Tim Helme

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tim Helme was born in Derby and raised in Derbyshire. More truant than student, he joined the Junior Leaders aged sixteen, then later, the regular Forces. Turning his back on a promising military career, he joined British Rail in 1990 to follow his true calling of railwayman, but this aspiration was cut short owing to industry privatisation in 1994. He then followed the well-trodden paths of security, building and groundwork, interspersed with several years’ truck driving. The Epilogue of Derby Trainman proved surprisingly prophetic, when he returned to the railway in 2006, serving as a signalman on the North Staffordshire Line for the next fourteen years, having the rare perspective of seeing the job from both sides, that of train driver and signalman. For more on the Derby Trainman, see RAIL EXPRESS back issues: 226-245, 255, 272, 279, 282-288 & 294.