(22 Jan 2025, 1:47 am)R852 PRG wrote Most of the real old hands at Chester were offered and took severance when it closed. There were a few long servers who weren't quite old enough to retire at the time who went to Washington.

Can't remember the exact numbers, but if I recall, best part of sixty went to Washington, best part of forty to Consett, about fifteen to Riverside and ten to Deptford. Two and a bit years on, by my count, there's about forty still at Washington, twenty or so still at Consett, less than ten at Riverside and maybe half a dozen at Deptford. I'd describe Chester as having had an ageing workforce at the time of closure, and, even with potential changes in industry working practices difficult to account for, I'd be impressed if there were more than twenty ex-Chester drivers still around by the time of the tenth anniversary of its closure. For context, there's still about twenty drivers between Riverside and Deptford who originated at South Shields, a considerably smaller depot which closed twenty years ago this month, and while it might be apples and oranges in terms of driver establishment size and local workforce age demographics, I don't anticipate any comparable longevity there.