History

We interviewed a very kind and generous gentleman called Mr Kinsella  who worked at Kildare station all his life. Mr Kinsella is the only one of his generation, who worked at the station, who is still alive. Unfortunately Mr Kinsella has a hearing difficulty as a result of working for so long with noisy trains. We had to write out our questions for him. Here are some of the questions we asked him:-

 Class: Why did you start working on the Railway ?

 Mr K: My father worked on the railway all his life so my brother and I followed in his footsteps.

 Class: What year did you start working on the Railway?

 Mr K: I started working on the railway in 1944.

 Class: What work did you do ?

 Mr K: Everything – shunter , guard , signals and train driver.

 Class: When did you retire?

 Mr K: I retired in 1988.

 Class: How much a week did you get paid?

 Mr K. I got paid about £5- 2 s- 6 d in the early fifties.

 Class: Did you like working on the railway?

 Mr K. Yes, I loved working on the railway.

 Class: Were there any accidents at the station?

 Mr K: Yes, there were a lot of  accidents, No health and safety in those days.

 Class: At what age could you start working at the station?

 Mr K: Boys as young as fourteen years – sixteen years were allowed to shunt the trains.

 Class: Would you do the same job again if you were young ?

 Mr K: Yes, I would love to work on trains again.

Mr. Kinsella also brought in some wonderful artefacts from his time working on the railways.  Here we are examining the artifacts with care.