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Spotlight on my job
Robert Ferris has transcribed the following
information on operations in the Birmingham area, including Moor Street
station, from copies of the Great Western's magazines.
No. 25. A District Inspector, by W.J. Barnes
Extract from Great Western Magazine Vol. 51. No.6, June
1939
It is the responsibility of a district inspector to ensure
that the rules and regulations for the safe working of the railway are carried
out by the Traffic Department men who signal and work the Companys
trains. One effect of this is to introduce into a particularly varied job one
factor which may be termed regular the continual round of tests and
examinations of the men in his district.
At the moment I have 108 signalmen in my district, which is
a triangular one extending from Birmingham to Hatton, Hatton to Stratford, and
Stratford to Birmingham, over the North Warwickshire line. Each of these men
has to be examined every year in his knowledge of the rules. Then every
candidate in the Traffic Department for appointment to the guard and signalling
grades, and in the Engineering Department for fog, snow and emergency work, has
also to be put through the appropriate examination. To complete the
inspectors responsibility in this direction, every man in his department
concerned with the operation of trains has his eyesight tested at least once in
five years.
Although this appears to be a formidable list, the
examination work is dove-tailed into the other duties that, actually, it serves
only to emphasise their variety. I have rarely looked through the
correspondence in the morning before something comes along to upset any plans I
may have made for the day. It may be to attend an enquiry as the representative
of the Company or the Department; perhaps to solve an unexpected problem of
relief working, this and the annual leave arrangements being the responsibility
of a district inspector for the signalmen in his district and for the staff at
the smaller stations.
Emergency working is another factor which may upset our
best-laid plans. Snow, flood or gale, with the unfortunate possibility of
damage to the line, may demand the presence of the district inspector at a
moments notice, to supervise the working and see that the emergency
regulations are correctly carried out. Even when off duty the inspector is
on call for such work. When it does come along, it may involve him
in something like twenty-four hours continuous duty, perhaps under
weather conditions which are anything but ideal!
Apart from emergencies, it there is any exceptional working
anywhere the district inspector is in it. A few weeks ago I was dealing with
the Cup Final traffic: sixteen special trains to be worked into that
already-crowded early morning period when the workers of the Black Country are
pouring into our stations and trains. This week it is the movement of a circus
from Oxford to Banbury; arrangements to be made, staff to be provided, and the
operation to be carried out on the day. Stratford races give us one of our
regular special jobs. There we have a racecourse station but no regular station
master of staff. So along we go on the day, taking a staff with us, and see the
whole thing through. Engineering work comes along fairly steadily, too, with
single-line working and the various steps necessary to meet the conditions of
altered working. These items are just typical of life as a district inspector
sees it.
Whatever job a district inspector may be doing, he always
keeps a watchful eye on the working at stations and signal-boxes; he is always
available to straighten out any minor difficulties that may arise as for
instance, in the interpretation of a regulation; and he is always doing
everything he can to see that the working of the railway is carried out
smoothly and according to rule. Most of his time is spent in personal contact
with the men of the district. My experience has persuaded me that two of the
qualities he must possess are tact and consideration. By the exercise of these
an inspector can do much to promote the efficiency of his district.
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