> Well there was this, thread that you and OPRRMS were having a rather trite go at Margaret....

She asked a few questions, and we answered them and/or tried to explain the situation. You have a curious penchant for reading negativity into what someone else says.

> I thought the Lady in question was rather intuitive with her take on the actions described, hence my replies. Never did get back to you on that one apparently.

She spoke of the "engineer making a smooth joint", when its actually the ground crews who do. While I've never made a specific study on the question, I can well imaging that this is true in railroading the world over, it's just that the names of the positions change from country to country. Think about it: there is a joint to be made 40 cars back, around a curve. How can the engineer do that on his own? He can't, so he follows the directions of the ground crew.

My experiences with NZR, by whatever name it goes by today, are precisely the same: the driver drives the train at the pleasure of the ground crews.