Wigan Album

The "gang"! When I started on the OHL depot at The Branch in August 1987 this was the regular group of staff (or gang)I was put with. There were eleven four man gangs in my days there.
In the foreground Linesman/Erector class 2's George Taylor on the left, and Scot Jimmy Bonner on the right. Staying discreetly in the background (in stealth mode one might say) is the man in charge of the gang, Senior Overhead Linesman Brian Summers.
Brian was another great OHL character, who had started his working career as an apprentice at the gas board. At some point he left to go elsewhere and George (he of the sharp Liverpudlian wit as mentioned previously!) would delight in teasing him that if he had stayed put at the gas board, and on account of him being quite a clever chap, he would have been chairman of it by then. Jimmy Bonner was a superb linesman and was kind enough to teach me a great deal about OHL working. Happy, happy days. Sadly Brian and Jimmy would both die prematurely whilst still in service in about 1997 and 1996 respectively, and long before normal retirement age! George would get to retire and reach his three score and ten, but only just. All very sad really, but thankfully the one thing that you cannot be robbed of, is the happy memories.
Picture taken at Butler Street depot, Preston on the site of the old East Lancashire railway station site. September 1988