What do the drivers say?

Bob: “The locomotives are way too reliant on computers for everything. The cab layout is not ideal for shunting - you cannot look out of the side window, and the driver’s seat is too far towards the centre point.

“If you have long legs, then your knees will foul the underside of the driving desk. This puts a strain on your foot as you struggle to keep it on the DSD pedal, which is too far underneath to reach comfortably.

“The cab lighting switches are awkward - there are five in all, one for each light, but you have to scramble about to reach them when you are seated.

“The driver’s seat is fairly basic, it’s not got any suspension and we have to have the seat swivelled at an angle to get one foot angled on the DSD, so you end up sat twisted.

“There are two screens on the desk - these give you access to do any tasks needed, from motor isolating to fault finding, doing a brake test and so on. It’s all in metric kN for power indications and it means nothing to me!

“The train brake, being electronic, can be a pain as the locomotives are fitted with a regenerative train brake. This can drop out, but at least you still have control of the normal train brake as well. A frequent problem is the computer saying that the exhaust is cold, even after you’ve just had full power on for 60 minutes! Any faults that the computer picks up can cause it to make an electronic ping, but you don’t know what it is unless you trawl through the computer and that takes time.

“Because everything is on the screen, even the speedometer, you tend to be looking out of the corner of your eyes. At least if you go over 75mph then the needle turns from white to yellow - it can also change to red, at which point the brake will apply.

“Cab noise isn’t too bad, but if you have the cab heater/air-con unit on, it makes a background noise. But this can also blend into the background noise from the traction motors, which start screaming the faster you go. This in turn masks the DSD going off as they blend into one.

“Luckily, when the DSD goes off you get a red flashing square on the computer screen which has a countdown from 10-1. It also gets louder towards 1, so if your ears are under attack elsewhere, if you’re lucky you’ll pick out the bleeping around the 5-4-3 area before the brake applies.

“The ride is not the best available. They are very hard, designed for the perfect track formation, but that’s a problem as our trackwork isn’t ideal in many locations. The slightest hint of a wet spot, sinking culvert, badger sett or the like under the track, and you feel it. You can get bounced out of the seat above 50mph.

Lower back pain is frequent on them, and I’m aware of drivers who won’t touch the locomotives due to medical reasons.

“You sometimes experience low power thanks to the computer, and it will then struggle with loads as a result. It usually then takes a few reports before someone can sit down and download what’s on the memory and try to find the fault.

“The main fitters involved are at Leeds Midland Road. They’ve had a hard time keeping fitters in the past, so combined with a slow supply of parts it means locomotives have spent a while at Leeds awaiting materials.

“Obviously, FL was expecting great things, but the failure rate knocked them out of favour.”