1980 to 1994 British Rail staff

[class37418stag]

Hello everyone 

 

in 1980 to 1994 British Rail staff worked at diesel depot by through the 24 hours on day and night means 

6am to 2pm and 2pm to 10pm and 10pm to 6am for keeping going with diesel locomotives need by -

 

heavy maintenance 

light maintenance 

servicing 

fuelling 

and stabling for awaiting next duties by hauling

Express passenger 

freight 

engineer

[Hal Nail]

Is this a question or are you just telling us?

[class37418stag]

Yes that question 

[The Stationmaster]

Basically 'almost yes' as you describe but sectorisation was fully in place from 1992 so depots were officially allocated to a sector by then and would only normally deal with work for that sector but could undertake jobs for other sectors.  In some cases sectorisation of work had been carried out earlier mainly because particulatr depots only dealt with certain types of locos or traffic.  For example Margam depot on the Western Region was always a freight loco depot because of where it was although it dealt with Class 47s and that meant it also dealt with engineer's locos.  On the other hand we 'sectorised' Reading depot in about 1990 and it only dealt with DMUs as local use of 08 diesel shunters had finished by then and in 1992 it went over to full NSE ownership.

 

Normal shift hours were 06.00 - 14,00 known as 'Early' or 'Days';  14.00 - 22,00 known as 'Late' or 'Afternoons'; and 22.00 -06.00 which was nights.  the sort of work doe ne on each shift varied from depot to depot according to traffic patterns.

 

Does that help answer your question?

[class37418stag]

27 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Basically 'almost yes' as you describe but sectorisation was fully in place from 1992 so depots were officially allocated to a sector by then and would only normally deal with work for that sector but could undertake jobs for other sectors.  In some cases sectorisation of work had been carried out earlier mainly because particulatr depots only dealt with certain types of locos or traffic.  For example Margam depot on the Western Region was always a freight loco depot because of where it was although it dealt with Class 47s and that meant it also dealt with engineer's locos.  On the other hand we 'sectorised' Reading depot in about 1990 and it only dealt with DMUs as local use of 08 diesel shunters had finished by then and in 1992 it went over to full NSE ownership.

 

Normal shift hours were 06.00 - 14,00 known as 'Early' or 'Days';  14.00 - 22,00 known as 'Late' or 'Afternoons'; and 22.00 -06.00 which was nights.  the sort of work doe ne on each shift varied from depot to depot according to traffic patterns.

 

Does that help answer your question?

Yes 

early or late or night of BR staff at TMD for servicing diesel locomotives for ready next duties ?

['CHARD]

1 hour ago, class37418stag said:

Yes 

early or late or night of BR staff at TMD for servicing diesel locomotives for ready next duties ?

 

Hi Andrew, Mike may correct me here, but I understand that tasks preparing locos for their next duty, including fuel-point exams, safety-checks and basic servicing, would all be carried out around the shift patterns, as locos arrived due their next inspection and servicing.

[class37418stag]

56 minutes ago, 'CHARD said:

 

Hi Andrew, Mike may correct me here, but I understand that tasks preparing locos for their next duty, including fuel-point exams, safety-checks and basic servicing, would all be carried out around the shift patterns, as locos arrived due their next inspection and servicing.

Thank you 

[w124bob]

It's worth noting that the fitting/yard staff may have worked a simple three shift system but drivers&2nd men didn't. At Newton Heath prior to the transfer of train crew to Manchester Victoria it was a 24/7 depot, the shed link had more drivers book on between 6pm and midnight than on the day shift for obvious reasons. The quiet shift was the afternoon shift. I might add that the shed link drivers rarely actually worked more than about 5 hours with the exception of the 2 10pm men who took it turns to stay until 6am for the first of the day shift men, it was roughly a 2 hour gap per driver booking on but with 4 hour gaps during the day. Shed drivers had there own cabin which they shared with the shunters and traction arranger/clerk and a blackboard with all the shed roads marked on. 

I seem to remember that cleaning staff (when under BR) only worked two shifts, an 8am shift and a 10pm shift. The day shift would do routine cleaning as units came on shed in the morning period, but for the afternoon there were units booked for a heavy clean inside and out (not a cat lick through the wash) lots of buckets and a good external scrub down. I always assumed that there was simply to much movement to do it on nights.

Edited September 18, 2021 by w124bob

[Davexoc]

At Old Oak Common, the shift pattern for the maintenance crew was as follows;

Monday - Friday 06.00 - 14.00 earlies, 14.00 - 22.00 lates and 22.00 - 06.30 nights.

By the mid 80s the 39 hour week meant that half the shift finished an hour early on Thursday, the other half on Friday.

The weekend was a bit different;

Saturday early was a quarter of the staff 06.00 - 14.00 off the Friday late shift, with lates being another quarter of the staff off the Friday late shift 14.00 - 20.30, and nights a quarter of the staff off the Friday night shift 20.30 - 06.00.

Sunday earlies was half of the staff off the Friday late shift 06.00 - 14.00, with lates being a quarter of the staff off the Friday night shift 14.00 - 21.00, and nights three quarters of the staff off the Friday early shift 21.00 - 06.30.

That should equate to a six-day working roster, which repeats every 12 weeks if I've remembered it correctly.

This provided 24/7 cover for the servicing shed, with The Factory well manned from Sunday night through to Saturday morning.

Saturday lates was an odd shift, being short, but paid at time plus seven twelfths.....

[class37418stag]

2 hours ago, Davexoc said:

At Old Oak Common, the shift pattern for the maintenance crew was as follows;

Monday - Friday 06.00 - 14.00 earlies, 14.00 - 22.00 lates and 22.00 - 06.30 nights.

By the mid 80s the 39 hour week meant that half the shift finished an hour early on Thursday, the other half on Friday.

The weekend was a bit different;

Saturday early was a quarter of the staff 06.00 - 14.00 off the Friday late shift, with lates being another quarter of the staff off the Friday late shift 14.00 - 20.30, and nights a quarter of the staff off the Friday night shift 20.30 - 06.00.

Sunday earlies was half of the staff off the Friday late shift 06.00 - 14.00, with lates being a quarter of the staff off the Friday night shift 14.00 - 21.00, and nights three quarters of the staff off the Friday early shift 21.00 - 06.30.

That should equate to a six-day working roster, which repeats every 12 weeks if I've remembered it correctly.

This provided 24/7 cover for the servicing shed, with The Factory well manned from Sunday night through to Saturday morning.

Saturday lates was an odd shift, being short, but paid at time plus seven twelfths.....

Thank you for your help and correct answer by what I am look that 

[Rivercider]

Westbury depot was heavily dependant on stone traffic which generally finished by 14.00 on Saturdays and recommenced from about 22.00 on Sunday evenings. There were some duties at weekends, especially if there was a weekend engineering programme, but on the occasions I was at Westbury at weekends the place often appeared deserted.

 

Westbury depot on a Saturday afternoon, class 47s were the principal power for stone trains at the time, 26/4/80

 

Westbury depot 26/4/80.

 

 

cheers  

[The Stationmaster]

20 hours ago, 'CHARD said:

 

Hi Andrew, Mike may correct me here, but I understand that tasks preparing locos for their next duty, including fuel-point exams, safety-checks and basic servicing, would all be carried out around the shift patterns, as locos arrived due their next inspection and servicing.

Absolutely.  While the engineering side wasn't my concern I worked/managed the operational at a number of depots and that was exactly the case.  for example ay t one depot we had a lot of loco hauled commuter train work so locos would always receive fuel & inspection as they came on depot off their morning trip (and would also pass through the servicing shed as they came in off their evening working).   We had a separate small stabling point near our main passenger station where locos off long distance workings could be refuelled and inspected before the mnext leg of their diagram.

 

At depots dealing with DMUs things tended to be rather different because there was always a much heavier fuel and inspection workload on the night turn - I think I might even have alog of part of a night's work at Canton somewhere in an old notebook from the days when I was involved ina project there.  

 

At one place I worked in South Wales in 1973 we were part of a major experiment and all our Class 37s were converted to twin fuel tanks which meant that - if they worked to diagram - they didn't need to go for fuel for a week and the only inspection they received was when being prepared by the Driver for their next turn.  Generally it all worked as intended but we had one working where a loco could go through a set of brake blocks if it worked a particular job two days in succession so if that happened it had to go to Cantomn fora new set of brake blocks and it would inevitably be fuelled and possibly even be given an A Exam before it was sent back to us. (it saved work at the weekend because if things worked to plan it meant we would send 16 locos to Canton over a weekend and they would all need an A Exam as well as fuel).