THE ENGLISH ENGINE DRIVER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4455, 30 June 1875, Page 3

THE ENGLISH ENGINE DRIVER.

(From the Hallway News.) It is one of the most singular facts connected with modem literature that the deep and striking poetry of the rail and the locomotive has never yet inspired any man of genius to sing it forth to the world. Probably it is a consequence of the classical training of modem youth. Our poets get mad over the achievements of Greeks and Romans, over the Isthmian and other games, and seem absolutely blind to the fact that the things which put them into ecstasies are quite childish compared with the everyday marvels of the age we live in. No doubt “distance lends enchantment to the view;” still the Greek charioteer who, standing on a very rickety two-wheeler, whips the horses along in the Olympian races is at best a prosaic figure when placed in_ contrast to an enginedriver on any of our great lines of railway. The fire horse of our modern steam charioteer is infinitely more majestic than the noblest stallion seen in old Greece, and the speed at which he flies through the air is, compared with the Isthmian games, as the eagle’s flight is to the crawling of the snail. In simple truth there is scarcely anything done by human beings that approaches, in daring, in true and' absolute heroism, to the hurling of an express train through space at the rate of a mile a minute and more, a speed far superior to the velocity of the hurricane. The master of the locomotive, though perhaps not willing himself to be a hero of romance, is for all that a very real, if quiet and unassuming, hero. There is something most manly, firm, and of the true heroic about all engine drivers, more especially those who have seen many years of service, and are trusted with fast and express passenger trains travelling long distances. Engine drivers of the latter class are seldom under forty years of ago ; and being picked men, fully conscious of the immense responsibility of their position, and accustomed to look with clear eye and unflinching nerve upon danger and death, daily braving the elements in the execution of their duty, they are, as a rule, singularly calm and self-possessed. The pay of the highest class driver, a senior in all respects, is from 7s, to 7s. 6d. per day ; 7s. 6d. is the maximum on moat of our smaller railways, notably those south of the Thames ; but the maximum is considerably surpassed in the pay given to the moat trusted engine drivers on the great lines running northward and westward from London, and the trains of which are unsurpassed for speed and excellence. The Great Western Company give the high pay of 11s. per day, besides a bonus of £lO per annum to a few veterans in the service, drivers of expresses. The lls., among others, is the “ compensation of tho dauntless,” iron-sinewed charioteers who drive the “ Fly- _ ing Dutchman,” the fastest train in the world, from London to. Bristol. On most of our great lines of railway, the hours of duty of the engine driver, like the hours of the guard, vary from day to day. The driver generally follows a time bill under the regulations of which every week day gives him a different train, with additional changes on Sundays, the whole so arranged that he has alternately day and night duties, and has besides about one half of the Sundays in the year for days of rest. Experience, the guiding principle in all railway management, has shown that this system is tho best that can bo made, and it is certain that, as it works well, so it gives thorough satisfaction to the drivers, more especially to those best able to form a judgment, the veterans of the service.

Considering the extremely fatiguing nature of bis duties, his exposure to the rain and wind, and all the extremes of heat and cold, and the wear and tear of mental anxiety he has constantly to undergo, and which reaches a climax when snow and fog, his great enemies, obstruct his outlook, the work of the engine driver is truly astounding as to its extent and amount. The average distance travelled over by the drivers of passenger trains on our smaller lines, as representative of which the South-eastern may be taken, is 800 miles a- week, or about 40,000 miles a year ; but this average is far surpassed by the drivers of the great express trains on the lines north of the Thames. A careful calculation of the distances travelled by the Great Western driver, whose time bill has been analysed, shows that in the course of one year, commencing November 4, 1873, and ending November 3, 1874, he hauled his trains, often at express speed, over 66,323 miles .of ground, being an average of 1,256 miles per week. It seems terrible work, still the veteran here referred to, upwards of twenty-two years in the service of the Great Western, testifies,- with many others, to the fact that the exertions gone through, great as they are, do not only not affect the health of a strong man with good nerves, but fortify his constitution, so as to harden it against age and disease. It is certain that engine drivers, as a class, look extremely florid and healthy, and mostly younger than they really are. No doubt they get abundance of ozone into their lungs; and if they will only stave off the enemy rheumatism by good flannel armor and temperance—the latter universal among the best drivers, not a few of whom are teetotallers — they have as much chance of living to the age of Methuselah as any of the most favored classes of the community, including country parsons. Besides, great as are the physical hardships which the engine driver has to undergo, there is some compensation for it, as for most things, in a corresponding feeling of elation, which no habit can altogether destroy, from flying through space with enormous swiftness. If Dr. Samuel Johnson held it the greatest joy of human life to travel in a post coach with four horses at the rate of twelve miles an hour, the man who rides the Flying Dutchman must surely feel at times, if not always, a joy of superhuman intensity by getting through space five times as fast—at a greater rate of velocity, indeed, than anything that ever moved on the face of the earth, except a cannon ball. There are men of birth and education, who, properly trained, act occasionally as engine drivers —a well-known instance of the kind exists on one of our southern lines —and they confess that there is an excitement and a charm that nothing can excel, in the riding of a fire horse. It may be said of the engine driver, as of no other mortal man ; “He hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm.”