James Briggs

James Briggs was a Fireman at Reading Loco depot from 1955 until 1965. His stories include:

Slough Accident

Please note that part of this memory is covered as it contains graphic description of an incident.

The early morning began as normal, it was a damp September day. The cold air chilled James as he rode his old ramshackle bike along the Oxford road. The morning was dark and the sky threatened rain with heavy clouds blotting out any moonlight. At 5.30 am he did not expect the waining moon to provide much light but without any lights on his bike it might have dispelled his guilt a bit. He plodded on towards Norcot junction roundabout when to his alarm he noticed another bicycle heading towards him from the right hand side of the roundabout. But sat upright on this bicycle was the figure of a policeman. "F*** it , just my bloody luck, now I am going to get a good bollocking and a fine." The tall helmeted figure pulled across the road and came alongside of him. He spoke, "Good morning lad, early start is it?" James reasoned the officer must have noticed his peaked cap with the badge of British Railways across it. "Er um yea to early" muttered the perturbed young railwayman. "Weathers not to good either is it " said the constable.

"No might even rain " lamented James, when suddenly the constable said with suprise. "You cheeky young sod, you haven`t got any lights!!"

James was now in trouble, he tried to think of a sensible reply but only managed to say "Sorry about that mate, I didn`t think it would be so dark". They were now cycling past Grovelands school and as the policeman pulled across the right hand side of the road, where a police telephone box was situated. He said "If you see another constable on your way , do not tell him you saw me, ok" and he was gone. Bloody hell, thought James, I got away with that. He then pedaled furiously the rest of the way to Great Knollys street before his luck changed.

He booked on duty and headed to the cleaners cabin. The night crew were preparing to go home. As he entered the cabin he noticed it was slightly chillier than normal. He also noticed there was even less glass panes in the large window." Where`s the glass panes gone?" he asked with curiosity. "Ha Ha" replied Brian Stratton , a fair haired cleaner. "last night we went up the station and collected a number of cups and saucers that had been left on the platform benches" . "Well what`s the glass panes got to do with that?" queried James. "We got bored so we chucked `em out the bloody window and broke more panes" chuckled Brian. "If you look out the window it aint `alf a mess" he added.

James sighed, these cleaners are something else, the phrase entered his mind.You couldn`t make it up. The mornings cleaning and shed labouring carried on as normal until 10am. Just as the cleaners were finishing their breakfast break Freddie Burt pushed open the big wooden door and announced with a concerned edge to his voice , " I want half a dozen volunteers!!" He surveyed the suspicious faces in silence. "What are we volunteering for?" asked Bob Brazelle a tall fair headed cleaner. Freddie with a disturbed intonation to his voice said "There is a 6100 Praerie tank on number six outside pit, and its a bit of a mess!" The curious expectant faces stared at him and someone asked "What sort of mess Fred ?" Freddie took a deep breath and replied with a sigh of distress, "It ran over a platelayer at Slough and the remains of his body, poor chap, is spread all over the engine, and the drivers are refusing to prepare the engine until all of it is cleaned off!" He looked at the faces that were now showing revulsion, and in an imploring voice asked "Well lads who is volunteering?" George Goodal nudged James and whispered "Shall we do it mate, Freddie might give us a longer tea break later?" James reluctantly agreed , and Bob with several others volunteered as well.