Researching Railway Workers (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Monday, August 13, 2012, 16:21 (4488 days ago) @ m p griffiths

Hi MPG,
I'm enjoying reading your railway links very much, thanks. As a mechanical engineer myself I'm rightly proud of "Team" GB's achievements in engineering & science following the efforts of truly Great Britons such as IK Brunel. My pleasure has been enhanced now I belatedly know the huge significance of the likes of Lydbrook & Parkend long before him, thanks largely to joining This Wonderful Forum.

I moved to West London in the 80s as a graduate to work at the Thorn EMI Electronics factories in Hayes, West London; they sit alongside the GWR main line into Paddington. As this lovely old postcard shows from its 20s heyday it had it's own railway sidings and small locos, altho I'm sure it was rather grubbier in real life !
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_uSlKw6xKFoE/ShLMeQc0cLI/AAAAAAAACc0/LxPGvH0AFTk/s1600-h/hayes...
(On our trip to London for interview my mate commented what a rundown place it looked, unaware that was our destination the next day ! The reality wasn't so bad)

I didnt realise before joining EMI it had also been the home of HMV, despite my being a 1950s music fan & record collector, my hifi is now hidden within a beautiful oak HMV gramaphone cabinet - one of the large buildings is still called the Cabinet Factory. The EMI Central Research Laboratory is still there and has some beautiful old music "boxes", this was key to the invention of RADAR. I worked in a newer building (just left of picture) which had been built in the 30s to hold the Rudge Motorcycle firm newly-acquired from Coventry. It had a long central corridor which took 15 minutes to walk down, apparently this was used to test run the motorbikes !. However this unsuccessfull venture was soon sold to make the newly invented RADAR during the War, hence my job there 50 years later.
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pattle/nacc/arc0231.htm
Indeed, Hayes as a town largely grew during WW1 as it was home to a shell-filling factory, chosen for its remote & then-rural location from Zeppelin raids yet with good rail & canal links to the whole country.
EMI Electronics is long gone since it's core defence business ran down, but the buildings are still there as they are listed.

Near my home a few miles from Hayes in Uxbridge, just north of Heathrow, is Brunel University, nowadays more famous to study? sports & PE; the South Korean Olympic team were based there. It is built alongside the old branch line from West Drayton, on the ex GWR mainline, north into Uxbridge. Their section of disused line has a replica broadgauge track.
http://www.abandonedstations.org.uk/Uxbridge_Vine_Street_line.html

The first intermediate station built along the "new" GWR line apart from the end termini was at West Drayton. This was because the first locomotives used on the line were built on Merseyside and travelled by sea into London, then canal 11 miles westwards from Paddington Basin ?! to West Drayton where the canal is directly alongside the railway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_Charles_Tayleur_locomotives

Thanks again (I DO wish I had some pioneering railway engineers in my family line too !)

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PS Re the understandable transcription error re Mitcheldever, in case NorthStar is unaware there is indeed such a town but far from the Forest, it's on the mainline route from London to Southampton.
http://www.micheldevervillage.org.uk/archive_railway.html