22 December 1920 – 10 March 2023
Ken Haysom was born in Hitchin on 22 December 1920 and spent his first formative years living close to the Great Northern Railway East Coast Main Line. His early interest in trains was undoubtedly assisted by his route to school involving crossing the railway over the Benslow bridge south of Hitchin station, which gave a splendid grandstand view of the main line and motive power depot.
Ken’s father, a Guernsey man by birth, was a delicatessen, who really wanted to encourage his son’s passion for the railways. He promoted his son’s ambitions at every opportunity and regularly spoke with his customers who had connections with the railways.
On leaving school, Ken joined the London & North Eastern Railway, at first in the ticket office at Hitchin, progressing in July 1937 to a parcels clerk post at New Southgate. However, his engineering talents were soon identified, allegedly following an inspection by a senior railway civil engineer (a customer of his father’s) of his model railway, where he had constructed the track from ‘scratch’. As a result, he was offered a junior draughtsman position which subsequently led to training as a civil engineer.
With the onset of WW2, he joined the Royal Engineers and ended up in France after D-Day, involved in restoration of railway facilities.
Ken married Audrey in February 1949 and went on to have two daughters, Pauline and Anne. They had a very happy family life and were delighted when Pauline married Kenneth (same name, different person). Ken was a loving Dad, father-in-law, and Grandad to Alexander and Fiona and, more recently, a delighted Great Grandfather to Alexander Joshua.
Following the formation of British Railways in 1948, Ken’s career took him to a variety of engineering offices, all initially on the Eastern Region and, whilst living at Peterborough, he began studying for membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers, eventually being elected as a Fellow. By the early 1960s he had moved to Stratford, where he became District Engineer, covering the Great Eastern and London, Tilbury and Southend Lines, where the first lengths of continuously welded rail were installed. Later in the 1960s he became Divisional Civil Engineer at Kings Cross, responsible for the former GNR East Coast Main Line with widespread introduction of continuously welded rail to make the route fit for use by the 100mph trains hauled by 3,300hp‘Deltic’ locomotives (and later by the InterCity 125 High Speed Trains).
In late 1970 Ken moved to the Southern Region as Assistant Chief Civil Engineer, a post he held until he retired in 1981. Most of the Southern was worked by electric multiple units on the 750 volt third-rail system but diesel trains operated on a number of routes until most of these were electrified in the 1980s. The engineering environment was undoubtedly significantly different from the East Coast Main Line!
After retiring, Ken moved to Seaford where he lived until late in 2022. He returned to his modelling roots and constructed an accurate depiction of Seaford railway station as it was in 1920 which is displayed in the Seaford Museum. For many years he was a regular attendee at the various reunion groups such as the Retired Railway Officers’ Society, the Southern Railway Association, Retired Railway Civil Engineers’ Luncheon Club, and the Kings Cross Veterans’Group but eventually the travelling proved too onerous. However, he still enjoyed periodic lunch-time meets with former (junior!) colleagues at a local hostelry, where he provided considerable interest with his reminiscences.
Ken will be greatly missed, not only by his family but also by a great many former railway colleagues.