of petrol in jerrycans for shipping to France.

We had just gone over the top of the steep bank at Sutton Scotney in Hampshire, and as we started to go downhill the steam pipe, which applied the brakes on the engine and tender, broke. The steam was just escaping into the air — so we had no brake. In those days the driver only had the brake on the engine to control the train — he had no control over brakes on the wagons (which had handbrakes only). My driver immediately put the engine in back gear (reverse) and opened the regulator (throttle) to try and hold the train from running away. I looked across at my driver and the sweat was running down his face.

We were on a single line and approaching Worthy Down signal box, where there was a Fleet Air Arm Base. It was daylight, but thick fog. We were running away, but luckily for us the signals were at green. A mile or two further on as the line levelled out we lost a little speed, so I jumped down from the engine and tried to apply the handbrakes on the wagons next to the engine. It made little difference to the speed of the train as it was too difficult to do on the move.

When the gradient levelled out completely we came to a stop at Kingsworthy. My driver slowly took the train into Winchester GWR station. Once there he looked around for something to blank off the steam pipe between engine and tender so that we could at least have a brake on the engine. On a rubbish tip he found a child’s wooden yo-yo; with his pocket knife he whittled the yo-yo to the right size and was successful in blanking off the pipe. We continued on our way, but as we passed through Eastleigh station the wooden yo-yo blew out and we had to stop. We backed the train into a siding and left it there.

Later the engine was taken into the shed where the fitters took three hours to fit a metal blank. That wooden yo-yo did us proud. A child’s toy had saved us from a nasty situation.

I E Hardwidge
Long Ashton, Bristol
Train Driver (retired)

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