IMAGINE the days when 65 to 70 railway trains passed through Hellifield junction every eight hours. Imagine the days when farmers from Gargrave sending stock to Skipton would load them onto a train.

Imagine the days when even small stations were lit by 30-odd paraffin lamps - and each one had to be cleaned every day. Imagine arriving at work on a dark winter's morning after a journey of two or three hours - and your first job was to sweep all the platforms so that they were spotlessly clean.

This was the early working life of Derek Soames, retired railwayman and proud of it, who left his village school at the age of 13 to start on an extraordinarily full life - but was never more than an ordinary working man.

Once again, as this column has noted time and time again, it is often the humblest of people who live the most satisfying lives.

Derek, of Marshfield Road, Settle, was born just before the Great Slump in the 1930s, the son of a Langcliffe quarry man.

It was a time when country folk without a farm to work had to turn their hands to many trades to make a living and, indeed, young Derek was delivering groceries by bike for Settle Co-op before he even left school towards the end of World War Two.

"I was once sent off by bus on a Saturday afternoon to deliver some groceries to Long Preston," he recalls with chuckle. "The war was still on and transport was difficult. No-one told me that there was no bus back so I had to walk back to Settle - and then cycle home to Langcliffe."

This was to set the pattern for Derek's life for the next 50 years or so: lots of hard work, often-difficult travelling conditions - and willingness to enjoy it all whatever the aggravations.

This hard-work ethic had already been spotted by the station master at Settle who, even though he was fully-staffed, managed to get Derek onto the books when he left Langcliffe village school aged 13.

The job was the lowest of the low: he had to wait some time to be promoted to the lowest official rank on the railways, junior porter.

When he reached this dizzy pinnacle, he was despatched each day to various corners of the then LMS system from Kildwick to Morecambe, and from Garsdale to Bolton Abbey. His days started sometimes at 4am and he would travel first by bike, then catch a series of trains - often goods trains - to his day's destination.

"I would cadge lifts on any train leaving Skipton," he says. "The drivers didn't stop when they got to my station. They just slowed down enough for me to jump off."

Then he started his real day's work: sweeping the platforms, cleaning the paraffin lamps, and then delivering goods round the local town and village, still by bicycle.

This could last 10 hours, although he did get two hours for lunch, time which, if there was water nearby, he would spend fishing. Then it was the long trek back home with the long, uphill bike rides back to Langcliffe.

"I suppose it was very hard work judged by today's standards," he accepts somewhat reluctantly. "But I was a railwayman at a time when that was a matter of pride. It never occurred to me that I was hard done by."

Things got better after his national service because the Army taught him to drive: back at work, he could deliver goods by van. Then he became a signalman, again being despatched around the region from box to box.

"I was at Hellifield Junction for a long time," he went on. "That was a very important place on the system in those days.

"I would handle 65 to 70 trains every eight hours as well as a lot of local shunting activity. It was a major storage spot for coal and livestock and the Bradford textile industry had a huge warehouse for wool either coming in or going out by train to Liverpool docks."

His travelling days came to an end when he was made signalman at Settle, where he was now living with his wife Freda and their five children - "I was just two miles from work and that was terrific."

He remained there for the last 20 years of his 50 years railway service - but this was no rest cure.

As well as having their own five youngsters, Freda and Derek fostered more than 100 children. When not on shift, Derek helped out the local undertaker, worked erecting stalls on Settle market, and became water bailiff for Settle Anglers.

"With five kiddies of our own to raise, every penny counted - and we worked for every single one," he says. "But that's the way it was. Everyone was in the same boat and no-one asked for, or expected, any handouts."

Freda, sadly, died some 18 months ago but Derek is as active as ever.

He is still the water bailiff on the Ribble, gives talks about his railway days to clubs around the district, and is an active member of the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Railway.

So much so that the Friends have now restored Derek's old signal box at Settle to its old glory. Interested parties are shown round by ... Derek, of course.

As I said, these Dales of ours are well stocked with ordinary folk who, in their own small way, have lived extraordinarily fulfilling lives. Derek Soames is a proud man. And he has ever reason to be so.