Day I almost got arrested for doing my job
IDO enjoy getting the odd phone call or email from work colleagues from my distant past. We soon start recalling some of the chaos and even the laughs from those great days when we were so much younger.
My key role in the late 60s and early 70s was the major track renewals we undertook every weekend.
Every site usually had about 16 hours without trains to complete a renewal task that perhaps should have taken more like 24 hours.
We always said we could do a better job if we could stop the trains for longer but we were not employed to do other than keep those trains running.
One particular weekend that I managed to annoy the police involved me in taking out the old track ballast and drainage to replace with new. The excavation did require some heavy earth-moving machinery and I had determined in advance that there was no access point to let me take this equipment straight into the work site, so I had to explore before the work began how the big earth-movers could be got to the site.
A walk along the track had identified a pub car park that butted up to the railway fence and was close to the road. It was all agreed with the pub landlord and he cleared his car park. I arranged for the machines to arrive on transporters around midnight. I now had my machines and my drivers and I was there to pull back part of the fencing to allow the machines to get on the track.
No problem at first as I got all the machines started up and began the task of guiding them through the fence, onto the track and ready for me to marshal them all down to the planned site of work.
This was the point at which a couple of keen constables walked through the car park to the fence where my machines had just gone through and I had temporarily replaced the boundary for safety.
I assumed the boys in blue were just passing and checking I was not pinching the equipment… but they wanted to stop the job because the noise from the machinery had upset the neighbours either side of the pub. Thankfully, I opted to stay close to my machines as I explained to the police that I was doing my normal role in managing this machinery and, sadly, that I could not stop the job. I did explain that come Sunday afternoon, the machines would be off site and away.
One of the keen plods standing at the fence then ordered me over to him as he wished to debate my intransigence further.
I knew that only BT Police could enter onto railway property and they knew that as well. I had worked out that these officers thought they could stop the noise if they took me into custody and carted me off to the nick. I made sure I had a couple of large machine drivers close by to be sure the police stayed on their side of the fence.
I decided it was time to set off for the work site and left two irritated coppers with a parting shot that I would be returning with the heavy machines in around 10 hours and then left them to it! As I worked my way on foot with the machines, I started to think about what two annoyed policemen might do to maybe extract some revenge. They had their car and could plainly follow the road as I moved down the track.
I do not know what they chose to do and thankfully I completed my shift without any further irritations. I still wonder if the boss would have bailed me out if I had been arrested that night!
The officers wanted to stop the job because the noise from the machinery had upset the neighbours.