The LNER Encyclopedia

Hello All I would just like to explain how mileage pay was worked out when I was firing on the ECML. When doing a days work, after you had
completed 140 miles you received one hours extra pay for every 15
miles. So for example a Doncaster return trip was 312 miles.This meant
you got paid 172 miles milage pay which was over 11 hours on top of your normal days pay. It was not all easy money though. New England was 76 miles from london so on those trips the milage pay was only an hour or so.
Alan

Alan

Very interesting on the mileage pay. Do you also know the journey times by steam from Kings Cross to the north of course we all know about the flying scotsman but what about the journey to York, Leeds or Doncaster?

Simon

Hi Simon it's over 45years since I worked on the ECML I did not keep records of journey times but here's just a bit of what I remember. Journey times varied quite a lot depending on what type of train you were hauling. Obviously goods trains were much slower and the number of station stops on passenger trains made a difference. the times I give you are all from memory.

Kings Cross to Peterborough 76 miles about one and a half hours maybe a little bit less.

Grantham 108 approx miles just over two hours

Doncaster 156 miles just under three hours.

The Talisman four and a half hours KX to Newcastle.

This info is off the top of my head so please if I've made any mistakes don't anybody start quoting times from their books and files.

I hope the info is interesting to you Simon.
Cheers Alan.

Alan

That is great thankyou. I care little for books and files as nothing beats someone actually there.

Many thanks
Simon

Alan:

I have a question for you. Sorry it's bit 'off', but I've been wondering about it for years!

What did train crew do when they 'needed to go'? After all you just can't stop a train for few a minutes, can you? And what happened if a driver or fireman fell ill?[/i]

Hi Pypwipe if a driver or fireman was ill you could stop at the next signalbox and ask the signalman to telephone for assistance. Fortunately this never happened to me or any of my drivers. Of course there must have been times when people were ill, that's why it was handy for a fireman to be able to drive. If you wanted to urinate you just did it out of the side door, anything else had to wait until convienient.
Cheers Alan.

Alan:

thanks for that! I'm sure you will be the fount of much real-life information!

No doubt a lot of us who contribute to this forum have a romantic idea about what it was like work on steam locos. The reality is that it was hard, dirty work - 'hard yakka' as we say in Australia.

As you were firing during the changeover from steam to diesel, am I right in saying the the introduction of diesels was actually welcomed by enginemen?

Certainly the drivers I've worked with over the last 25 years who were old enough to have worked on steam (mostly ex-LNER and BR standard types) looked back on those days with nostalgic fondness - but also said how unpleasant working conditions were, and how much better in this respect diesel and, particularly, electric traction is.

Hi Pypwipe & All
I'm glad you find my contributions to the site interesting. There was nothing easy about footplate work, as a young fireman and a beginner the going was pretty tough.

When a fireman became more experienced and stronger the job became much easier, experienced men knew how to keep reasonably clean and use of the pep or slaking pipe and tender sprinkler kept coal dust to a minimum.

As far as diesels are concerned many men including myself welcomed them but after a while the novelty wore off. I always thought diesel fumes were excessive for the crew and sometimes I went home stinking of diesel fumes. A lot of the men I worked with prefered steam but of course there were exceptions.
Alan.

I remember reading an article on Mallards tour in 1988 I think it was and one of the drivers was an ex BR driver who had moved onto diesel trains and at the end he says somthing along the lines of diesel is so much better than steam, it's always warm in the cab no matter what the weather and all you have to do is turn a key and you're off. Somehow I don't think that would be as satisfying as getting the fire back up to a running standard after a night in the sheds.

Regards

Karl

All loco drivers like everyone else have different opinions as to what is best. Arthur Kistruck my driver at Kings Cross was a staunch LNER man and did not like other regions locos standard or otherwise. We once had a Britannia from Doncaster to KX and all Arthur did was moan about it.
Alan.