Engine Driving Lives

Engine Driving Lives

During the centenary celebrations of the Flying Scotsman locomotive in 2023, much was spoken about its fascinating history but almost nothing was said about the drivers and firemen, whose Herculean efforts enabled its amazing achievements. It was in this moment that the author, a driver himself, realised that there was significant gap in the history of locomotives and the working of trains. In 416 pages and around 400 illustrations, plus tables and ephemera, this book recounts the history of footplatemen in considerable detail. From William Richards, who drove the first train on the Penydarren Tramroad at 5mph in 1804, through to the men and women who are daily at the controls of trains running from St. Pancras to Brussels and Paris at up to 186mph, this is a very thorough account of a profession which has never been explained in full before. Many people have a stereotypical image of an engine driver but this book offers deeper insights into the joys and sorrows, the disciplines and dangers, and the complex shift patterns which so impact family lives. The author has researched over 1,400 named individuals and has explored, in seventy human vignettes, something of their achievements, career moves and glimpses of their lives away from the railway. This work not only fills a huge gap in our railway history but reveals fresh insights into the daily challenges of driving locomotives and running trains over the past 200 years. Contents Introduction - Chapter 1:The Driver - Chapter 2:Pioneers - Chapter 3:The Working Environment - Chapter 4: Faster and Heavier - Chapter 5:Conditions of Service - Chapter 6 :All in a Day’s Work - Chapter 7:Measured Performance – 1 - Chapter 8:Accidents - Chapter 9:Wartime Service - Chapter 10:ASLEF - Chapter 11:The Big Four – Plus One - Chapter 12:Measured Performance – 2 - Chapter 13:Through the Links - Chapter 14:British Railways: A New World - Chapter 15:New Forms of Traction - Chapter 16:Steam: The Final Years - Chapter 17:Rationalisation and Redundancy - Chapter 18:Conditions of Employment - Chapter 19:British Rail: A Changing World - Chapter 20:An Oral Culture - Chapter 21:Commemorated Men - Chapter 22:Beyond the Railway - Chapter 23:Privatisation - Chapter 24:The Heritage World – Epilogue - Appendix I:Glossary of terms - Appendix II:Stockton & Darlington Railway Drivers, 1825-1840 - Appendix III:Liverpool & Manchester Railway Drivers, 1829-1840 - Appendix IV:Extract: GWR Register of Drivers and Firemen, 1841-47 - Appendix V:Drivers & Firemen Named in the Letters of ‘Veritas Vincit’, 1842-1847 - Appendix VI:Some Locomotives and Their Crews in the ‘Race to the North’, 1895 - Appendix VII:Secretaries Attending The MIC Conference at Derby, 1921 - Appendix VIII:Letter from R.L. Wedgwood to Fireman A. Wightman, 5th March 1935 - Appendix IX:Spotlight on my Job: No. 3 – Driver David Parsons (Old Oak Common) - Appendix X:Motormen at Brighton, 1933 - Appendix XI:Eastern Region Footplate Staff Establishment, 26th December 1964 - Appendix XII:Non-Technical Skills - Appendix XIII:An L&NWR Driver’s Log Book 1900-1905 - Bibliography - INDEX OF DRIVERS, FIREMEN & SECONDMEN