In 1949, towards the end of a somewhat nomadic schooling, the result of my father’s numerous promotions, the family was settled, for a few years at least, in a railway owned semi-detached property located adjacent to Orpington station. Previously living in Tooting, my father, Herbert (always known as Dick), had been Deputy Permanent Way Inspector at Waterloo during the latter half of the last war, an onerous task if ever there was one! Come the end of hostilities and a further promotion to that of Deputy Chief PW Inspector based at the former South Eastern & Chatham locomotive shed at Purley, to the south of Croydon; he became responsible for a vast swathe of the lines that radiated from Charing Cross, Cannon Street and Victoria stations into Surrey and North Kent.
A couple of distant memories from the late 1940s of Orpington readily come to mind. The first is of how busy the station was during the rush hours, with the whole area seemingly awash with bowler hats and brollies. As for the second, being railway owned, every four years or so the paint gang would appear at our door. If you had purchased wallpaper, they would happily hang it free of charge. If not the interior would be completely repainted, green upwards to mid-wall height, then white to the ceiling! With housewives at home for most of the day, it certainly put a whole new meaning to the saying – married to the job!
In those far-off times most young lads dreamed of becoming engine drivers and I was no exception. With the help of my father, as was to be repeated over the ensuing years, a post was readily obtained at Hither Green sheds. Living in the house next door to ours, was another inspector, Tommy Payne. Tommy’s son was on the footplate working out of Bricklayers Arms shed. Constantly I would hear of how he was becoming thoroughly fed up with the unsocial early morning starts and excessively arduous duties to match. Needless to say, this soon had the effect of dulling my enthusiasm for the prospect of a lifetime spent on the footplate.
Fortunately I had
