No bramleyman, I doubt if they are mate, but sadly it is a fact of life, to make a scapegoat, and if a driver does make a mistake like not stopping at a station then the "I am perfect brigade" like to try and make a name for themselves and I doubt any of them have ever worked in transport or on the railway anyway.
Anyway It has happened before, it will happen again, no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes.
I know one thing, I am glad I worked 90% goods trains on the job, a wagon full of coal cant argue with you
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I used to get the chance of some passenger jobs,nice jobs some of them I admit, but I always preffered "down to earth" work, like trundling along on a dirty old goods train as opposed to dashing up and down the main line on passenger work.
There was more skill AND interest in working a train of coal or a loose coupled goods train and leaving "A" and getting to "B" with everything in good order and giving the Guard a good ride, treating your mate right on the engine, job sorted !
I can remember an old goods guard who absolutely hated any thought of passenger work and when he was in his brakevan he always had a couple of rubber pads which in later years were used by the Pway gangs for something or other, they were not that big and used to be found laying around in goods yards or sidings. Anyway if we were stopped in a station, usually by the "bobby" to wait for a passenger train to clear before giving us the road, this old guard used open the door on his stove in the van and put one of the rubber pads on his fire, when you looked back down the train standing in the platform, the brakevan was making more black smoke than the engine, but apart from his hate of all things passenger, there was method in his madness, because if it was a windy day, the smoke would go through doors and windows, into offices or the station buffet and without a doubt someone on the station would contact the box and get the "bobby" to pull off for us to clear the station. He never got questioned by the "powers that be"about his van smoking so much, and woe betide anyone that tried to enter his van without an invitation, no grade of management worried him, he was a real character, but a first class guard and you knew the train was ok when he had checked it.
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