Rodney Thorp

25th Dec 1954 - 6th October 2017

Rodney Thorp was a LAG PW volunteer from the late 1970s. He was born on Christmas Day in 1954 and grew up in Greenford. He had two brothers Mick and Kevin. After leaving secondary school he joined London Transport as a signals apprentice at the Signal School at Earls Court and he worked his way up to Automatic Equipment Technician grade. He later transferred to the power operation side and worked in a power supply control room for the Underground. In 1984 he answered Fred Howes's appeal for a volunteer to organise and lead a team of volunteers to work on the FR's trackside drains. Labour and finance initially came from the London Area Group. Rodney continued in this role until shortly before his death in 2017. Rodney volunteered on the FR for more than forty years and led the Drains Gang for more than thirty years. The concrete drainage pipes used to pipe the open trackside ditches during the early revival period proved short lived because of rot caused by the acid ground water. They were replaced with plastic drains with inspection chambers. The twelve miles of drains from beside the old Boston Lodge locomotive shed to Blaenau Ffestiniog are largely hidden except for the brick inspection chambers with their wooden covers.

Rodney was once persuaded to act as a buffet steward on some Christmas trains after some persuasion. He did not like it and recollected that carrying a loaded tray through the corridor connections is one of the hardest tasks on the FR and that he would never do Buffet Car Duty again!

Rodney worked shift patterns that allowed him to maximise his time on the FR. For many years he volunteered for between 80 and 100 days on the FR. Over the years he worked with a very large number of volunteers and was widely known and liked. A 'Drains Project' was a feature of very many Young Volunteers Weeks.

For more information see Trackside drains.