Turn 154 - DMU Driver Training

It's been a busy week, but this turn is a bit less physical as it's a DMU Driver Training turn on the newly turned out M56182 driving trailer, restored and owned by the Birmingham Railcar Group. It's a beautiful thing:

The driving desk is a little different from the Class 101 railcars we are used to, but in detail only. All the usual controls are there.

In my previous driver training turn Inspector Dan signed me off for driving passenger trains, and I started this turn by taking the empty coaching stock down to Sheringham to collect the guard and the provisions for the buffet and then back up to Holt.

Later, while Driver Rod in the front I took a trip with the guard to establish the difference in his activity compared to operating a loco-hauled train. Essentially:

• at the beginning of the day the guard is briefed on the state of the train (windows & doors working, all equipment in the guards van present) by the driver, as the driver prepares the train before the guard arrives.
• after confirming with the platform staff that their duties are complete he uses the buzzer to signal the 'right away' to the driver - two pushes on the buzzer, which are acknowledged with a further two pushes by the driver.
• when there is a request stop, the guard takes no action with the driver - there is no flag signal at all. If there is no request stop, the guard gives two pushes on the buzzer (the 'green flag' signal) which the driver acknowledges to tell him not to stop - so the driver's default action is to stop at every request stop unless told not to.

Guard Ron signed that off on my DMU Traction Training schedule. 

DMU turns have a lot of sitting around, because of course you don't have to run around, stop for water or pull coal forward. I spent the time working on my DMU Theory assessment:

Driver Rod is very knowledgeable on DMU technology. I learned that there is a final drive dog position indicator:

I drove my first DMU passenger train as the 4th round trip:

Top tips - while you can hold the train with the brake handle in the lap position at 15" Hg, the vacuum will rise and the brakes will come off. The DMU, and particularly the 104 DTCL, rolls very easily and if you are not careful the train will move with the doors open.

Driver Rod signed a lot of stuff on my Diesel Driver Training Schedule. There's a lot more to do, particularly route knowledge in parts of the railway I hardly visit, and then there is all the DMU preparation to work on.

At the end of the day, I drove ECS to shed and assisted in the disposal of the unit. Next week I have a firing turn, then a Second Man turn, then several more firing turns in October - and then we are into the Norfolk Lights service and Santas.

That might be the last DMU training before next year.