Wigan Overhead Line Department
Photo: Dave Taylor

Wigan OHL department (Springs Branch depot) When in the summer of 1990 BR London Midland region management announced that they were intending to close four of the ten overhead line maintenance depots on the route; the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) called for industrial action to protect both the existing depots and their staff. I think the four depots affected were Bedford, Bletchley, Stafford and Longsight, but after the passage of over twenty years I might be wrong so don’t quote me! Every depot introduced a weekend working ban, and when on picket duty we stood in exactly the same spot as the drivers are in item No. 696 on WW/work/railways page 2, albeit it with the addition of a brazier (or a brassiere as at least one member of staff belived it was!!)as it was autumn/winter time. In the fullness of time management relented and agreed to close just one of the depots, which was at Bedford. The displaced staff from Bedford depot, were given the option to transfer to either Bletchley, or Willesden, which were the nearest OHL depots on the WCML. Now, with the supreme irony that only the cock–up of privatisation could produce, Serco who inherited the maintenance franchise around 2000 re-opened Bedford OHL depot for the maintenance staff on the Midland main line between Bedford and St. Pancras. But I digress …. To mark the occasion the Wigan OHL LDC (staff reps) arranged to produce a couple of lapel badges. They were identical designs but one was produced in a silver finish and the other in gold. The wording states,” Wigan OHL solidarity (around the perimeter), 11 day strike 1990 (in the centre with a depiction of an OHL structure and two red flashes to indicate high voltage) and has RMT underneath in green. There were only about fifty of each design produced in total so they are pretty rare beasts. This is the one in silver finish on my old BR black jacket.