Sorry to drift the thread a little, but my old pal used to tell me lovely stories of his time on the Railways.
Apparently there was a hierarchy among railway employees, when you got really old, they made you a driver.
My old pal never made driver but he was a top fireman. "The drivers valet, the man who made the smoke come out the lum"

He used to tell me that when they approached a tunnel at speed he had to seal up all the windows and shut the firebox doors or they got showered by white hot cinders.....what a life, but he loved it dearly, I'm sure he told me that he fired the engine that held the Perth to London speed record