Metro project 50th anniversary: Retired Seghill manager looks back with pride

Ralph Maughan, 86, was heavily involved in Metro tunnelling work for six years in the 1970s as a site manager alongside scores of other workmen.

The tunnelling, deep beneath the centre of Newcastle, was an enormous feat of engineering and the centrepiece of Metro’s construction phase.

Ralph, of Seghill, explained how it was critical to the success of the Tyne and Wear Metro. He headed up a vast and challenging programme of works between 1974 and 1979, which at the time was Britain’s largest urban transport scheme.

They had to overcome many issues when they were tunnelling. This included the risk of flooding, ensuring that local landmarks were not damaged, including Grey’s Monument, and having very little margin for error in the size of the tunnels they had to dig.

Metro opened to the public in August 1980, with its tunnels forming a 6.4 kilometre section of the system.

Reflecting on the project, Ralph said: “I’m really proud of the fact that I got to work on the Metro tunnels, creating the first light rail system of its kind outside of London.

“Looking back, fifty years on, it was a hell of a feat of engineering and it’s not something you come across every day in your career.

“During Metro’s construction we had visitors from all over the world who came to have a look at what we were doing – I recall the project featured on the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World programme.

“It was a real team effort from day one until the day that we finished, others came in after us to put in all the tracks and cables.”

He added: “I remember one of my aunties used to say to me, ‘I’ve been on your Metro today, son’.

"I used to say to her ‘I wish it really was mine’, but I know what she meant.

"It’s filtered down the family over the years that dad, and now granddad, helped to build the Metro tunnels.

“We were on site day on shifts and night shifts and we had tunnelling teams there 24 hours a day.

“When we got nearer to the river we were working in compressed air to prevent flooding, we had to manage that carefully so none of the men got sick from the decompression when they went back up to the surface.

“It was great when Metro opened to the public and it’s such a success story, none of that could have happened without hard work and dedication by all those involved.

"I am very proud to have been a small cog in a very big wheel.”

Ralph worked for a contactor called Fairclough’s, who the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive brought in to dig the Metro tunnels.

To mark the start of Metro construction work, Ralph also had the honour of presenting the first cut of turf to councillor Roland Scott-Batey, the then Chairman of the Transport Authority.