Driver Competencies

That’s precisely what I mean. Thank you

 

Main Line Scotland 2000 - YouTube
Is this similar to what your describing? The reason I ask is afaik the crew where from England (not sure whether Northern England or Southern England) and had never been on the route before and or had little knowledge of the loco. The discussion on another thread on this site confirmed that the train was 3 and a half hours late leaving Aviemore on the return south.

 

Scotsman was running with an A4 boiler at 250psi (A4 boiler pressure) at the time. So your suggestion is that the problem was that the support team overestimated the capabilities of the locomotive? It went up Drumochter in 2019 double headed with Mayflower with the load being 11 coaches. Mayflower hauled 10 coaches on the southbound run with a diesel on the back. With no diesel on the back how many coaches would 4472/60103 be allowed to haul on its own these days?

 

So 8 or 9 then like it would be on Hemerdon? 4472 visited Hemerdon in 2001 with 9 on it which is the limit for every engine.

 

During the change over from steam to diesel on the Midland my father a driver at
Kettering was booked for one week on a St Pancras to Sheffield express which departed Kettering at about 6.45 PM ,that was worked by Kettering men, Kettering to Nottingham. It had been a diesel all week but on Friday it came in behind a Britannia ,I forget the number but is was one of the coal pusher types that went new to Polmadie 70050-54. In those days they didn't know what loco' was on their train until it rolled into the station.His mate was none to please ,he hadn't come to work expecting to shift a ton or so of coal . My father had never been on a Brittiana before ,although he was very familiar with 9Fs.He lost 3 mins or so to Melton Mowbray due to the regulator vibrating towards the closed position ,but regained the time by holding on to the regulator ,and a quick dash down the bank towards Nottingham.
I did hear ,although I never heard of it happening, loco men turning up in diesel uniform could refuse to work on a steam loco if ask.

 

Bit late to pick up on this but, have I got this right, that a NRM engine went out without a minder?
Pat

 

The Well Tank came on its own.

Tom

 

I'm surprised by this. I thought, maybe wrongly, that a minder was a requirement of the NRM granting custodianship?
Perhaps someone could enlighten me?
Pat

 

It may be that however long ago the Well tank came, the NRM were more relaxed about it? From speaking to crew members at the Battlefield who have hired 30120 on two separate occasions, and the comment was the checks they made to ensure the line was 'suitable' for the visit of an NRM loco were much more stringent the second time around, so it suggests that recently they have become stricter about what they will allow for a visiting loco

 

It wasn’t custodianship - a gala visit. I don’t know the details of the contract, just I don’t remember seeing anyone with it. Maybe it helped that we had had a loco on loan to the NRM at the same time! FWIW, Flying Scotsman had I think four people with it who covered all the duties over the week between them, though the actual driving and firing was by Bluebell crews. I think we submitted CVs of the rostered crews in advance.

Tom

 

I think the answer is that you thought wrongly. 30120, 70013 30777 didn't have minders when used. D200 and D6700 didn't have minders on the NYMR, nor did 49395 and 901. In the opposite direction the Bluebell did not send a minder to the NRM when P Class N0 178 was in use there. Much depends on the circumstances prevailing at the time. I remember that there was some reluctance to let the Beattie go to the Bluebell because it was known to be somewhat "fragile" ( a bit like 178) but it went to honor a long standing agreement (following the loan of 178) that the NRM felt loathe to renage on.

Peter

 

I think in the case of 60103 it would have been accompanied by Riley's staff as Ian Riley manages the loco's operation.

Peter

 

I think so - I didn’t ask who paid them! They need a split shift because the loco was used quite intensively - the day I did we started with a breakfast train at 07:30, then three trips on the core service, and I think there was may have been an evening diner as well

Tom

 

From memory the BBC film of 60103 at the SVR had a driver and fireman that were SVR crew but 2 others that were Riley’s/NRM staff.

 

I've done some 'Owner's rep' work accompanying 2968 to a few other preserved lines. After warning crews about the reverser, the index pointer of which moves backwards for fore gear and vice versa, let them get on with it and get the hang of the engine themselves, unless they asked me something. I decided that I would interfere only in the event of someone doing something very stupid, and happily never had to!

 

Something that struck me about this story is how mindset and mental approach by a crew can influence performance. If you go in with the attitude of 'I know best' then you are going to run into problems if you run into problems because the 'hard man' in the person doesn't want to ask for help or advice. If you don't take that attitude maybe you ask for help earlier, maybe there is quicker intervention and instead of sticking you limp through.

I can remember listening to people decrying the loco that they had been given as being a 'heap of... ' and then lo and behold they had loads of problems, the same loco with a different crew, and while they had to earn their corn, were able to run to time etc. If you start from the point of view that this loco is going to give you problems then it will give you problems.

 

Two questions for you; do the Crabs have the same reverser? Was there any thought given to altering 2968s reverser to operate the other way round to avoid any mistakes! I think an unfortunate Valley driver did put it in the dirt once.