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Built to Last

From the "Lounge"   group of Former Railworkers 6 July 2006

Built to Last

Built to last
Built with pride
Built to last with pride
spirit
carried over into the Lounge
Built to last
Built with pride
Built to last with pride

Chargeman, you can put away your bloody whip
Whip not needed these twenty years
throughout which
we’ve chosen to work hard,
work hard for our mates
Inside again now, inside “The Lounge”
each week, Inside the “Lounge”

old shovel mouth over there
you can’t shut ‘im up
nor would you want to
the Lounge is the place
for the twenty year natter
remembering our lines
remembering our lines
remembering our lines
built to last with pride

Parts to Trip

OK, we know what date Trip’s on
In official GWR trainspeak :
“Saturday after first Friday in July”

‘ow many ‘ooters to Trip?
Trip?  I’ll give you Trip
Double work for wage clerks
Double our wages more like
Trip?  I’ll give you Trip

No women - No Trip.
No women - No wages.
No women - Sad men.

If it weren’t for the Drivers
If it weren’t for the Firemen
No destinations
No travel
No way
Yeah but
‘Ow many ‘ooters ‘til Trip?

Masterclass

“‘Ow many people worked in the Railways?”
About half of them!

“‘Ow do you spell Railway ?”
I’m not sure but I know there’s a tea in it
With two official tea breaks a day
workers responded with…
bigger Mugs and unofficial breaks

If you ‘warnted’ something
and it warn’t in any Shops
or you couldn’t afford t’ buy it
mates’ skills made it in the Works
in that Cathedral of Engineering
So you’d made yourself a “foreigner”
welcomed home that night

Not a lot of people know this, but
Swindon gardens are peppered with boiler tubes
Someone’s shaken them all over Swindon
to add spice to the weekly washing
keeping bloomers hanging high to dry
Boiler tubes
from railway lines
to washing lines

Once  a Railwayman

Once a Railwayman, always a Railwayman
Worker up all hours with very sick child
Fell asleep on paperwork at his desk
Colleagues gently slipped papers free
Slipped papers back later
All work done
Once a railwayman, always a railwayman

Postcard to Brunel

Wish you were here today
Bring back trains on time
Bring back re-incarnation
Bring back Brunel  

Remember Inside
the workers looked at home there
like they didn't want to go home
a bond of blokes
characters of all sorts
Nicknamed
"Luncheon Meat" and "Lurch"
latter's boots, at Closure
six-inch-nailed to Bench
signed "Lurch Worked Here"

Wish you were here today
Bring back Brunel  

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