Roland Ruffell began his railway career in 1942 when, just over 15 years old, he joined the LNER as a cleaner at Hornsey Depot in North London. He was passed for firing duties the following year, became a regular fireman in 1945, and transferred to King’s Cross ‘Top Shed’ in 1948, the year of the ‘Locomotive Exchanges’, in which his father, a Top Shed fireman, was involved. Roland was passed for driving duties in 1956, and became a regular driver in 1958. His experience thus spans freight work on humble steam shunting locomotives right through to express passenger turns on the celebrated Gresley ‘streamliners’ (including a spell on the ‘Elizabethan’ train, when he was featured in the famous BTF film Elizabethan Express) and the early diesel and electric traction of the Modernisation era. He always carried a camera with him, so this story of his footplate life until retirement in 1990 is supported by many unique personal photographs.

Roland Ruffell now lives in Pickering, and in 1996 he was re-united for the first time in 36 years with No 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley when he was invited to fire and drive the locomotive during a visit to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.