Farewell Pinky
Earlier this week I found out that the signalling legend that was Peter ‘Pinky’ Salmon had died in January.
I interviewed and photographed Peter for the book and for magazines – I had never drunk so much tea in such a relatively short period. I’m sure shares in Typhoo nose dived after his retirement in 2012!
During our chats, Peter told me how he had started working on the railway in 1962 – his first job being a junior porter at Stapleford & Sandiacre station. It was there that he discovered his love for signal boxes, as one of his duties was to deliver the notices to the station’s signal box. This prompted him to apply for the job of booking boy – covering the boxes around Trent and Toton. He was soon appointed his first box as a signal man, this being Hathern. Peter said he was initially allocated the box at Stanton New Works Sidings, but the signalman there didn’t want to retire! Afterwards Peter became a relief and worked Lock Lane, Castle Donnington, Meadow Land and a lot of smaller boxes in the Trent area. When Trent PSB was commissioned in 1969, the old hands advised him to leave the railways as the writing was on the wall for mechanical signalling. Peter, wisely, ignored the doomsayers and became a crossing keeper at Lock Lane.
Crossing keeper money was very poor at the time so in 1976, with a family to support, he moved onto the Loughborough relief. A decade later Leicester PSB was commissioned and the doomsayers reappeared, saying the end was nigh for mechanical signalling and that Peter should flee while he could. Again, Peter did his own thing and became a relief on the Melton line. After a while, Peter was covering all of the Leicester area, including Croft, Narborough and Hinckley. He laughed as he told me “I was called the Martini relief, because roster clerks knew I could cover any box, anywhere, anytime!”
Another Leicestershire signalling legend is Garth Lewin, who was also interviewed and photographed for the book, who retired as local operations manager in 2008. Garth also joined the railway in 1962 – as a booking boy at Loughborough station box. His first box as a signal man was Syston East Junction – being appointed in 1964. I’ve never heard a bad word said about either of them. Garth is still alive and after retirement volunteered on the Great Central Railway and at the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway.
Keeping The Wheels Turning – a book that celebrates rail staff at work: https://www.chimewhistle.co.uk/shop/p/jspjjid4pvbjvfg7zoh0vm2vctyii1