The Observer

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Jeffery Fry will appreciate in his blue hi-vis jacket in Waterloo Station

how much of the Work on the Waterloo Station , has changed since Jeffery Fry began to consider that his first task was to turn off the sooty Windows of the steam-trains, after they routed in The Terminal .

The year was 1961. Several changes in The Role , and 58 years later, and the 73-year-old is today the longest - serving employees, both from The Train station and South Western Railway and under a selected number of people throughout the United Kingdom worked so long for just a employer.

in The Last six decades, Jeffery, from South London , saw steam has been replaced by electrical, contact-free travel as an alternative to paper-tickets, and replacing it with a shiny steel and glass construction Waterloo soot-blackened walls and ceilings.

And because he is the senior employee of the South-West, Jeffery enjoys the bragging rights of being employee number 000001 - what has led to the nickname "Number One " by his colleagues.

he still remembers clearly the routine of the first layers, if he was at the age of only 15.

"I would start with the 8:09am six-car, 20 Minutes later, another train," he told the BBC.

"Three would do it. Then I was a guard on a tractor. If All the packages in the trolley they fell on they had to it - I have the four years. We would store potatoes, mushrooms and flowers, and they would All go to Brentford Market . "

Waterloo Railway Station in the 1960s

After that he enjoyed a few years in the Administration. "I would come, But first I had to make cups of tea," he says. "That was The Most important thing!"

But his favourite role working as a switcher, which are involved in the diesel engines of The Train was, and shoulder-to-shoulder with license fees.

He says: "If it is in The Queen ' s, if You ' D put the diesel [engine] would come to The Front of a police officer with You to ensure that You do not place All the explosives under the metal structure. I saw The Queen a couple of times.

"You would always come On Time , she was never late. On The Morning [before You came] the sand would be on The Floor . And Then they laid a Red Carpet right up to the door in The Train .

"Mr. low, who used to Work here, he would wear a hat and tails, and the pin and a Red rose on his chest. And You would get, the Telegraph, The Times , The Observer in your - All the great, But no sun or mirror. "

Who is The World 's longest-serving employees?

Jeffery still has a long way to go before he can claim a world-record-holder.

Walter Orthmann, from Santa Catarina in Brazil, worked in the same company for More Than 80 years.

He textiles company Industrias Renaux S. A. on 17 joined. In January 1938, when he was 15, as an employee in the shipping Department.

Walter was later promoted to Administrative Assistant and, eventually, sales manager. He was still in The Role as last year, at the age of 96 years.

Jeffery says, the reason he is on the Waterloo - this is the largest and busiest station in the UK - because he has fun at his job.

"It's not a bad place [to Work ], You know," he says. "I do meet-and-Greet now, and I've been doing this for The Last eight years.

"I'm going to train and help The Passengers , if You wheelchairs, say good morning, afternoon, whatever it is. It is a matter of polite, normal, really.

"He [The Station ] a lot has changed. The machines - sometimes You do it wrong, and sometimes money, and no ticket comes out.

"It would be nice if we have a piano on The Concourse in King's Cross. Sometimes people have a singalong.

"One Year it snowed for Three Days , and we had to shovel the platform. Earlier, when we do it, we would have a snow man at the end of the platform, But also safety deal with The Snow now. "

During a career that has developed, the growing and expanding station, Jeffery is experiencing some unusual Things reflect.

"by far was the strangest thing I ever saw, as we used to promote competitions in Scotland," he says.

"would You fish the fly, and it would be a rubber ring, and You had the hooks in the rubber ring and You would win a bottle of Scotch.

"I took part in The Haggis -eating contest. I didn't like it! It was a pound-and-a-half from haggis and there were eight of them. And Then we shoveled it in.

"This woman won in the end, they ate The Haggis in 26 Seconds - Don 't ask me how she managed! That was around 1962.

The Woman against Jeffery in a haggis-eating contest at Waterloo , in front of More Than 50 Years

"Another Time You had food from Ireland - Red algae [dillisk] that You could eat. It is a bit salty But not bad. "

Although the roles are reversed several times during The Last 58 years, Jeffery has resisted The Lure of retirement or even significantly reduce his Work , he still makes the 5pm-10pm shift, Five Days a week.

on the question of the possibility of retirement, he takes a philosophical approach.

"Well, it is on the railway - But I like working here. It's the friendly faces that make it are.

"You might, sometimes a guy is miserable, But everyone comes to You to speak - they always say: 'oh, Hello, You , how Things are?' and that's just The Regulars . "

careers, south western railway, waterloo station, rail travel, steam trains

Source of news: bbc.com