Railway Engineering; A Driver’s Eye View

Presenter: Andy Grimmett

Physical Meeting at Shenfield Parish Hall

Andy gave a rather unusual but interesting presentation to 30 plus members for our first physical meeting of the year.

He started on the railway at Stratford in 1974, initially on a signallers’ course, but within a fortnight this course was closed, so Andy opted for the driving course. By 1979 he had qualified as a driver and progressed through the links driving a large variety of traction. With the partial closure of Stratford depot in 1994, he moved to Ilford car sheds where he stayed until retirement in 2020. Very wisely Andy retained his ticket to drive diesels and was regularly assigned to weekend work on engineering trains.

He became interested in the variety of equipment used to maintain the system and gave copious examples of all the types he had encountered in his work and on his visits countrywide in his quest to find more obscure types.

For the uninitiated, Andy explained the FISHKND nomenclature associated with engineering vehicles and enlightened us to the subtle differences between Whales and Catfish, Salmon, Turbot and Clams to mention but a few!

A thoroughly entertaining and interesting evening and well received.