MAIN LINE STEAM MOURNS DEATH OF TOP DRIVER ALBERT SEYMOUR
Activists in the world of main line steam are mourning the death, at the age of 80, of distinguished locomotive driver and traction inspector Albert Seymour, whose skills and penchant for up-to-the-minute timekeeping set him among the top echelon of footplatemen in the post-1968 era. Albert, who retired in May 2013 after 60 unblemished years on the footplate, was a key figure in West Coast Railway Company’s latter-day main line steam operations for 12 years. Shortly before his death at a Manchester hospice, at the beginning of May, he had been writing a book about his six decades on the railway. A funeral service was to be held at Hollinwood Crematorium, Oldham, on May 18, and during the running of the ‘Dalesman’ over the Settle-Carlisle line three days earlier, David Smith’s ‘8F’ No. 48151 carried a smokebox wreath in tribute. Albert’s favourite engine, ‘Jubilee’ No. 45690 Leander, was also scheduled to carry a wreath – in the blue-and-white colours of the football team he supported, Manchester City – during its Liverpool to Scarborough run on May 19. Albert Seymour joined BR as a 15-year-old engine cleaner at Gorton shed, Manchester in coronation year – 1953 – but after just six months, transferred to Newton Heath shed, Manchester, where at age 16, he became a Passed Cleaner (cleaner authorised to act as fireman). He saw steam through to the finish at Newton Heath in 1968, was made up to driver in 1974, and passed to drive a variety of modern traction, working to and from Manchester. Albert ultimately oversaw all traction inspectors in the Manchester division of BR London Midland Region. He retired – for the first time – in 1999, after 46 years on the railway. But after a conversation with another ‘folklore’ traction inspector, Bill Andrew, he joined West Coast in 2001, returning to the steam footplate as both a driver and traction inspector after an absence of 33 years. A consummate professional, he was renowned for his fastidious timekeeping with steam – not always an easy task on the modern railway – and always considered it a personal failure if he delivered passengers late against the timetable. Albert retired for a second time at the age of 75 in May 2013 “with a clean record, and while I’m at the top of my game”, making his last trip as the driver of ‘Black Five’ No. 45407 between Inverness and Edinburgh on April 27 2013. A feature of his prowess as a career engineman was his habit of keeping a diary, and thus when he finally stepped down from the footplate he was able to say with pinpoint accuracy that he had made 13,725 footplate trips in his railway career on steam and diesel, and 2,064 trips as either driver or traction inspector during his 12 years with West Coast. He leaves a wife, Beryl, and son Ian, who continues to work for WCR as a train guard.