It’s the rail thing
RETIRED train driver Tom Paghet had a special date with an old friend in 1978 and the reunion proved a great success. It was 40 years previously that Tom, of Gordon Avenue, March, used to fire and later drive the Henry Oakley 990 Atlantic express engine.
RETIRED train driver Tom Paghet had a special date with an old friend in 1978 and the reunion proved a great success.
It was 40 years previously that Tom, of Gordon Avenue, March, used to fire and later drive the Henry Oakley 990 Atlantic express engine.
In May 1978, the privately-run Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, together with British Rail, organised the trip on the steam train to mark the start of high-speed trains.
They took a group of retired drivers, firemen and cleaners, who once worked on the Henry Oakley, for a journey over the five-mile Worth Valley line in a 1920s Pullman carriage to see the engine they had once worked on.
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Tom, pictured here on the footplate of the Henry Oakley, began his career on the Great Eastern Railway in 1919 at Peterborough and was transferred to March in 1921.
He was accompanied on the trip by his friend, Bob Beeby, of Robingoodfellows Lane.
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Tom was able to meet some of the railwaymen he had lodged with and talk over old times.
To keep everyone happy, there was even a TV on board so football fans could watch the FA Cup Final.
