Chapter 4 - Work on the Railways - Rail, Tram and Bus Union of NSW

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*On Wooden Rails <strong>Chapter</strong> 4 8/30/05 8:25 PM Page 118 On Wooden Rails - Celebrating 150 Years of <strong>Work</strong> on the NSW Railways In addition to watching the road ahead, and keeping a close watch on steam and air pressure, and water levels, the driver had to skillfully operate the regulator, the valve wheel or lever, and the brake valve. Notching up the gear and opening the regulator at speed on the level, then approaching a bank and gradually opening the valve gear to increase valve travel and tractive effort, maintaining the right compression and listening to the familiar sound and beat of the pistons, and keeping the emission of steam through the smoke box in correct proportion, then determining and utilising the right brake pressure. These were all a routine part of keeping the locomotive running and stopping smoothly and without incident. “It soon became apparent to an experienced driver whether or not he had been allocated a good fireman. Likewise a fireman soon discovered whether or not he was firing for a good driver, one who handled the locomotive in a way that did not make the fireman’s job too difficult. …..If the driver worked a locomotive too hard up a bank and used so much steam that the water level fell and, if the fireman had to start up the second injector to maintain water level, the situation would rapidly worsen.” 12 Firing the engine, like any job required its own knowhow, and was required to be ‘lit up’ by the fire-lighter’s mate several hours before the locomotive was due out on the road. The fire would be established before the fireman arrived. The fireman would sign the shed register, then make his way to the engine to check its fire, water gauge and sand box (the sand was used for braking and traction). He would then clean out the ash pan and make sure that the lamps were cleaned and 118 trimmed. The main duty of firing required its own skills, and would need to build and maintain different types of fires for different engines and loads. “The firing of a railway locomotive is a job of precision and a highly developed skill rather than of heavy manual labour. There are no more than a few pounds of coal in each shovelful conveyed into the firebox through a fairly narrow door, and it needs practice before you acquire the knack.” 13 Ray Cross describes the work in the cab of a steam train simply as “spartan, hot and dirty – a normal routine would be that you’d sign on, get your kit (kerosene lamps ,flare lamps, shovel and bucket, marker lamps), the fireman would oil it, get under the engine and oil it…driver would go around the engine check it, put her on the turntable – clean the cab – with cloth and kerosene, wash it down with soap and water, hose it off. I used to get phenol out of the stores for the glass.” 14 Both Ray Cross, who started in 1959 and Bruce Heinzel, in 1966 (and fired for Ray ) agreed that what makes a good driver –is not only someone who knew the road and the loco but a “bloke who looked after his firemen…. there are drivers and drovers – if you didn’t look after your fireman you’d defeat yourself – ‘podgers’ would flog their fireman – Bruce and I spent 12 years working together. It’s a close relationship”. The mechanics may have changed in time, and the cabs may be more comfortable. The cabs of modern locomotives may not be noisy and draughty, or filled with coal dust and ride like a mountain goat, but the skills and know how in operating them remains as high as they ever were. If people believe that the job on the footplate is easy or without high risk, requiring a vigilance and an intimate understanding of the loco, the track, the load and various other factors, they simply don’t understand the job. They don’t understand the intricacies and expertise involved in properly and effectively operating these beasts on a regular basis in ways that protect the machine and its passengers or cargo, keep it on the track and safely on its journey Mark Sheargold, now working for Pacific National (previously FreightCorp) in the Hunter Valley doing coal freight work, provides some cautionary reflections on recent past conditions and changes. “In terms of conditions – how quickly we forget – now hours are regulated. When I first went to Broadmeadow, I worked 84 consecutive days without a day off. 12 Eric Adam, No Fear of Change: Or Learning to Live with change, Iron Horse Press, Sydney, 2001 p43 13 N. McKillop – How I became an Engine Driver, London 1953, p 13 14 Ray Cross, op.cit. <strong>Chapter</strong> 4 - <strong>Work</strong> on the Railways
*On Wooden Rails <strong>Chapter</strong> 4 8/30/05 8:25 PM Page 119 Trains were pulling 600 tons, and now haul up to 11,000 tons, the work has been segregated into business groups and the number of workers has gone from about 780 train crew to now about 290. Job itself hasn’t changed much – empty coal train fill it and return – but the way we do it has changed – one man crewing will change it further – also the interactions between crews has changed over this time – you don’t have the meal room discussions we used to have – with 30 or 40 people – now lucky if you see 3 or 4 people per shift. Its more isolated, and workers are possibly more guarded than previously.” Peter Sawtell, CountryLink Xplorer driver from Werris Creek, who recently celebrated 50 years on the job, remembers the thriving activity around Werris Creek when it employed hundreds of rail workers. He also remembers some of the old conditions, such as one week in 1967when he worked 132 hours in the week and received $192 for his trouble. 15 A lot of the older drivers make the point that the current lot don’t know they’re alive, with air conditioning and CDs. They recall the dust and the heat and the discomfort, both in the cab and the barracks. There are accounts of the extreme heat in the cabs, well over 100 degrees, the hot winds, matched by equally extreme cold conditions. Many recall the barracks either being too hot or too cold to ever be comfortable, and often having to wrap clothing around their feet to keep warm at night. Becoming a Competent Driver I have theorised elsewhere that a truly competent and expert worker is one that not only has the training and acquired skills, knowledge and know-how, but has an instinctive or intuitive feel or sense for the work. This is in contrast to some of the minimalist concepts of mediocrity as competency in vogue in much of contemporary vocational education and training. This theory seems to come to full living dimensions with most jobs on the railways, and a better example could not be provided by the progression to the footplate. Not everyone in the job becomes a ‘good’ driver, just as not every practising GP becomes a ‘good’ doctor. There are attributes that set the two aside – what a number of drivers and others have described matter-of-factly as the drivers and the drovers. The recent Minister for Transport Services and former trainee engineman, Michael Costa scoffs at the idea of the time taken to fully join the driver’s ranks. He 15 Northern Daily Leader, January 31, 2005 16 Interview with Michael Costa, June 2005 On Wooden Rails - Celebrating 150 Years of <strong>Work</strong> on the NSW Railways maintains that it is mostly a self-serving craft protection to justify status and wages. He views the time taken to qualify as a driver, compared to some of the practices and skill levels demonstrated on the job, as a ‘joke’, or by implication a ‘rort’. He cites examples of this from his brief time in the industry, and claims that the changes to driver competency qualifications under his stewardship as Minister were a necessary and overdue reform. “When I started as a trainee engineman, it took up to seven years to qualify, …the first twelve months were spent cleaning,… ‘made you a better engineman’– I just couldn’t accept this …the enginemen tended to be the white Anglos – I was firing for blokes with the attitude of ‘elitism’ and stories about how they were a level of a crown sergeant of police,… there was a real culture around that stuff, a lot of blokes I was with were straight out of the steam era.“ 16 It should be noted that this practice of lengthy advancement from cleaner to qualified driver served a number of purposes. Certainly it bestowed a status as the ‘aristocracy of the ranks’ among the relatively well paid drivers. More importantly, and well in advance of the modern management enthusiasm for ‘workplace flexibility and multi-skilling’ it provided the employer with a pool of workers that could be used for a range of <strong>Chapter</strong> 4 - <strong>Work</strong> on the Railways 119
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