Where were you when the 9/11 twin towers were bombed?
A similar question was asked in my early days on the railway. “Where were you when John Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas? I was on the footplate of a Standard Tank engine in the Depot at Tunbridge Wells West having just replenished water and coal. The Foreman came running out to us.
“JFK has just been shot dead”, he shouted.
Another sombre event was the death of Sir Winston Churchill. I was in the cab of a Crompton diesel at 3.0am on the morning of his funeral. We crossed the bridge at Holborn in London. Below us on the road the crowd was beginning to form and the preparations were being made. There was a definite sense of grief in the air.
Back to Drivers. Usually I was either a Fireman on BR Standard Tank engines or Secondman on Crompton diesels. There was another engine that I occasionally Secondmanned. It was a British Rail Class 71 all electric locomotive designed for the Southern Region. It wasn’t that comfortable for the Secondman as the seat was a pull down leaving your back onto a hard surface. The Drivers seat was comfortable, it even had arm rests. It picked its power up from collector shoes onto the third rail which at that time was powered to 750volts D.C. It also had a pantograph for working in 750volt DC overhead line areas. These were usually in sidings such as those at Hither Green, London. In some cases it was necessary to pump the pantograph up in these areas using a foot pump similar to those used to pump up your bicycle tyres. The Driver needed to be careful when driving these engines to ensure that they did not get “gapped”. There are many areas, particularly at junctions, where there were gaps in the third rail. The Driver needed to ensure that there was enough motion to carry them across these gaps. My first encounter with this locomotive was as a light engine (locomotive only) leaving Tonbridge West yard and going to Ashford. There was quite a gap on leaving the yard going over the junction and onto the main line. The power of these engines was incredible. When we received the signal to proceed the Driver started to move quickly to give us the motion to cross the gap. It’s a notch system. Each time the lever is pulled back and released you notch up one at a time. The more notches, the more power. We were doing well when we hit the gap. All the power was lost.
“Watch this”, the Driver said. “And watch the passengers on the platform”. Whilst with no power the Driver held back the lever and by holding in a button on the end of the lever the notches automatically run up. I think full power is about 32 notches. He reached full power just as the collector shoes connected at the end of the gap. The surge forward was incredible. My back was forced against the wall. In addition to that came what is known as a “boost” and my back was forced into the wall even harder. I could see the passengers on the platform gobsmacked. If we had wings we would have flown over the bridge at the end of the platform.
Same Driver, only this time we didn’t even have an engine. Monday morning and we were amongst the rush hour travellers travelling between Guildford and Woking to pick up our engine. It’s what is known as “travelling pass”. It was an open carriage, nearly full. Someway down the line the Driver suddenly got up, opened the window (which you could in those days) and looked out. We went over a level crossing. The gatekeeper’s house was on the other side. On the Drivers side was a large lake. After passing the crossing the Driver closed the window and sat down. He then said, in a loud voice
“Not there today”.
“Who’s not there today?” I asked.
“The Crossing Keeper”, the Driver replied. “He’s got a crocodile. He takes it over on a lead and lets it off for a swim each day”. That happened on Monday morning. We were on the same train for the rest of the week and everyday people rose from their seats and looked out of the window when we went over the crossing. I’m not the only one vulnerable.
Comments ()