History of the Wye Valley Railway

Platelayers

Platelayers maintained the track, the railway- owned land next to the track and the tunnels. They used platelayer huts primarily for shelter, tea and meal breaks. The huts were equipped with a table, chairs and a stove.

To the right of the remains of the hut is a small sunken brick chamber with a steel lid that can be padlocked. One possibility is that this chamber housed detonators. 

Detonators are small explosive devices used as warning devices on the railway tracks. They were put in place to protect the platelayers when they were working on the line. 

A small number of detonators would be taken out of the chamber and placed in a small metal container called a detonator box or tin. The detonator box was often attached to the platelayers belt.

A second possibility is that the chamber housed coal for the stove. If a plate layer stood by the track with an empty bucket a passing engine would throw coals in. in order to avoid being stolen when the hut was unattended it could have been locked into the chamber.

Platelayer gangs were responsible for specific lengths of the line. Instructions issued in 1943 set out the motor trolley system of maintenance identifying two gangs. One with a home station of St. Briavels and the second with a home station of Monmouth (Troy).

The work of the platelayers was significantly more than inspection of the permanent way, greasing points,  replacing life-expired sleepers and worn rails as well as repacking ballast under the rails. After the Second World War British Railways issued a code off practice full of practical advice such as ‘Water is the worst enemy of a good track, it is therefore necessary to see that the drains are kept in good working order’.

The steep ground above the track between the tunnel and Tintern is susceptible to land slips and rock falls and the platelayers needed to be vigilant of any early signs of this, as well as, walking the tunnel regularly to check if rock had fallen from the unlined parts. 

The sparks from steam engines  or from hot ashes could set alight undergrowth which had to be cut or burnt before grass seed ripened and scattered. Trees had to be pruned and hedges cut. 

In quieter periods it was not unknown for platelayers to set snares to catch their dinner. 

Photographs of a reenactment of Victorian navvies laying track are in the Navvy section. They are using the same equipment and methods that the platelayers would have used.

Tidenham tunnel has alcoves down its length as a refuge for platelayers when trains approach.

Transport trolleys

Not long after the line was built the platelayers started to use rail transport between work locations such as this pump trolley imported from America for use on the GWR. This example was exhibited at the Severn Valley Railway museum. The trolleys came in different versions with seats and toolboxes and appear in the BUDA catalogue from 1905.

In later years motor trolleys were added, most of which were built by Wickhams of Ware.
The Wye Valley Line and the Coleford Branch book by B M Handley and R Dingwall has a photograph of a motor trolley approaching Tintern in August 1962. Jonathan Flood of the Wickham of Ware facebook group has identified this as a Type 17 A, probably one of a batch of 30 shipped on the 4 February 1947 and delivered to GWR, Newbridge on Wye. The only remaining 17A in preservation is at the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway. It was fitted with a 1300 cc engine.

As more motorised rail transport was used there was less need for platelayers huts and they gradually fell out of use. When road vehicles were used to transport permanent way staff extensively in the 1970s the huts no longer served a purpose.

Reminiscences

Three reminiscences from ‘The Wye Valley and Coleford Branch-B.M. Handley and R. Dingwall, an extract from The Dalesman and one from Nick Day about a platelayers hut near Bigsweir.

1 Mike Rees (WVR and Coleford Branch) - Left school at 15 in 1950.

His job was to upgrade the telegraph line on the WVR. If the ganger Tom Murphy was on duty he travelled up and down the line by Wickham trolley. Tom had a great turn of speed towards the pub’s opening time.

On one occasion a passenger train was held up for quite a while, because the platelayers, having returned to the station at the end of a day’s work, had taken home the occupation key which had given them control over the section of track ahead.

One of the platelayers from the Tintern to Monmouth section of the track, Fred (Sam) Beech, liked a regular tipple and in the cider making season, used to disappear for an hour or so, visiting various farms beside the railway. He was an expert cider sampler.

The most celebrated method of earning extra funds was the bean stick trade. Here the gangers along the track used to tell the engine drivers that they had managed to cut down a few stakes whilst inspecting the permanent way. A bundle of them was awaiting collection along the route. It must have been a strange sight to see a GWR brake van at the end of the train, pass all too often with a load of 8ft poles sticking up into the air.

2 Gilwyn (George) Rich – (signalman at Tintern station) and June Morgan granddaughter of Walter Hussey.

The upkeep of the track was the responsibility of the ganger, Tom Murphy. He and the other Perament Way men George Parfitt, Frank Jones, Alan Brown, Doug Messenger, Walter Hussey and Eric Morgan had two inspection trolleys, one hand-worked, pumping up and down, and one motorised. Mr Hussey and Mr Williams unfortunately died in the most serious accident on the Wye Valley Railway. The gang was working on Tintern bridge at the time, relaying the track, they were jacking up the track when, under pressure of the downward thrust, the floorboards of the bridge suddenly gave way. They fell and Mr Willams drowned in the waters of the River Wye flowing below. Walter Hussey was pulled from the river by his son, Reg Hussey, who was also a signalman at Tintern station. Walter was taken to Gwent hospital and Reg went with him, staying at his side still in his wet clothing. Sadly Walter did not survive and died in the hospital.

3 Eric Broom - fireman

On one occasion, after the passing of the train to Monmouth, the permanent way gang railed their Wickham trolley to work on the line, but what they didn’t know was that the engine and brake van was to return from Monmouth immediately to collect some more wagons from Chepstow instead of returning later in the day. They met in a head-on collision near St.Briavels station, the gang jumped to safety. The trolley was dragged clear and rusted away in the hedge for many years.

4 ‘Gang life on the Long Drag’- Reminiscences of platelayers on the Settle and Carlisle Line in the early 1900’s. From ‘The Dalesman’ May 1976.

This is an extract:

5 From Nick Day

Sylvester Jenkins, more than 40 years a platelayer and a platelayer inspector

Sylvester was born on 14 July 1861 and baptised at the parish church in Tidenham. His father, Joseph, was an agricultural labourer who was born at Whitechurch in Herefordshire.

In 1881 Sylvester was working as a platelayer aged 19 living with his parents in Tidenham.

At age 23 he married Louisa Young, a domestic servant at Tidenham church and in 1891 he had moved to Woodcroft near Wintours Leap.

By 1901 he had moved to Newnham, a village on the west bank of the Severn 10 miles south-west of Gloucester. He still worked as a platelayer but now employed a domestic servant living in his house as well as six children. His eldest son Sydney, age 12 was classified as a worker in the census with his occupation recorded as a newspaper carrier.

He was promoted to an inspector of the work of platelayers in the Engineering Department of the Great Western Railway by 1911 at the age of 49 and lived in Cheltenham in a five room house.

Sylvester died in 1921 age 60. His profession was recorded as a permanent way inspector for the GWR and he was buried in unconsecrated ground. Work done to maintain the permanent way was the work of platelayers. One possible reason for being buried in unconsecrated ground is that he committed suicide. His effects at death amounted at £163 14 s 3d. The average railway employee

income for similar work to platelayers at that time was about £3 10 s a week (£3.50) (Hansard Deb 30 July 1925 vol 187 cc671-3W) so £163 would have been approximately a year’s income. The estate went to Louisa Jenkins, his wife and his son Sydney Walter Jenkins, signalman.

Sylvester worked for the railway for over 40 years and, with little doubt, lived up to the saying displayed at the GWR STEAM museum Swindon:

‘Once a railwayman always a railwayman. Working on the railways was more than a job It was a way of life.’

Platelayer occupations used in the 1921 census

The dictionary of Occupational Terms Based on the Classification of Occupations used in the Census of 1921 lists and describes 33 platelayer occupations many of which were obsolete at the time but applicable to retired railwaymen.

These are example of two obsolete occupations:

clay burner (railway) 
digs clay on bank of railway1 cutting or embankment, to harden clay for prevention of land slips; mixes crushed coal or breeze with clay and sets on fire; tends burning to ensure that it takes place evenly, obsolescent; cf. clay burner (building) (581).

chairer (railway)
an underman (q.v.) who places "chairs" in position on permanent way ready for laying rails; obsolescent.

And this is an example of an occupation current in the 1921 census:

underman (railways, not in signal box); platelayer, railway platelayer, (obsolescent) surfaceman (railway)
a worker in a permanent way gang supervised by ganger (railway) (q.v.); in addition to navvying, duties include surfacing permanent way with fine ballast, laying and boring sleepers, bolting chairs to sleepers, keying and bolting sections of rails, laying and fitting switch levers at points, maintaining, by means of pick and shovel, level and alignment of permanent way bed, loading sand and ballast, by shovelling into trucks to provide ballast for other gangs using same, cleaning and repairing drains on permanent way, fencing, ditching and loading timber therefor, acting as flagman (709) or look-out man (q.v.) as occasion demands; if newly engaged in gang, as casual worker doing chiefly relay work, graduates to maintenance work where greater permanency is ensured.