Bullo Pill GWR Staff
Courtesy of: Danny Haines. Uploaded:
Bullo Pill G.W.R. (Great Western Railway) staff c 1920.
If anyone has any names or information on this photo, please click the button below.
Thanks to David Morris who added (Jan 2007): "The message was :
The gentleman extreme left,holding a long handled hammer, was probably
the
man who
walked the length of the train tapping the wheels testing them
for cracks. The man holding the hooked pole would be designated a shunter.
The twirley hook
on
the end of the pole was used to lift the large chain link onto the hook
of the adjacent carriage or goods truck. To save a walk the shunter's
would
place the pole into the wheel mechanism, and sit on it as the train moved slowly
in the yard" .
Thanks also to Ian Pope who added (Mar 2007)
"The date is much earlier, I would have thought turn of the century
or earlier.
Bullo Pill was only ever a goods station but even so had its own station
master, seen seated in the centre. The two signalmen holding the train
staffs would have been for Bullo East and Bullo West Signal Boxes.
There are probably a couple of shunters in the view, certainly one has
his shunter's pole. Some are probably drivers off Bullo Shed (some
of those behind the seated figures) but no fireman appears to have
got into the photo apart from the youngster at the back holding an
oil can and another chap in the lighter overalls. There will be some
goods guards and number takers also.
I have not seen a staff list for Bullo anywhere....I would imagine that
one of the drivers on the photo would be Harry Askew who was well-known
on the Forest of Dean Branch".
Thanks to Ann Gardner who added (Mar 2009): "... 3rd row (young boy) could be my
grandad Bob Trigg who would have been 19 and was a fireman. In the
1st row, 2nd from the left is my great grandfather Harry Askew".
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