Southern Region Engineman: Life as an Engine Cleaner, Fireman and Passed Fireman, at Nine Elms at Feltham, 1957 - 1966 Includes Firing on Winston Churchill's Funeral Train

Jim Lester started his career as a cleaner at Nine Elms in 1957. As would be expected he passed through the ranks, becoming fireman, and then passed fireman by the very end of the steam age. Ordinarily this would be both a story and a path trod by countless others before, but Jim's tale is exceptional as he was chosen to be the fireman on perhaps the most famous of all steam workings out of Waterloo in the closing days of steam, that of the funeral train for Sir Winston Churchill. A born raconteur, he ensures that this is no ordinary book of reminiscences. Instead it is the story of the last years of steam from someone who was 'inside the fence', not simply viewing it from the end of the platform. We are treated to the intimate details of the men he worked with and the many locomotives he worked on. The routes, the trains and the experiences are all revealed providing a complete portrait of life on the railway. Supplemented by many unpublished illustrations taken from the footplate and of the men who formed the Nine Elms and Feltham workforce, here is the true story of a Southern Region Engineman.