NOVEMBER 2023 GLENFIELD GAZETTE online

24
NOVEMBER 2023 GLENFIELD GAZETTE
THE TRACKMAN by Ted Cook
THE PERMANENT WAY
Gang made their way
towards the tunnel
entrance. They stopped at
the entrance to ring the
Signalman.
Now in accordance with the rules,
both the Ganger in charge of the
workers and the Signalman should
fill out a form so as to block the
line the gang wanted to work on
to prevent any trains entering
the tunnel while they were in the
tunnel.
Unfortunately both the Ganger
and the Signalman are both in a
hurry to get on with things and the
Ganger manages to convince the
Signalman that they could fill the
form in later.
So the Signalman told the Ganger
to carry on with his work and he
would give him 15 minutes to ring
back to give the line back for trains
to run.
Now where the Signalman
worked was a large power signal
box and the Signalman who had
granted permission for the work
to start was now relieved in the
signal box to go on his break and
he forgot to advise his relief of the
gang working in the tunnel.
Another unfortunate event was
the arrival of a special engineering
train that had to be routed through
the tunnel where the men were
working. Now if the first Signalman
had done his job right there would
be a block on the line through the
tunnel and the train would have to
wait for the block to be lifted either
after the 15 minutes or before if
the gang gave up the block before
time.
So as the relieving Signalman did
not know about the Gang working
in the tunnel, and also the first
Signalman had also failed to put a
stop on the signal protecting the
tunnel entrance, the scene was set
for a disaster.
The Signalman set the route
through the tunnel for the
Engineering Train even though
there were men working in the
tunnel.
As the train entered the tunnel the
Driver whistled. The Gang in the
tunnel heard it and were gripped
with fear. They started to run as
fast as they could out of the tunnel
each man for themselves.
There were five men in the gang
and all but one made it out of the
tunnel before the train rushed
by. The Ganger ran back into the
tunnel fateful of what he might
find!
To his great relief as he started
into the tunnel he found his missing
worker staggering out into the
daylight!
“What happened?” asked the
Ganger.
The Worker leaned against the
outer wall of the tunnel. “I ..I..do
not know for sure” he stammered.
“I was running out of the tunnel
with the rest of you to get
away from that train
when I tripped and
fell onto the ballast
between the rails
on the same line
as the train!”
“So how come
you survived?
Did you lay
still and let the
train go over
you?” asked the
Ganger.
“No if I had I
would not have
survived that train had
hopper wagons with slides
for the ballast to unload and it
would have hit me had I been in
the track!” the worker was not
making any sense to the Ganger.
“So how did you avoid being
killed?” asked the Ganger still
disbelieving the story he was
hearing.
“You are not going to believe me
but someone picked me up and
pushed me into the recess in the
tunnel wall” the track worker said.
“And do not ask me who as I know
I was the last man so who this was
that picked me up I have no idea!”
“If someone picked you up where
did they go and where are
they now?” asked
the Ganger still
uncertain that his
man was telling
the true story.
“He just
shouted stay
there until
the train
has passed
and then
just sort of
disappeared!”
the worker
replied himself
thinking this story
took some believing!
“Just disappeared!”
repeated the Ganger. “How can
someone just disappear? Did he fall
in front of the train?”
“I do not know. Like I say I did
not see.” The track Worker tried to
explain. “As soon as I was in the
recess the train rattled by!”
“So by the sound of it whoever
this was must have been hit by the
train” stated the Ganger with a sad
look at the Worker.
“Well we will have to go back and
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see he might still be alive even if
seriously injured,” the Track Worker
suggested.
The Ganger agreed but as they
made their way towards the tunnel
entrance he suggested that he
should ring the Signalman as
something had gone wrong in the
first place as there should not have
been a train coming through the
tunnel in the first place!
On contacting the Signal Box the
Signalman was amazed at what
the Ganger was telling him. (This
was the Signalman who had taken
over while the Signalman who
had agreed the work in the tunnel
had his break.) The Signalman
was shocked that there had been
someone working in the tunnel
that he did not know about! Even
more so when told there might be
an injured man in the tunnel.
He told the Ganger that the lines
through the tunnel were now
blocked and to let him know as
soon as possible the situation.
The Ganger agreed and he and
his fellow worker set off into the
tunnel afraid of what they might
find!!
The strange thing was that in the
tunnel they found nothing! So who
was this person that had saved
the worker and where did he come
from and more importantly where
did he go. Or did in fact he really
exist?
However some time later the
Permanent Way Inspector was
clearing out a cupboard when he
found some old files. One caught
his eye.
It told of an accident in the same
tunnel as mentioned previously. He
read about a track worker killed
in the same spot as the incident
with the man that was saved. It
seemed that two men working in
the tunnel were caught as a train
came towards them.
One man was saved by the
other as he threw him against
the tunnel wall out of the way
of the oncoming train - just as
had happened years later. The
difference being that in the original
incident the second man did not
survive and was killed by the train.
Years later this man who had
done the same just seemed to
have disappeared and on top of
that no one could say who he was
or where he had come from or
went!
Was this perhaps some sort
of manifestation of the man
from years before doing the
same thing of saving a life?
We shall never know but to
be grateful that in the later
incident no one was killed!
My wife and I always compromise. I admit I’m wrong and she agrees with me.