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1/ Now Peter, you've made me think! Many years ago, I was privileged to have a cab trip from Preston to Glasgow in a Class 87, shortly before they were replaced by 390s. By a weird coincidence, given today's exchanges, the Traction Inspector was @JAT74L who drove from Preston. At https://twitter.com/proogs/status/1297162389704540162
2/ Carlisle a driver I remember as 'Dougie' took over. He was a Polmadie man - do you remember this John? He was a small, v smart, sparrow-like chap who, once he'd greeted me, never spoke another word - quite right too. He gave me the most virtuoso display of linespeed driving!
3/ He watched the road ahead like a hawk, responding instantly to the various warnings as we raced over Beattock. Once he'd got up to a couple of mph of linespeed he barely touched the controls. He looked repeatedly at his orders, checking passing times & every now and then he'd
4/ reach for the power controller and it seemed to me he moved it barely one notch up or down - and the speed barely fluctuated. It was absolutely superb to watch - he knew the road, he knew his locomotive, he was acutely aware of the train weight, he was sharply
5/ focussed on his passing times - and we rolled into Glasgow Central bang on time. I was delighted/privileged to witness this and, as you can see, have never forgotten it. Now, maybe @SimonWeller or @MickWhelanASLEF can tell us how many drivers are on duty at any one time - but
6/ it is in the tens of thousands. And all of them - every last one - is driving to Dougie's degree of professionalism, on all kinds of trains, every minute of the day, to make sure their part of the system delivers the punctual, safe railway we all want and deserve. But they can
7/only do that if all despatchers, signallers, track engineers and everyone else do their jobs equally professionally. Your comment about exceeding linespeed instantly made me think of Dougie, notching his '87' power controller back and forth to make sure he kept 'at or near line
8/ speed' - but crucially without exceeding it - and as a result we arrived at Central bang on time. Hopefully, this will shed further light on the crucial difference between linespeed and road speed limits.
Sorry if all this is boring you. I'll try and shut up now!
Sorry if all this is boring you. I'll try and shut up now!
