'Railway Fettler'

[ainslie]

A Liverpool-born soldier who enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1916 gave his civilian occupation as 'railway fettler'.  This is presumably an Aussie term, but what did it involve?
The efficient Australian Archives online show that he died of bronchitis soon after arriving in UK with his battalion early in 1917. 
Any clues please?
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[Roger The Hat]

Try this:

http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/fettler


'Hat.

[Cath Hy]

My dictionary says to fettle is to 'make ready'.
If something is in 'fine fettle' it is in good condition.
So I would imagine that a 'railway fettler' is someone who checks that the track is ready & in good condition.

[ainslie]

Roger & Cath
Thanks for your quick replies, which point in the same direction.
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[CCRAIL]

Hope this helps:

I was a 'fettler' myself in my early railway career.  It involves placing smallish stones under the sleepers to provide a level track for the trains to run on.  The level is measured across the rails and longitudinally along the rails.  This was usually done by the 'Ganger' as it is/was a skilled task on the railway.  The fettlers were more of a labourer who moved the ballast (stones) from between the sleepers in readiness for the ganger to place the 'chippings' (small stones) under the sleepers when the track had been lifted using mechanical jacks.  In some cases it just involved ramming the stones under the sleepers using a pick like tool or the end of a shovel.
Mostly done by machines now that cost upwards of £2 million a time.

Oh those were the days, dodging trains and the supervisors!

[macintosh]

A fettler is also a person in the iron founding trade  who cleans and prepares castings after the moulds have been broken open, usually by grinding, chipping or shotblasting,  a filthy job, maybe the railway company cast their own parts, wheels, axle boxes etc.

James

[Redroger]

CCRAIL Can we please copy your post to Network Rail in the hope that they are able to learn something? I am sure that you will remember that 50 or so years ago British Railways Permanent Way Department employed people in the grade of scavengers. Their task was to follow up work carried out by PW gangs and remove anything that had been inadvertently left behind. Result, an immaculate track. Then to save money, the Scavengers were made redundant and scavenging became an overtime job, result a less than immaculate track. Later on, as overtime was cut down and eventually out railway lines became full of scrap left by both the public and after maintenance work. Then came Railtrack, with the results of Hatfield and Potter's Bar etc. etc. to name just two incidents.

[maidmarianoops]

i thought you may like this
sylvia



http://railwaystory.com/song/005.htm

[ainslie]

Catchy, but not up to R. Harris's standards.
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