'The Toss of a Coin', Chapter 3 / 2

Management Training in the London Division (continued)

My programme required me to travel on a variety of train types and one of the stipulated journeys was meant to be on a steam hauled stopping service. This seemed a little unnecessary from a training point of view, as by 1962 most local services were Diesel Multiple Units (which I dutifully covered from Banbury to Paddington) but I decided to fulfil my remit by turning up for a Saturday Paddington - Oxford train (calling at all stations after Reading) whose DMU was replaced one day a week by engine and coaches. After an uneventful run from Paddington as far as Reading, the driver turned to me and offered me his seat and the controls.

So here I was, in charge of 5986 ‘Arbury Hall’ and 8 (fairly empty) non-corridor coaches. We set off on the Down Slow line in brisk style and I was bowling merrily along at about 60 mph when Tilehurst station came into view. As a novice I had been expecting some tuition, but the driver said nothing and my somewhat late and increasingly severe brake application saw us sailing through the long platform with only the rear coach making it! I held my breath watching to see how many doors opened off the platform, but no-one stirred and off we went. I repeated the performance at Pangbourne, but managed to get three coaches in the platform, a distinct improvement. Still the driver seemed totally unperturbed, so I requested guidance for Goring, and he pointed out a white cottage which he used as a marker for braking. Third time lucky - a perfect stop! By now I was becoming overconfident and was finding a sedate 60 mph limit on the Relief Line unexciting, so in accelerating from Cholsey I moved the regulator into second port position. 5986 responded by almost leaping into the air and producing a lovely roar from the chimney and this was the only time the driver took any interest in my activity and laid a restraining hand on my shoulder.

At Didcot for some reason we changed engines and I continued to Oxford very sedately with a new crew. On this Saturday I decided to return to London on ‘Oxford Flyer’ the 5.30pm Oxford booked non-stop in exactly the hour - this was one of the fastest schedules still worked by steam in 1962. Oxford shed covered the turn on a Saturday and they turned out one of their own Modified Halls, 7911 ‘Lady Margaret Hall’ and I rode this to Paddington. The engine was on top of the job, running in the low 80s, and we reached Paddington in exactly 59 minutes and 55 seconds, but I learned a major lesson en route. We had a tender full of ovoids (coal dust cemented in ovoid shape which produced a lot of dust and had an irritant chemical if you got it in the eye). The fireman had been busy with the hose throughout the journey, attempting to control the dust, but as we shot under the station overbridge at Southall at 80 mph, the swirling coal dust got in my eyes. I had bought myself a pair of motor cycle goggles to wear as protection, but had allowed myself to be laughed into not wearing them by a succession of macho train crews. A visit to the First Aid Room at Paddington was not successful in removing all the dust and I was sent to the Casualty Department of the adjacent St Mary’s Hospital, where I spent a very painful four hours awaiting attention. Thereafter I ignored the teasing and put my own safety first - I wore my goggles. This was a lesson in safety culture that I remembered in later years when I led the change in safety management after the Clapham accident.

The Western Region diesel hydraulics were just being introduced about this time and I had already travelled in the cab of brand new Hymek D7025 on an Up South Wales express. The ‘Warships’ were now fairly common, but were still causing the fitters some problems, and while I was at Old Oak, drawings arrived from Germany - but unfortunately the explanations were in German. Knowing that I was a graduate in German, the Shedmaster asked me if I would translate the sheaf of documents. Unfortunately, as I was no engineer, I didn’t know the English for half the engine parts described! During my stay, the first two 2,700 hp ‘Westerns’ appeared and I arranged to come in specially on a Saturday to travel down to Plymouth on D1001 on the Cornish Riviera. Unfortunately it failed the previous evening on the Up run, and when I arrived at the platform end at Paddington, I found North British built D851. It kept time without trouble, but the North British engines in particular were prone to the production of unpleasant fumes from badly fitted pipes and by the time we reached Exeter I was suffering from a filthy headache.

Seeing a ‘Hall’ waiting to back onto the Kingswear three coach portion of our train was too tempting, so I opted to breath the ozone along the Dawlish wall. After a pleasant couple of unhurried hours in Kingswear, we returned to Exeter with a portion of the 1.50pm Penzance, only to find another fume filled North British Warship, D855. But this was reality, one of the purposes of my training was to experience life as the train crews found it and cab design and conditions were important, as I found later in my operating posts when dealing with Trade Union complaints over health and safety, or looking at the causes of SPADs (signals passed at danger).

At this time the Paddington - Wolverhampton service had been augmented to replace Euston services curtailed during electrification, and most of the Laira Kings had been transferred to Old Oak or Stafford Road for the Northern Road. One of the extra services was an 8.20am Paddington - Birmingham, scheduled for two hours and ten minutes with one stop and named ‘The Inter City’. This was very attractive to me as a day out, and I had runs with ‘Kings’ on this train and on a 9.0am Paddington MO train that was non-stop. Surprisingly two had major problems, although for different locomotive reasons. On the first, I rode 6016 ‘King Edward V’. The tender was filled with an appalling load of coal dust and we struggled for steam throughout. I spent at least half the journey knee deep in the stuff mining the odd lump of genuine coal and flinging it forward to the perspiring fireman. We somehow kept time, but it was a struggle and I doubt if we’d have made it without the two of us working flat out to make steam.

On the second occasion we had 6000 ‘King George V’ himself, and a good lot of Welsh coal, but as we accelerated up to Seer Green the steam pressure dropped ominously quickly. As soon as we shut off for the High Wycombe curves, the steam pressure rose again, and we progressed in fits and starts, working hard uphill and drifting downhill while we recovered breath. We roared over Hatton summit at 53 mph and sailed into Snow Hill on time, but again it had been touch and go. We later learned that superheater tubes in the smokebox were leaking. 6000 did not in any case have a very good reputation for steaming and it was discovered at some point that the double blast pipes were slightly out of alignment. Just before my time at Old Oak came to an end, I had one last trip up the GW Birmingham route behind 6022 ‘King Edward III’. This was a Stafford Road engine and we had a Wolverhampton crew who were on a punctuality bonus scheme. Unfortunately, although going well, we failed to pick up any water from the nearly empty troughs just south of Banbury and tried to take water during the Princes Risborough scheduled stop. The fireman climbed onto the tender to put the bag in the tank and I was sent to turn on the hydrant. Nothing came. I fiddled with the handle trying all positions in case I had got it wrong (everyone assumed you knew everything without instruction and as a young trainee, I was sometimes too embarrassed to admit my ignorance) so we abandoned the attempt and set off with great gusto to get time in hand as we would have to make a special stop at High Wycombe for water. Here I was again sent to operate the water column hydrant and managed somehow to get the handle off the valve seat so that it just revolved without connection. The driver saw the mess I was in, and immediately assumed I had made the same mistake at Princes Risborough, so I became the target of a few well aimed epithets as he saw his bonus disappearing. With the water column restored to action, we topped up as far as was necessary, and then set off for Paddington, the driver taking his frustration and pent up rage out on the locomotive. I have no idea what speed we reached - I just huddled in the fireman’s corner and tried to will myself to disappear! We arrived seven minutes late and I made myself scarce.

One week during this time I heard a rumour about a high speed test to Wolverhampton and back. The ‘Kings’ were living on borrowed time and it was anticipated that there would be sufficient ‘Western’ diesels for the winter timetable on the Birmingham line. The Civil Engineer was a little nervous about the state of the track for sustained higher speed running and to be sure he wanted a test with the ‘Whitewash Car’ - the vehicle that would evaluate track condition at speed and let splashes of whitewash fall on track which did not come up to standard. We had two ‘Castles’ in store in the Paint Shop, 4098 and 7030, and I noticed activity around the latter and the rumours were confirmed when I was told 7030 ‘Cranbrook Castle’ was being prepared for the test run - the diesel availability was not good enough to spare a Warship for the special. I asked Ray Sims for permission to travel on the locomotive but he refused on the grounds that there would be an additional fireman and an Inspector in the cab. Someone overheard my request and suggested I just turn up at Paddington and ask the Civil Engineer in charge if I could travel in the train.

I did as suggested and was given permission surprisingly easily and made my way to the front BSK (Brake Second Corridor) in splendid isolation - the engineering party were all in the test vehicle and the rest of the train was empty. We left Paddington at 10.25, fifteen minutes behind the Blue Pullman, and with five minute stops booked at High Wycombe and Leamington to ensure the Pullman did not delay us, we were scheduled to reach Wolverhampton in just over two hours. However, in the event even this margin was insufficient and we caught the Pullman up in the Black Country, arriving in consequence a few minutes late. Highlights on the Down journey were 96 mph at Haddenham and acceleration to 70 at Warwick, with 66 mph approaching Hatton summit before braking for the curve at the top of the bank.

This was small beer compared with the return journey, which, after Leamington, became extremely lively. I made it 105 mph below Bicester, although I only claimed 103 mph subsequently when I tested my average speeds with maxima claimed, and after the High Wycombe stop, we again touched 103 at Denham and 97 at Greenford. The latter fireworks got both driver and Inspector into hot water as it was claimed that we would never have stopped had Old Oak West Junction signals been against us. Incidentally, I gathered from an engineering test point of view that the exercise was very limited in value as the riding south of Banbury on the return journey was so rough that the whitewash obliterated almost every mile of track as well as the rear windows of the test car, breaking the hearts of a number of p.way gangers in the process.

The following day, 16th May 1962, (my birthday) 7030 was on the ‘Oxford Flyer’ turn and I decided to use my footplate pass to see what high speed on 7030 was like. We got to Paddington in 56 minutes, with a top speed of 90 mph near Maidenhead, but the driver was dubious when I told him about the previous day’s exploits. He was not disbelieving that 7030 could reach those speeds, but thought the driver and inspector foolhardy as the engine rolled quite pronouncedly at 90 mph. It was not rough but was enough for the ‘Oxford Flyer’ driver to ease off once that speed was reached. The best bit – sitting in the fireman’s tip up seat on the left hand side, leaning out of the cab window as we roared through the middle road at Reading in the mid 80s, whistle howling – what a sight we must have made for the crowds waiting the next Up express!

On the whole, former Great Western engines rode extremely well, but I was quite keen to experience a really rough locomotive to see just how bad it could be for the crew. I had been on a ‘Hall’ (4917) which rode like a bicycle with a flat tyre, but that was irritating rather than rough. One of Old Oak’s older double chimney ‘Castles’, 5008, had been a star, but was getting run down as it neared its shopping date and as it was rostered to an evening commuter train I decided to go with it to Reading. The first alarm was when I leant against the cab side and found that it moved under my weight (a few days later 5008 was removed from a South Wales milk train because the crew complained of a dangerous cab - many rivets were found to be missing). Steam pressure on getting the right away was only 180lbs and the fireman was trying manfully to clean the fire. However, once under way, 5008 proved herself to be very strong, steam pressure recovered and good timekeeping was made. The engine was rough but not uncomfortably so. She rolled and pitched in a sort of corkscrew motion, but if you learned to move with it, it was quite predictable and rather fun.

However, I did at last find a real shocker - but it was not a GW engine. On one of my very long days I decided to do ‘the triangle’ - ie Paddington - Bristol - Shrewsbury via the North & West and back up the Birmingham mainline. I picked up the 7.55 Paddington at Reading to Newport, went over to Bristol on a DMU, and joined the 7.5am Penzance - Manchester with an ex works ‘Hall’ to Pontypool Road. The special attraction was that this train was rostered for a Crewe ‘Royal Scot’ from Pontypool Road through to Manchester. Sure enough, at Pontypool Road, a grubby 46166 ‘London Rifle Brigade’ was waiting, complete with Salop crew (ex LMS driver and GW fireman).

The first impression was the comfort and roominess of the cab after the Western engines, but this was soon undermined by its behaviour in motion. Although our running was ‘gentle’ to put it mildly, the locomotive riding was erratic and unpredictable and over 50 mph was decidedly rough. The schedule was very easy, the train on time and the load only moderate (9 coaches), so little exertion was called for and our maximum speed on the way to Shrewsbury was 66 mph at Tram Inn and 65 mph on the descent from Church Stretton at Dorrington. At these modest speeds, the riding became very uncomfortable with a jerky side ‘waggle’ that caused me to hang on and not relax my grip for fear of being thrown across the cab. The firing technique was very different to the GW engines - large lumps of coal were manhandled through the firehole door until the box was full, then rest was taken while it burned through, whereas Western engines almost invariably were fired little and often. 46166 was taken very easily up the banks - in fact the fireman confided in me that he thought his mate took it too easily - but we arrived in Shrewsbury on time without discovering what the ‘Scot’ could really do, if pushed.

At the other end of the spectrum for ride was a run up from Swansea on 5056 ‘Earl of Powis’, a couple of months out of Swindon after overhaul and in its prime. I’d joined the Cardiff crew on 7036 ‘Taunton Castle’ on the 7.55 am Paddington from Reading, which ran very energetically and was early at every calling point. I’d prearranged with Driver Ward of Old Oak that I’d return with him on the 11.10 Milford Haven from Swansea - a double home job, as he would have gone down to Swansea the previous night with 5056 on the 6.55pm Paddington - Fishguard. Despite a load of 11 coaches, 420 tons gross, the return journey could not have been made to seem easier. The only alarm was the drop in steam pressure as we climbed through Landore and Llansamlet to the summit at Skewen, but on arrival at Neath fireman Thomas found the smokebox door had not been sufficiently tightened and was drawing air, and after his attention we had no further problems. Arrival at Swindon was a full five minutes early and running in the upper 60s was sufficient to get us into Paddington equally ahead of time, with the locomotive running very quietly and riding like a Pullman coach.

As I made my way back to Twyford station house for the night we passed the next Up South Wales express (the 12.5 Neyland) running equally early behind my favourite Castle, 4087, an engine I remembered from my extreme youth, and I found myself wishing I had waited a further hour in Swansea although this would have meant disappointing my Old Oak crew who seemed genuinely pleased to have someone on board who took an interest in their work. In fact, one of the lessons I learned during my footplate spell was the fact that management were often not aware of the attitudes and concerns of footplate staff as they so rarely saw them undertaking their normal duties. Drivers told me, all too often, that they only ever saw management when they were ‘on the carpet’ for some disciplinary misdemeanour. I remembered this when I became Chief Operating Manager of the LMR in 1982, and sought wherever possible to ride with train crews when I had to travel round the Region to get to meetings or conduct other business.

In fact, I was later censored for being too uncritical of my time at Old Oak by the senior management whose job it was to evaluate the reports I had to write after each period of training. I was, as a ‘bright young thing’, expected to produce reports full of criticism of the way things were done and come up with lots of new ideas and suggestions which the local management would be expected to implement or explain why not - a practice which did not endear Traffic Apprentices to many of the local managers. By this time, the Traffic Apprentices’ mentor at Paddington, Assistant General Manager, George Bowles (an avuncular figure reputed to be a scoutmaster, who actually encouraged trainees to be interested in railways) had been replaced by the Stanley Raymond/Lance Ibbotson era to ‘de-great westernise’ the Region and bring about a more appropriate management culture.

At the end of this particular period of my training I’m sure my supervisory managers felt that I had been the ‘enthusiast’ rather than management trainee and had spent too much of my time at Old Oak sampling obsolete steam trains rather than the new traction. (But it was management that sent me to an ‘all steam’ depot, with little diesel work.) In due course, though, I had plenty of opportunity living with new traction as it flooded the Western Region over the next couple of years. In retrospect, because of my intense interest in all that was going on, I realised just how much I had picked up of value that stayed with me throughout my working life. Supremely, the lesson was one of sensitivity to people, their interests and concerns, and a respect for the knowledge and experience of many who would not count themselves as managers but whose opinions and views were well worth the effort of canvassing through both formal and informal contacts. I look back at my training in the old London Division of BR’s Western Region with great affection and gratitude to the managers and men who gave me the opportunities, enabled me to develop my potential and allowed me to have a lot of fun in the process.