GWR- a research project

[LMS2968]

We live in a target-driven age. Ask anyone in teaching, the NHS, the police, marketing, anything really. And we know that in all these occupations methods are found to make it appear that the targets are being met, because failure to do so invariably leads to a penalty of some sort. Exactly the same happened in the 1920s on the LMS, and it followed through to BR.

 

I think the target availability, and this was for each shed, was 80% or even 85% of the loco stock, 'available' meaning the engine was able to work traffic that day. But scheduled maintenance, P&V Exams, washouts, etc. would take an engine out of traffic for a minimum period which could extend over several days, and this counted against the shed's availability statistics, and dealing with on the road failures added to it.

 

But if an engine was 'available' for apart of that day, midnight to midnight, then it was counted as available on that day and this would not count against a shed or shedmaster. So an engine comes in for a 36,000 mile exam, P&V, motion repairs, etc., and these will take three days. That's three days unavailable. Or is it?

 

The engine will be stopped just after midnight, which means it was available for part of the first day, so that day counts as available. The night shift fitters start dismantling and hand over to the day shift at knocking off time. Throughout the following day the engine is in pieces so unavailable. The following day, the fitters start to reassemble the engine and the night shift finish it off before midnight. The engine was therefore 'available' on the third day. So you have a situation where the engine was in practice out of traffic for maybe ten minutes short of 72 hours but was unavailable for only one day!

 

An engine is proposed for shopping, but the proposal is rejected with a recommendation to resubmit after, say, another 1,500 miles. But the Running Foreman daren't let this engine into traffic as it will almost certainly fail on the road, another black mark against the shed. So the engine is given shed duties, moving coal wagons and dead engines around. A similar engine in good nick is working a 200 mile parcels that day with similar return the following one. Strangely, this engine is actually booked during those two days as working on shed, while the engine awaiting repairs has, on paper, run two parcels trains over 400 miles.

 

People learn to cook the books. Have a read of Dick Hardy's many articles. It's amazing what went on!

[Joseph_Pestell]

Ron/Connor

 

I well understood that it was a high-school project, hence my comments about it being a big old task.

 

People have had PhDs on the back of self-set questions as apparently simple, but actually very deep, as that one.

 

Kevin

Simple questions nearly always require complicated answers.

 

If you want a simple answer, ask a complicated question.