AWARDS/CROSSWORD

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march/april 2026 :: RMTnews 30 Send entries to Prize Crossword, RMT, Unity House, 39 Chalton Street, London NWI IJD by April 30, 2026 with your name and address. Last month’s winner is A M Gladdin, Burton on Trent. Please supply bank account details and sort code to receive your prize quickly. Last month’s solution... ACROSS 1 Subtractable (10) 8 Offensive (7) 9 Implicit (5) 10 Flight of steps (5) 11 Serious (7) 12 Non-appearance (2-4) 14 Raise in relief (6) 16 Bishopric (7) 17 Tripod (5) 19 Headdress (5) 20 Oriental (7) 21 Sternness (10) DOWN 1 Unemotional (10) 2 Gloomy (5) 3 Masticator (6) 4 Meantime (7) 5 Debauchery (13) 6 Leader (4) 7 Standing (6) 12 Nakedness (6) 13 Daunt (7) 15 Withdraw (6) 17 Result (5) 18 Optical device (4) £100 PRIZE CROSSWORD R MT general secretary Eddie Dempsey made a special trip to Walsall branch to make a 40-year presentation to signaller Simon Gudgin who is retiring from work. Eddie congratulated Simon for his service to the union at several signal boxes since he began work in 1985 at the height of the Miners’ strike. Simon explained that there was no signalling school back then and training was done on the job, passed down from worker to worker. He went to Bloxwich Box which sat on a freight-only line running Merry-Go-Round coal trains from pit to power station - a symbol of Britain’s industrial backbone. However, because of the strike and the wider assault on the mining industry there were no coal trains running and the only train he saw was the snow plough! “My first box was Dudley which closed about 18 months later - another casualty of ‘modernisation’. “I was moved to Round Oak South, which closed around three years later. Then Wednesbury - but that closed in the early 1990s. “I worked in various boxes across the West Midlands and spent around ten years in Walsall Power Box and, when that closed, I ended up in the West Midlands Signalling Centre. “The first 30 years were great as it was more than a job, it was a vocation built on pride, solidarity, and public service. “We kept the railway running for everyone, but the last 10 years were a different story with the long shadow of privatisation, cost-cutting and managerialism. “After 41 years of service, I’ve decided to hang up my lever cloth and retire but I am proud of the work I did, and of having been part of a publicly owned railway that once put people before profit - something worth fighting for again,” he said. WALSALL AWARD FOR SIMON