This Black History Month, we celebrate the achievement of Black people in Rail. He was commemorated with a plaque in the offices at Kings Cross Station a year before he passed away in 2018. He went on to drive some of the UK’s most iconic trains including the Mallard and the Flying Scotsman. And in 1962, his perseverance paid off when he passed his exams to become the UK’s first black train driver. He built a reputation as a conscientious worker, never missing a single day or ever being late.
Black man driving railroad story driver#
Many of Jackson’s fellow black railway workers did not believe a black man could become a driver but Jackson was an ambitious and hardworking man. He first secured a fireman role as at the time there was an unofficial but well known whites-only recruitment policy for drivers. Undeterred, Jackson firmly set his sights on becoming a Train Driver.
He decided to move to the UK for better opportunities but was shocked by the outright racism he faced. Unfortunately at the age of 17 his father passed away unexpectedly causing Jackson to alter his plans.
Born in Jamaica in 1927, Wilston Samuel Jackson had ambitions of becoming a dentist as a boy. He sadly passed away in 2017 but his influence as a pioneer continues to be felt.īritain's First Black Train Driver. He remained a rail enthusiast as a member of the Manchester Model Railway Society even building a model train set of his own. Upon retirement he pursued his passion of educating, teaching young black children in his local community about their heritage. He stayed in the railways for 39 years before retiring in 1994. A white train driver once described him as “scrapings of the barrel” but Young showed his professionalism, rising above and eventually winning over his colleagues. Young’s experience as an inspector wasn’t always easy, even facing racial discrimination from other railway workers. Young began as a shunter but quickly moved on to goods guard and then senior conductor before becoming the first Black inspector in the north-west and one of the first inspectors in the UK. But he kept searching and was rewarded when he found an opportunity in the railways. He found a job working at a cotton mill in Royton, Greater Manchester, only earning half the salary he earned back in Jamaica. Young moved to the UK in 1954 from Jamaica after some encouragement from his older brother who was already working there. Now there are more women driving trains, and more black faces, too.” Her perseverance to succeed in her role has had a positive impact on the sector that is best described in her own words, “I think I was British Rail’s first black woman train driver, so I blazed a trail, in a way. After 29 years in the railways working for British Rail, South West Trains and South Western Railways, Trudy took early retirement In 2018 due to ill-health. Over the course of her prominent career she operated some of the commuter belts most well known trains including the Class 63s, 57s 444s and 450s. On her second attempt Aarons passed and began operating services out of Waterloo. Upon the introduction of Driver-Only Operated (DOO) trains, she had the foresight to see that the train guard role could become obsolete so she began training to become a Driver. In 1989 she joined British Rail as a train guard and was determined to progress in her role. When her children were old enough to enter primary school she began looking for employment and was informed by a friend that there were opportunities in the railways. On finishing her secondary education at the age of 16, Trudy came to the UK to join her mother who was already in south London, finding a job after college with NAAFI, working there for 3 years before leaving to have children. Trudy was born in 1961 within the parish of St Michael just outside of Bridgeton in Barbados. Women such as Trudy Aarons, one of Britain’s first black female Train drivers. In a traditionally male dominated industry it is important to highlight the significant contribution of women in the railways.
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