Cecil Parkin

Cecil R. Parkin is the new Stationmaster at Hatley, who appears midway through the first episode.

He is a perfectionist, and is determined to make the station the best on the line. On the surface, he seems refined, but it turns out that he knows the station's buffet manageress because they had a passionate affair, which was going on behind her boyfriend (later husband) Jack's back. He still has lecherous thoughts about her, and in several episodes he tries his best to get her to leave Jack. The station staff react to him in different ways – most are tolerant of him, but Jack and Harry, the signalman, take an intense dislike to him, which only slightly mellows as the series goes on.