Interview about a twenty year career on the railways including work as a driver instructor.
John Wilde recalls starting on the railways and progress to fireman and then driver. He describes the training and tests for trainee drivers. During training he lectured to the Mutual Improvement class for firemen; this experience led to him becoming a Driver Instructor when diesels and electrics were introduced. Talking of the change from steam to diesel and electric, he comments: ‘you didn’t realise at the time what an important or mammoth step it was’; he describes the move to single manning of trains. He drove ‘just about everything that there was on the railways’. His disappointment with having to return to driving shunting engines after his period as instructor led him to leave the railways in 1968, which he now regrests. He talks of friends made through his work, and the darts teams; he was a Union member, and regarded it as important. Other items he comments on are the dangers for drivers and firemen in the steam engine cab and the use of a simulator for training drivers at Willesden.
Creator
Wilde, John
Contributor
Pistell, Bernard
Reference number
WLM/043/001
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