What it’s like to drive a train on the most scenic railway in Britain

During the Covid lockdown, the sleeper was cancelled. In April 2021 myself and a colleague were offered the chance to volunteer for a special project on the North York Moors Railway for two weeks. We were not told what it was but volunteered anyway. On a Zoom call a few days later, the boss said: “Your mission, should you choose to accept it is…” For two weeks we used our locomotives to set up and film some of the stunt scenes in Mission Impossible. Tom Cruise was there for the whole of the second week. He spoke to us every day.

I don’t like to blow my own trumpet but I won the Train Driver of the Year Award in 2006. I’ve never had a day off sick in 45 years and I only went on strike once in 1982, over flexible rostering. This was the time of Mrs Thatcher. Of course we all do flexible rostering now.

On day trains, when driving the multiple unit types where you can see the driver, I have been known to stop so that passengers can take photographs of the Glenfinnan Viaduct – the one in Harry Potter. 

Sometimes when the train has split up for Oban and Fort William, I’ve had passengers stay on the wrong section and go all the way to Oban. On about ten occasions, I’ve driven them in my car to Fort William. When the train used to come into Fort William at a quarter to one in the morning, I’ve put passengers up at home.

I feel really lucky to have worked as a train driver. I’m 65 in August, but you don’t really have to retire from the job if you pass the medicals. We had a steam-train driver who worked till he was 78. I think I’ll carry on till the sleeper contract ends in 2029, when I’ll be 70.

It’s a much-used phrase in the Highlands that the scenery is different every day but it’s true – the light and shade change the contours and definition of the landscape. I love the job, whether it’s raining or sunny. People pay to see the things I see every day from the cab.

As told to Chris Moss