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The Journey: Locomotive Cleaner to Driver

Compiled by Mr John Grant

On today’s railway, the progression from Second Man to Locomotive Driver is a lot different and quicker than it was back in the days of steam railways in Great Britain. In the days of steam, a man who wished to become an engine driver had to work his way up the ladder from the first rung as an Engine cleaner until he reached the top as a fully qualified Engine Driver. Back in the days of steam when a young boy was asked what he wanted to be when he left school the answer would 9 times out of 10 be “ I want to be an engine driver.” To almost every boy and a great many older people, the engine driver’s job was a most romantic and quite an enviable one. A trip on the footplate of a famous express would satisfy the most cherished desire of many successful men or boy. To ride for a while up and down a siding with the driver of a shunting locomotive, would be regarded as one of the greatest privileges that fortune could bestow, any boy or even a grown man if ever they were given the chance. Sometimes the privilege of traveling on the footplate and even of handling the controls of a locomotive, under the watchful eye of the driver, given to Royal Personages and other people of distinction, but very few ordinary folk in those days could hope to ride on the bounding platform of steel that was the footplate. Today anyone who wishes to drive an engine can book up courses on one of the preserved railways that abound around the country. So quite naturally, the job of a locomotive engine driver was regarded with respect, not only by the public but also on the railway itself. It is the top job of a career and before a man was allowed to assume the responsibilities, he had to pass through a stiff apprenticeship course. So what you are about to read should give you an idea of what was entailed for a man to become an engine driver from first entering service on the railway from boy to man.                                  
 
A steam locomotive engine drivers work was highly skilled, complicated and complex. It demanded a clear cool head at all times, presence of mind and good sound judgment. A high standard of ability is needed and a driver’s knowledge of the road must be as detailed as a pilot’s grasp of the channels he has to navigate. His job is the premier position in the operating branch of the railways and he attains it only because of almost a lifetime’s experience. Promotion then was from grade to grade and a man rose to the responsible high rank of locomotive driver from the lowest rank-that of an engine cleaner. Lads of 17 or 18 started as engine cleaners on the railways, usually intending to remain permanently in the railways service and look upon the job as his first step to him learning the work of a fireman. Frequently they were the sons or relations of existing railway personnel. The cleaner was someone with an important future-one of the key men of the railways, an express passenger locomotive engine driver-an aristocrat among railwaymen-and the holder of one of the most responsible jobs on the line, who daily carries in his hands the safety of something like 500 or more people.


Engine Cleaners working on a Lord Nelson Class Express Passenger  4-6-0 Locomotive "Lord Rodney"

In the years before the Second World War, an engine cleaner could expect to remain in that grade for several years (3 to 4) before moving up the ladder to the next rung of promotion. Later on, the promotion advancement was a little speedier, and a cleaner who applied himself to his job, could expect to rise to the higher mechanical grades at a more rapid rate. Newcomers to the railways usually joined the service in there home towns and when a young man started as a cleaner he was usually sent to work at a local depot, the depot I worked at Greensfield in Gateshead and it was only five minuets walk from my front door you cant get any more local than that. However, before he can be an engine cleaner, he had to pass a very strict eyesight and physical examination, if you had colour blindness you were not accepted for the footplate side of the railways. Once he negotiated the hurdle of the physical and eye examination and got the job as a cleaner the young man would find his work far from dull. His main duty would be to clean all parts of the locomotives when they came into the sheds. Cleaners had the chance to learn all the parts of the engine and how it worked, and a bright young man would take care that he got as much knowledge as possible about everything connected with a fireman’s duties and a good knowledge of everything in the loco cab interior.

 

A locomotive cab layout

 As you can see there is a lot to learn and remember just in the Loco Cab itself, not all cabs where the same, some variations as to where the different valve’s and levers where were laid out in some Locos different. Some locos had the regulator handle on the left some had them set to operate on the right hand side and some in the centre of the cab as well as other small variations. As you can see, one difference in the interior is the position of the regulator handle one is set in the centre in the top picture and the one in the lower picture is set at the left hand side of the firebox just in front of the driver. Also in emergencies it would fall to a cleaner to assist in other work as the need arose due to men being short elsewhere on the shed, he might have been sent to assist a boilermaker or act as a fitter’s mate; he would sometimes assist with engines having their boilers being washed out and their tubes being cleaned. Another job a cleaner would be given was to climb into the firebox when an engine came into the shed with damaged fire bars—after the fire had been thrown out of course and when the box had completely cooled down this he would do in readiness for the fitters to fit new ones into the fire box. This work only came round when the regular men happened to be off sick or in some other exceptional circumstance, and was a good way for the keen and budding fireman to improve his knowledge of the mighty and powerful engines he would work on as he moved up the ladder. It would also as a rule mean extra pay for doing the different work away from cleaning engines. After a while, the cleaner would go in front of an examiner for his knowledge to be tested to see how much he had learned in the workings of locomotives and rules and regulations of the railway. The protection of the train in case of an emergency, (derailment or failure in a section or even a parted train).

 

A photo of another cab interior showing a driver and fireman about their duties as well as an explanation of the different valves and handles.

 If the examiner was satisfied that the engine cleaner had sufficient knowledge he would pas out the cleaner to the rank of passed cleaner, that was a cleaner capable of carrying out a fireman’s duties temporarily if the need arose, mainly on shed work shunting or on local jobs, while on this work the cleaner received the fireman’s rate of wages for the firing duties that he carries out. When a cleaner was made a passed cleaner he then had to check the daily rosters to see if he was required to act as a fireman or carry on as an engine cleaner each day, in some sheds the foreman cleaner informed the cleaner if he was required for a firing shift the next day, although these shifts might only be on local passenger or freight trains or just shunting in colliery yards or on station pilot engines these were the training ground for the future firemen to learn all he could to further his carrier. Depending on the need at the shed he was employed at it might be a matter of a few months or even it could quite possibly be a couple of years before he is promoted to that of the position of a fully passed fireman. Although this largely depended on the cleaner’s own aptitude, promotion would only come his way as vacancies arise at his home depot. If there were no vacancies at his home depot, a step up in grade might mean a move to another depot “down the line” maybe at a smaller shed or locomotive depot might bring that promotion from passed cleaner to fireman quicker than he would achieve it at his own shed. To pass from the grade of cleaner to that of fireman, an application had to be made to the shed superintendent and the senior cleaner at the shed with the vacancy would receive first consideration as and when a vacancy arose normally when a fireman was made up to the next rung in the ladder to that of passed fireman or if any fireman left the service. A fireman’s job is one that entailed a great deal of responsibility and before a cleaner was considered for the position, the young man had to pass a further physical and another stringent eyesight examination and also had to pas a theoretical examination. Among the subjects on which he will have to satisfy the examiners are a sound knowledge of the working of a locomotive and in particular the working of the injectors, which feed water from the tender into the boiler; how to produce steam and a knowledge of the operating rules and regulations of the line.


 A cutaway picture of a locomotive to show you how an engine worked.

 
It is a big day in the life of a young cleaner when he finally passes all the tests put to him and he is promoted from being a passed cleaner to that of fireman, and he is moved into the links as a regular fireman. Whether he stays at his home depot or moves down the line to another depot he will have the satisfaction of knowing he has stepped up another rung in the ladder towards his final goal of becoming a fully qualified locomotive engine driver. Even if he has to move down the line to what railwaymen call a “foreign” station, he will be no less pleased because this will give him the opportunity to widen his experience. What all fireman hope, is to be at one of the larger depots where he can experience all kinds of loco working on local passenger trains, local and long distance freight and if he is lucky that all important chance of long distance passenger firing if he is called on to stand in for someone. All this knowledge will hold him in good stead for the future of his carrier. All work on the railway is graded and to reach the top, a locomotive man has to go through all the grades. This he does first as a fireman; then he progresses to the top grade of fireman (passed fireman) that’s a fireman that will have been passed out capable of driving via more exams physical and technical before he is finally promoted to that of full time driver, where he has to start at the bottom again and work his way up through the grades to the top driving “link” of express passenger drivers.

 So a newly promoted fireman will start his carrier in what is known as the junior links where the work was varied and included work in shunting yards, marshalling trains in the right formation for their trip from the yards, and taking over engines when they returned from their trips in the yards or relieving locos that have to be replaced in stations and taking them to the stabling points in the sheds as well as preparing engines for the road and firing station pilot engines that were used to move coaches and parcel vans around the station. Next in order of seniority is the work done by the small tank engines that hauled goods trains from one yard to another. Then next would be the local passenger work and then long distance goods work. Though it may take a long while for a fireman to progress through all the links, he is gaining a lot of valuable experience all the time. Goods trains travel over all the lines-fast and slow-and the fireman has the opportunity to learn all the routes and the situation of all the yards and sidings he passes or visits on the way. He will also make himself familiar with the signals, signal cabins and all landmarks on the line he will store all this gained knowledge for future use as it will be invaluable when he eventually drives trains at night, sometimes in drifting mist and fog that might obscure his view of the road ahead. It is also essential that he learns were all the loop lines are on all the routes he learns in case the train he is on is switched from one line or route to complete the trains journey, he must also be acquainted with all the gradients on the line, this knowledge of gradients helps both the driver and fireman as they will know when to shut off steam on the down gradients to both save steam and fuel and to when they need to make more steam and to apply more power for the rising gradients.

Train Headlamp codes

The new fireman will probably start his firing career in partnership with a newly promoted driver-known as a junior driver. The term is not a reference to the age of the driver; he is in all probability a man with a few years experience on the road, which has passed through all the links as a fireman and has qualified by examination for the grade of driver. In some sheds there were up to four and sometimes five links depending on the size of the shed or depot and also depending on the amount of journeywork carried out at the said sheds and depots, the higher link being the top link and that of the senior drivers and fireman. As well as being paid extra for being a fireman you would get extra wages for doing what was called mileage turns, these were turns where if you travelled out from your shed or from the starting station over a distance of 100 miles you came into what was mileage turns, so to give you an idea a crew working a train from kings Cross to Newcastle would receive extra wages on the mileage system it just had to be over 100 miles to qualify for this extra money. The further you travelled the higher the extra payment was, as the payment was paid in increments of distance travelled. The payment of mileage money is no longer paid today as it was taken away and was made part of a payment agreement some time ago. On the footplate, the driver is, in effect, the captain of the ship and is in complete charge. He is usually too busy to give instructions when under way, but as long as the fireman knows his job there is no need for the driver to give any. Amid the noise of the pistons, the roar of the fire, and the pounding of the steel wheels on the steel tracks, conversation was difficult if not impossible, and the exchange of a nod or a shake of the head was usually sufficient for essential communication. A good fireman when not attending to the fire in the firebox and keeping his eye on the level of water in the boiler would also assist his driver by keeping a keen lookout for signals. Also on long distance runs it was his job to operate the water scoop which picked up extra water from the through between the rails, he would get ready at the scoop handle and on a signal from the driver would wind down the scoop into the trough, there was a marker board with scoop down so the crew knew when to lower the scoop, before the end of the scoop there was also a board showing lift scoop and on seeing it the driver would indicate to the fireman to lift the scoop in time before it reached the end of the trough, on some rare occasions when the scoop was not lifted soon enough the through was damaged thus letting the water out and then all hell was to pay.

 If a fireman is skilful he can get the maximum amount of steam from every pound of coal thrown into the firebox. Because of his knowledge of the road, he can anticipate the engines needs and so manage the fire so that there is plenty of steam when a gradient has to be climbed. By avoiding injudicious use of his fire irons, he will keep the grate free from clinker. If clinker is allowed to, form it will block the air spaces in the fire and the steaming of the boiler will be affected until he clears it out and gets a lively fire burning again. An experienced fireman will build many different types of fires to get the best results; according to the type of engine, he is firing and what type of train is being hauled. Sometimes he uses what locomotive men know as a “middle” fire. For this type of fire he would throw the coal straight down the middle of the fir-box; keeping the fire built up in the middle and loose along the sides. For a “flat” fire he simply adds coal where the fire is burning brightest thus maintaining a level surface over the whole of the fire. When firing a shunting engine, the “corner” fire was most effective. This type of fire was obtained by arranging mounds of fuel at the four corners of the grate and shoveling fresh coal to the corners only when required. Before an engine leaves the shed, the preparation of an engine was a lengthy process and both the driver and the fireman have their allotted share of the work. The driver is responsible for seeing that his engine leaves the shed in one hundred per cent efficient running condition, and to complete all the necessary tasks in time for the scheduled departure, he relies on the utmost cooperation from his fireman, on some larger sheds they had crews that would prepare an engine ready for a crew just to take over and ready to leave the shed. When the fireman booked on for his turn of duty, one of his first jobs was to read the official notices that were posted up in the office. Both the driver and fireman read all these notices carefully. They may include information about sections of the line they would be travelling on, where permanent way work was being carried out and temporary speed restrictions applicable to the line of any water shortages along the route at points where water columns are under repair and notification of all other abnormal conditions they might have on the trip. The fireman then would get the number of the engine both he and his driver had been assigned. He would then collect from the stores his oil boxes and tools and then go to the shed where the engine would be stabled. If it is a “round” type of shed, his engine will be among those occupying tracks, which radiate out like the spokes of a wheel from the turntable in the centre. The fire of the engine has already been lit, but if steam pressure in the boiler is low, the fireman stokes up so that there is enough steam for his driver to test the brakes and other apparatus.

 
Put in picture five

 Before the engine is ready to leave the shed, the smoke box must be examined and the boiler steam gauge tested to make sure it’s working correctly. The injectors are also tried out to see that they are in order. The fireman inspects the tubes and stays in the fire-box. Any that show signs of leaking or blowing must be rectified before the engine leaves the shed. Meanwhile, the driver carefully checks over all the mechanism of the engine and oils all moving parts. The fireman is responsible for looking after the supply of detonators and flags, which are always carried in case of emergency. In addition, it is also his job to attend to the headlamps on the front of the engine and to arrange them on the brackets so that they indicate the type of train his engine is hauling. When both the driver and fireman have both carried out their preparations and are sure the engine has enough steam and all is in order they take the engine to the water columns to have the tanks filled up, In districts where the water is “hard” or, in other words, contains a good deal of calcium and magnesium, the feed water for locomotives was treated by a water-softening process before being used in the boiler. This was necessary to stop any formation of “scale”, this would if allowed to accumulate inside the boiler, would through time block the tubes, and hence that is why the locomotive boilers were washed out frequently at regular intervals. After filling the tanks up with water the engine would then be taken to the coal drops to make sure the engine had enough fuel for the journey that it was booked to run, the coaling of engine’s at one time was a laborious process being carried out by men loading coal into small wagons that were pushed up the coaling ramps and tipped out into the tenders of the engines below. Later more modern methods of coaling up engine tenders was carried out by modern machinery and was a lot quicker and at times up to three locomotives could be filled up at once from the coaling towers. Nine or ten tons poured down the chute could be sufficient coal for a run of four hundred or more miles. After the tender is filled with coal it has to be trimmed level to the top of the tender making sure it is safely stowed so that no coal could bounce out of the tender.


COALING UP

 When all is complete the crew tell the signalman that they are ready for the off and are waiting for the signal to leave the shed to proceed on their way to join up to their train at the station or in the goods yard. The job of engine preparation is one of great importance and a period of anything from forty-five minuets to an hour is allowed for it, depending on the engine’s heating surface. No engine was ever allowed to leave the sheds in a faulty condition and any defects to which the driver draws attention to must be put right before the journey. If a driver discovers any trouble of a major character which could not be rectified in time before the engine was due to leave another engine would be found and substituted for the failed one. No driver would be expected to drive an engine which, in his opinion was unfit for duty. If, for instance, he found that steam was blowing so that it would affect his view when on the road, or if for any other reason he considered the engine unfit for service, he would reject it and another engine would be allotted to him for the trip. All these things a fireman would take note of when he is first made up to fireman, and he would take notice of everything in and around the engine to improve and further his knowledge of the job, he would gradually work his way up the links as a fireman and then a passed fireman gaining more experience all the time until he had put in enough firing shifts so he could then be passed out via another exam from the role of a passed fireman to that of junior driver, then he would work his way up the links to the top link that of the mainline express passenger trains. At last after all his hard work and dedication he can safely say to himself as he takes hold for the first time as a fully qualified locomotive engine driver that all the sweat and hard work from that day he became an engine cleaner was worth it, he was now one of the ELITE. A top linkman doing the job that many still today envy.