Bringing this rarely considered aspect of railway development to life are extracts, both fiction and fact, from authors as diverse as Arthur Conan Doyle and O. S. Nock, and a variety of illustrations from photographs and diagrams to paintings executed by the author especially for this book.

This uniquely fascinating book examines the railway ‘control interface’ between the driver on his footplate and the signalling systems designed to ensure his safety and that of his passengers. It takes the reader from the early tramways, plateways and rope inclines of the North East to the technology-breaking locomotives of Trevithick and Stephenson, and on through the 19th and 20th centuries to the present day. It considers the way the world of the enginemen and the rudimentary footplates on which they stood and the controls they operated gradually evolved, with concurrent advances in locomotive size and power, into the enclosed footplate and the modern-day driving cab. Also examined are the responsibilities of the driver in avoiding collisions when signalling was either non-existent or haphazard, ultimately leading to the introduction of continuous brakes, passenger communications systems, signal interlocking and the block system.

The positions of the footplate controls on various pre-Grouping railway companies are described and examined, and the perceptual tasks of the driver in terms of correctly sighting and interpreting the indications of lineside signals are reviewed in relation to the ergonomics of the footplate. In-cab signalling systems, both visual and aural, are also considered as part of the driver’s ‘view ahead’.

Bringing this rarely considered aspect of railway development to life are extracts, both fiction and fact, from authors as diverse as Arthur Conan Doyle and O. S. Nock, and a variety of illustrations from photographs and diagrams to paintings executed by the author especially for this book.

Leslie Coombs has been a regular contributor to railway magazines over many years, and is the author of several books on not only railway but also maritime and aviation subjects. He was involved with the ergonomics department of BR in the 1960s regarding the design of the then new HST control position. He lives in north London.