I was born in Ipswich (my mother was evacuated from London during the war) on 25th May 1945. My father worked for British Rail at Bisopgate sheet factory.
In 1946, my father, Eric Wiffen took a Supervisor position at Melton Constable sheet factory. We lived at 7, Melton Street for 16 years and then moved to 8, Colville_Road for another 5 years - one day my father told me we were moving on Saturday! I went to school at Melton Primary and then the Secondary School half way between Melton and Briston. I then went to College at Kings Lynn and then started work as a trainee manager at a building firm.
We had a very harsh winter in 1963 and I was eventually laid off.
I joined British Railways in 1963 at Cromer Beach as a summer season booking clerk but was soon transferred to Sheringham. I had a four week deployment to Melton Constable to cover sickness. I did a first aid course which was held in the school hall for about 2 years. Eventually Dr. Beeching caught up with me and Sheringham was unstaffed. I was then moved to Norwich and this suited me fine, as Melton Sheet Works had closed and my father was commuting to Norwich every day, so we shared a car to commute from Melton to Norwich.
I went into the passenger planning section at the Divisional Manager’s office in Grosvenor House, where I had several positions.
In 1967 I got married (to a Holt girl) and moved to the DMO Liverpool Street as the guards’ clerk. I then went on secondment to Bristol for six months before returning to my original position at Liverpool Street.
Then there was a problem, my father-in-law died suddenly and my wife wanted to come back to Norwich to be nearer to her mother. In 1970, I got back to the DMO in Grosvenor House, Norwich. After that, I had a variety of jobs, Relief Clerk, Norwich Station; Roster Clerk, Norwich Station. I had studied for my Rules & Regulations and was appointed Traffic Assistant at Norwich, then Traffic Manager, Norwich; Station Master, Norwich; Performance Manager, Norwich; Health & Safety Manager, Norwich; Movements Manager, Norwich and finally Operating Manager, Norwich.
I played Billiards for the Railway Institute in 1973-1974.
Percy Youngman was a chargeman at Lenwade when I knew him, with Eric Durrant and one other. He was in
charge of the concrete beams from Anglian Building Products that were out of gauge and had to have special treatment. As the beams came out late afternoon, he was missing the last bus back to Melton, so I was paid , after a days work, to drive to Lenwade and bring him back to Melton. This was fine until Percy formed a liking for the landlady at the Lenwade pub, we got home later and later and eventually it got too much for me. As a result I think he took early retirement.
A few years later, Lenwade was only manned by one person, John Roberts and as Traffic Manager I was passed out as a riding inspector and spent many hours there in the back cab of locos hauling concrete beams.
I then had to retire at 48 due to ill health.
Throughout my working life, I have always had strong links with the Cromer line and when Station Master at Norwich, I was in charge of the line. This suited me, as my father had retired and moved to Cromer after working in the old Traffic Accounts office in Norwich after redundancy.
|