| As a recently appointed goods guard, I was detailed to work a passenger train from Manchester to Rawtenstall (a passenger guard had reported in sick and it was customary for goods guards to sometimes take charge of passenger trains). Needless to say I knew every inch of the track between Manchester and Rawtenstall and every goods siding along the way, but my knowledge of which stations passenger trains should stop at was sketchy, this usually being the driver's domain.
Unfortunately for me the driver on that particular evening was also a stand-in for the regular driver, as was his fireman. When he asked me if we stopped at Summerseat, I, wanting to show off my superior knowledge - replied, 'Summerseat...no.' But of course, we should have stopped, and a special bus had to be put on for the people left standing, dumbfounded, on the platform. The people taken through to Rawtenstall who should have got off at Summerseat, made my life a misery, which was as nothing compared to the Yardmaster's wrath when I eventually got back to Windsor Bridge.
One good thing which came out of that episode was henceforth goods guards were issued with passenger train timetables, which up to then had been in short supply at goods Depots. Whenever I pass through Summerseat now, or think back to that glorious summer evening, I can still see the look of absolute disbelief on the waiting passenger’s faces as their long-awaited "stopping" train roared through the station like the Flying Scotsman.
Down Memory Lane
Submitted by Westcove
Location: Summerseat, Lancs
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