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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 8 (December 1, 1928)

The Sure of the Footplate

page 24

The Sure of the Footplate

An engine driver who loves his fascinating vocation is Mr. W. Barnes, of the London and North-Eastern Railway, who for a long time has had charge of the “Queen of Scots” Pullman which runs between King's Cross and Harrowgate. In an interview with a representative of the “Gloucester Journal” he gives his impressions as follows:—

Design by J.W.C., New Brighton, Christchurch.

Design by J.W.C., New Brighton, Christchurch.

“It's life to me running my engine,” he said. “When I am away on holiday I feel lonely and want to get back to it as soon as I can. Running my train on the long journey is just like a verse of poetry to me—poetry of sound and motion and signals which flash past as we tear along.”

Driver Barnes added that he had been driving for twenty years, and no longer went by watches or clocks, but by sound and feel. “Why, I could tell just where I was even though my eyes were blindfolded, by the sound of my engine and the song of the lines,” he said.

“An engine is a delicate thing, even though it is big and heavy, and you can drive it well or badly. Its beat will tell you if you are working it too hard, and so attuned to its noise do your ears become, that it is easy to detect the slightest trouble. Sometimes you get delayed and have to make up time at top speed—that is the time that I think of my passengers and wonder how they are faring with their cups of tea or bottles of wine. We pass dozens of other trains on the run, and as we meet and pass at a relative speed of 120 miles an hour I usually wave a ‘good-day’ with a cleaning rag.

“Tunnels are funny things. Even though you cannot see in them a different note in the roar of your engine tells you that the smoke of another train which has just passed through is still floating about. Night driving is a little harder as you must go by signals and sound alone, and even though you are certain that everything is all right there always lurks that knowledge that you are relying on somebody else, and you cannot help asking yourself sometimes whether he has done his job. You get so used to rushing into the darkness that after a time it is just the same as day driving. Thunderstorms hardly affect a driver at all.”

Driver Barnes said that he never felt any strain or overtiredness from his long journey. “I am too busy to get tired,” he said. When asked what was his favourite hobby he replied with a laugh: “Driving engines.”