RUNAWAY PLATFORM BARROWS
Imagine that most readers will remember when almost every station had one or more barrows on the platforms, either the small two-wheeled ‘sack truck’ type or the rather battered-looking steel-framed three or four-wheeled variety with a flat wooden deck which would often be piled high with suitcases, boxes, trunks and packages of every size and shape. These mostly had a swivelling pair of wheels (although some had but a single wheel), worked by the same long handle by which they were pulled along, most having extremely noisy iron or steel wheels which sounded worse if one or more wheel was less than circular. Mostly these were moved by porters using brute strength to manoeuvre them between and around obstacles and sometimes from one platform to another usually over a wooden barrow crossing between the rails. Some were fitted with a hook and chain and could be moved in a train pulled by a small petrol driven tractor unit – also generally very noisy – and found at major termini or large junctions. Gradually these were replaced by the BRUTE (British Railways Universal Trolley Equipment) cages which when moved around made even more noise than their predecessors. Interestingly the Hull Daily Mail for 3rd July 1935 records that the London & North Eastern Railway intended to fit rubber tyres to its platform barrows used at stations where overnight trains called – this was to give a better night’s sleep to passengers.
It was not unknown for flat-bed barrows to be strategically placed at, or perhaps manipulated to, platform ends, ostensibly to be used for loading/unloading guard’s vans although in reality for much of the time they were occupied by trainspotters. It was not unknown for some of these urchins, for they generally tended to be of urchin-age, to shift these about on the platform when things were quiet and could result in spotters being banned from some stations.
Although they could be difficult toe for September 2015 revealed that an incident at Newcastle Central in early 1950 had resulted in a three-year ban on locospotters there – someone had managed to roll a barrow on to the line in front of the approaching ‘Queen of Scots’ Pullman train. Fortunately the driver saw the incident happen and was able to stop before hitting the obstruction, most such incidents not resulting in any serious outcomes. Occasionally, however, when a barrow went off the platform there were very serious consequences, with a couple of these being related in the following paragraphs.
