British Railways Company Cars

[Titfield]

An odd question but..

Did Senior British Railways Managers (1948 - 1968) have company cars?

If so what grades would have them and what cars might they be?

TIA

 

[Taunton]

I believe they did for higher management, but the old-fashioned way, coming with driver and presumably having to be booked in advance. Gerry Fiennes in his book writes about sending crews from accident trains home with his driver. He also states that, as GM of the Eastern Region, when called out to another major accident in the middle of the night, he set off on a lengthy journey in his wife's Morris Minor. Presumably if he didn't get a company car, nobody under him did.

 

[Ploughman]

Later on into the 80's 90's An office would have an allocation of vehicles.
It would then be down to the management of that office to allocate the vehicles or introduce a booking out system.
In our office of about 20 staff we had 3 vehicles and a van with a 4 man gang for labour / look outs etc.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Not really - even the Chairman had no car (unlike senior Civil Servants who had a Government pool car with driver for use if need be) - operational staff like Area Managers had an area car for general use by the unfortunates on call - and there were pool cars (Metros and Fiestas) for management staff - all carefully monitered I have to say for duty purposes only. I could occasionally borrow one for the weekend - but had to (a) wash and clean it (b) pay for any "personal mileage" incurred - local mileage only - else you got into big trouble.

Salesmen for freight and parcels had "company cars|" - as above - again tightly monitored. Vans were the usual staple - often in bad condtiion with wheel scotches/ point clips / shovels and "tools" flung into the back.

 

[lincolnshire]

Didn,t Sir Peter Parker bring his own Rolls Royce with him when he became Chairman of the British Railways Board.

I do also think that the Doncaster divisional manager had a chauffeur driven car available for use, which it was known if it was not in use it be known to take somebody from Doncaster station to the van hire company between Doncater and Rotherham to collect a hire van when our poor old B.R. van was off the road.

Our depot manager was in latter B.R. days entitle to the use of a company car but would only ever have a van so that in them days he didn,t pay tax on it as it was only applicable to company cars.

How times have changed.

 

[Walnut_rede]

Yes in one of the numerous jobs that I attempted during my career with British Rail and beyond l was the stores clerk for Area Manager Bristol in the 80's. There we had a number of pool cars Maestros and one Peugeot. I quite liked the maestros, as my own car was a Morris Minor. The Peugeot was usually bagged by the managers but on my first trip in it I was rather embarrassed because I had never come across a car where you had to lift up the ring on the gear lever to get it into reverse. Luckily I saw another one so I ran over and asked the driver how it was done, as the car was parked up against a wall and I really did not want to go back in the office and ask them how to drive a car....

 

[lincolnshire]

While on the subject of B.R company vehicles just look at the various crap ones they was landed with after been instructed from a Government department as to what had to be or was bought for them.

Remember when Rootes group was in difficulties and the Government department placed an order and dozens of Commer vans was supplied to B.R. and the Post Office to help them survive, they were better known as crap.

Also in them days vehicles was purchased outright and they was not allowed to lease them, or the other method was to hire a vehicle in to replace one off the road or if needed for short term hire use.

How time have changed.

 

[savagethegoat]

Adrian Vaughan in one of his books claimed Officials visited him in his signalbox by chauffer driven Bentley. Pinch of salt taken.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Yes in one of the numerous jobs that I attempted during my career with British Rail and beyond l was the stores clerk for Area Manager Bristol in the 80's. There we had a number of pool cars Maestros and one Peugeot. I quite liked the maestros, as my own car was a Morris Minor. The Peugeot was usually bagged by the managers but on my first trip in it I was rather embarrassed because I had never come across a car where you had to lift up the ring on the gear lever to get it into reverse. Luckily I saw another one so I ran over and asked the driver how it was done, as the car was parked up against a wall and I really did not want to go back in the office and ask them how to drive a car....

Basic BL Metros were quite common - and quite nippy on the way to an "operating incident"

 

[theageofthetra]

Ahh the Commer vans. They were modern when first launched but hopelessly outdated by the time the GPO and the formative BT were forced to take them on. An old work colleague had an ex BT one (nicknamed the Mellow Submarine due to the smell of weed the old hippie previous owner had engrained in it!) which had at least 3/4 of a turn of play in the steering and non existent brakes. I have never seen a BR one though-were they in BR blue/grey?

 

[ChiefPlanner]

[. I have never seen a BR one though-were they in BR blue/grey?[/QUOTE]

Nice one - no "rail yellow"

 

[lincolnshire]

Ahh the Commer vans. They were modern when first launched but hopelessly outdated by the time the GPO and the formative BT were forced to take them on. An old work colleague had an ex BT one (nicknamed the Mellow Submarine due to the smell of weed the old hippie previous owner had engrained in it!) which had at least 3/4 of a turn of play in the steering and non existent brakes. I have never seen a BR one though-were they in BR blue/grey?

Them was the days when the Government stuck there nose in and said you must use these vans .So we got our first brand new van which I went to collect, reg no. OVY282M all nicely sprayed in Yellow with sliding cab doors and a petrol engine, as said above non existent brakes and great lack of traction. I wish I had a pound for every time I had to push it to get going after it got stuck in a hole. Never saw one in any other colour than Yellow myself. Our previous one was the same as the one in the film The Lady In The Van with Maggie Smith, a Bedford again with sliding doors and originally in Green but later hand painted into Yellow by a guy a National Carriers workshop ( better known as road motors )with a paint brush and a tin of paint, in the end a floor in the back was becoming an optional extra.

Staff complain about the vans these days ( Ford Transits ) they are like driving a Rolls Royce as compared to the Beford and Commer vans that we had.

 

[theageofthetra]

Does anyone else remember the old BR crew trucks. I seem to recall they were a sort of portacabin mounted on a truck body with the windows straight out of mk1 or equivalent. Bet they must have been a rough and probably very unsafe ride.

 

[lincolnshire]

Does anyone else remember the old BR crew trucks. I seem to recall they were a sort of portacabin mounted on a truck body with the windows straight out of mk1 or equivalent. Bet they must have been a rough and probably very unsafe ride.

You mean the Large Bedford Crew Bus with the messing facilities, better known by the nickname of Fish & Chip Wagon.
Separate cab and on the back just a large box with windows and basic seats and tables in them, not using MK1 or any ex railway equipment in them. Very basic design they went at privatisation, as they would have required to have had tachographs fitted and also in the back would have required proper seats and seat belts fitted.

Transit crew buses now been used have far more facilities than they used to have and as gangs are normally a lot smaller these days too.

 

[Walnut_rede]

The two things I recall about the crew busses was there was an bell push(as on a London bus) which was your only way to signal to the driver from the back, and notices forbidding you to put telegraph poles in the ladder rack, well overhead ladder hole actually, after a fatal accident when they turned one over, as it tended to make them a little top heavy.

 

[lincolnshire]

The two things I recall about the crew busses was there was an bell push(as on a London bus) which was your only way to signal to the driver from the back, and notices forbidding you to put telegraph poles in the ladder rack, well overhead ladder hole actually, after a fatal accident when they turned one over, as it tended to make them a little top heavy.

Must remember not to transport me telegraph poles, yes do also remember that and the bell.

Lockers below for the tools etc, no sink to was your hands and no water boiler, usually the gas bottle and ring with a kettle on it outside.

 

[36270k]

Can remember that the S&T used yellow Bedford vans in the 1970s that were similar to a Vauxhall Viva.

 

[Clarence Yard]

HA Viva vans, small, basic, not much power and with those narrow tyres absolutely lethal on ice! Standard small van for most railway engineering departments in the 70's.

A colleague of mine, when on the WR had one with a load of gas cylinders on board. He braked in a hurry, there was a noise of cylinders crashing together, one broke it's stem and blew open the back doors, heading off up the road like a torpedo trying to find it's target. He had to recover the cylinder and quickly before anybody noticed.

Another one was been driven by a supervisor who liked getting near the kerb. His passenger had the window down and as he went slowly through West London he was surprised to see the handle of a street sweepers brush come in the window past his face and straight out again!

The civils or OHL on my patch (the GN) had a nasty habit of trying to drive them along cutting sides at weekends. That usually mean't a call to the NCL boys at KX on Monday morning and their tow truck would be scrambled.

When the depot I worked for wanted a small van, we were allocated a Marina van instead of an HA. We thought we had won the pools. Now they had poke - 80mph on the A1 with a decent load, no problem.

 

[lincolnshire]

While we are still in van land , what about the Sherpa,s another one we had to have due to Government intervention, the ones that we had certainly did some miles in the time we had them. They was far better than the Commer one.

Also remember having to remove the B.R. signs etc when we was privatised, they was replaced by leased transit vans labelled up and painted up in the privatised company colours.

 

[9K43]

A shunter and number taker on the Clayton West Branch at Huddersfield was issued a Honda 90 to travel between, Emley Pit, and Clayton West pit

 

[lincolnshire]

A shunter and number taker on the Clayton West Branch at Huddersfield was issued a Honda 90 to travel between, Emley Pit, and Clayton West pit

I can remember when the guy who delivered the drivers tickets ( what time you would be starting work tomorrow when you was on a shift week that had various starting times for each day of your shift) would come on his B.R ., BSA Bantam Motorcycle to our and other drivers houses delivering there tickets.

That was before most people had telephones.

 

[zn1]

there were paid br chauffers on the books,for senior management i knew one who lived in MK, now passed away..

maestro vans replaced the marinas, Cargo 7.5 tonners were used for big jobs, LDVs were common as well as tranny pickup with crew cab...

astra vans 1.7TDs were good buy, one van at an S&T depot i was a central clerk for had an engine suddenly seize up..it was a couple of years old...we had it taken in..and the garage reported it was dry of oil....with daily checks not being done...2 years and an engine replacement was expensive job..the Area S&T senior engineer wasnt happy as i recall...all checks at all depots were then vigorously enforced on all road vehicles...

 

[theageofthetra]

The Astra 1.7 TD had I recall an Izuzu engine in it that though a bit unrefined went like stink. They originally fitted it in the little Nova TD and with a bit of tuning could outrun many a boy racer hot hatch. I briefly had a homemade van version and can still remember the epic and terrifying torque steer on wet roundabouts when the turbo kicked in.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I know this is turning into a car thread but I wonder how many who suffered the noise and heavy steering of a Maestro van realised they were in an experimental vehicle that was truly ground breaking and the grandfather of modern diesel cars.

It was the first car to be fitted with a high speed direct injection diesel- developed by Perkins. By high speed it was not a slow revving DI found in trucks and vans. Cars up to that point were only fitted with inefficient but more refined indirect injection engines

It was also very noisy and in the van atmo version slow but once fitted with turbos, intercoolers and modern electronic engine management it was in the end producing up to 150bhp in the last of the Rover/MG 25's- a very quick car if you ever find one.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

HA Viva vans, small, basic, not much power and with those narrow tyres absolutely lethal on ice! Standard small van for most railway engineering departments in the 70's.

I skidded on ice dashing to Manningtree one night - (on ice) and did a 360 degree turn and nearly hit a brick wall. Never , ever drove like that again. Took a while to calm down. A close escape.

 

[theageofthetra]

Vivas were a bit before my time- was that the car Bob drove in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?

 

[Clarence Yard]

That was the later HB Viva. The HA vans were kept in production for years after the designs of the Viva cars changed. The biggest buyers were the GPO and BR, just like those Commer Vans.

In the mid 70's Fords broke the then Labour Governments pay policy and as a result all nationalised industries were banned from buying Fords. It went to court and the Government lost but for years afterwards Fords weren't brought by BR in large numbers, we had Bedford CF and Leyland Sherpas as our medium vans, crew buses and trucks in the KX division.

Cars? Avengers were common as pool cars but they could fuse the ignition if you parked in a certain direction, it then rained and you had left the heater vents open. If you were the DM or DME, you had a Hillman Hunter. My DME hated his and used his own Reliant Scimitar GTE on expenses.

The AM KX didn't have a car but 2 or 3 BRB chauffeurs used to be based there, in a room near the nurse. When John Nelson became ER GM in the late 80's they went as did the GM parking place right outside the main offices entrance at York. He didn't hold with that kind of thing.

 

[quarella]

A friend of my parents living in the next street worked for BR and had a pale blue Vauxhall Chevette as a company car. It hardly moved. It was strictly business use only. He would walk to and from the station and use the train to commute. If I recall correctly there was an on call element to his duties. I remember there were a number of of official notices stuck across the dashboard in red print.

 

[bangyuk]

When I was a sales exec for Speedlink I had three company cars: a yellow Vauxhall Chevette; a Metro; and a Maestro. As you can guess, it wasn't exactly a prestigious perk! The Maestro was nice though. A lot of paperwork. Every journey recorded by hand. Monthly summaries of business and personal mileage.

 

[Foxcote]

I must have been luckier than most. When some of the first Area/Station Managers were being formed, I was appointed Assistant S.M at Appleby (originally located at Ribblehead) in January 1966. We were given an Austin A95 Westminster, formerly used by the DCC Carlisle. The S.M's area was from New Biggin to Ribblehead inclusive. I also covered the Signalman's Inspector when he was off. (Long Meg to Settle inclusive.).

One Winter's day during a snowstorm, I managed to slide the A95 part way into a ditch on the 'Coal Road' - then had to walk back to Garsdale to beg the PWay staff to come and pull me out. Fortunately, no damage to the car. Happy days!

One aspect that nobody has mentioned, is that apart from the normal licence, a BR licence was required and staff had to be passed out by a Cartage (Road Motor) Inspector or similar, individually on every model of car. When the A95 was in for a service, we hired a car locally, -this could be a Morris Minor or Ford Anglia, or whatever was available. Before anyone could drive this car, an Inspector had to come from Preston to Appleby especially to pass us out on a short drive and sign our licences. By the time I left Appleby in September 1968, I had from memory, eight different cars on my BR licence.