Edward Marston
The iron horse

CHAPTER ONE
1854

The accident could have happened to anyone but it was much more likely to befall Reginald Hibbert. He had, after all, a tradition to maintain. Hibbert was not so much clumsy as unlucky. Whenever there was an opportunity to stub his toe, or tear his clothing on a protruding nail or bruise himself by walking into an unexpected obstruction, he would somehow always manage to take it. His devoted wife, Molly, had lost count of the number of times he had returned from work with a black eye, a decided limp or a jacket unwittingly ripped open. Life with Reginald Hibbert meant that there was a constant demand on her sympathy.

'Be careful, Reg!' she cried.

But her warning came too late. He had already tripped over the step by the back door and pitched helplessly forward onto the hard stone floor of the scullery. The tin bath he had been carrying hit the slab with a loud clang then bounced out of his grasp. Hibbert landed heavily on his left hand before rolling over. His wife bent over him.

'Are you hurt?' she asked solicitously.

'No, no,' he replied bravely. 'I'm fine, Molly.'

'You always forget that step.'

'I just didn't see it with the bath in my hands.'

'You should have let me bring it in.'

'It's my job now,' he said seriously. 'A woman in your condition must be spared any lifting. You must learn to take it easy.'

'How can I take it easy on washing day?' she said, clicking her tongue. 'Besides, the baby is not due for months and months. Now, come on – get up off that floor.'

When she grabbed his left hand to pull him up, he let out a yelp of pain and snatched it swiftly away. Rubbing his wrist gingerly, he got to his feet and almost fell over the tin bath. His wife quickly retrieved it and put it on the table. She studied him with a love that was tempered by mild irritation.

'I wish you didn't keep doing that sort of thing, Reg.'

'What sort of thing?'

'Hurting yourself all the time.'

Hibbert grinned amiably. 'I'm a big boy. Nothing hurts me.'

But he was clearly in pain and winced as his left hand brushed the sink. His wife took charge at once. Leading him into the next room, she made him sit down so that she could examine the injury, doing so with great tenderness. They were in their little red-brick terraced house in Crewe. Cramped, cluttered and featureless, it had two small rooms and a scullery. A bare wooden staircase led up to two bedrooms, one at the front and the other at the back. The privy was at the end of the tiny but well-tended garden.

To a married couple in their late twenties, however, it was a paradise after years of sharing an even smaller house in Stoke-on-Trent with Molly's intrusive parents. The Hibbert household had only one major defect. It bristled with possibilities of incurring minor accidents and he had explored them all.

His wife scrutinised the injured wrist.

'I think you may have broken it, Reg,' she said with concern.

He gave a boastful laugh. 'I don't break that easy.'

'You ought to see a doctor.'

He shook his head. 'I can't afford to, Molly. With a baby on the way, we need to save every penny that we can.'

'Then stay off work for a day or two.'

'And lose my pay? No chance of that.'

'At least ask Mr Fagge to put you on light duties.'

'Douglas Fagge does nobody any favours,' said Hibbert grimly as an image of the head porter came into his mind. 'He's a slave driver. If I showed even the slightest sign of weakness, he'd be down on me like a ton of bricks.'

'Then let me come to the station with you. I'll speak to him.'

'Oh, no! That wouldn't do at all.'

'You need to rest that hand, Reg.'

'I need to do my job properly,' he said, rising to his feet and easing her away. 'Think how it would look. If my wife came and asked for special treatment for me, I'd be a laughing stock.'

As it was, Hibbert was often the butt of his colleagues' jokes and he did not wish to offer them more ammunition. He was a short, thin individual with a shock of red hair and a bushy moustache that acted as the focal point in a freckled face. The fact that his pretty wife was both taller and older than him caused much amusement at the railway station and he wanted to protect her from the routine mockery that he endured. Though she was still in the early stages of pregnancy, he was afraid that someone would guess their little secret, exposing him to endless ribald comments. Whatever happened, he resolved, his wife must be kept away from his place of work.

'That wrist needs seeing to,' she urged.

'I sprained it, Molly, that's all.'

'At least let me put a bandage around it.'

'No need,' he said, bending forward to give her a farewell kiss. 'It feels better already. In any case, I have to be off straightaway. Now remember what I said – if that washing is too much for you, leave it until I come home.'

'I can manage,' she said, touched by his consideration. 'Forget the washing. I'm more worried about that poor wrist of yours.'

'There's nothing wrong with it, I tell you.'

By way of demonstration, he clapped his hands several times together then held up both palms, beaming as he did so. It was only when he had left the house that the agony showed in his face.

Until the arrival of the railway in 1837, Crewe had been a sleepy hamlet in the heart of the Cheshire countryside. Three separate railway companies then moved in and Crewe became the connecting point for their respective lines. The Grand Junction Railway, the largest of the companies, soon bought large tracts of land around Crewe and moved its locomotive and carriage works there. It also built two hundred houses for the employees it attracted to the area. When the GJR was absorbed into the London and North West Railway in 1846, the latter markedly increased the number of dwellings and added churches, chapels, schools, shops, public houses and all the amenities needed by a growing community.

An archetypal railway town had been created.

Reginald Hibbert had been delighted to move there with his wife. He loved the fact that he worked at the hub of the LNWR. Passenger and freight trains came in and out from all directions. The variety was unlimited. No two days were the same. There was always something new, exciting and unscheduled. As a porter, he gave directions to board trains, stowed luggage on the roofs of departing carriages and unloaded it on arrival before carrying it out to waiting cabs and horse-drawn omnibuses. Dealing with the public was what he enjoyed most. His wage might not be high but it was regular and he gained immense satisfaction from his work.

As he approached the station that morning, he gazed at it with pride. Four years earlier, the LNWR had replaced the original building with a larger and much more ornate one. In Hibbert's eyes, it still had an air of newness about it and he always felt a slight thrill as he went through its doors. He was content with his lot, asking nothing more of life than to be doing a valuable job at an important junction on the railway network. Hibbert entered the station with a spring in his step. In spraining his wrist at home, he had already had his daily accident. That, he hoped, absolved him from any further mishaps.

There was, of course, still the wrath of his boss to be faced.

'Hibbert!'

'Good morning, Mr Fagge.'

'You're two minutes late.'

'I'm sorry, sir. I was held up by-'

'Spare me your excuses,' snapped Douglas Fagge, interrupting him with a dismissive wave of his hand. 'I've heard them all before. You're working on Platform Two.'

'Yes, Mr Fagge.'

'Well, don't stand there, man. Get across there quickly. The next train is due in five minutes.'

'Three, actually,' corrected Hibbert, who knew the timetable by heart. 'It's the through train to Carlisle.'

'That's immaterial,' said Fagge testily. 'I'm talking about the Birmingham train that terminates here in…' He consulted his watch. '…in less than five minutes. All available porters must be on duty.'

'Of course, Mr Fagge.'

'One small plea.'

'Yes, sir?'

'Try to have a day without any little accidents.'

There was a withering scorn in the head porter's voice. Fagge was a tall, wiry man with all the attributes of a martinet. He subjected Hibbert to verbal persecution but the latter had learnt to live with the discomfort. He saw it as a small price to pay for the privilege of working at Crewe Station. As he made his way to Platform Two, he was relieved that Fagge had not noticed the handkerchief that he had tied around his left wrist. Had he been forced to admit suffering yet another domestic mishap, Hibbert would have provoked more ridicule from the head porter.

It was a busy morning. Passenger trains came and went. Goods trains thundered past in both directions on the through lines in the middle. Traffic was relentless and Reginald Hibbert was kept on his toes along with the other porters. Working with his usual enthusiasm, he tried to ignore the twinges in his left wrist. By the afternoon, he had forgotten all about his injury. Hibbert was emboldened to handle even the heaviest luggage without trepidation. His overconfidence was to prove fatal.

Another train steamed into the station in a riot of noise, vibration and pungent smoke. As soon as the passengers had alighted, Hibbert climbed onto the roof of one of the carriages and began to pass down the luggage to another porter. Stacked on the platform, it was singled out by its owners before being carried away for them. Hibbert had no problems until he tried to handle a large leather trunk. Having manoeuvred it to the edge of the roof, he attempted to lift it in one fluent move but his left wrist suddenly gave way and he let go of the trunk with a cry of anguish.

It plummeted through the air and the porter waiting to take it from him had the presence of mind to step back smartly out of the way. The trunk hit a lady's hatbox with such force that it broke the strap attached to its lid. A small crowd of passengers stood beside the piles of luggage and a collective gasp of horror went up. As the lid of the hatbox flipped open, its contents were tipped roughly out. Reginald Hibbert could not believe his eyes.

Rolling around below him on the platform was a human head.