Quote:
Originally Posted by Russp
I remember being taught how do do that as a young secondman and being terrified that the generator would explode for some reason!
|
I was secondman on a class 26 working a ballast train outside Edinburgh Waverley. It developed a fault and I ended up holding the fuel rack open for about 30 minutes to stop it shutting down to get us back to the depot. My arms were knackered!
Class 26s (and 27s for that matter) were notoriously bad starters. 26s were easy, the starter was a trigger handle on the desk, use the fire extinguisher to hold that in the start position turning the engine over, go into the engine room and hold the fuel rack open. 27s required two of you, it had a start button, needed one to hold the button, one to hold the fuel rack. One driver I was on with on shed duties had a bad idea, he stuck a wheel scotch behind the fuel rack to hold it open, went into the cab, pressed the start button. When the engine fired the fuel rack would automatically open, it did that, the wheel scotch dropped down wedging the fuel rack in more or less in the full throttle position! I heard the engine roaring, went to investigate and it took the two of us to wrestle the wheel scotch back out before the engine blew up
