Fans' chance to take to the footplate (From Darlington and Stockton Times)
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Fans' chance to take to the footplate
1:00pm Tuesday 5th March 2013 in News By Stuart Minting
DIESEL SKILLS: Noel Hartley instructs Stefanie Browne on how to drive the engine and below, Mr Hartley on the footplate of the restored 09017 diesel
VINTAGE train enthusiasts are being offered the chance to drive a locomotive as part of an event to mark the 50th anniversary of English electric diesel engines.
The National Railway Museum, in York, will be able to tour the cabs of three shunters on display in the South Yard, and can pay £15 to drive one on Saturday or Sunday (March 9-10).
The footplates will be manned by volunteers who will explain how diesel-electric engines work and talk about their experiences driving them.
When passenger rides on class 08 shunter No 08064, which was built 60 years ago at Darlington Works, No 08911 Matey, and on a former emergency rescue locomotive for the Severn Tunnel, have finished for the day, visitors will be invited to photograph the shunters.
A museum spokesman said: “They may not have the glamour of their showy steam counterparts, but diesel-electric shunters have been keeping the railways running for more than half a century.
”The shunters in our collection are the unsung heroes of the railways so it’s only fitting that they get their well-deserved turn in the limelight.”
