Carlisle station's longest serving member of staff, Brian Farish, has reached the milestone of fifty years' work on the West Coast Main Line.
Team Leader, Brian, 67, has worked on the railway in his native Cumbria for five decades. He has become one of only a small number of workers on Avanti West Coast's route to reach the half-century.
Brian's father and grandfather also worked on the railway, and the family has now been involved in the rail industry for nearly eighty years. His father was a Goods Guard, and checked boxes of ammunition during the Falklands War. Brian's grandfather was a wheeltapper, whose job involved inspecting train wheels for evidences of stress and fractures.
The Farish family has served Cumbria's railways since the 1940s, and Brian is now the longest-serving railway worker in his family.
Brian left sixth form to join the railway in 1973, when British Rail ran a recruitment campaign in his area. He began his first job, in the Carlisle admin office, on his seventeenth birthday. At that time, the Prime Minister was Conservative Edward Heath, and Slade held the number one spot in the UK album chart.
// Credit: Stuart Walker Photography 2023
In his year in the admin office, Brian issued ID passes for over three thousand railway workers, handwriting the names of each worker onto their passes when they came to the window. Brian then moved to a job assisting passengers in Carlisle's Travel Office.
In 1975, he became an Area General Purpose Relief GPR), working in various roles at Cumbrian stations including Appleby, Carlisle, Penrith, Whitehaven, and Windermere.
He returned to Carlisle in 1983, and has worked in the ticket office and on the platform ever since. Brian became Platform Team Leader thirteen years ago. He works with thirty workmates, helping passengers and dispatching nearly two hundred trains from the station each day.
Brian particularly enjoyed the shifts he worked at Appleby station on the Settle-to-Carlisle line because workmates treated one another as family, and the fire in the station building provided a cosy environment for staff and passengers.
Brian said: “It has been great to work across stations in Cumbria and continue my family's connection to the region's railway. I enjoy the variety it brings. No two days are the same and you get to meet lots of different people.
“The railway is special – it's like one big family. I've worked with some brilliant colleagues that always look out for one another through the good times and the bad.
“I love helping others and playing a part in getting them on their way – whether it's to visit a friend or relative, travel to work or follow their football team. Knowing I've made their journey that little bit easier gives me real job satisfaction and is what keeps me going! I also enjoy interacting with people and the jobs I've held over the last 50 years have allowed me to do this every day,” Brian added.
Michael Byrne, Avanti West Coast Station Manager at Carlisle, said: “Brian has been an integral part of the team for many years and we're all very proud of him reaching 50 years on the railway. As the longest serving member of the team at Carlisle, he's a friendly face to many colleagues on the west coast, as well as the local community.
“Brian always takes pride in his work and is happiest when he's helping customers. On behalf of Avanti West Coast, I'd like to congratulate Brian on his achievement and thank him for all he's done.”
