As per the subject.
Have a question to ask with regard to a problem that I am puzzling over (professionally, no sad hobbies here :P) Mainline only, please. No underground people, please, but freight or passenger - not bothered which.

Hi Jim,

Charlie Croker may know someone who can help.

Hope all is well with you, Brumella and the Brumlet.

Thanks, Emjay.
One is growing well and is learning fast. One is getting stronger, fitter, and is proving to be a relaxed and competent Mum.

Must pop down to see you again some time.

There was a guy on here.....username was something like Prawn, who had a LHD broomy that was a train driver based at Didcot(?) who came to a few meets several years ago.

Not seen him on here for yonks mind you.

Just ask the question. We know everything!

But on this forum, nobody grew up wanting to be a train driver

I used to be be a Train driver many years ago. Ask away.

Blimey Marko, how old are you really?

Bo'ness?

haha Boness
No Edinburgh, based at Haymarket depot. When it was still good old BR.

There is an area, often to the left of the driver, for placing documents in portrait format.

The question is:
Is there a rule, law, working direction, guidance note, standard or other that details what goes on this clipboard and how the driver uses it? I have looked in the Rule Book and found nothing with respect to this.
With the reading zone in front of the driver in landscape format as per the European practice, it suggests that the information in that reading zone is critical to operating the train, i.e. needed during running.
In the UK the same zone is in portrait mode, and is out of the primary field of view. Therefore I suspect that it is only for reference when the driver is otherwise unoccupied, such as at station stops, termini, start of the shift, etc.

Various sources tell me that this is for the shift diagrams and timetable information, and that the driver would refer to it regularly, even during running. However it does not need to be in the driver's sight line. It is really about documented recommendations, guidance and advice.

Hi Jim,

As far as I am aware and remember there were/are no rules or guidance notes for the use of the clipboard area at all. A bit like the drivers seat really - it was just there and you were not given any instructions how to use it but it was obvious what it could and would be used for. Drivers are given daily Amendments & Notices of speed restrictions and route diversions, due to track and signalling works etc. so it can be used for these, running times if it is a passenger train, or train weight/ length details if a goods train. Often drivers do not use them and post and stick notices in various positions in the cab to remind themselves of important route information. I do know a fellow sim racer who is driving trains currently for Scotrail and will try to remember to ask him if anything has changed in this regard.
Hope this is of some use to you

Very useful, Lego. Answers the question perfectly.

This would not be covered in the rule book, but often will be referred to in each company's Professional Driving Policy, in the section under Cab Discipline. It will not be referenced in any way other than "Reading materials like newspapers, books etc must not be placed on the desk etc or within the driver's line of sight, they should be kept in the driver's equipment bag". Or words to that effect. There is also normally mention of this in the Competency Management System and Driver's and cabs will be checked by Operations Managers at regular intervals.

That was exactly my thought when I saw the thread title!

Totally off on a tangent, but I always liked Deltics. Imagine one of those engines in Coupe.

Ah! you've brought back lots of memories there Gripped!

I've driven several Deltics in fact all of the ones that are left.
They were huge, scary, noisy( but what a noise), cramped, you could see hardly any thing out the tiny windows, they were dirty, uncomfortable, cold, but absolutely epic to drive. Would love to drive one again they are awesome beasts. And they were beasts, you only just had control of them sometimes. Trying to drive them slowly and smoothly was not easy. The local Railway preservation Society usually does one trip a year with a borrowed Deltic on to the mainline which passes my house. I can hear its distinctive tone coming from miles away and I'm up and out like a wee boy waiting to see it pass.

I just love the engineering of the engine. Opposed pistons in a 2 stroke cycle. Madness but amazing. Sound is awesome too. So different to the big pistoned conventional chuggers.

Three crankshafts working in two different directions, two pistons in each cylinder, three cylinders in a triangle but not at 120 degrees, two stroke diesel... they are seriously weird engines.

I believe they started off as a marine engine design.

Just had a little look on YouTube. Very weird engines. One of the comments suggested it had routes in a Junkers aero engine.

I can't see what benefits the arrangement offers other than higher compression ratios?

Many fewer moving parts; in particular no valves on a two-cycle diesel, just ports in the cylinder wall.

No heavy cylinder head, the opposing piston does the job as one example.

I'm not usually a great fan of Wikipedia, but it does have a good explanation of how they came about and work.

I was more referring to the configuration. You can have two stroke with less than three crankshafts. I don't imagine there's any weight saving either as a result.

Petep, thanks for the link. Some good info in there. It's an utterly brilliant, but bonkers engine.

Wow! didn't know that's how they worked. What a genius piece of engineering. Now I know why the exhaust makes that distintive drone. As a 17 year old teenager - I remember an old enthusiastic driver trying to explain how unique the engines were and how they worked - which was pointless as I didn't know how any engine or anything else worked at that age.

As a Secondman/Driver Trainee your first experience of getting to drive the Deltic Loco solo was when you were on a Depot or Relief shift. The Locos would come in to depot and have to be taken through the washer and then back to the shed for refuelling and maintenance etc. Even as a spritely young man they were not easy to get up into as the top step overhangs the lower ones. . The huge nose meant you could see virtually nothing in front of you unless you stood up and leant out the window or hung out the door, and you had to constantly get up and down out the cab to change the points manually and to change to cab ends. So the old Drivers were less keen to take them especially if they were playing cards. Power delivery from the engine was phenomenal! You needed to crawl through the depot 10MPH max and about 2mph through the washer. That wasn't easy as you had to engage the throttle, watch for the spike on the Amps gauge and then shut of the throttle immediately, wait for several seconds with your hand ready on the brake to control the huge kick of power that would come in a sudden rush. The delay on the throttle and the delay on the air brakes coming on and off made it really tricky to get it to roll at a gentle pace . It wasn't fun shunting them about the depot but it was a real learning experience. Even with a full sleeper train set and mail carriages there was nothing that could tame the power Kick you felt, though you had to try for the sake of passenger comfort. They were probably more suited to pulling mile long tanker trains across a continent than anything they ever pulled on the British Rail Network.

I had a truly memorable and funny drive one day:

A driver and I once got the pleasure of bringing a Deltic back 'light'(Engine only) from Newcastle to Edinburgh. I got to drive from just south of Dunbar back to the depot in Edinburgh. What a Joy to drive unrestricted on the East Coast Mainline. No need to worry about spilling passengers drinks, I got to pull the throttle all the way back and got shoved back in my seat from the sheer rush of power. Unforgettable!
As We got closer to Edinburgh, just passed Drem we inevitably caught up with a passenger train from North Berwick and I had to slow to a crawl as it had just stopped at Longniddry Station up ahead of us. Drem was quite close( 3 or 4 Miles) to my Dad's house in Haddington to where he had just moved and where I was living at the time in-between flats in Edinburgh. The important bit is that I had started going out with a local girl from Haddington. At this particular point in the countryside the road runs close to the railway line for a very short distance. It's a warm sunny day and I'm leaning out the window to get a better view of the approaching signal round the bend and hoping it will not be red, when I look to the left and there is my new girlfriend with another guy, cycling along what she thinks is a quiet county road! so I hoot the horn and wave and will never forget the look of shock on her face, seeing me there in the middle of nowhere! as she then wobbled into the verge practically falling of the bike. I was not bothered at all , it was hilarious and I was an 18/19 year old teenager showboating at the controls of a 3300HP Leviathan Locomotive and was just glad that someone I knew had witnessed it. It was so funny, my Driver and I were killing ourselves laughing all the way back to the depot where the story was passed around for weeks

Sorry for my ramblings, blame Gripped! he mentioned Deltics

That does it, I want to drive one of these

Great story, had my tongue hanging out

1. 3300 hp
2. 19 years old
3. teenage girlfriends, those were the days
4. a right laugh wi'the lads

The magic third of the train world!

I refuse to apologise for hijacking the thread. Great stories !

I'm confused Which Third Neil? Are we talking Newton's Law or the Arthur C. Clarke one.

Are there Laws of Forum Posting?

1. Never assume everyone knows what you know

The magic third gear of the coupe, the one that goes from standstill to lightspeed slightly faster than the initial expansion phase of the universe.

Must be a mystery ingredient in that bread Neil hasn't let on about...