Turn 148 - Driver Training on the DMU

Finally, the day I’ve been looking forward to for weeks comes around - my first NNR driving lesson. OK, it’s not a steam engine (but I get to drive those pretty regularly) but it is the first turn I can properly call driver training, and it will enable me to get some extra experience and more learning done sooner than waiting for the time when (if) I’m invited to train for driving steam.

Anyone who reads my blogs will know I get pretty enthusiastic about stuff, and want to live and breath it all - that’s why I have four Ariels and still hanker for more. This is the daily rider:

It’s a 1942 350cc machine, which spent most of it’s 71 years in Italy until I brought it back to the UK in 2016.

That enthusiasm for old-tech inevitably gets directed at other old stuff with wheels and an engine (internal or external combustion, I’m not fussed). I’d been given the traction handbooks - the owner’s manual in effect, and that was a chance to get some background on how these DMUs work - the engines, fluid flywheel, gearboxes, freewheel and final drive along with the electro-pneumatic control system that looks after it all - not forgetting the twin-pipe quick release vacuum brake system.

 Fitter Dave was around before prep started and we had a walk through underneath together (forgetting to put a 'Not to be Moved' board on the unit - a big no-no). This was good chance for me to see all the big bits and to check the final drive oil levels.

Driver Daniel and I worked through the prep pages in the Traction Handbook, and we left the yard for Sheringham to collect the guard and the stock for the buffet. One element of DMU prep is that the driver, who is usually flying solo has to prep the guards area and the passenger areas and having done this in the yard he hands over responsibility for these areas to the guard when the guard joins the train.

Our first trip was an Empty Coaching Stock move from Sheringham to Holt. During the Induction Day, Driver Daniel had told us that this move has to be signed off in your Driver Training Schedule before you are allowed to driver passenger trains - so I drove this trip, and Driver Dan signed me off when we washed up at the end of the turn.

I observed Dan for the rest of the day, watching what gears he used, how he used the quick-release vacuum brakes and how he used the ‘lap’ position. At the end of the day, I drove the ECS move from Sheringham to Weybourne.

I was a bit slow, it has to be said, but you get the hang of it. The stops were mostly OK, some were a bit sudden but it's easier than five Mk1s and a CCT with a heavy loco on the front. For the record, the 2-car DMU set weighs 58 tonnes.

A few notes from the first lesson:

• The trip up to Holt with this Midland power car and the Eastern trailing unit needs gears 1 and 2 - you don't need gear 3. You must let the revs drop completely before changing up, and you must always pause the throttle in notch 2 (there are four notches) before you speed up.
• The release pipe has a high vacuum and is there to allow the brakes to come off quickly. When you take the brakes off using the vacuum from the release pipe, the vacuum in the release pipe will drop - if it equalises with the train pipe and the brakes are still not off, you are going to have to put it in neutral and sit tight, speeding up the exhausters to get the brakes off. 
• Engine failures mean you are going to lose control air pressure and without that none of the controls will work (this is why you have to use local engine start in the morning). If you break down and need a tow, you will have to use the last of your air pressure to set the final drives in the right direction.
• If you're driving alone, there's a few things that you will do a little differently - for example if you break down, you will have to look after the train protection yourself - there's no fireman or second man to take the flags, lamps or tablet for you. If you are using the Long Section Staff to get into the yard, you are going to leave staff in ground frame, drive in, then go and get it - there is no-one to help you. 

Like most diesel services, disposal is a breeze. Switch it off, shut the windows, lock the doors and check it over. Drain the air receiver and you are about done. 

I can see this new activity is going to force me to learn drivers rules - there is a fair bit I don't know or don't know very well. I'm sure the technicalities of driving the DMU are going to come reasonably quickly - it is certainly easier than juggling the demands of a steam engine so I will have to put some effort into getting the rules questions signed off.

Next turn - back to steam with a Fish & Chip service in a couple of days.