The LNER Encyclopedia

I have been looking through the LNER Magazine DVDs and came across the retirement of a Haymarket driver who had been on the Waverley West First Pilot from June 1900 until November 1935. He had joined the NBR as a cleaner in 1889, registered as a fireman in 1890 and became a driver in 1897 so, apart from three years at the start the rest of his driving career was on the Waverley West pilot.

This was actually a highly skilled job involving lots of attaching and detaching through carriages to very tight timescales, some with sleeping passengers aboard, and often rostered to senior drivers who had come off mainline work for health reasons. Was it unusual to have someone doing little else for most of their career?

Are you sure he spent all of his career on the west pilot link as Haymarket had a number of different pilot duties ranging from brewery & distillery pilots, dock pilots as well as the mentioned passenger duties.

I have heard similar stories regarding experienced drivers from St Margarets that spent many years on pilot and shunting duties down leith docks and other yards due to health reasons and as a punishment for misdemeanours such as being speed merchants the steed being the lovely Y9 pugs!
There is a possiblity that the driver that V3man is talking about could have been on the pilot jobs for so long due to punishment or maybe he was just good at his job!

There are a number of factors that can cause employees to not rise through the ranks as they are so often expected to do so. If earnings are not considered an issue, then:

• A pilot job can save any lodging out etc
• A pilot job may entail less night work
• If you like your job, and are good at it, there is no need to leap into the unknown

That's just a few that come quickly to mind. It used to surprise me when in the industry that there is an assumption that you want promotion. There is a lot to be said for job satisfaction and I for one would rather do an easy job well than a hard job badly.

John

Well spoken signalman/