Newtown High Schhol Reunion Class of 75 Alan Jones

Alan Jones

I'm the one who must have drunk too much on the night of the reunion and agreed to create this website, never done one before so it’s been a steep learning curve. Anyway I left school and went to agricultural college and got a few more qualifications with the help of some very patient teachers, Brian Poole, Philip King, John Jones and Chris Frost. I worked on a small farm in Carno called Penbont working for Glyn and Beryl Jones.

I left agriculture at 18 earning £17.50 a week and working a minimum of 60 hours. My mates at the time were working in Laura Ashley across the road working 40 hours a week and earning £32 a week. I was always good at maths and after about 18 months I worked out that they had a better deal than me! I left agriculture and was at home for only a week when I decided to decorate my mothers lounge. I painted everything including the curtain rail. My mother that night couldn’t close the curtains so she told my dad to find me a job!!! My dad got me a job on the railways as a trackman and I nearly got sacked in the first week because I was caught travelling in first class. After 12 months of working outside I noticed a signalman Johnny Owen in a nice warm signalbox drinking tea and reading the newspaper whilst I was outside freezing my whotsits off. I applied to become a signalman at 19 and was lucky enough to be appointed to my first signalbox in Caersws. My dad was also a signalman and he used to cover many boxes and when he retired I got his job. I had two ambitions, the first was to write the rules that I had to learn inside out and the second was to work the officers special train.

I worked my way up the ranks and trained all the signalmen on the line with a new signalling system called RETB. I wrote an article for a website and it is still there now, look at “Modernisation of the Cambrian Lines by Alan Jones”. I moved to Shrewsbury from Machynlleth and got my second Inspectors post. I progressed to Senior Inspector and then became the manager at Shrewsbury responsible for over 140 staff.

There I achieved one of my ambitions and worked the Officers Special Saloon a special coach hauling all the senior management. After achieving that I set myself another goal of being on the Royal train, something I thought was beyond my reach but I was determined to give it a go. During my management days at Machynlleth and Shrewsbury I was fortunate enough to have lunch with the most respected railwayman of his time a gentleman called Peter Rayner who was then the Regional Operations Manager. With him were several regional inspectors one of them was Bill Sankey the Chief Inspector. Bill had a fantastic dry sense of humour and whilst we were all sat around the table having lunch he asked a management trainee who Mr Rayner was mentoring, what he had qualifications in? The trainee answered quite proudly Zoology and Geology sir, great says Bill, If we ever get an elephant stuck in a bloody tunnel we know who to call! we howled.

I always remember another Chief Inspector Alan Bullimore, he came down to Machynlleth for a visit and wanted to have a go at working the RETB system. It was difficult to attempt such a challenge because its easy for any Inspector not alone the Chief to lose credibility with signallers if you mess up. I wasn't sure how to play it so I took Alan down the signalbox and asked the signallers if they wanted to go home three hours early, I dont think they even replied, before we knew it Alan was working the East Side and I was working the West. After about half an hour we had to call the signallers back because we had a massive signalling failure and needed to introduce pilotworking. The signallers worked as Pilotman and points operator and we worked the box. I always remember one of the signallers telling me some time later that Bullimore was the only manager that had enough balls to work the box, they respected him for that and I always tried to do the same when I visited boxes, if you can gain the signallers respect the job is a lot easier.

I moved from Shrewsbury to work in Birmingham and get several jobs ranging from Senior Auditor to Operations Manager. My other ambition came true when I got the opportunity to work the Royal Train. I had the honour to work the Royal Train on 37 occasions and met most of the Royal Family my favourite still to this day was the Queen Mother. She couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t have a little tipple with her before going to bed, to railwaymen its instant dismissal to drink on duty. For my services I was invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace.
Two of the most memorable occasions were when I worked the train on G8 summit day and met the wives of heads of state including Mrs Hilary Clinton, Mrs Cherie Booth QC, Mrs Aline Chretien, Signora Flavia Prodi, Mrs Naina Yeltsina, Mrs Bernadette Chirac and Mrs Kumiko Hashimoto. The second memorable occasion was when I worked the Royal Train for Lady Diana’s funeral that was a day I will never forget. I have also met a few other famous people usually when travelling on a train. Lennie Henry sat by me one day from Reading to London he is as funny as he is on TV. Edwina Currie sat opposite, I kept asking myself do I mention eggs or not. I showed Jean Alexander (Hilda Ogden) where to go once when the trains were slightly delayed at York. I also sat next to Nigel Havers, Babs kept texting me to get his autograph, I said I would if he asked me for mine, he never did! John Savident (Fred Elliott Coronation Street) was looking up at the departure board one day at Euston, I was by the side of him he asked me if I was going to Manchester? I replied by stating I thought people only left Manchester not went there! We had 20 minutes of fun!

I applied for a job working for Railway Safety now Rail Safety and Standards Board and was successful. This was the ambition I wanted most, to write the rules and regulations I had to learn so thoroughly when I was younger. I did that and thoroughly enjoyed it. I got someone to come and work for me, a person I had the greatest respect for, he is now one of my best buddies Les Moyle. Soon after Les came to work for me I left RSSB and moved back to Network Rail as the Signalling Standards Specialist writing the signalling standards for all the signallers on the network. I don’t think Les ever forgave me for leaving him soon after he arrived, but he got my job and is doing it a lot better at it than I was. I worked in Birmingham in Infrastructure Investment and was the Possession Operations Safety Specialist before I took voluntary redundancy after 34 years, too many around that can get elephants out of tunnels!. I am back working for Rail Safety & Standards Board and hope to work for another 5 years, I will then retire full time.

I am now married to Barbara and live in Gloucester click on Gloucester to see our house, ours is the one with the cream frontage and wooden timber. We have two black Labradors Jess and Kia. I am now a serving magistrate in Gloucestershire serving on five benches, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud, Cirencester and Coleford. I have two fantastic children Rhian and Danny who both still live in Newtown. I have an interest in computers, web design and photography and am also a board and computer game fan so if you ever visit you have to play “buzz” “scategories” or “sing star”.

I remember Rhian embarassing me once in a crowded pub. I went to the loo and Rhi followed me in, she was only about two or three, I said to Rhi you’re a bit old to be in the gents now darling go and wait outside and I will meet you there. When I came out she was at the table. As soon as I sat down she told her mum at the top of her voice just as the the pub went quite “mum, daddy was having a pee in the sink” I suppose urinals do look a bit like sinks.

When Rhi was just ten days old we went to see my parents in Carno the first trip out with her. We were all in the garden and regular as clockwork Rhi started crying at five to two for her lunch. We went inside and as soon as we sat down two planes collided over the house and one of the wings fell in the garden. If Rhi hadn’t insisted on her food and started crying we could all have been killed.

Danny is the same as me a gadget person I wish when he was born I’d have bought shares in mobile phones I’d have been very rich by now he has had more phones than I can count. Danny cant wait to start driving he loves his cars and can tell you the make of the car before I can identify the colour. Mind you I could have done that when I was young but they were all different shapes then and the design was not determined by wind tunnels. Will probably think of more to write but that’s it for now. To summarise i cant thank the organisers of the event enough for making the night and amazing experience.

Take care,

Alan or as railwaymen now know me Alan D.

Music Teachers

To contact me email: alan@joneshousehold.co.uk