[34C]

What with Oxfam's s/h bookshops having reopened, I went for a search of the shelves last week, and a perfect copy of the above title was found among heaps of other treasures.

Having got around to a detailed inspection of this book, it was stamped as having been issued to Saltley LMR, and it had clearly never been opened.

 

[hoonsou]

Good find, in fact a brilliant find.

 

[John Webb]

Copies of this book are (were?) often found on second-hand stalls at model railway exhibitions. The original was first published 1957; I actually bought an Ian Allan reprint around 1998.

I'm not too critical of the title of the book. It would be interesting to know when and who was the first lady driver on the national network; I suspect the preserved railways had ladies driving locos before BR!

John

 

[34C]

Often wondered if any bold young woman ever tried to pass as male in order to get accepted as a cleaner, and thus progress to footplate crew. There are reliable records of women succeeding in getting into the infantry in time past, before formalised medical inspections were performed on all recruits; and even that can be evaded by the appropriately resourceful.

The copy I now have is a 1957 original, the binding as tight as when made, and the many colour diagrams bright as the day they were printed. It's going to sit alongside Chapelon's 'La Locomotive a Vapeur' and Bowen Cooke's 'British Locomotives 1894' on my shelves. Between them they pretty much neatly span the beginning to end of railway steam traction in the UK, and much of what went on elsewhere.

 

[6991]

mmmm Foreword by R.F.Harvey; produced at the Baynard Press, 12s 6d - wonderful stuff.
Mine sits between 'BR Diesel Traction - Manual for Enginemen', published in 1962 and 'Gradients of the British Main-Line Railways' produced by the Railway Publishing Co. Ltd for The Railway Magazine in 1947 (and close to the four volumes of Locomotives of British Railways by Casserley and Asher)
Cheers
6991

 

[Julian2011]

Good prompt 34C, I have one on the way, perhaps arriving tomorrow. Thank you for the head-up.

Julian

 

[John Webb]

QUOTE (34C @ 15 Jun 2021, 10:22) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Often wondered if any bold young woman ever tried to pass as male in order to get accepted as a cleaner, and thus progress to footplate crew. There are reliable records of women succeeding in getting into the infantry in time past, before formalised medical inspections were performed on all recruits; and even that can be evaded by the appropriately resourceful.......
I suspect the railway medicals were a bit tougher than those for army recruits. The railways generally had more applicants and could afford to do some weeding-out while the armed services were probably fairly desperate to take anyone who came along. I may be wrong!

I do have an original copy of the Diesel Traction manual, published in 1962 also by the BTC. Original BR publications include various rule books, signalling regulations, General Appendices, a few working time-tables and leaflets on railway fire extinguishers from 1952 to 1979 (professional interest!).

John

 

[Bear 1923]

QUOTE (John Webb @ 15 Jun 2021, 22:26) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Original BR publications include various rule books, signalling regulations, General Appendices, a few working time-tables and leaflets on railway fire extinguishers from 1952 to 1979 (professional interest!).

John

Did you ever deal with the BR Snow King extinguishers? They were spectacular for putting out hot axles boxes.

Also, at training school for creating a flamethrower effect when used wildly incorrectly.

 

[John Webb]

QUOTE (Bear 1923 @ 16 Jun 2021, 05:48) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Did you ever deal with the BR Snow King extinguishers? They were spectacular for putting out hot axles boxes.

Also, at training school for creating a flamethrower effect when used wildly incorrectly.

No - interestingly none of the BR publications use that term - I assume from your description these were Carbon Dioxide (CO2) extinguishers?

I've also a GWR leaflet "Regulations for the Prevention and Extinction of Fire" from 1923!

John

 

[34C]

QUOTE (John Webb @ 15 Jun 2021, 22:26) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I suspect the railway medicals were a bit tougher than those for army recruits. The railways generally had more applicants and could afford to do some weeding-out while the armed services were probably fairly desperate to take anyone who came along. I may be wrong!
John,
I suspect that's the truth of it. The RAF had to be truly and desperately in deep trouble for pilots during WWII, to accept that women might ferry aircraft from factory to operational airfields. (I have always treasured Guy Gibson's little memoir from his time on a Beaufighter equipped night fighter squadron, faced with his pilots claiming the equipment was dangerous in the wrong way. And a Beaufighter whistled overhead, made a stall turn and landed, rolling to rest just a short distance away. The pilots all enthused went over to pick the brains of this 'gen' pilot, only to halt in their tracks when a woman emerged from the cockpit...)

 

[Graham Plowman]

My grandfather was an RAF pilot during ww2, responsible for search and rescue missions for allied forces in the Mediteranean.
He told me that pilots were given 8 hours of training and then they were up.
When i undertook my training for a private pilots license, i wouldn't have felt confident at 8 hours to be doing what the RAF pilots did. It is no wonder so many aircraft were lost.

 

[34C]

My late father-in-law felt very fortunate that he was young enough to have trained late in the war, which meant plenty of flying hours on the Corsair before being deployed to a carrier. One of his instructors told him that his training group got a far better deal than those brave men who trained early in the war. And he had an aircraft which was so superior to any potential opposition, that he and his comrades felt confident. And then peace broke out and he never had to go into combat. FiL's only regret was that he wasn't allowed to take his Corsair home...

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Back to the book...😉😁

There is a misprint in our copy, I can’t remember the page it’s on though...

“steam is no its way to the cylinders”

Should read “steam is on its way to the cylinders”

Its been a long time since I read the book, but that has stuck in my mind! 🤷🏼‍♀️

🙋🏼‍♀️