Turn 105 - Second Man on the Class 31

 We're in the middle of a heatwave, over 35°C in the middle of the country and in the low 30's here in Sheringham and in deference to the fire risks and the discomfort steam crews endure in the heat, the railway is running diesel-only services for a few days. Those of us lucky enough to be rostered firing turns are therefore moved into the Second Man's seat on the diesel replacement services.

Today, it's a red services and I am on the 'B' loco crew. On this diagram, the steam loco does the first three trips and the diesel loco or DMU does two more trips after the steam service is finished; today, we are doing all five round trips.

Driver Tony and I are rostered to the M&GN JRS Class 31 number D5631, built by Brush Traction at Loughborough and delivered to Norwich Shed (32a) in 1960.

The day starts with loco prep, but this is very different from the cleaning and lighting up that we would do on a steam loco - it's limited to level checks of the engine, exhausters, compressors and turbochargers by torchlight (put one in your pocket next time) followed by brake testing and fuelling.

Here's the Drivers desk

And here's why you can drive these things solo - the field of view is enormous.

We did five round trips, with me, the Second Man, doing all the hooking off & on, tablet exchange & tea runs.

The running around procedure is a bit different from a steam engine - whilst the Driver can change ends to go in either direction, he doesn't want to do that three times to run around, so the Second Man takes the rear cab when pulling away from the train, switches the points in the head shunt, acts as the Shunter on the run around, signalling the Driver to move forward until the Driver is past the crossover at the end of the run around, when he is at the correct end again to go onto the train. He only has to change ends once, when you are tied on to go back.

The Second Man has the clear view, but there's no driver!

Coming onto the train, the driver is at the front and the Second Man is at the back again:

Back in Sheringham at the end of service, Train A is already in Platform 1 so we leave our train outside the box. The station pilot pulls it in to let the passengers off:

Now it's my turn to drive, but first I set the head code for the last time using the banners:

I take the loco up to Weybourne and into the yard. My first drive of a Diesel Electric!