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Some Special Interests => Occupation Interests => Topic started by: faulknealder on Wednesday 03 August 11 19:46 BST (UK)

Title: Carriage Lifter
Post by: faulknealder on Wednesday 03 August 11 19:46 BST (UK)
My wife's great grandfather was a railway labourer for LBSCR. Until now I did not know what specifically he did but the release of Railway Employment records on Ancestry has revealed that he was a "carriage lifter" at the Brighton Locomotive Works.

Can anyone tell me what a "carriage lifter" did exactly? I've googled it but I'm none the wiser!  ???
Title: Re: Carriage Lifter
Post by: stanmapstone on Wednesday 03 August 11 21:31 BST (UK)
A Carriage Lifter prepared railway carriages for lifting by crane or derricks and set springs and axle boxes into position thereunder ready for the fitter. (A Dictionary of Occupational Terms)

Stan
Title: Re: Carriage Lifter
Post by: gladtobegrey on Monday 10 December 12 19:06 GMT (UK)
I've just discovered I've got a Carriage Lifter in my tree.  New one on me, I have to say.

@Stan  I realise this thread is over a year old, but do you have citation information for that definition?  ISBN, Publication Date, Author, Publisher, chapter, page etc?  I would be most grateful if you could help.

Thanks
Title: Re: Carriage Lifter
Post by: stanmapstone on Monday 10 December 12 19:21 GMT (UK)
The definition is from "A Dictionary of Occupational Terms- Based on the Classification of Occupations used in the Census of Population, 1921, Ministry of Labour" Printed and Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1927, issued, on CD-ROM, in 1998 by the OSFACH Research Group, The Open University.

Stan
Title: Re: Carriage Lifter
Post by: gladtobegrey on Monday 10 December 12 19:29 GMT (UK)
@stan - thank you, what a star!   ;D
Title: Re: Carriage Lifter
Post by: Skoosh on Monday 10 December 12 22:56 GMT (UK)
 Carriage Lift Shop work. Using two gantry cranes the carriage is lifted off the bogies and set up on stocks, the bogies can then be rolled away, dismantled and also set up on stocks. The wheels are then rolled into the Wheel Shop for re-profiling or replacement of the tyres, then the process reversed.  This is still current practice, I used to be a railwayman myself at one time. The cranemen followed the lifters instructions, semi-skilled work but a tricky business.

Skoosh.
Title: Re: Carriage Lifter
Post by: SPEEDIE on Sunday 02 November 14 22:03 GMT (UK)
Thankyou to all contributors for enlightening me on this subject. What a wonderful depth of knowledge we have at our disposal. Mere mortals such as I, would get nowhere without you guys sharing your knowledge and experience.
Title: Re: Carriage Lifter
Post by: ValJJJ on Wednesday 13 August 25 11:29 BST (UK)
An old thread I know, but I've just discovered on a marriage cert from 1949 that the groom was a Lifter's assistant.  I knew he worked for the railways in Cambridge when demobbed.

Would that be a carriage lifter's assistant?