playiNg By the Book
A ‘how-to’ guide for enginemen
When I first volunteered at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway in the late 1980s, the people in the locomotive department at Haworth gave me three pieces of advice. Look upstairs for a firing shovel, get to Ingrow for bib and brace overalls, and buy a ‘Black Book’. Well, the stock of shovels upstairs in Haworth shed must have been long exhausted, the shop at Ingrow had closed down, and ‘Black Books’ were thin on the ground. I eventually found one in the Vintage Carriages Trust shop. More properly called the Handbook for Railway Steam Locomotive Enginemen, it gave practical and theoretical information about locomotives and their workings. Published in 1957 by the British Transport Commission, it can’t have been cheap. Between its black hard covers there were 200 pages and many diagrams. Some of these were in full colour and used single inks for each colour. Thus the purple, yellow, pink, green and black of page 66’s diagram of a Class J exhaust injector were solid, pre-mixed colours, each with its own ink. It’s this that will have made the book more expensive. Ian Allan’s more recent reprint uses just four inks, with different colours produced by varying the pattern of those inks. It’s therefore no surprise that inside the cover of my copy, by the ‘MOTIVE POWER LOW MOOR’ stamp, is the neat inscription ‘No 81 (EIGHTY ONE)’ showing that the shedmaster would have kept tight control of his copies. No doubt each engineman would have had to sign for his individual copy, and return it when he left.
Pocket format
The BTC’s version was certainly not the first of its kind. Railway companies had long been issuing their own books to footplatemen. Their covers were plain black, a practical design given the environments they’d be used in, and earlier versions were smaller and more pocket-sized, unlike the BTC’s version, which is 8¾in deep by 5½in. Earlier versions of the book were not only smaller - they came in different formats, as revealed by the title imprinted on their covers. Questions for Enginemen &c. - that’s what is on the cover of the LMS’ 1941 version, but the title page inside reveals the influential position that former LMS men had on British Railways’ motive power department, for it says a very similar A Handbook for Steam Railway Locomotive Enginemen. It has diagrams but none are in colour - there was a war on - and it’s in question-and-answer format. Many are leading questions; the first certainly is: “Is it a fact that engine cleaners have ample opportunity during the course of their daily work to make themselves acquainted with the general arrangement of steam railway locomotives?” The correct answer is ‘yes’, as you might expect, and it notes that although locomotives come in different shapes and sizes (there’s a summary of LMS types on the page that follows) they all have features in common, such as frames, boilers, cylinders, wheels, fireboxes and safety valves. The idea of these questions and answers is that they would be similar to those an inspector might ask when examining an engine cleaner to pass him (or not) for firing duties. An earlier version, published by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway at Horwich in April 1921, begins with that classic footplate question: “What are the first things an engine driver should see to on taking charge of his engine in the shed, before going out for his train?” The answer is as relevant today as it was then: “He should examine the water gauges to see that there is enough water in the boiler, and to make sure that the gauges are working correctly, and not showing false water, by trying each tap separately.”
Failure management
Many questions concern a footplate crew’s actions when confronted with failures on the road. Indeed, the London & North Eastern Railway published a book entitled The Steam Locomotive, Its Failures And How To Deal With Them. Thus, in its 1927 edition, Question 81 poses: “How would you deal with a broken connecting rod?” The answer: “Take the part off that is attached to the big end, put the piston and front portion of connecting rod forward and secure them, then take off both eccentric straps and rods, place the valve central and secure it.” Asking how a crew would deal with a broken crank shaft, it advises sending for an assistant engine, but then lists what
might be done in the meantime. Essentially, it involves using wedges to lift the driving wheels clear of the rails (see panel). The LYR had lower expectations of its crews, with this answer to the same question: “The driver, in his telegram for assistance, must clearly state what has occurred, and before the Tool Van gang arrives he should remove the coupling rods and try to release the driving springs.” It goes on to explain how a gang should lift the locomotive and pack its axleboxes to keep the driving wheels clear of the rails, so that the locomotive can be hauled away. The Great Northern Railway’s 1903 answer to the broken crank question was blunter: “This generally disables the engine altogether; but the driver can always save time by beginning to uncouple at once, and by getting as much done as he can before assistance arrives.” The GNR also had advice for the driver in writing his telegram calling for help: “Five minutes spent in writing a useful telegram may be the means of saving five hours afterwards.”
Waste not…
Railway companies have always been concerned about costs and the waste caused by engines blowing off. Once again, there’s a leading question, this from the LYR: “Is it a good thing to have the engine blowing off hard when waiting for a train?” Beyond the obvious blame attached to the crew, the answer explains: “If the dampers do not fit tight, it is generally the driver’s own fault for not reporting them and getting them put right.” It adds that steam blown off through safety valves is coal and water wasted. The LMS quantified the waste in 1941: “Q - Does escape of steam from the safety valves entail loss to the Company? A - Yes, it represents a waste of labour, coal and water which can very largely be avoided by careful management of the fire by the Fireman. For example, a Class 5 Mixed Traffic engine blowing off steam continuously at the safety valves for five minutes will entail a waste amounting to 70lbs of coal and 60 gallons of water.” Some of the practices outlined in the books sound alarming. The GNR asks: “When a tube bursts, what is the right thing to do?” Even allowing for GNR boilers in 1903 running at lower pressure than those that followed, I don’t much fancy the answer: “Get it plugged as soon as possible. When the tube bursts, put on both injectors and if you can manage to get under the protection of signals before you stop, so much the better. The water will generally damp the fire sufficiently, but if the burst is near the smoke box, the bulk of the water may go that way, and the driver must be prepared to pull the fire back and damp it if necessary. If the burst is not a very bad one, the plugs can generally be got in before the steam pressure is all exhausted, and so leave something to blow up the fire, and save time after plugging.”
‘Like a bullet’
It then asks whether a driver should try and tighten the plugs if they blow under full steam pressure: “No, not under steam. Remember that the full boiler pressure is at the back of the plug, and the hammer may cause it to start, and if so, it will come out like a bullet from a gun.” The GNR must have been trying to stamp out older and less safe practices when it advised: “No man should go to the front of an engine when running fast unless absolutely necessary. If obliged to go, pick a time when going up a bank, or slacken speed a little. If getting out to look at a box, make sure you are clear of disc signals, switchboards etc. Never lean out far without seeing that you are clear, and recollect that mail bags come pretty close to the left side of the cab.” The GNR’s ‘Black Book’ gives several hints about the expectations of its Victorian management and its chief mechanical engineer, H.A. Ivatt. He wrote the foreword to the slim volume and reveals something of his character and the beginnings of these books. He said: “I wrote this catechism almost in its present form in the year 1883, for the use of Drivers and Firemen on the Great Southern & Western Railway of Ireland. A few questions have been added or altered to bring it more up to date, it is intended to be of some assistance, chiefly to the younger men. They will notice that the questions do not go into details regarding the construction of various engines, valve gears, or the action of the injector,
or combustion of fuel etc; there are plenty of good books to be had describing all these. Any man who takes an interest in his work and wants to get on will read such books and attend instruction classes to obtain all the information he can, so that he does not get left behind.” One of those advances covered to bring the book up to date were instructions about the passenger communication cord: a device that “springs a leak in the brake pipe and applies the brake” when activated by a passenger. There’s a flavour of Ivatt’s personality in some of the answers. Question 35: “Is it necessary for either the engine or the men to smoke when passing or standing at a station? A - No; both these can and ought to be prevented.” Or Question 72. “Is it a sign of a good driver when his toolboxes are dirty and full of rusty spanners and old nuts and bits of iron and other rubbish, and when he carries on the back of his tender enough fire tools, old point rods, etc to stock a small railway?” You can guess the answer: “No, quite the contrary. The toolboxes should be overhauled occasionally and kept clear of all rubbish, which is of no use and only hides the proper tools. A driver should always insist on his mate keeping the boxes clean and neat.” Moreover: “When an engine fresh on duty has a dirty boiler front and untidy footplate, it is generally the sign of a slovenly driver.” The LYR book contains an identical question and answer, although it adds the words “and fireman” to the end of the answer.
If the GNR driver should not have “bits of iron and other rubbish,” his LYR brother is exhorted that: “A thoughtful driver will always have in his toolbox a small piece of iron or wood cut to the right length” so that he can set a valve into the right position should part of his locomotive’s motion fail. Thus equipped: “He will be able to set the valve right at once on the darkest night. It does not take long to prepare such a gauge for any engine when the valves are being examined, and no driver should be without one.” No thought then that the GNR should provide such a gauge.
Nuts and bolts
The LMS provided slightly more advice for its drivers when it came to securing a valve. It noted that the valve spindle pin in the combination lever (of Walschaert’s valve gear) is tapped centrally for a draw bolt. With a bolt fitted, it can be packed with wood - it suggests rail keys - to keep it in position. In case the driver has no handy bolts languishing in his toolbox, the LMS advises: “The valve spindle pins on most of the standard engines old and new have this hole tapped out for a ¾in diameter bolt, but on the 2-6-0 parallel boiler mixed traffic engines, a 5⁄8in diameter bolt is required.” It then notes that ¾in bolts secure the carriage warming apparatus train pipe to the buffer plank and, on 2-6-0 mixed traffic engines, a 5⁄8in bolt can be taken from the top of the water scoop or hand brake handle pillars. “In any case, when a bolt has been removed from some part of the engine in an emergency, the fact must be recorded on the Repair Card for the engine when this is made out.” There’s a fold-out page inserted into the LMS ‘Black Book’ to show the parts of Walschaert’s valve gear. This is common practice in the smaller ‘Black Books’, although the 1957 version can fit its diagrams onto single pages. Some of the fold-out diagrams are very intricate and are printed on very thin paper. The LNER book includes a view from above so that enginemen may better understand how the ‘two to one’ and ‘equal’ levers work to drive the inside valve of the third cylinder from the valve gear on either side of the frames. The LYR book contains a fold-out that is 305⁄8in long and 10½in high, showing the vacuum brake system. That’s an impressive nine vertical folds from a book that’s four inches wide. A second fold-out, at 28¾in long, shows an 0-6-0 tender locomotive coupled to a six-wheel passenger coach with brake compartment. It was not just railway companies that published educational guides. The National Union of Railwaymen published several pocket books, including 1925’s The Modern Superheater Locomotive by ‘Socrates’. It too featured fold-out diagrams, including one that shows the position of pistons and valves at various points during a wheel revolution. The one in my copy is on paper so thin, and folded so many times, that I haven’t dared unfold it for measurement for fear that I can never pack it back together! One that I have unfolded measures 17½in wide by 19½in deep and includes a 4in:1ft scale drawing of Hughes’ patent ball pressure release piston valve. ‘Socrates’ goes into detail about the principles of combustion, heat transfer and the properties of saturated and superheated steam such that they would not be amiss in a primer course on thermodynamics. In covering the developments of different railway companies, ‘Socrates’ provides a comparison between their superheating techniques.
The union line
The NUR follows Ivatt’s lead in having a foreword. Both stress the importance of learning, but NUR General Secretary C.T. Cramp takes the line you’d expect from a trade union: “In the struggle to obtain better conditions, or even to maintain such as exist, we must not lose sight of the fact that under the most complete form of Industrial Democracy, technical skill and scientific knowledge will be required in the carrying on of industry. Indeed, if democracy is to justify itself, its technical knowledge must advance and not remain stationary. “A book of this character is, therefore, always timely, and I trust locomotivemen will study its pages to advantage, for by so doing they can become not merely skilled engineers but better citizens.” For all the densely packed facts, information and advice contained within these ‘Black Books’, it was on the road that enginemen proved their skills. Chief Operating and Motive Power Officer R.F. Harvey knew this when he wrote in the foreword to the BTC’s book: “It should be emphasised that no-one can become a proficient railway locomotive engineman merely by reading books, however good they may be. The highest proficiency, however, can only be achieved by studying the subject from all angles and putting into practice the knowledge and precepts gained from text books.” It was true then and it’s true today. There’s a science to firing, to mixing coal and air in the right proportions. But it’s an art to deliver each shovelful of coal to the right place in a fiercely burning fire, while also maintaining a good glass of water and a singing injector. Books can’t teach this skill.