The spice of life - Footplate life in the 1960s

摘要

It's the wee small hours on 22 May 1965 and I'm about to depart from London (Waterloo) with the 02.45 service to Bournemouth - the 'paper train'. I'm working on Southern Pacific No 34086 219 Squadron, one of the 'as built' 'Battle of Britain' class locomotives. The driver is my regular mate Eric 'Sooty' Saunders, and this was a regular No 3 Link duty. The load of 12 for 330 tons is a mix of vans and a couple of coaches -nothing out of the ordinary for a Light Pacific. There's a brief spell of calm before we get the road and the tip from the guard. The Stones generator is humming, and there's a warm glow in the cab coming through the Ajax fire doors that are open on the first notch to keep the smoke down. The coal in the tender and the footplate have been well hosed down with the slacker pipe; it keeps the dust down once you get rolling. Now it's time for a lid of the tea that I brewed before we left the shed.