Pilot Engines

[Andy873]

Could someone explain to me please just what was a pilot engine during steam days?

For example, would they shunt stock around a station or yard? could they be used for banking duties?

Thanks,
Andy.

 

[Rescars]

There were two meanings of the term "pilot engine". This could refer to station pilots, (typically but not always small tank engines), which were used to shunt ECS, vans, etc around large stations. Alternatively, a "pilot engine" could be coupled to the train engine to double-head (mainly) heavy express trains to enable them to keep time, especially over routes with challenging gradients.

Double-heading was sometimes timetabled, but could on occasion occur if the train engine was under-performing and suitable assistance could be found from a convenient stabling point en route. This could lead to some unusual combinations of motive power and sometimes some unexpected main line experience for a relatively junior crew. The GWR was unusual in insisting that the pilot was sandwiched between the train engine and the train (rather than just being tied on in front), so that the designated driver of the train had the optimal view of the road ahead and kept control of the brakes.

Banking engines were required at some termini, because they were located at the base of significant gradients. Glasgow Queen Street is such an example. In these locations banking was often required. Others will know if there were designated banking locos in these locations, or if banking was part of the regular duties of the station pilots, the assistance being provided by the loco which had worked the empty stock into the platform in the first place.

 

[30907]

Just to add: it wasn't unusual for Station Pilots at intermediate stations to be main-line locos of a previous generation, with a view to providing the sort of cover Rescars describes.

ISTR that "Pilot (1,2,3....)" was also a designation for locos diagrammed for trip workings operating on an "as ordered" basis to sidings etc. "Target (1,2,3...)" was also used - but I can't remember which railways.

 

[Ken X]

Out of curiosity, would a banking engine at the rear of a train be coupled? It seems easier to shove a train up the gradient and then let it go on its merry way at undiminished speed, whilst the banking engine slows and returns to the bottom of the hill but I suspect it's not as easy as that.

 

[Gloster]

Out of curiosity, would a banking engine at the rear of a train be coupled? It seems easier to shove a train up the gradient and then let it go on its merry way at undiminished speed, whilst the banking engine slows and returns to the bottom of the hill but I suspect it's not as easy as that.

Off the top of my head, my feeling is that a banking engine at the rear would be coupled to it and only removed from the train at a signal box except where local instructions permitted otherwise. There were locations where locos on the rear would drop off and return to their starting point, but this would not be everywhere. The one thing you did not want is a misunderstanding leading to a loco running back wrong line while the next train is starting up the bank. Where it was permitted there would be appropriate regulations to ensure that all concerned knew what they were doing.

As a comment to the original query, there was a third use of the word pilot: a loco running one or two block sections ahead of a very important train, such as a Royal, to provide extra safety and security. This was not a common occurrence. It might be worth checking whether the L&Y had a specific definition of pilot, which might differ from other companies, but the ‘do whatever odd jobs are required’ duty around a station or its surrounding area is the most common.

 

[Railsigns]

I was only once aware of being on board a banked train, a West Highland Line service out of Glasgow Queen Street in the 1980s. After emerging from Queen Street Tunnel I popped my head out of the door window and was surprised to see a Class 27 assisting at the back of the train. When the top of the incline was reached, the banking engine slowed to a stand while our train continued on its way without stopping, so it obviously wasn't coupled. I wondered how many times I might have travelled on banked trains before without realising it.

 

[Sun Chariot]

The GWR was unusual in insisting that the pilot was sandwiched between the train engine and the train (rather than just being tied on in front), so that the designated driver of the train had the optimal view of the road ahead and kept control of the brakes.

Some of my favourite photos of 1960s Western Region's workings, are of a "pilot" hydraulic diesel - it just looks so incongruous, coupled behind the steam "train engine".

 

[zwk500]

Could someone explain to me please just what was a pilot engine during steam days?

For example, would they shunt stock around a station or yard? could they be used for banking duties?

Thanks,
Andy.

This rather old thread may be of interest:

What were the duties of a station pilot?

I've actually wondered this for a while. I assume one of such duties was shunting to make up a train or something.

www.railforums.co.uk

The Brighton Pilot could sometimes have the unusual duty of hauling a westbound loco-hauled departure northwards to Preston Park, due to the restrictive layout for the West Curve at Brighton.

 

[6Gman]

I'll add a further refinement re banking engines. In some places locos were coupled to the rear but were fitted with means to slip the coupling to be released from the train. Funnily enough I saw a photo yesterday of one of the BR Class 3 tender locos (77XXX) so fitted - basically just a long cable from the front coupling to the cab; all a bit Heath Robinson!

 

[Sun Chariot]

Off the top of my head, my feeling is that a banking engine at the rear would be coupled to it and only removed from the train at a signal box except where local instructions permitted otherwise.

The "Railway Roundabout" TV series has excellent footage of operations up Lickey incline. The banking engines were not coupled to trains; locos simply "dropped back" at Blackwell summit.

 

[D6130]

Out of curiosity, would a banking engine at the rear of a train be coupled? It seems easier to shove a train up the gradient and then let it go on its merry way at undiminished speed, whilst the banking engine slows and returns to the bottom of the hill but I suspect it's not as easy as that.

My earliest memories of Glasgow Queen Street in the late 1960s were of a pair of unrebuilt North British class 21s acting as coaching stock pilots/banking engines and they were fitted with a crude (Eastfield-made?) uncoupling device consisting of a stiff wire cable with a metal handle at its upper extremity, presumably operated by the secondman leaning out of the cab window and giving it a sharp upward yank. There is at least one photo of a loco fitted with such a device in Anthony Sayer's seminal history of the class 21 and 29 locos. In later days the banking engines were not coupled and dropped back once the rear of the train had cleared the top of Cowlairs incline.

On the three main West Coast Main Line inclines - Oxenholme/Grayrigg, Tebay/Shap and Beattock/Summit - the banking locos were never coupled AFAIR. In such circumstances, the banking loco had to start the train, using a series of coded whistles to communicate with the crew of the train engine.

 

[edwin_m]

I'll add a further refinement re banking engines. In some places locos were coupled to the rear but were fitted with means to slip the coupling to be released from the train. Funnily enough I saw a photo yesterday of one of the BR Class 3 tender locos (77XXX) so fitted - basically just a long cable from the front coupling to the cab; all a bit Heath Robinson!

A small number of Class 66 are* equipped with something similar to act as Lickey banking engines today.

*or at least were a few years ago.

On the three main West Coast Main Line inclines - Oxenholme/Grayrigg, Tebay/Shap and Beattock/Summit - the banking locos were never coupled AFAIR. In such circumstances, the banking loco had to start the train, using a series of coded whistles to communicate with the crew of the train engine.

The report below describes a fatal collision when a full train (plus banking engine) assisted a train ahead that was struggling, without being coupled up, and the two separated before colliding. Interestingly the quote uses the term "pilot" for the banking engine.

Report on the Collision that occurred on 18th May 1969 near Beattock in the Scottish Region British Railways :: The Railways Archive

Archive of UK railways documents

www.railwaysarchive.co.uk

Arrangements were then made for the 22.15 Euston to Glasgow express passenger train, consisting of 12 coaches including sleeping cars, with the Beattock pilot locomotive coupled to the rear, to be used to assist the Inverness train to Beattock Summit.

The Glasgow train was carefully brought up to the rear of the Inverness train, but the two trains were not coupled together prior to assistance being given. Shortly after the assisting movement commenced, the Inverness train pulled away, with the result that a gap of 6 to 10 yards developed between the two trains. After travelling approximately 400 yards, the Inverness train suddenly came nearly to a stand, with the result that the locomotive of the Glasgow train struck its rear at about 10 m.p.h.

 

[randyrippley]

On the three main West Coast Main Line inclines - Oxenholme/Grayrigg, Tebay/Shap and Beattock/Summit - the banking locos were never coupled AFAIR. In such circumstances, the banking loco had to start the train, using a series of coded whistles to communicate with the crew of the train engine.

you'd think it would have been more time-effective simply to double head all the way from Oxenholme to Carlisle

 

[zwk500]

you'd think it would have been more time-effective simply to double head all the way from Oxenholme to Carlisle

Time effective maybe but a lot of extra coal, water (probably not a concern in Cumbria), crew and locos.

 

[robert thomas]

There were two meanings of the term "pilot engine". This could refer to station pilots, (typically but not always small tank engines), which were used to shunt ECS, vans, etc around large stations. Alternatively, a "pilot engine" could be coupled to the train engine to double-head (mainly) heavy express trains to enable them to keep time, especially over routes with challenging gradients.

Double-heading was sometimes timetabled, but could on occasion occur if the train engine was under-performing and suitable assistance could be found from a convenient stabling point en route. This could lead to some unusual combinations of motive power and sometimes some unexpected main line experience for a relatively junior crew. The GWR was unusual in insisting that the pilot was sandwiched between the train engine and the train (rather than just being tied on in front), so that the designated driver of the train had the optimal view of the road ahead and kept control of the brakes.

Banking engines were required at some termini, because they were located at the base of significant gradients. Glasgow Queen Street is such an example. In these locations banking was often required. Others will know if there were designated banking locos in these locations, or if banking was part of the regular duties of the station pilots, the assistance being provided by the loco which had worked the empty stock into the platform in the first place.

My understanding is that the Great Western/BR western region requirement was that if a smaller engine was attached as a pilot it had to be coupled inside the larger engine. This was folowing a derailment at Loughor in 1904 when the smaller pilot engine derailed and was thought to have been pushed off the track by the larger engine. If a large engine was provided as pilot it stayed in front.

 

[The exile]

I was only once aware of being on board a banked train, a West Highland Line service out of Glasgow Queen Street in the 1980s. After emerging from Queen Street Tunnel I popped my head out of the door window and was surprised to see a Class 27 assisting at the back of the train. When the top of the incline was reached, the banking engine slowed to a stand while our train continued on its way without stopping, so it obviously wasn't coupled. I wondered how many times I might have travelled on banked trains before without realising it.

On West Highland trains out of Queen Street almost always. Using the loco that had brought the train in to bank it up to Cowlairs also got it out of the way as quickly as possible!
The last trains I was regularly banked on were the Cologne - Oostende trains - where if you were lucky you got the experience twice. Out of Aachen with DB diesels, then out of Liege with its dedicated banker (though other locos did sometimes appear)

 

[Whisky Papa]

Before reconstruction in the early 1990s, Manchester Victoria's station pilot used to stand on one of the through lines between platforms 11 and 12 (platform 11 being the current platform 3). In my teenage spotting years it was generally a Class 25, and I can recall seeing it assist an eastbound freight up Miles Platting bank just the once - in fairness, we didn't go to Victoria that often. Whether it was ever required for other station duties by this date I don't know.

In the years leading up to the station's reconstruction, when passing through occasionally with our young son, it was a Class 37 ('big-nose diesel') and eventually a Class 60 ('see-through diesel'). With these family visits usually being on a Saturday, I don't recall seeing it ever move.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Off the top of my head, my feeling is that a banking engine at the rear would be coupled to it and only removed from the train at a signal box except where local instructions permitted otherwise. There were locations where locos on the rear would drop off and return to their starting point, but this would not be everywhere. The one thing you did not want is a misunderstanding leading to a loco running back wrong line while the next train is starting up the bank. Where it was permitted there would be appropriate regulations to ensure that all concerned knew what they were doing.

There is a bell code 2-2-1 to advise the signalman at the next box that there is a banking engine - and therefore "train out of section" should not be given until that, as well as the train itself, has passed the box.

 

[Gloster]

There is a bell code 2-2-1 to advise the signalman at the next box that there is a banking engine - and therefore "train out of section" should not be given until that, as well as the train itself, has passed the box.

2-2-1 was the normal code for an empty coaching stock train. 2-2 was used to indicate a loco or locomotives assisting in rear (2-3-1 was used when the assisting loco had one or two brake vans), but only where authorised. (1972 Regulations.)

 

[norbitonflyer]

Station pilots were usually small shunting engines. Because they were very much in the public eye, they were kept in a much more presentable condition than most of their classmates, some even being given express passenger livery. The LNER, and later the Eastern Region, took particular pride in their presentation.

(lined green)

2-2-1 was the normal code for an empty coaching stock train. 2-2 was used to indicate a loco or locomotives assisting in rear (2-3-1 was used when the assisting loco had one or two brake vans), but only where authorised. (1972 Regulations.)

Mea culpa

 

[Taunton]

My earliest memories of Glasgow Queen Street in the late 1960s were of a pair of unrebuilt North British class 21s acting as coaching stock pilots/banking engines and they were fitted with a crude (Eastfield-made?) uncoupling device consisting of a stiff wire cable with a metal handle at its upper extremity, presumably operated by the secondman leaning out of the cab window and giving it a sharp upward yank. There is at least one photo of a loco fitted with such a device in Anthony Sayer's seminal history of the class 21 and 29 locos. In later days the banking engines were not coupled and dropped back once the rear of the train had cleared the top of Cowlairs incline.

On the three main West Coast Main Line inclines - Oxenholme/Grayrigg, Tebay/Shap and Beattock/Summit - the banking locos were never coupled AFAIR. In such circumstances, the banking loco had to start the train, using a series of coded whistles to communicate with the crew of the train engine.

I believe the components of the cable release device had been taken from the old North British N15 0-6-2T which used to do this work.

By the 1970s the Class 21, and the cable coupling, were long gone, and Class 27 were used as pilots bringing the stock to and fro, and assisting trains out. I used to watch the 0810 Aberdeen, hauled by whatever English-based Class 47 Eastfield could "borrow", depart from Platform 7. Crows on the horn back and forth, the 27 at the back would go to full throttle, and would be up to significant speed by the crossover onto the northbound line at the tunnel mouth, where it would rock and roll notably, doubtless exceeding the speed limit. Wonder how it felt in the last coach. They were unattached, and dropped off at Cowlairs..

 

[Rescars]

Some great examples of piloting and banking by small tank engines could be seen on the Folkestone Harbour branch. IIRC there were occasions when trains needed three tank engines at the front as well as a banker at the rear (normally SECR class R1). If there was a pilot and a train engine, then what was the third loco called, I wonder?

 

[eldomtom2]

The GWR was unusual in insisting that the pilot was sandwiched between the train engine and the train (rather than just being tied on in front), so that the designated driver of the train had the optimal view of the road ahead and kept control of the brakes.

My understanding is that the Great Western/BR western region requirement was that if a smaller engine was attached as a pilot it had to be coupled inside the larger engine. This was folowing a derailment at Loughor in 1904 when the smaller pilot engine derailed and was thought to have been pushed off the track by the larger engine. If a large engine was provided as pilot it stayed in front.

There was a long thread on RMWeb on this topic that got very heated. robert thomas seems to have got it mostly right from what I can tell, but it seems there were all sorts of exceptions.

(There was also strong umbrage taken at the use of "pilot engine" to mean the engine at the front of a double-headed train, but then again that same user takes umbrage at the rewriting oof the rulebook done in coordination with the Plain English campaign).

 

[furnessvale]

On the subject of bankers, I was talking to a retired driver the other day who told me of an occasion he was working a footex from Preston to Yorkshire via Copy Pit. His train emgine was an EE type 4 and approaching Gannow Jcn he saw another lone EEtype 4 sitting in the loop at Rose Grove, which he thought unusual. He waved at the driver, who waved back, then he set off, without stopping, up and over Copy Pit.

Only at his destination was he informed that the loco at Rose Grove had been specially sent from Newton Heath to bank him over Copy Pit

 

[Rescars]

There was a long thread on RMWeb on this topic that got very heated. robert thomas seems to have got it mostly right from what I can tell, but it seems there were all sorts of exceptions.

(There was also strong umbrage taken at the use of "pilot engine" to mean the engine at the front of a double-headed train, but then again that same user takes umbrage at the rewriting oof the rulebook done in coordination with the Plain English campaign).

I am happy to defer to the experts!

 

[norbitonflyer]

Banking engines not attached - Rev Awdry was usually pretty accurate in his description of railway operations (although he disapproved of some of the liberties taken by the TV series). In at least two of the stories banking engines are left behind by the train they are pushing, which obviously means they are not coupled, and in another the banker should have been uncoupled but wasn't.

Book 1 Edward banking Gordon up what became known as "Gordon's Hill"
Book 2 Thomas banking Gordon out of the station (and being towed unwillingly at high speed to the next station). Thomas's other duties, before he got his own branch line, were typical of those of station pilot.
Book 27 Duck banks Henry - after Duck drops back, the train slows down and Duck runs into it

Knowing Awdry's attention to detail, all of these are likely to be based on real incidents.

Yes, I do have a child I used to read these stories to over and over again. I can still remember them, although the child in question is now nearly as old as I was then!

 

[Efini92]

Before reconstruction in the early 1990s, Manchester Victoria's station pilot used to stand on one of the through lines between platforms 11 and 12 (platform 11 being the current platform 3). In my teenage spotting years it was generally a Class 25, and I can recall seeing it assist an eastbound freight up Miles Platting bank just the once - in fairness, we didn't go to Victoria that often. Whether it was ever required for other station duties by this date I don't know.

In the years leading up to the station's reconstruction, when passing through occasionally with our young son, it was a Class 37 ('big-nose diesel') and eventually a Class 60 ('see-through diesel'). With these family visits usually being on a Saturday, I don't recall seeing it ever move.

The train crew were probably in the staff club or the muckmans.
There was tales of some drivers coming through as fast as they could on the freight to try and beat the wall side pilot to the top of miles platting.

 

[Andy873]

Thanks all for your replies, they make for fascinating reading.

Could we define a pilot engine by saying something like... A pilot engine is generally a shunting engine with sufficient power to not only shunt stock but also able to provide assistance should a train require it?

With regard to banking / assisting:

The "Railway Roundabout" TV series has excellent footage of operations up Lickey incline. The banking engines were not coupled to trains

A wonderful video, thanks for the link to it, a great watch.

Station pilots were usually small shunting engines. Because they were very much in the public eye, they were kept in a much more presentable condition than most of their classmates, some even being given express passenger livery. The LNER, and later the Eastern Region, took particular pride in their presentation.

Some beautiful photos there of shunters, nice, clean and shiny.

Weren't most banks protected by catch points?

I was wondering about the assisting engine stopping as the train carried on, now if you're going to take the engine back down the bank (wrong running) you would have to know exactly where those catch points were, providing you can manually work them otherwise you're going to derail.

My OP is a general one and I don't want to harp on about my old line but I have some details that I suspect were common around the country:

1. Typically WD's or Crabs would work Padiham goods yard. These, especially the Crabs would also wait at the entrance to the yard for a train needing assistance.

2. A sectional appendix quotes another line where "the driver of the train needing assistance should slow down as to allow the assisting engine to catch up". This was true also of the Padiham branch. The appendix goes on to say "the assisting engine to leave train at Rose Grove West (signal box)".

3. There are some notes about engine movements around Rose Grove from 1905. It describes a "pilot engine" booked to shunt on the Rose Grove Up grid sidings, later it goes on banking duties then returns for shunting again.

It seems the term of pilot engine has been around a good while, which makes you wonder where and when did this term first appear.

 

[Magdalia]

It seems the term of pilot engine has been around a good while, which makes you wonder where and when did this term first appear.

The origin of the word pilot is maritime, and predates the advent of the railway. A pilot provides safe passage through dangerous channels and currents to get ships in and out of harbours. Railway usage borrows from the maritime origin and probably goes back almost to the beginning of railway history.

 

[Ken X]

Firstly, apologies to Andy873 for a bit of thread drift, I was idly pondering banking procedures and thought I would ask. It was interesting to see the replies and learn about Pilot engines as well. Looks like it was a broad church of applications according to local requirements.