98 year old Stan Fletcher is President of the Ivatt Diesel Re-creation Society. Between 1947 and 1983 he was a commissioning engineer with English Electric, later part of GEC. His role included being part of the team at Derby that built and tested the London Midland & Scottish Railway’s D16/1 design diesel loco 10000 and its twin 10001. When he first became involved 10000 was a frame minus wheels. His job entailed travelling behind the Twins during their first 150,000 miles on the Midland and West Coast main lines. This included initial runs from Derby down the Matlock line that is now Peak Rail. During October Stan was at Rowsley on Peak Rail to take part in filming for a future Society video and sign a Royal Scot booklet dating from 1949.
On the 1st of June 1949 the Twins hauled their first Royal Scot train from London to Glasgow. A BBC video about it can be found below. Stan is the younger of the two engineers climbing aboard the train at the start of the video.
The Royal Scot was a prestige express on which businessmen and celebrities often travelled. Stan recalls seeing actress Dorothy Lamour travelling behind 10000. However his eyes did not linger on the rich and famous since when the Twins were running well there were regular checks to be made and notes to be taken during every trip, particularly the temperatures of exhaust and water systems on each cylinder and turbo.
Stan recalls that the Twins’ first Royal Scot was a particularly heavy train, including three carriages full of VIPs. During that run staff from the railway company took VIP passengers up to the lead loco in groups of 4 people at a time, walking through the connecting nose end doors of both locos. It was very noisy within each engine compartment and ear defenders were unheard of. While passing the first three cabs the opportunity was taken to explain all the controls, but during their visit to the foremost driving cab the VIPs were not permitted to speak or otherwise distract the driver.
Stan recalls that during the outward run to Glasgow a problem developed on the journey toward Glasgow. The errant part was a feeder pipe to an air reservoir for pneumatic contacts. This impacted the transfer of power from the generator to the traction motors. As a result one of the Twins was unable to contribute traction for a period. Luckily this was not during one of the heavily graded sections of track. So, for a time, one loco was pulling the heavy train plus its dead twin. The pipe was temporarily repaired using chewing gum and tourniquets, with a coat placed casually over it so the VIPs wouldn’t see it. Fortunately they were able to do this repair while the LMS’ guides were having their coffee break, so no VIPs passed during the repair work. A proper repair was carried out overnight and they took the precaution of improving the feed connection on the other loco to prevent a recurrence.
The Society recently obtained a copy of British Railways' handbook of this initial diesel-hauled Royal Scot run, which Stan duly signed during his visit to Rowsley, appropriately sitting in a NRM-owned LMS carriage. The booklet is marked as the copy handed to T.F.B. Simpson, Works Superintendent at Derby from 1947.
In January 2019 Stan is launching a fundraising campaign to raise £100,000 in time for his 100th birthday (March 2020) to raise capital with which to buy components from locomotives which are soon to be withdrawn from mainline service. He will be attending the Society AGM on the 23rd of March 2019 at 1pm in the Aston Court Hotel in Derby and will be available to talk with members and visitors.
but how I longed for a Duchess or Princess even though I had copped them all 
