Where did the earliest main line Railways recruit their Drivers?

[corneliuslundie]

I was recently passed by Brian Poole some memos relating to the closure of Moat Lane and Llanidloes sheds. Some of them dealt with the redeployment of staff. The following two are relevant:

 

 

 

Jonathan

Edited May 25, 2018 by corneliuslundie

[Coppercap]

What you will find in the 1930s, in particular, is that in some parts of the inter-war years a lot of men were stood-off so it's quite understandable that they would go looking for work elsewhere.  Another thing, although probably not affecting the Footplate Line of Promotion, was that on the GWR Juniors were stood-off on reaching adult age if there was no job for them and would be taken back on when a suitable vacancy arose.

 

Yes, I came across records of many who were made redundant due to a downtrend in traffic (some were later re-employed), but before the 1930s some were showing as having resigned, with a note as to where they were moving on to. A popular move appears to have been into the growing motor industry.

[AMJ]

Many of the early locomotive crews will have started out working on the early industrial railways.

 

As you may be aware in 1812 the Middleton Railway was the first to commercially use steam locomotives rather than the static engine with rope haulage.

 

There will be some migration from static to mobile engines.

 

It will depend upon if a person working for an industrial line knows at the end of the day he'll be home compared to the mainline lodging turns as to what he wants in life.

 

Before the recommendation for no alcohol at the Middleton we had one of if not the first instance of a mobile engine boiler exploding. This was about 1813 and the locomotive crew were taking a break having a drink in a local hostelry and there was a failure.

 

Crews were also known to tamper with the early form of safety valves to run the boiler at a higher pressure. The various types of spring safety valves are designed to stop crew from tampering with them in traffic.

[Jim Martin]

I've been looking at the course descriptions of the University of York postgrad course in railway history (not because I plan to take it, but because I'm looking for reading suggestions). One of the modules they teach is "British Railway Workers, 1825-1921".  I imagine that the reading lists for that would provide some useful information on this subject

 

Jim

[stadman]

Liverpool - Manchester, sorry guv' don't sign the road.

[Trog]

I think some early drivers came from the engine manufacturers, the men sent out to assemble and test the engines being made an offer of a better paying job if they stayed.

[sir douglas]

I think some early drivers came from the engine manufacturers, the men sent out to assemble and test the engines being made an offer of a better paying job if they stayed.

 

at least in the mid to late 1800's when most people had no knowledge of machinery it was quite common for a works employee to go out with the loco/s to teach the locals how to drive and maintain and then end up staying because they're the most experienced ones at it

[Nearholmer]

Not sure whether or not age has been mentioned, but I believe that very early steam loco drivers were not the long-serving old-hands that we tend to think of, rather intelligent and reliable young men who might have some experience of managing boilers and engines in stationary applications.

 

Its easy to forget that railways were once 'new technology', which always tends to be the realm of the young, added to which perching on the exposed footplate of a little 2-2-0 in all weathers and operating under distinctly fallible systems of collision avoidance has the distinct look of being 'a young man's game'.

 

A scad through early accident enquiry reports would be a good way of finding out more.

[The Johnster]

The railway owes a huge debt to these young men; they were the ones who helped developed the original working methods and the first rules and regulations upon which operating is still based.  They went on to become inspectors, shed foremen, and superintendents that provided guidance and experience for the next generation.  When one considers the thought of working on an open footplate on a foul winter night, without even the physical work that the fireman was able to rely on to keep warm, peering ahead through the murk in case there was a red light in front (this was before absolute block, remember; you sent a train into a section and waited 5 minutes before sending the next one, and hoped for the best), it is difficult to believe that these were ordinary mortal men at all!

 

But they were; they made mistakes and paid for them with their own broken and smashed bodies, their attention wandered, exhaustion overwhelmed them.  Some were reckless, so it is not surprising that some were over-cautious, but they all did their best, sometimes against the reluctance of their employers to introduce basic safety measures (the LB&SC objected to absolute block because it thought it would impair the driver's desire to keep a good look ahead at all times, or was it really profit that motivated them?) (yeah, thought so).  Nerves of steel...

[adb968008]

A parallel is found in Stephenson's supply of Der Adler to the Bavarian State Railway. An experienced engineer (A Mr Wilson I think) went with the locomotive, to initially supervise assembly and commissioning into service and then to drive and maintain it, while training up the initial cadre of local railway employees as he did so.

I heard the same story, indeed the advance on that story was that the skills were so rare, that at the opening the crew were paid more than the companies directors.

 

Some parallel with the IT industry in the 1990’s,young kids, few people with skills, huge demand and get to travel the world.. over time it fades.

Edited August 8, 2018 by adb968008

[Compound2632]

I mentioned the Kirtley family earlier; another dynasty rooted in the earliest days of the Liverpool & Manchester was the Worsdell family. TW and Wilson's grandfather, Thomas Clarke Worsdell, built the first carriages for the L&M, along with Rocket's tender. He was already an established builder of road coaches; it was through his Quaker connections that his working relationship with George Stephenson was established. He went on to be locomotive, carriage and wagon superintendent of the first railway in Upper Saxony. It doesn't seem that that is connected with TW's later collaboration with August von Borries of the Prussian State Railways on compounding but the family certainly kept up an international outlook, as evidenced by TW's years at Altoona. Pennsylvania of course had historic Quaker connections, too. There's an excellent book on the family: The Worsdells: a Quaker engineering dynasty, by Geoffrey Hill (The Transport Publishing Company, 1991).