Is ‘shunter for British Rail’ a working class job?

[Correction]

Been dating a man for 7 months. He was born 1970 just FYI. His parents were both born in 1927 just for context and both long gone from this world.

I know his mum worked in a care home - but I really don’t know her level of seniority- could’ve bern a manager - could’ve had a more routine job - I haven’t asked.

Anyway - I know he was close to his Dad and seemed to be a happy family but had no clue what his Dad did for a living so asked him over the weekend and he said

‘Shunter for British Rail.

AIBU to ask if you’d class it as a working class job?

My understanding is that conception and carrying to term in late 40s is highly unlikely, early 40s less likely. I would say 5 children back to back in your 40s with abysmal medical care (comparatively) was rare. It’s interesting that lots of people have posted supporting the idea that large families born in your 40s is the norm when we know fertility plummets at this stage in most women’s lives.

FFS I meant see what vacancies they have and apply for something she's qualified for or get on a training scheme. Obviously .

Ok - another one just came to me - what about

railway plate layer?

Go for it and join us here in the working classes. I am a knocker-upper for mill workers in the early mornings, but I consider myself upwardly mobile, or at least my pole is.

now you're just taking the piss!!! 😂😂😂

I would find it incredible that driving a piece of heavy, dirty machinery could be considered anything other than working class!

Maybe you could make an argument for modern passenger train driving not being working class anymore. But certainly not a traditional shunting job!

An airline pilot doesn't spend their days standing in front of a blazing furnace covered in soot and grease!

(Also surely the airline pilots of the mid-20th century were ... airline pilots? Plenty of train driving work was entirely unglamorous and was replaced not with aeroplanes but with buses and HGVs.)

Oh dear Op, I think work in a nightclub might be seen as a working class job. You don't even work! Is there a reason you don't work? This information makes your comments about his dad's job all the worse. It's really strange to fixate on his father's past career. Why not learn everything you can about working in a club instead! Working class means nothing really. In my mind anyyone working, in whatever job,is working and that's what counts. Maybe you need a job to take your mind off everyone else's.

Why does this matter? Why set so much based on someone’s occupation? Actually, I find it quite derogatory……..my dad did all manner of jobs but he earned a living, fed us, put clothes on our backs and we wanted for nothing.

What are you saying here? That those of us who are not in agreement with you are lying? I know, because I'm interested and also read a lot, that these are my great grandmother's statistics and also that it was a very usual scenario for women who were otherwise healthy. They just went on until they stopped or their husband stopped. For what it's worth, the two children she had that died were quite early in her marriage, so probably no later than 30 ish. Fertility does, as you say, diminish with age but if you are having regular unprotected sex, the chances of conception are obviously greater than if you're not.

This isn't what Working Class traditionally meant at all. It meant people who had no capital, didn't own anything and sold their physical or mental labour in order to live (the workers by hand or brain). They had jobs that didn't involve higher education or membership of a professional body.
They were what Karl Marx referred to as the proletariat and were vulnerable to exploitation by people who did own the means of production.
The people you refer to were defined as the lumpen proletariat or underclass and were treated even more poorly than they are now.
None of it makes a lot of sense now in a largely post industrial society.
The whole post is very odd. Why are you so interested what someone's father's job was and why do you think it correlates in any way with having a shit childhood unless the family were so poor the child was deprived of basics? Why are you considering a physically demanding job working for the railways as a woman in your late 50s?

"Sounds like a working class job"

😅

Yep, I had a relative who was a shifter and they were squished dead between two trains

Just saw this. Yet another autocorrect fail. Shunter not shifter. No idea what a shifter would be.

To be frank, they were widely disliked and was not considered much of a loss, and that was also the sentiment of their wife and kids.

This sounds great !! Maybe we could also socialise in the working men’s club of a Saturday?

It’s a working class job in a male dominated, heavily unionised industry so will be relatively well paid (train drivers also).

Just came to you?! What bollocks.

OP what are you actually qualified to do? You’re not going to swan into any of these Working Class Bygone Age of the Railways jobs that ‘just came to you’.

What jobs have you done in the past?

You can be well paid and working class. You can be poor and middle class.
This is not America.

Exactly this.

Have you never watched Thomas the Tank Engine?

I guess it's a manual type job so probably akin to skilled tradesman, if he had lots of experience or qualifications. So he'd be a C2.
I suppose that could be 'working class'. Assuming that office based jobs or those that require a degree are more 'middle class'.

@Floatlikeafeather2 I have a huge family that has had large families for many generations. I’m aware that contraception was very hard to access right into the 70s for British women and harder still in other parts. I’m also acutely aware of fertility and its fluctuation over a woman’s life. I’m surprised that people think large numbers of children were born to mothers in their mid to late 40s. I’m not sure why you think having a different experience than yours and questioning how common that experience is, is suggesting you are “lying”. Do you usually only talk to people who think exactly what you think?

Many working class jobs are well paid.

My dad was a coalminer. The pay was abysmal (in spite of the skewed info given out by some media outlets in the '80s).

My uncle was a plumber who was put through his apprenticeship as a result of his sisters being placed in service. He was very well paid, but would never have considered himself to be middle class.

Rubbish. Women have always had babies in their 40s. Maybe not a first baby but it’s always been a thing and not worthy of excessive commentary.

My great-grandmother had her last child in her late 40s - the same time that my grandmother was having her first.

I was a teenager in the '70s and recall several instances of women having 'menopause babies'.

lots of so-called “working class” jobs are very skilled. I’m not sure most people have ever thought they weren’t?