NEW DECEMBER 2012. This part covers Horace Melbourne's reminiscences, beginning when he started work at Stratford in 1897 as a call boy whose job was to wake up locomen who were on early turns. He later became a GER bus mechanic and driver at Chelmsford for six years, after which he had the honour of serving as personal chauffeur to Sir Henry Thornton, the GER's General Manager. From 1919 onwards he was involved in the railway's road freight distribution - overcoming prejudice to introduce motorised transport, and training the men to drive and maintain the vehicles. So successful was he that when the LNER was formed, the GER was well ahead of both the GNR and the GCR in this respect. His account continues into early LNER days, when he found himself working for the cartage manager of the Southern Area. He describes how the lorries could be used during the night as well as the day to service markets such as Covent Garden and Smithfield.

The material has been taken from typescript sheets which have never been published before. We have divided it into five separate sections, but the text itself is exactly as Horace wrote it, complete and unchanged.

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Cartage. Great Northern Railway. Great Central Railway. Goods.

Goods