wensley
Established Member
In recent times I came to know an old railwayman whilst on my rail related travels. He can remember when steam engines were still commonplace on BR but spent most of his time working on diesels out of Thornaby.
This particular tale made us all roar with laughter but also cringe as you are about to discover. I do not know if this incident occured on steam or diesel traction (probably steam) but here goes:
It was standard practice for crew to bring their locos to just outside the shed and then leave them for the shed staff to position as required. Anyway my friend (who shall remain nameless) had performed this procedure many times before and was well accustomed to Thornaby Depot. One day his loco was brough to a halt outside the shed in a different place than usual. He did not notice this and having carried out the neccesary steps leapt backwards from the footplate intending to land with his feet on the ground. Instead he found himself mounted on a points lever that controlled the points at the entrance of the shed.
The lever went straght through his overalls and right up his bum to suchan extent that he had to be lifted clear of the offending points lever. Although sore he suffered no lasting damage and when he returned home and explained the situation to his wife she said "Well, I didn't kn ow you liked it that way!!"
Another tale I remebr him telling was regarding diesel traction when we were discussing either hot plates on class 47s or class 4?s. Anyway this particular class of 'Peak' we were discussing had a particular issue. He said that when working heavy trains out of the Thornaby area (probably Stockton?) the crew would put the kettle on in the engine room shortly after leaving their destination. With a nice heavy train in tow there was no chance of going very fast so the train would trundle away towards the ECML at Northallerton. Anyway upon passing Thirsk the kettle was still not on the boil so on the journey went with driver and secondman becoming thirstier and thirstier. At Colton Junction the kettle finally boiled, the reason: "The bloody idiot that designed the locos put the hot plate right under the air intake!".
This particular tale made us all roar with laughter but also cringe as you are about to discover. I do not know if this incident occured on steam or diesel traction (probably steam) but here goes:
It was standard practice for crew to bring their locos to just outside the shed and then leave them for the shed staff to position as required. Anyway my friend (who shall remain nameless) had performed this procedure many times before and was well accustomed to Thornaby Depot. One day his loco was brough to a halt outside the shed in a different place than usual. He did not notice this and having carried out the neccesary steps leapt backwards from the footplate intending to land with his feet on the ground. Instead he found himself mounted on a points lever that controlled the points at the entrance of the shed.
The lever went straght through his overalls and right up his bum to suchan extent that he had to be lifted clear of the offending points lever. Although sore he suffered no lasting damage and when he returned home and explained the situation to his wife she said "Well, I didn't kn ow you liked it that way!!"
Another tale I remebr him telling was regarding diesel traction when we were discussing either hot plates on class 47s or class 4?s. Anyway this particular class of 'Peak' we were discussing had a particular issue. He said that when working heavy trains out of the Thornaby area (probably Stockton?) the crew would put the kettle on in the engine room shortly after leaving their destination. With a nice heavy train in tow there was no chance of going very fast so the train would trundle away towards the ECML at Northallerton. Anyway upon passing Thirsk the kettle was still not on the boil so on the journey went with driver and secondman becoming thirstier and thirstier. At Colton Junction the kettle finally boiled, the reason: "The bloody idiot that designed the locos put the hot plate right under the air intake!".
