Harry Lambert

Harry Lambert is the signalman.

He is eternally miserable, with Stephen Lewis portraying the character very much like "Blakey" in On the Buses. He never smiles, and often sees the down side of things, never being seen happy. He hates his job, often calling the trains "ruddy".

Because trains come through Hatley only a few times a day, he operates numerous sidelines from his box: growing vegetables, mending bikes and clocks, rearing farm animals (pigs, turkeys and chickens) for the staff's dinners, giving haircuts and taking bets. They are all illegal, yet all the staff, including Gloria, know about them, are customers and keep their mouths shut.

Cecil does not know, as he would make it stop. There is a recurring gag, where Harry will say, "if they poke their noses around, they will get the flat end o' my tongue", that person comes and he starts sucking up to them. Throughout the series, he bluntly tries to resist Vera's advances.