Train Driver: A Railway Career Memoir
In the days when steam locomotives roamed the rails of the world, it was every schoolboy's dream to I become an engine driver. At any major railway terminal around the world, a group of people could always be seen admiring the locomotive at the head of the train and the men that drove them. In modern times, the inspiration in an electrically propelled machine just doesn't seem the same, especially when the locomotive is more often than not at the back of the train, pushing instead of pulling.
The job of driving a train is just as skilful as it has always been, especially with speeds in the region of 140mph! It seems strange, therefore, that the enthusiasm to become a train driver appears to be no longer with us.
This book traces the author's unique railway career from cleaner to driver, working for two different railway systems that were quite literally worlds apart, the now defunct broad gauge railways of South Australia and the West Anglian Railways of Great Britain. It spans the twilight years of steam working, cleaning these locomotives at Mile End in Australia in 1969, to working with diesels at Britain's largest depot at Stratford in east London, to the modern-day driving of the electric Stansted Express airport service.
He gives a critical appraisal regarding the changes in working practices with the introduction of Driver Only Operation, sentiments that were shared by many who experienced the drastic changes that were made to accommodate the privatisation of British Rail.
Hardback, 21x30cm, 128 pages, black & white and colour photographs
Condition: Good/Very Good with a little fading to spine
ISBN: 9781907292057
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