Adrian Vaughan

I was 19 when I started on the railway. And I did it because I’d been in love with the railway since I was about four. I had a love affair with the railway; my granny said to me when I was about eight, you will never get married! You’re married to the railway!

I started as a porter, so I was working on the platform of a little country station like this. Except it was on the main line between London and Bristol.> And I looked after the passengers, I showed them their tickets. I sold a ticket to John Betjamin, he always lost it and his wife used to say, it’s all right Adrian, it’s alright, you know he’s got a ticket! You sold it to him this morning!

Interviewer

Can you describe what it was like working in a signalbox?

Adrian Vaughan

Being in the signalbox was the best job on the railways, far as I was concerned. You were out in the countryside, in this greenhouse thing, you saw the sun come up, you saw the sun go down, you had the trains to control, anything went wrong always they’d come to the signalman, and they said what shall we do and the signalman says what shall be done. So signalling was good fun. I mean I rescued a young lady from committing suicide.

But perhaps you don’t want to know about that.

Teacher

Do you want to know about that?

Pupils

YEEES!

Adrian Vaughan

So I work in the signalbox, and naturally it’s pouring with rain. Sixty, seventy lever frame. And I thought I saw a bundle of rags down in the track, down there about fifty yards. And I sort of looked, but I’m really really busy, I haven’t got a moment to really look outside the signalbox. But then I looked and thought, that’s a person! And rushed down the stairs and in fact it was a girl, nineteen or twenty, and she was on her hand and knees and she was like this (does foetal position), and she was crouching on the ballast, right at the end of the sleepers. And I sort of tapped her on the shoulder rather nervously and said, come on you can’t stop there, you must get away from there. And I had to sort of pull her. And I pulled her up and I dragged her into the signalbox, and I sat her down in a chair like this and she went to sleep. And after about three hours she sort of came to, and woke up, and stood up, and took my coat off and laid it down on the table. And I said, can I get you something? Would you like a cup of tea or a sandwich? And she said, no, you’ve been very kind, it’s OK, and she walked off. So I phoned up my shunters on one of these telephones and I said, quickly go across the line, and stand on the brigs, there’s a young lady down there and I think you just better make sure she walks along the footpath and doesn’t do anything else. And she walked away and they came back and they said she’s alright, she’s gone, and that was the end of that. I often wonder if she remembers that…