Lincoln ‘loco’ shed had been extended and altered by the addition of road Nos. 6-9 by the LNER. The ash pits and the coaling plant as well as the drop pit shops were also added in 1938 in an effort to cope with the work of the three previous sheds - Great Northern Railway, Great Central Railway and Great Eastern Railway - which were then concentrated in the single expanded, GNR shed.
From Directory evidence, about 280 drivers and firemen, with their supporting cleaners and shed workers, were employed at the MPD when, some short time later, I became a cleaner there. In those days, to get on the job you had to have relatives as railwaymen. Luckily, father was a guard and my grandfather had been a porter.
These drivers and firemen were real men doing a very real but dangerous and dirty job, in all weathers and all conditions. They were not bank managers, professional men and writers who had been issued with footplate passes and were playing at railways as the spirit moved them. You quickly realised that behind their gruff exterior there lay a firm camaraderie, which made me proud to be on the lowest tier of the chain of grades you needed to climb to become a Driver. They were also men of diverse and often deep interests outside their daily work. And they were expert, too - with no formal training provided by the employers, but basically as a result of their own experience and Common sense, with the help of the Mutual Improvement Class, of which more later. These men deserve a better memorial than a history which too often glorifies the potentially deadly machines, rather than the men controlled them safely and powerfully, with such unparalleled Skill.
But for now, back to the work itself. Introduction as a cleaner started when you were presented with a Rulebook. If you were lucky, someone would tip you off about the numbers of the really crucial rules you would need to know in order to become a ‘passed cleaner’ Notice this was not a ‘spare fireman’ which reflected Company policy and ensured that by no misunderstanding could
