Obituary for long-time Swanage branch driver Fred Norman

By Peter Frost - Swanage Railway volunteer driver and founder member Swanage Railway
dated 16th Feb 2003
Photographs are courtesy of the Andrew P.M. Wright collection, copyright Andrew P.M. Wright or as individually credited.
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Fred Norman at Swanage Turntable in Sept 1991 - photo copyright Andrew P.M. Wright

It is with great sadness that I have to inform Swanage Railway members and website visitors about the passing of a great friend. One of the great characters of the Swanage branch line over several decades - the former BR fireman and driver Fred Norman - has died suddenly at the age of 75. To say that he will be sadly missed is an understatement.

I am sure that everyone on the railway will share my sentiments in offering Fred's widow Beryl, his children John and Jane - and his grandchildren Alex and Luke - deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences on their loss because it is also our loss too.

Fred was the quiet, free-thinking, determined and colourful personality who, while a BR driver on the branch, had the guts to write to the local newspaper claiming that the decision to close the branch in the autumn of 1969 had "been made by railway officials trying to justify their own existence and cover their disastrous years of mismanagement."

Fred Norman with M7 No 30105 at Swanage Station in Sept 1962 - photo by J.D. Gommersall

Fred was also the driver of the morning's last regular timetabled BR trains out of Swanage on New Year's Day, Saturday, January 1st, 1972. That afternoon, Fred handed over to Peter Guy who completed the timetabled service that day before the special night-time 'last train' driven by 'Johnny' Walker.

I first met Fred Norman in about 1964, when I was a six year old, when he invited me on to the footplate of a rarely before seen Ivatt tank by the shunting bell and bufferstop at Swanage station. I was interested in the Ivatt tanks because they were a new engine on the branch, having replaced the Victorian-designed M7 tanks. I was stood on the platform, hovering near the Ivatt tank and just hoping that driver Norman would ask me up on to the footplate. Fred did just that with a wink and the friendly words: "You wanna come up for a ride then nipper?"

As the Ivatt ran round its train of two Maunsell coaches before departing again for Corfe Castle and Wareham, that short footplate ride started off a friendship with Fred that I was to enjoy for almost 40 years. Over the next seven years, I rode with him quite frequently on Ivatt and Standard tanks before the advent of the Class 33s and Hampshire DEMU diesels.

Fred Norman driving a Hampshire 3-coach DEMU from Swanage on the last operating day of the old BR branch line on Saturday, 1st January 1972 - photo by John Bird

Born in Croydon, London, in 1927, Frederick 'Fred' Norman moved to Swanage in 1938. Leaving school at the age of 14 while the Battle of Britain was fought in the skies over Dorset in 1940, Fred started work as a paperboy for the H.G. Cook & Son bookstall at Swanage station.

Five years later, during June, 1945 - a month after the end of the Second World War in Europe - Fred signed on as a locomotive cleaner for the Southern Railway at Bournemouth depot. Fred transferred to Hamworthy Junction in 1946 and then back to Bournemouth in 1950 when he joined the Tank Gang and began to fire M7-hauled 'lug and shove' push-pull trains on the 'Old Road' from Poole to Wimborne, Ringwood and Brockenhurst.

M7 push pull at Corfe Castle 1963 - photo by Rodney A. Lissenden
M7 push pull train Creech Bottom 1963 - photo by Mike Esau

It was in 1953 - Coronation Year - that fireman Fred moved to Swanage, a sub-shed of Bournemouth, for the princely wage of £7 a week. After carrying out 280 firing turns as a passed fireman, Fred took his driver's exam at Bournemouth and passed. Fred could now proudly drive trains out of his hometown of Swanage.

Ivatt tank Swanage 1964 - photo by John Scrace
M7 push pull train Woodyhyde 1963 - photo by Mike Esau

Fred was always one for a story and on the occasions that I used to meet him he would talk about five things; memories of working on the Swanage branch, politics, poetry, astronomy or Shakespeare. Fred would normally be hovering on the platform, by the lineside fence along Gilbert Road at Swanage or the Northbrook Road bridge overlooking the engine shed.

Fred retired from BR Network SouthEast as a driver of the Class 442 Wessex Electrics between London and Weymouth in late 1991. That summer, Fred had the honour of driving the first passenger-carrying InterCity 125 train down to Poole.

Fred Norman next to his Inter City 125 train from London at Poole station - photo by Peter Duncalfe

Fred was always very supportive of the Swanage Railway Project, although he never felt able to become actively involved - despite my attempts! That was a shame because Fred was such an experienced railwayman.

Fred took a great interest in the small band of people, some of them little older than teenagers, that tried to reinstate the railway from an abandoned and desolate Swanage station in the mid-1970s.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Fred could often be seen on the reborn railway feeding the Swanage engine shed cat Ebenezer. These two photos show a nostalgic reunion at Swanage station in 1991 between Fred and veteran ex-Swanage branch fireman, the late Stan Brown of Wool.

Fred Norman with veteran ex-Swanage branch fireman, the late Stan Brown of Wool, at Swanage Station in 1991 - photo copyright Andrew P.M. Wright

I last enjoyed a chat with Fred when I managed to persuade him to have a morning coffee in the Bird's Nest Buffet at Swanage station. As we sat and chatted, I remembered that we were on the same platform where Fred had made my dream come true as a six year old back in 1964 when he gave me that short footplate ride on the Ivatt tank on the run-round loop.

It was though Fred's gentle encouragement that I formed an interest in railways in general and the Swanage branch line in particular; and through Fred's generosity that I became involved in the resurrection of the Swanage Railway.

The Poole Crematorium at Gravel Hill was packed for Fred's funeral with standing room only - testament to the high regard in which the man was held.

Sadly, I could not attend the funeral but as I was driving Standard Tank 80104 that day out of Swanage at the time of the lunchtime service, I thought of Fred who always had a knowing smile and a twinkle in his eye.

Pete Frost driving Standard Tank 80104 - photo copyright Andrew P.M. Wright

As the train passed the back of his Victoria Avenue house and where his lineside allotment stood for so many years on the outskirts of Swanage, I was thankful for enjoying Fred's friendship and his words of wisdom. I was also thankful that he lived long enough to see the first train, the Virgin Voyager, run from Wareham to Swanage in 30 years.

The Swanage Railway is a lesser place without Fred watching from the lineside fence or the Northbrook Road bridge. Another character from the branch line's BR days has departed to join his former branch line colleagues Jack Spicer, 'Johnny' Walker, 'Jock' Habgood and 'Johnny' Rolls.

Pete Frost driving Standard Tank 80104 - photo copyright Andrew P.M. Wright

The Swanage Railway is a fitting tribute to former enginemen like Fred who were such strong characters. So, when you next watch a steam locomotive run round its carriages at Swanage station, spare a thought for Fred - I will. Thank you Fred.

Peter Frost

Footnote from Andrew P.M. Wright:
This photo shows Pete Frost and Ivatt tank No. 41312, a former performer on the Swanage branch betwen 1964 and 1966 and very likely the loco that Fred Norman invited a young Pete Frost to ride on back in 1964! The photo was taken in September, 2001, when the Ivatt tank visited the Swanage Railway from the Mid-Hants Railway for the Swanage Railway's steam gala.

Pete Frost and Ivatt tank No. 41312 - photo copyright Andrew P.M. Wright