FORMER Bolton railwayman George Glover has sent me some amusing memories of his early days in the job after starting as a 15-year-old engine cleaner in 1942 at the Plodder Lane Motive Power Depot opposite the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Mr Glover, of Richmond Grove, Farnworth, tells me that one of the adult night staff made up a ghost story - about a "lady in chains" said to haunt Bradford Road and Plodder Lane - to scare young lads who had to tramp around in the wartime "blackout" knocking-up various railway crews between midnight and 7 am.

George was a victim "many times" in his early days, but he particularly remembers the night when a young colleague, Les Cadman, was regaled with the "Lady in Chains" story and went out at 1.10 am to knock-up driver Charlie Beamish in Plodder Lane.

Les froze in the dark when he heard the sound of chains behind him and returned to the mess room with his hair standing on end, saying there was no way he was going out on his own again.

So George accompanied him and they both heard the chains as they hurried towards Charlie's address.

George says: "The chains seemed to follow us faster until they eventually caught up with us.

"Thankfully our hair dropped back in place and settled down on the back of our necks when we discovered that it wasn't the lady in chains or a ghost.

"It was a goat which had chewed through a tether rope which had a long length of chain attached."

The lads took it back to the sheds and secured it comfortably until they had finished their duties.

Then they left it with somebody on Plodder Lane who knew the owner.