Page 10 - The Life of Chris Turner

mins Dover Yard where we stabled the loco and walked to the quay side and started fishing
I borrowed one of the rods and was the first to catch a Cod not a bad size. In the end we
caught 6 cod all of a good size so one each for the signalman 1 for me and 3 for my driver.

It was time to walk back to the Loco put the tea on and have a sandwich move back onto 12
vans talk to our guard lie to him about the fish and start our journey back to Ashford into
the platform there is the signalman he is well pleased with his Cod and next stop Tonbridge
into platform 1 Once again another satisfied customer on to Hithergreen Drop the vans off
and stable the loco book of duty and do it all tonight. Out of the 4 days we worked that job
we only had one day with no fish what so ever not bad if I do say so. And life went on at
Hithergreen working my rest day still going to Brighton. One of the turns we had in our link

was Old Oak Common to Hoo Junction My regular Driver would work a train from
Hithergreen to Old Oak Common single maned I would book on a bit later and go by train
to London then Underground to Willesden walk to Old Oak Common find him so where in
the good yard. Well this day it all went pear shaped the Underground was running about 30
mins late by the time I got to Old Oak Common I was nearly an hour late and no sign of the

train it had gone without me so found a phone rang control told to make my way back to the
depot. By now it was to late to catch a underground have to walk all the way back to
Hithergreen luckily it was a nice clear night. So, I am walking through Old Oak Common
Loco Depot Yard when a voice said where do you think you are going laddie. Stopped and
there is the running foreman in a bowler hat told him I was just going home, he then told me
to go to road 3 and take the loco to Paddington then I could go home well of course I

didn’t tell him I was Southern Region and not Western Region only because it saved me a
long walk. So, found road 3 and the Loco a Warship type Diesel never been on one of them
before explained to the driver that I was told to ride with him to Paddington he looked at me
rather odd and said not seen you before I must have looked a bit guilty he then asked what
was going on he just laughed and said wait to I tell the others we will make that running
foreman’s life hell So that’s how I was on a Western Region Loco all the way to

Paddington. Decided as by the time I walked to Hithergreen it would be time to go home so
rang Hithergreen foreman and booked off by phone and walk to Victoria caught the Papers
to Tonbridge and went to bed. Never saw that running foreman again while walking though
the loco yard and everything ran smoothly for the rest of the week. There are Many more
tales I can tell you about working on the Railway, so perhaps I will write another blog about
it at a later date.

After being made redundant

Worked for Sevenoaks Hi Fi Paul Lee Kemp was the boss, Harry was the Engineer they
were just setting up the business I worked as a salesman and installer, also worked for Paul
Lee Kemp’s father delivering boat parts mainly to the west country and parts of Wales. The
business really took off very quickly at least every three months I would take a couple of

other installers to Monaco and install Hi Fi onto Multi-Million-pound boats. But in the end,
this just got too much to handle as we were fitting units sometime once a week in Monaco,
France, Belgium.

Next Job

Ran a contract cleaning company employing 8 staff of which 4 where fulltime rest where
part time evening and early morning cleaners. Also did carpet cleaning and hard floor