Crew

[essdee]

Kilmersdon pug 1969 had Herbie and Nelson Loader; father and son team!

Steve

[John Palmer]

Herbie was, of course, perfectly capable of running the Kilmersdon Peckett single handed and on occasion used a novel firing technique that consisted of feeding the box with coal too big to fit through the firehole door. The offending boulder would be positioned adjacent to the door and Herbie would kick it until enough corners had been knocked off for it to go in. Thus was born the expression 'Herbie lumps'.

Looking at pictures of Y9s shunting Leith Docks it's apparent they were crewed by both a driver and fireman. I imagine that any proposal to introduce single manning would have attracted opposition from the NUR and ASLEF, and management may well have regarded a dock shunting turn as one on which a passed cleaner could cut his teeth with little at stake if the job went wrong.

[allanferguson]

The fireman had numerous jobs to do apart from shovelling coal.

Allan F

[shipbadger]

Industrial lines apart, as far as I am aware the first trial of single manning was with one of the USA tanks on the Southern Region. Can't remember which off hand, may have been at Redbridge sleeper works, but I'm sure somebody will put me right. The USA tanks also had a another novel feature being fitted with two way radios when working at Southampton.

Tony Comber

[Noel]

Not disagreeing with the previous comments, but it was not unknown for some industrial locos to work with a driver as the only footplate crew, possibly with a shunter allocated as well. Not all industrial locos were that busy. Fireless locos were a special case, of course...