My grandfather, Thomas Arthur Muspratt, known as Arthur, was born this day 125 years ago in 1899.

As I have stated before on this blog he was a ganger for the Southern Railway based at Salisbury, for most of the period that I model, before he gained promotion to Sub Inspector (permanent way) at Andover Junction at the end of 1947 and subsequently had a roving role. He died, before I was born, whilst in service on the railways on 11th April 1961 aged 61.

His promotion to sub-inspector (Permanent Way) at Andover Junction was listed in the Staff Changes, Chief Civil Engineer’s Department, Supervisory Staff,  section, see left, of the December 1947 edition of the Southern Railway Magazine, the in house magazine for all company staff.

This was of course also the last issue of the staff magazine issued by the Southern Railway, before it became the Southern Region of British Railways.

Alongside the platelayers hut next to the main line on Fisherton Sarum,  a representation of my Grandfather in his role as a Ganger learning on his ballast fork along with a group of Permanent Way workers, sometimes also known as platelayers,  that are taking a taking a tea break, one of whom is sat reading the newspaper and another has a mug of tea in his hand. 

The permanent way team would have been made up of a number of Linesmen and look outs under the leadership of a Ganger who in turn would have reported to a local / area Sub-inspector (Permanent way). On Fisherton Sarum the look out flag man is just walking towards the hut to join the rest of the team in taking there tea break.

The classic concrete platelayers huts were seen all over the Southern railway and were a design and product of the Southern Railway’s own concrete works at Exmouth Junction. The distinctive roof shape was so that minus the chimney they could be delivered, within the loading gauge on a well wagon, in one piece to anywhere on the network.
A number of 4mm models of these typical Southern Railway platelayers huts are available in kit from Roxey Mouldings in white metal, as per this example along with the typical cast concrete ballast bin located alongside or the huts are also available from Ratio in plastic.  

Happy birthday Arthur!