GWR Ganger: In Charge of the Permanent Way

2013 | Biography

Great Western Railway Ganger is the story of Dan Brew's life spent as a lineman for the Great Western Railway and British Rail, including twenty-eight years as Ganger in Charge of the Permanent Way on the line through Tettenhall. It is a story rich in detail, told in his own colourful words, of suicides and accidents, and of long forgotten working practices and conditions. It paints a picture of the GWR away from the footplate and the platform, of the men toiling on the line as trains roared by. It follows Dan from country cottage and village school to the confusion of Wolverhampton's Oxley Sidings, and via a spell on a farm out on the prairie in Canada back to fight in the First World War. Dan fought as a trench mortar man from the first day of the Battle of the Somme throughout the rest of the war. The book then follows him back to England and a life on the railway. He eventually became the Ganger in charge of the line through Tettenhall from Oxley to Baggeridge Junction, a role he held until retirement. He became a well-known local character, both around Tettenhall and in his own village of Albrighton, and this is the story of his extraordinary life.

Great Western Railway Ganger is a unique book with fascinating and unpublished photographs that tells a gripping story of yesteryear.

Alec Brew (Author)