| My grandfather, Hugh Edward Jones was a Bushbury driver,
born on 30th November, 1870. I understand that he began his
working life in the tinsmiths shop at Stafford Road works on the
'Western'. However according to the N.U.R. Journal for 1925,
which gives orders of seniority, he was number 502, and started
work on the L.N.W.R. on 12th October, 1887. He was born in
Beaumont Street off Lower Stafford Street of a Welsh family,
later living in Poplar Terrace in Shaw Road, where my late
father was born. Later still they moved to 35 Dunstall Street,
where he was reckoned to be the only L.M.S. worker in the
street, everyone else being G.W.R.
He would not let my father join the railway, so he went to
the E.C.C. as a draughtsman, and one of his tasks on coming home
from work was to get a quart of 'mixed' from the 'Locomotive
Inn' at the corner of the street ready for grandfather when he
got home. Grandfather would come up from the sheds in the cab of
a 'light engine', dropping off at Foxes Lane bridge.
About three months before he was due to retire he was knocked
down by a motorcycle near the 'Northumberland' public house, and
did not go back to the railway again. Upon retiring he received
a letter from Lord Stamp, Chairman of the company. He and gran'
then took the licence of a pub in Longsight, Manchester, the
'Victoria Inn' on Stockport Road. The pub was about ten minutes
walk from Longsight loco sheds and I got to know a lot of
drivers from there. As a child dad would take me on the tram from Denton to
Longsight each Sunday, when grandfather would talk to me about
his beloved compound No. 1165. One such tale concerned a London
train between Wolverhampton and Birmingham, when he was held at
a signal during a thunderstorm. He happened to look back to the
train only to find the rear end starting to slide with the
embankment towards a marlhole. He promptly pulled the train
forward, past the red signal and saved the train and passengers. |
