• (Young fireman joins Ambulance team in 1960s) A youngish fireman strides left to stand behind his driver, So his engine is a Stanier 5 or something? To simply view his passengers female attire! A busy station with two fast through roads for the steam express or the new Blue Pullman from Bristol or Cardiff bombing it to Paddington! The attire i speak of is the ra ra or the mini skirt! Our passengers crowd the platform! When one is propelled forward and we bowl him? I shout but driver has hit the brakes vacuum! We coast to an abrupt juddering stop! I jumped down, ran forward and down again onto the track for my walk up the blind side! Engine, Tender, First coach nothing? I retrace and find him under our cab behind my injectors! I simply lift my chin and say i am uncoupling! OK says driver, I break the vacuum pipes so nothing can move! Then steam heat pipes that explode in my face! (Ive been Sauna’rd)? Turn off both cocks, Uncouple and a passenger relays my signals to my driver! I’m on my knee’s peering underneath trying to stride sleeper to sleeper on my painful knees for the full length of a very long tender! Patient is prone but i watch for a floppy arm or the kick of a leg that could be severed? Many wheels pass him till he emerges, No blood from mouth, but to move could cause more damage! Two Ambulance blokes jump down and take over, Today the pocket phone would of recorded the entire scene! Back then? Zilch. Plus a burning face that said Costa Blanca! and ballast cut painful knees? And i’m not halfway through my shift yet?

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      Michael Holden, Michael Ashworth and TaylPSteam
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