Lyr Req: The LMS Railway? / Servant of the Company

Subject: Lyr Req: The LMS Railway.
From: GUEST
Date: 14 May 13 - 01:27 PM

Does anyone have the words for this song? Written by Tony Hill I believe.

Subject: Lyr Add: A SERVANT OF THE COMPANY (Paul Connor)
From: Brian Peters
Date: 14 May 13 - 02:19 PM

The song is actually called 'A Servant of the Company' and was written by the unforgettable Paul Connor, Manchester performance poet commomorated on this thread.

Tony Hill may have composed the tune - not sure about that.

There's a recording of my old pal Mark Dowding singing the song on this rather good radio programme.

Mark's lyrics aren't the same in every detail as the ones I sing, which Tony Hill wrote down for me about thirty years ago. This is from memory (and I think it's possible I made up the first line of verse 32 myself, to get rid of a repetition). Repeat the last line of each verse.

My Dad started off on the old North Western
He left school at just fourteen
He got a job on the shed at Longsight
Helping to keep all the engines clean

Bottom of the heap on the LMS railway
The only way to get ahead
Was a sixty-hour week on a 9A Jinty
Shunting up and down in the engine shed

Dad passed fireman on the LMS railway
Graduated in the course of time
Working like a navvy on a 4-6-4 tank
Toiling away on the Buxton line

The hungry '30s on the LMS railway
Saw my Dad pretty well content
Newly in charge of a jolly old Jumbo
Bucketing away into Stoke-on-Trent

Thirty years sweat on the LMS railway
Thirty years labour, hard and hot
Daddy became a top-link driver
London trains with a rebuilt 'Scot'

Thirty years toil on the LMS railway
Thirty years, don't you wonder why
I've got a photo took in '47
Of my Daddy on the footplate of HLI

My Dad lived for the LMS railway
Long ago, and it's rather sad
It'll soon be forgotten, will the LMS railway
And who's ever heard of my dear old Dad?

Paul's railway references are all authentic, as far as I can work out. Steam buffs won't need to be told that a '9A Jinty' was a small shunter designated by its 9A 'shed plate' as belonging to Longsight, the big LMS depot just down the line from Piccadilly station. Or that 'HLI' was Highland Light Infantry, one of the rebuilt Royal Scot class mentioned in the previous verse.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The LMS Railway.
From: Brian Peters
Date: 14 May 13 - 02:20 PM

That should have read 'the first line of verse 2', not 'verse 32'. A Child Ballad this aint.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The LMS Railway? / Servant of the Company
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 15 May 13 - 09:34 AM

I still sing this song from time to time, the only song I managed to crib off Paul, he always seemed reluctant to let his songs go to anyone else and he did write some crackers.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The LMS Railway? / Servant of the Company
From: Dead Horse
Date: 15 May 13 - 05:53 PM

Piccadilly, Manchester. Ex LNWR taken over by the LMS at the Grouping of the railway companies to form the Big Four - LMS, LNER, GWR & Southern Railway. The song is very evocative of an enginemans life.
My sympathies lie with the Right Side of the Footplate :-)