I did a driver experience course on 37 215 at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway in October 2004. There were three of us on the course that day, together with the instructor, the secondman and the guard who travelled in the short rake of mk1 stock. Except for the guard, the stock remained empty all day.




We started at about 09.30 when we met Richard, our instructor for the day, in the car park at Toddington station. He led us over to 37 215 which was already ticking over in a siding in front of the signal box. After we all climbed aboard the loco he spent 20 minutes or so to explain basically all the controls and gauges on the instrument panel. Shortly afterwards he drive the loco through the station into the headshunt where our rake of stock was waiting.




After the secondman had coupled us to the stock we were ready to actually start driving the loco ourselves. From then on, all the driving that day, including running round the stock, was done by the three of us who were on the course. We were obviously under the watchful eye of our instructor. He did have to tell us to slow down a bit on several occasions! We made six return trips between Toddington and Winchcombe and had to be signalled in between steam trains which were operating passenger severices that day.




Not ever having driven a train before, it was interesting to feel how the loco responded when I operated the controls. There was a delay between actuating the brake valve and actually feeling the application take effect. It was explained that this was because of the time taken for the vacuum brakes to apply from the back of the train first. The loco was a lot more responsive when running light engine. It was a brilliant day. As well as enjoying the chance to drive the loco, I was very impressed by the friendly and informal nature of the course and would really recommend it to anybody who wanted to have a go at driving a BR diesel locomotive.

Andrew Bartlett.