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Jocky the Mole

from The Railway by Hamish Napier

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about

3. Jocky the Mole [Findlay Napier]

From driver Jimmy Gray, “You’re on about characters on the railways, well we had one driver, a nice wee chap, Jocky Robertson...laughed all day long. Aye' smilin' wi' a wee fag in his mouth! We called him 'The Mole'...I don't know why they called him that...but he was a speedster, you know? No matter where he went he had the throttle wide open! Sometimes I'd be the fireman for Jocky on the Nairn job in the morning...at Broomhill station as you approach it from Aviemore there's a curve going to Forres, quite sharp...I can't remember what speed the bend was, maybe 30 mile an hour, but you know Jocky was always 80 mile an hour...and it was bloody frightening! With the centrifugal force you'd be slammed up against the side of the cab...and there he'd be sitting, smiling away!”

The tracks of the Great North railway and Highland railway used to run side by side from Tullochgorum to Boat of Garten. “We used to have great races. A ‘Tin Charlie’ on the Great North track versus a ‘Black Five’ on the Highland,” Jimmy recalls, “it was a hell of a carry on - all the children would be hanging out the coach windows to shake hands!”

lyrics

Jocky the Mole hit the Broomhill Bend at 60 miles an hour
He’s been racing with the Highland Line from Boat through Tullochgorum Two black fives with wagons in tow he nearly jumped the rails
His hand on the open throttle his eyes wide with the power

Fire and water, smoke and steam
A train is like a living thing Driver, engine, fireman
It takes us three to make her sing It takes us three to make her sing

Jocky the Mole left the station at Blair to cross Drumouchter Pass Shovelled forward and the boiler full pushing up the slope
But the Caley Greyhound wouldn’t run we had to sand the rails
When we got her to Dalwhinnie there was nothing in the glass

Jocky the Mole ran Jellicoe’s racing against time
14 hours and double shifts, pulling sailors, shells and mines Seven days a week supplying the fleet, near sleeping on the plate As we roared through every signal up the Highland line.

credits

from The Railway, released August 2, 2018
Findlay Napier

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Hamish Napier Grantown On Spey, UK

Hamish is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from the Scottish Highlands.

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