End of line for the Campbells

Press, 7 April 1987, Page 1

End of line for the Campbells

By KAY FORRESTER Colin Campbell says he became a railways locomotive driver to follow in his father’s footsteps. Hugh Campbell jokes that it was because his son saw how much money he was making.

Whatever the reason, both men looked back yesterday, on Colin Campbell’s last day at work, on 40 years with the Railways, most of these in a locomotive cab. Hugh Campbell, now 87 and living in Blenheim,, started his 40 years with the Railways in 1920 when he emigrated from Scotland to New Zealand. He joined the Railways for "a good, constant job.” He began driving in Christchurch and drove mostly in Canterbury. Colin Campbell, now 62, began with the Railways 27 years after his father. He finished his 40 years yesterday at the Ensors Road depot. He says he joined the locomotive branch because his father was a

driver and because he liked trains.

1 He started with the Railways in' Dunedin, when he was 22, but began driving in Christchurch, working for many years on the SpringfieldArthur’s Pass run.

“For comradeship the old engines were better,” he said. “Then it was the fireman and the driver who made the engine go. You felt more a part of it than now when you just push a button.”

Hugh Campbell agrees. “The old engines had more character.”

Railways head office told Mr Campbell he was the oldest driver still driving locomotives and that he and his father were the first father and son to each serve 40 years with the locomotive branch and both be still alive at the son’s retirement. But this is the end of the line for the Campbell family — neither of Mr Colin Campbell’s sons work for the Railways.