Station Pilot - What Does it Do?

[M.I.B]

I have seen lots of photographs stating something along the lines of "....45678 acting as Reading Station pilot.... etc"

 

Usually a small engine. What was their role? Picking up slip coaches? Adding coaches to through trains?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Pannier Tank]

I have seen lots of photographs stating something along the lines of "....45678 acting as Reading Station pilot.... etc"

 

Usually a small engine. What was their role? Picking up slip coaches? Adding coaches to through trains?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

General Shunting Duties, adding / removing vans coaches etc to from trains. Removing stock from terminating trains and placing the stock in carriage sidings, that sort of thing.

[M.I.B]

Thank you. I had guessed at that but the use of the word "Pilot" suggested other things as well.

 

I guess if it were to be introduced as a concept now we would call it the "Station Hack" in today's parlance.

[Kris]

As well as removing the stock from the station, you would also expect them to be bringing coaches into the station from sidings.

[edcayton]

When larger loco's were used they were also available to take over trains in case of engine failure. A bit like the "Thunderbird" loco's of today.

 

Ed

[Peter Bedding]

At Wadebridge, BWT 30586 was for long the favourite station pilot; a major part of its daily roster was to detach (and subsequently re-attach) a fitted van from the rear of a North Cornwall mixed train (T9 plus Maunsell 2 set) at the down platform, then shunt backward and forwards to deliver it into the Goods Shed.

 

Vehicles in view on the adjacent station forecourt might have been crimson/cream BR lorries (Pocketbond), Tilling green Bristol/ECW buses (OOC), and assorted private cars (Oxford).

 

Have I left anything out?

 

PB

[Guest stuartp]

One use I saw at Doncaster in the 1990s was an 08 and BG deputising for the out-of-order lifts for the Post Office's benefit. It spent all day/night shuttling Brutes about. Handy for a bit of added interest, I expect steam age lifts broke down too.

[Oldddudders]

On my first visit to Liverpool St in 1960 or '61, the station pilot was a diminutive 0-6-0 tank, possibly a J69, painted in GER blue. It rather stood out against the new EE Type 4s and Brush Type 2s which actually ran the services. Station pilots typically spent a great deal of time stooging about, awaiting the next call to shunt here or detach there.

[trisonic]

Gordon S. posted a photo of the Liverpool Street pilot on here recently (it was beautiful) - 'course I can't find it now! It was replaced by an 08 in GER colours, I recall, which look a little odd - but cool too.

 

Best, Pete.

[bike2steam]

Reading pilots, in the days of steam usually 2 (one for the west end, one for the east ), and mostly Manors, and could occasionally be seen substituting for a failed express loco.

Bournemouth West pilots were mostly M7's, used on ECS in, and banking out (same as Waterloo), but Bomo West had a slight incline, and some trains, such as the Belle, would have struggled without help.

[Fat Controller]

Gordon S. posted a photo of the Liverpool Street pilot on here recently (it was beautiful) - 'course I can't find it now! It was replaced by an 08 in GER colours, I recall, which look a little odd - but cool too.

 

Best, Pete.

Between the J69s and the 08, Liverpool Street had a BTH Type 1 (Class 15)- this was always immaculate, which is probably an indication of the time it spent standing around. At the same period (late 1960s, when I visited the Great Wen for the first time), Waterloo had a Class 09, which lurked in the sidings where Waterloo International was built, whilst Paddington was just getting shot of its Class 22s and gaining 31s. I can't say I have any recollection of seeing pilots at St Pancras or Kings Cross.

[PhilJ W]

On my first visit to Liverpool St in 1960 or '61, the station pilot was a diminutive 0-6-0 tank, possibly a J69, painted in GER blue. It rather stood out against the new EE Type 4s and Brush Type 2s which actually ran the services. Station pilots typically spent a great deal of time stooging about, awaiting the next call to shunt here or detach there.

They also had an N7 that was also immaculate, I'm not sure if it was also GE blue or BR black. The J69 is the one now at the NRM.

[bike2steam]

Yes, Liverpool Street occasionally had 2 pilots, N7 + J69, at busy times it was one took care of the Cambridge (west) side, the other, the Ipswich/Southend (east) side.

http://www.time-capsules.co.uk/picture/number1304.asp

[Kenton]

Wasn't Weymouth another station where the pilot was also frequently used as a banker to get departing trains full of happy holidaymakers up and through Ridgeway Tunnel?

[James]

The J69 is the one now at the NRM.

Are you sure? I thought the preserved loco is 68633 not 68619?

[Oldddudders]

Yes, Liverpool Street occasionally had 2 pilots, N7 + J69, at busy times it was one took care of the Cambridge (west) side, the other, the Ipswich/Southend (east) side.

http://www.time-capsules.co.uk/picture/number1304.asp

My visit to Liv St, as befitted a skoolboy, was on a Saturday. Indeed, I ran into a boy from the year above mine, David, who admitted to being colour-blind and asked if the loco was blue! How cruel is that? The existence of another pilot elsewhere on the station cannot be contested. On a slightly later visit to Liv St, another friend and I found ourselves being given a conducted tour through D5545, an upgraded Brush Type 2. Walking through the loco, past the prime mover on tickover seemed quite daunting!

[bike2steam]

Wasn't Weymouth another station where the pilot was also frequently used as a banker to get departing trains full of happy holidaymakers up and through Ridgeway Tunnel?

Might have been, but there was a seperate allotted diagram for banker up to Bincombe, with the drop off point just after the tunnel onto a short siding between the main running lines, where it was held

before running back for it's next duty.

[Ian J.]

Of course, we shouldn't really forget that the upcoming O2s from Kernow had a spell as station pilots at Bournemouth Central

[EddieB]

Are you sure? I thought the preserved loco is 68633 not 68619?

 

You're right, the loco preserved as GER 87 was 68633 (built as Stratford no. 1249 of 1904).

 

The class 08 pilot painted GER Blue was 08 833. It wasn't the only 08 to perform such duties, for example I noted 08 541 and 957 at other times.

[Rivercider]

Bristol Temple Meads had 2 station pilots when I worked in Bristol TOPS 1978-1985. Both pilots were dual braked Class 08 shunters.

One was the East End pilot, and as well as shunting stock and parcel vans as previously described also shunted Bristol NCL depot, and

worked trips to Kingsland Road Yard and Barton Hill Shops. The other pilot (the West End pilot) also shunted Pylle Hill sidings and worked trips to

Malago Vale carriage sidings. Both pilots were semi-permanently attached to BR freight brake vans (TOPS code CAR), which I understood

was to help activate track circuits when out running mainline, also acting as shunters trucks and accomodation.

One one occasion on a saturday morning one of the vans that had been performing that duty for some time was required to go for repair or maintenance.

The pilot was parked up outside our office on the High Level sidings behind Bristol Panel Box building, and we watched as the contents were transferred into the replacement van.

As well as the obvious shunters poles, hand and tail lamps there was various papers, books, magazines and an armchair! I remember some one

in the office joking that next would probably be a standard lamp!

 

 

[Baby Deltic]

Between the J69s and the 08, Liverpool Street had a BTH Type 1 (Class 15)- this was always immaculate, which is probably an indication of the time it spent standing around. At the same period (late 1960s, when I visited the Great Wen for the first time), Waterloo had a Class 09, which lurked in the sidings where Waterloo International was built, whilst Paddington was just getting shot of its Class 22s and gaining 31s. I can't say I have any recollection of seeing pilots at St Pancras or Kings Cross.

 

D8234 features in a few shots as station pilot at Liverpool Street. A variety of loco types were used as station pilots at Kings Cross. Class 15, 24 and 31 seem to have been the most common.

[Pennine MC]

Thank you. I had guessed at that but the use of the word "Pilot" suggested other things as well.

 

 

It's maybe stating the obvious but you could just as easily talk of a yard pilot for moving wagons, a shed pilot for moving dead locos and those wagons which found their way into such places, or a carriage pilot which would be tasked specifically with duties in, to and from carriage sidings. It's an intriguing word, pilot, as well as the above it can also mean (as others have stated) either an assisting engine or a standby loco to cover for failures. I think it has also been used in the connection of a light engine running ahead of a Royal train

 

Gordon S. posted a photo of the Liverpool Street pilot on here recently (it was beautiful) - 'course I can't find it now! It was replaced by an 08 in GER colours, I recall, which look a little odd - but cool too.

 

 

The class 08 pilot painted GER Blue was 08 833. It wasn't the only 08 to perform such duties, for example I noted 08 541 and 957 at other times.

 

Before that there was 08531, which in the late 70s was painted what was effectively a smart version of green-with-TOPS (it was roughly contemporary with 40106)

 

To round out the Liverpool St info, 20s were also briefly used c1969; without checking dates, they were probably direct replacements for the 15s

[Baby Deltic]

 

To round out the Liverpool St info, 20s were also briefly used c1969; without checking dates, they were probably direct replacements for the 15s

 

I have seen pictures of a class 20 on station pilot duties at Liverpool Street. D8060 springs to mind. I think this was one of the class 20's in green livery with a carriage roundel on the side of the bonnet where the usual British Railways totem symbol would have been.

[sir douglas]

aren't pilots also for running round duties (e.g.) a train pulls into a platform, stopping the engine at the buffer, people get on and off, the pilot pulls the carraige back off the point (because engines aren't allowed to shunt carraiges with passengers inside), now the point is clear the engine can go off through the relaese road to the MPD for refueling and the pilot returns to t's place

[Pennine MC]

aren't pilots also for running round duties (e.g.) a train pulls into a platform, stopping the engine at the buffer, people get on and off, the pilot pulls the carraige back off the point (because engines aren't allowed to shunt carraiges with passengers inside), now the point is clear the engine can go off through the relaese road to the MPD for refueling and the pilot returns to t's place

 

 

 

Dont think you've quite thought this one through, matey - if the train engine isnt allowed to shunt with passengers on board, why does that not apply to the pilot as well? I'm also a tad bemused as to why folk would get *onto* a train when its loco was going for refuelling...