Nik

I have struggled to get my head round the fact that Nik is no longer here. In such a short time I have lost my two original railway buddies with the passing of Neil Bulman only a few weeks earlier.
I started with Nik as a trainee driver or second man as it was known in the eighties and as we were the two oldest we were paired together. We did all our training together that included rules, traction and routes.

We were really two opposites in character. I liked sports and exercise he didn’t, he liked bikes and heavy metal I didn’t. I think you can get the picture but despite this we hit it off right away and were close friends, in later years we ended up working for different companies so I didn’t see him as much though we’d still meet each other in the messroom, station or at a welfare do and crack and laugh as normal.

There are many railway memories to tell but I’ll not forget the day Nik offered to service my car. So one Saturday morning I took my car over to Greengarth where he lived at the time. He duly done the business and I drove back home to Harraby. That afternoon I was playing football at Cleator Moor and it was my turn to drive. I set off down Eastern way, no problem, got on to London Road, that was when I noticed the smoke. By the time I got to St Nicholas you would have thought the Flying Scotsman was behind me. I had to abandon the car and get picked up. It turned out he had opened the wrong drain plug and emptied the gearbox of oil whilst topping up and doubling the oil in the sump!!
We laughed about his expertise but I don’t think I would have been laughing so much had the gearbox seized though I suspect Nik would have just chuckled, shrugged and lost no sleep whatsoever over it. Needless to say despite his offers I never let him near my car again 😂.

It was such a shock to get a message to say he had gone as I had no idea he was ill. I feel so sad that I won’t see him again but I’ll never forget him we have too much history and memories for that.

Dolly