Richard Harry Norman Hardy
Author of three books and a great many articles, Hardy was a Doncaster apprentice under Thompson and then became a running man on the LNER, and then on the Eastern Region and the Southern Region. He originally wrote under the pseudonym of Balmore (see Preface to Steam in the blood). He completed two autobiographical works: Steam in the blood, (Ian Allan, 1971) and Railways in the blood (Ian Allan, 1985) and a hagiography of Beeching: Beeching: champion of the railway? (1989). He has an excellent literary style and would appear to heve the ability of being able to recall events which took place a long time ago: he is still writing for Steam World. He was a child in Amersham in the 1930s and memories of those halcyon days prior to WW2 appear to have remained with him. Prior to entering Doncaster Works he had been educated at Marlborough, just like Gresley and Thompson. At Doncaster he encountered Basil de Iongh, who was the son of a Dutchman and had been brought up in Welwyn Garden City.
Due to his engineering and man management backgrounds he has a remarkable ability to capture both the magic of the steam locomotive in its performance, and the great demands which were placed upon young and enthusiastic motive power managers. His early days as a mechanical foreman were spent in the Norfolk Fens at King's Lynn (the copy inspected of Steam in the blood actually came from King's Lynn Library before it was demoted to being a County branch library) and here he was employed both at the former Great Eastern depot and on the Midland & Great Northern shed at South Lynn. At the latter he makes it abundantly clear that at that depot the Midland part of the conglomerate had taken precedence. The men longed for 4Fs rather than the J17s which were utterly unsuited to conditions on the M&GNR
Hardy, R.H.N. Putting down roots in the 'Plant'.
Steam Wld, 2000 (160)
44-9.
Collection of photographs taken during WW2 at the Doncaster Plant,
one or two of which include Dick Hardy: perhaps the most interesting is one
on page 47 of a group of premium apprentices alongside Mallard with
Hardy accompanied by Peter Townend, Bill Taylor (who became a very senior
electrical engineer at Derby, Jack Taylor, Henry Steel, Alan Coggon and David
Sandiland. Several locomotives feature including Q1 0-8-0T No. 9925 in workshop
grey..
Steam in the blood: on the way to the North Slope
It was a bitterly cold January morning when I took the 8.20 from Liverpool Street and reported at the Cambridge District Office to T.C.B. Miller, the Assistant District Locomotive Superintendent; he interviewed me at some length, and then took me to see his Chief, Mr Rees. These interviews over, I set off again on the 1.28pm for Kings Lynn, a London train which ran in with a "Sandringham" 4-6-0 driven by the dignified and moustachioed Royal Train Driver, A. R. Smith. My interest was in the rear five coaches, which left Ely behind, of all things, an ex-GN D3 4-4~0. The driver was a well-known Kings Lynn character, Tom Kenney, who punched his little machine across the Fens without much regard to his steam supply. The worst of a dead level road like this, however, is that you can seldom shut off steam without losing time, and so we stood for ten minutes at Hilgay while the wind whistled and moaned, and the dismal fen countryside lay flat as far as the eye could see. Later I got to love the fens, but as we stood at Hilgay I felt, as I worried about what the next day would bring, that I had come to the last place on earth! Eventually we got going and reached Kings Lynn in the gloom of a late afternoon; there I made my way straight to the depot, where I had been told to report to a Mr Shaw, the Shedmaster.
Although Hardy is probably best-known for his experiences in East Anglia and at the vast motive power depot at Stratford he also experienced working with steam on the Eastern Section of the Southern Railway where he encountered Driver Sam Gingell and many other characters who worked both outer suburban and boat trains. In many respects the services from the Eastern side at Victoria shared much in common with those from Liverpool Street. During his limited spare time he developed an entent with motive power men, especially footplate crews on the French.railways, especially those which operated between Paris and Calais.
2008-04-08