I'm afraid that I've come over all "Bill Oddie" after yesterday, having spent the day on our suburban lines.
A combination of the good weather and slower trains meant that I got to see some of the wildlife that makes it's home along the verges of the railway. Chief amongst these was the urban fox. Normally I don't much care for them as I don't consider them as noble as their rural cousins. Somehow I can't believe that ransacking people's bins for leftovers is not an honest way to earn a living. However, on this particular day they were at leisure and variously playing with their cubs in the cess or just lounging around sunning themselves (including one particularly bold individual lazing on the platform at Highams Park in the middle of the day).
Unfortunately, the day was not a complete oasis of tranquility, as there were two springs that I evidently weren't watching closely enough. I was just leaving Liverpool Street when the spring that I thought was pushing the rubber door stop onto the floor decided it needed a break and allowed the cab door to swing in towards me. As it wasn't something that I'd expected to happen it caught me a little off-guard and, as an impulse, I stuck my hand out to stop it slamming shut on me. However, in doing so I must have momentarily released the DSD allowing the spring to break the circuit. Being as I was driving a Class 315 at the time, it had me in an instant as the brakes jammed on hard. So, there I was stuck like a lemon half in and half out of Liverpool Street station and blocking up all the trains on that side while waiting for the two minute time-out to expire so that I could get the brakes off and be on my way. I felt so embarrassed that I just wanted the ground to open up and swallow me.
All of this was quite enough for one day, so I was glad that I'd already finished by the time that torrential rain hit. It apparently caused a fair bit of chaos because the line flooded at various points. In the meantime, I was having my own problems trying to find a parking space in the shallow end of Tesco car park.
Wednesday 14 June 2006
Tuesday 6 June 2006
Dispensing the unpleasantries
Well, it's been an unusual day for me today. The job I was on today required me to travel as a passenger on almost as many trains as I had to drive. However, the sun was out and I was in a good mood, so everything went swimmingly. Perhaps it was the weather that put everyone in a better mood than normal and made them better disposed towards everyone else, as more people were seen to be smiling and taking the time to stop and talk. I even had a few "thank you's".
The first train I worked was what I jokingly call "the school bus", as it is used heavily by children on their way home from school. They had obviously invented a little game to see who was the bravest and could stay off the train the longest at each stop without getting left behind. They must have had a great deal of practice, as they evidently knew exactly how long the door hustle alarms sound for before the doors themselves start to close. No matter how far they had strayed from the train when I made to close the doors, they always managed to get back on.
Of course, when the weather's hot we begin to feel the heat. Driving around with the windows open can be tricky, as it makes the cab very noisy. Two trips like that and I realised that the hearing in my left ear had been temporarily deadened. It wasn't a problem when in the train as I could still hear all the cab systems, but it became noticeable the moment I sat down in a quiet spot for a break (although everything returned to normal within a few minutes). So, it was cab vent only after that. These are generally brilliant when you're belting along, but they have no filters on them. Consequently anything that gets scooped up from the outside is spat straight into the cab. It is for this reason that they are sometimes referred to as "wasp dispensers". Wasps weren't my problem today, but midges were. Each time I swatted one another would appear as if by magic. On the return trip, I made sure I kept everything closed so that at least one cab remained a mozzie-free haven. Thankfully by then the evening was beginning to cool down.
The first train I worked was what I jokingly call "the school bus", as it is used heavily by children on their way home from school. They had obviously invented a little game to see who was the bravest and could stay off the train the longest at each stop without getting left behind. They must have had a great deal of practice, as they evidently knew exactly how long the door hustle alarms sound for before the doors themselves start to close. No matter how far they had strayed from the train when I made to close the doors, they always managed to get back on.
Of course, when the weather's hot we begin to feel the heat. Driving around with the windows open can be tricky, as it makes the cab very noisy. Two trips like that and I realised that the hearing in my left ear had been temporarily deadened. It wasn't a problem when in the train as I could still hear all the cab systems, but it became noticeable the moment I sat down in a quiet spot for a break (although everything returned to normal within a few minutes). So, it was cab vent only after that. These are generally brilliant when you're belting along, but they have no filters on them. Consequently anything that gets scooped up from the outside is spat straight into the cab. It is for this reason that they are sometimes referred to as "wasp dispensers". Wasps weren't my problem today, but midges were. Each time I swatted one another would appear as if by magic. On the return trip, I made sure I kept everything closed so that at least one cab remained a mozzie-free haven. Thankfully by then the evening was beginning to cool down.
Sunday 4 June 2006
Left hand - Right hand
I've been quite a busy bunny of late. I have now "signed" all the routes with the exception of Cambridge, and have been back out driving again. As promised, I have been enjoying a much more varied workload, with trips out to Stratford, Ilford and Hertford East. I do still get the occassional Airport turn, but it's no longer my staple work.
Of course, being back in the cab means that I've been directly involved with the fun and games that have been going on. By far the most amusing incident involved an emergency speed restriction that has been put in on the 'Down' Suburban line at Bethnal Green station. Once Network Rail knew that it was required, it should have been a simple matter of putting out the relevant lineside signs on each line, but oh no. What started off as a single board facing the wrong way on the 'Down' Main soon escalated into a farce of huge proportions.
When I called it in to the signaller, he informed me that he'd already been told and that someone was going out to sort it. Sure enough, as I left London I saw a track worker doing the honours. I did feel a little sorry for him as I went by, as he was stranded out in the middle of a six track stretch of line with trains whizzing by on all sides. I don't suppose that it helped that me on the 'Down' Suburban and an Anglia driver on the 'Down' Main both whistled him up at exactly the same time while another train approached in the other direction along the 'Up' Suburban. For the lack of anywhere better to stand, he just flattened himself against the boards he was adjusting and hoped for the best. Even though he was obscuring them, I wasn't sure that he hadn't made matters worse by turning all three boards on that post around. As I passed by the same spot again almost two hours later I could see that this was exactly what had happened, so I called it in for a second time. The signaller was incredulous and sounded not a little pissed off with the news, but I had no idea why. I only learned yesterday that the reason for this was that it had taken six attempts to get these boards facing the right way, and even then this only happened because they sent out a different bloke at the sixth attempt.
That's not to say that I've been above such matters myself. I almost had a stand-up row with the signaller on the Harlow workstation because I had convinced myself that I had the wrong headcode. He was right of course, but I was out of his area before I'd realised my mistake. I blame the 5am start and the similarity between the "6" on my outbound headcode and the "9" on my return trip, so skipped ahead to the headcode of my next working. What a twit...!! I've not heard anything more about it, so I presume he had a laugh about it with his colleagues but did nothing more about it.
Of course, being back in the cab means that I've been directly involved with the fun and games that have been going on. By far the most amusing incident involved an emergency speed restriction that has been put in on the 'Down' Suburban line at Bethnal Green station. Once Network Rail knew that it was required, it should have been a simple matter of putting out the relevant lineside signs on each line, but oh no. What started off as a single board facing the wrong way on the 'Down' Main soon escalated into a farce of huge proportions.
When I called it in to the signaller, he informed me that he'd already been told and that someone was going out to sort it. Sure enough, as I left London I saw a track worker doing the honours. I did feel a little sorry for him as I went by, as he was stranded out in the middle of a six track stretch of line with trains whizzing by on all sides. I don't suppose that it helped that me on the 'Down' Suburban and an Anglia driver on the 'Down' Main both whistled him up at exactly the same time while another train approached in the other direction along the 'Up' Suburban. For the lack of anywhere better to stand, he just flattened himself against the boards he was adjusting and hoped for the best. Even though he was obscuring them, I wasn't sure that he hadn't made matters worse by turning all three boards on that post around. As I passed by the same spot again almost two hours later I could see that this was exactly what had happened, so I called it in for a second time. The signaller was incredulous and sounded not a little pissed off with the news, but I had no idea why. I only learned yesterday that the reason for this was that it had taken six attempts to get these boards facing the right way, and even then this only happened because they sent out a different bloke at the sixth attempt.
That's not to say that I've been above such matters myself. I almost had a stand-up row with the signaller on the Harlow workstation because I had convinced myself that I had the wrong headcode. He was right of course, but I was out of his area before I'd realised my mistake. I blame the 5am start and the similarity between the "6" on my outbound headcode and the "9" on my return trip, so skipped ahead to the headcode of my next working. What a twit...!! I've not heard anything more about it, so I presume he had a laugh about it with his colleagues but did nothing more about it.
Thursday 25 May 2006
A to Z
Since last I wrote, I've been engaged in almost continual route learning and one by one ticking off each of the routes that I shall be required to drive. Unlike some of my colleagues, I've not been taken off from time to time to cover driving jobs, which is both good and bad. On the good side, it means that I can concentrate on the job in hand without any distractions and will hopefully be able to rattle off all the routes in short order.
On the negative side, I am beginning to feel that the pace is perhaps a little too fast for my own liking. My preference would be to learn a route and then, having "signed" it, get a chance to drive over that route a few times on my own so that I can start to become properly familiar with it before moving onto the next one. Admittedly I do already have the advantage of having driven almost all of our routes several times when out with my minder. In addition, not everyone feels the same way as me, with a few mentioning that they are perfectly happy with the pace of learning.
Even so, I have raised this as an issue with the managers and, to their credit, they are taking my request seriously. I have already had one day next week when I was rostered to be learning the line north to Cambridge changed to a driving job which will see me out on my own at Hertford East and at Ilford depot, and I have been promised that there will be more before I have to knuckle down again to learn Cambridge.
Beyond that, there's not been much to report. I've only had a handful of driving jobs since my last entry, and those that I have had have passed relatively uneventfully. That's not to say that things have been quiet on our lines. Our unlucky streak has continued over the past few weeks with repeated issues affecting the overhead electrification. By my reckoning there have been four cases of "dewiring" and one failed booster transformer, all of which have required the current to be isolated for varying periods of time. There has also been a freight train derailment to contend with, together with the usual problems that plague us from time to time. Thankfully there have been no further fatalities.
On the negative side, I am beginning to feel that the pace is perhaps a little too fast for my own liking. My preference would be to learn a route and then, having "signed" it, get a chance to drive over that route a few times on my own so that I can start to become properly familiar with it before moving onto the next one. Admittedly I do already have the advantage of having driven almost all of our routes several times when out with my minder. In addition, not everyone feels the same way as me, with a few mentioning that they are perfectly happy with the pace of learning.
Even so, I have raised this as an issue with the managers and, to their credit, they are taking my request seriously. I have already had one day next week when I was rostered to be learning the line north to Cambridge changed to a driving job which will see me out on my own at Hertford East and at Ilford depot, and I have been promised that there will be more before I have to knuckle down again to learn Cambridge.
Beyond that, there's not been much to report. I've only had a handful of driving jobs since my last entry, and those that I have had have passed relatively uneventfully. That's not to say that things have been quiet on our lines. Our unlucky streak has continued over the past few weeks with repeated issues affecting the overhead electrification. By my reckoning there have been four cases of "dewiring" and one failed booster transformer, all of which have required the current to be isolated for varying periods of time. There has also been a freight train derailment to contend with, together with the usual problems that plague us from time to time. Thankfully there have been no further fatalities.
Friday 5 May 2006
No news is good news
It's gratifying to say that things have been very quiet of late. I completed the last of my twenty solo turns without incident and am now out learning the rest of the routes that will eventually make up my workload.
So far I've been learning the Enfield Town and Hertford East branches, which are both pretty straightforward. However, from Monday I shall be starting to learn the routes around Stratford which will culminate the week after with the hefty stretch of line from London Liverpool Street to Seven Kings, which I'm assuming will include Ilford depot. However, on Wednesday of next week I shall have the mother-of-all route exams, as I attempt to sign three routes in a single day. Admittedly it's far from ideal, but it's just happened that way because of the way that rest days and annual leave has fallen.
In the meantime, I've been kicking back and enjoying the sunshine whilst on my rostered week of leave. It's a bit inconvenient that it's fallen where it has, but it's been nice to have a long lie-in and catch up on those niggling little jobs that I've been studiously ignoring whilst at work.
So far I've been learning the Enfield Town and Hertford East branches, which are both pretty straightforward. However, from Monday I shall be starting to learn the routes around Stratford which will culminate the week after with the hefty stretch of line from London Liverpool Street to Seven Kings, which I'm assuming will include Ilford depot. However, on Wednesday of next week I shall have the mother-of-all route exams, as I attempt to sign three routes in a single day. Admittedly it's far from ideal, but it's just happened that way because of the way that rest days and annual leave has fallen.
In the meantime, I've been kicking back and enjoying the sunshine whilst on my rostered week of leave. It's a bit inconvenient that it's fallen where it has, but it's been nice to have a long lie-in and catch up on those niggling little jobs that I've been studiously ignoring whilst at work.
Wednesday 19 April 2006
Company man
Looking back over the past few entries, it seems that all I've done is whinge about how rotten my luck is and all the things that have gone wrong. Since then, things have been very quiet and I've just got on with my booked jobs with little in the way of incident. The problem with this (if it can be called such) is that there's very little of interest to report.
That said, today was another one of "those days". A fire overnight at Hackney Downs had knocked out the signalling in the immediate vicinity of the station which meant similar arrangements being put in place to when the wires came down at the same location a fortnight back. As I still don't "sign" the Stratford route, I was almost left on the sidelines after the first part of my job was cancelled. This deficiency on my route card means that when such diversions are in force I am, as the supervisor put it, "as much use as mudflaps on a tortoise". So, for the first hour or so I sat spare in the messroom. Unbelievably this was the first time ever that I've had to do this, and I was looking forward to getting away early. Typically, this state of affairs didn't last as I was called on to relieve another driver and, by the time I'd got to London, there was enough signalling back on for me to continue with my booked job.
Prior to all this excitement, I have been getting stuck in with the punters. Mostly it's been pointing out which train goes where or just confirming that the train with the orange "Stansted Express" branding is in fact the Stansted Express and that, yes, it does indeed go to London. However, there have been a few more challenging queries that I despatched with aplomb. Although it isn't really part of my job I actually enjoy the contact with people, especially as the driving itself can be fairly solitary experience. If only the managers who took my induction last year could have seen me, their little hearts would have burst with pride.
My workload should be getting more varied soon, as I've been informed that I have almost completed my twenty solo turns and will be out route learning next week. In some respects, I'm surprised that I've not yet done the twenty turns as it seems to have taken ages. Admittedly, taking a little leave after qualifying plus the previous unpleasantness at Clapton has padded things out a fair bit, but even so. By the summer I should have completed my route card and will be a fully fledged driver, albeit still a probationer. However, route learning does mean that I shall be away from the cab for a little while until it's completed. I shall just have to make sure I make the most of the last few core route jobs while I've got them.
That said, today was another one of "those days". A fire overnight at Hackney Downs had knocked out the signalling in the immediate vicinity of the station which meant similar arrangements being put in place to when the wires came down at the same location a fortnight back. As I still don't "sign" the Stratford route, I was almost left on the sidelines after the first part of my job was cancelled. This deficiency on my route card means that when such diversions are in force I am, as the supervisor put it, "as much use as mudflaps on a tortoise". So, for the first hour or so I sat spare in the messroom. Unbelievably this was the first time ever that I've had to do this, and I was looking forward to getting away early. Typically, this state of affairs didn't last as I was called on to relieve another driver and, by the time I'd got to London, there was enough signalling back on for me to continue with my booked job.
Prior to all this excitement, I have been getting stuck in with the punters. Mostly it's been pointing out which train goes where or just confirming that the train with the orange "Stansted Express" branding is in fact the Stansted Express and that, yes, it does indeed go to London. However, there have been a few more challenging queries that I despatched with aplomb. Although it isn't really part of my job I actually enjoy the contact with people, especially as the driving itself can be fairly solitary experience. If only the managers who took my induction last year could have seen me, their little hearts would have burst with pride.
My workload should be getting more varied soon, as I've been informed that I have almost completed my twenty solo turns and will be out route learning next week. In some respects, I'm surprised that I've not yet done the twenty turns as it seems to have taken ages. Admittedly, taking a little leave after qualifying plus the previous unpleasantness at Clapton has padded things out a fair bit, but even so. By the summer I should have completed my route card and will be a fully fledged driver, albeit still a probationer. However, route learning does mean that I shall be away from the cab for a little while until it's completed. I shall just have to make sure I make the most of the last few core route jobs while I've got them.
Wednesday 12 April 2006
Won't they learn...?
Well folks, it's the early hours of Wednesday morning and I've had a very rare occurrence. Today's shift went almost entirely without hitch. I say almost entirely, as things didn't go precisely as planned. However, given the dramas that I've suffered recently, being swapped off one pair of units and onto another was hardly dramatic.
The same couldn't have been said about Sunday evening's job, though. The first pair of units I took over were dreadful. The London-end unit was on half power only due to a traction motor fault suffered earlier in the day, while the country-end unit leaked like a sieve into the driving cab. Because the driving desk was awash with water and contains circuits energised at 110 volts DC, I refused to take the units back to the airport on the grounds of safety. Being a Sunday I had hoped that this would get me out of a round, but they had other ideas for me and asked if I could shunt the units seperately into a vacant platform so that the formation would be reversed and the leaky cab "boxed-in". This was all new to me, but the signaller talked me through the move so that it went smoothly. Sadly, I only managed to get halfway through the shunt when I was asked to take just the single unit that had been at the London end for my next working rather than completing the shunt. I agreed to this, but informed them that the unit was only on half power to which their response was "half power is better than no power". It was by far the slowest run to the airport that I've ever done, which wasn't helped by a lack of grip due to wet rails.
It seems that the spate of fatalities on our lines has not impressed on people just how dangerous the railways are. I had a terrible feeling of foreboding yesterday that there would be another one that evening, and that it could happen to me. This wasn't helped any when I saw two young lads on the Up side cess by Sawbridgeworth not more than a few metres from my train. Although I'm pretty poor at judging ages, I would have to guess that they couldn't have been aged more than 10 and 8, and were probably brothers. Imagine what their mother must have felt if the Police had to go and break the news to her that her two boys had been killed because they had been trespassing on the railway. This, together with the number of fatalities and other mischief that we have experienced of late, is why I have chosen to display prominent links to the excellent Track Off website which aims to educate children and young people about the dangers posed by the railways.
The same couldn't have been said about Sunday evening's job, though. The first pair of units I took over were dreadful. The London-end unit was on half power only due to a traction motor fault suffered earlier in the day, while the country-end unit leaked like a sieve into the driving cab. Because the driving desk was awash with water and contains circuits energised at 110 volts DC, I refused to take the units back to the airport on the grounds of safety. Being a Sunday I had hoped that this would get me out of a round, but they had other ideas for me and asked if I could shunt the units seperately into a vacant platform so that the formation would be reversed and the leaky cab "boxed-in". This was all new to me, but the signaller talked me through the move so that it went smoothly. Sadly, I only managed to get halfway through the shunt when I was asked to take just the single unit that had been at the London end for my next working rather than completing the shunt. I agreed to this, but informed them that the unit was only on half power to which their response was "half power is better than no power". It was by far the slowest run to the airport that I've ever done, which wasn't helped by a lack of grip due to wet rails.
It seems that the spate of fatalities on our lines has not impressed on people just how dangerous the railways are. I had a terrible feeling of foreboding yesterday that there would be another one that evening, and that it could happen to me. This wasn't helped any when I saw two young lads on the Up side cess by Sawbridgeworth not more than a few metres from my train. Although I'm pretty poor at judging ages, I would have to guess that they couldn't have been aged more than 10 and 8, and were probably brothers. Imagine what their mother must have felt if the Police had to go and break the news to her that her two boys had been killed because they had been trespassing on the railway. This, together with the number of fatalities and other mischief that we have experienced of late, is why I have chosen to display prominent links to the excellent Track Off website which aims to educate children and young people about the dangers posed by the railways.
Friday 7 April 2006
Round the houses
I'm not entirely sure exactly where to begin, as this week has been a bit of a rollercoaster. Fortunately my bad luck has held off for the duration, although I have been victim of the misfortune of others.
Monday started quietly enough, although I was treated to an unusual and slightly comical sight on my last run up to London. As I was approaching Tottenham Hale I noticed that a train was sitting stationary at an unusual location. As I got a bit closer, I could see that the driver was speaking on the radio to the signaller and looking upwards out of the cab window. It was only as I followed his gaze that I noticed what he was looking at. There, snagged in the overhead lines, was a bright orange toy balloon. As odd as it looked, I quite understood why he stopped. Even something as innocuous as this can bring down the overhead lines if it gets caught by a passing pantograph, so we have to keep an eagle eye out for such obstructions and stop short of any that we see. I had thought that this might mean a trip around the Southbury line for the first time since passing out, but the obstruction had been dealt with by then and I travelled along the booked route instead.
Someone else wasn't quite so lucky on the following evening, as whoever was driving one of the last trains of Tuesday evening managed to bring down a large section of overhead lines at Hackney Downs. When I booked on the following morning I was informed of this and the fact that services were being diverted via Stratford, but I wasn't aware of the impact of the event until I went to take my first train. Even though it came in at the expected time, it transpired that it wasn't my train after all but the one fifteen minutes ahead. I did wonder why the driver seemed adamant that he wasn't due for relief at that point, but a quick comparison of headcodes soon revealed the cause. The train that I eventually took over rolled in twenty minutes later. As a newly qualified driver I don't yet sign all the routes we cover, which meant that I needed to be accompanied by another driver to guide me through Stratford. Sharing the cab again after getting used to being on my own took a while to adjust to, but it was nice to have someone to chat with while waiting for red signals to clear.
Disruption such as this has other pluses and minuses. On the minus side, each trip took far longer than was booked which meant having to deal with awkward passengers. However, so that a semblance of a service could be run the timetable got severly cut back which resulted in cancellations and fewer trains to be driven. By the end of my turn, I worked roughly the same amount of hours as I would have under normal circumstances, got home at the same time and yet did less driving. All in all it wasn't a bad way to celebrate my birthday and certainly gave plenty to talk about.
Things got back to normal by Wednesday afternoon which meant that Thursday should have been a straightforward day. Unfortunately, I was the victim of other infrastructure problems. A failed signal on my first run cost me a hefty delay, and a points problem in the afternoon meant that I got the trip around the Southbury route that I missed on Monday. I was offered the Stratford alternative, but I was alone so had to decline. Even so, it worked out well. The train in front of me took the Stratford option and arrived at Liverpool Street more than ten minutes after me. As a result, I made my booked slot for my last run whereas I would have missed it if I'd gone by Stratford.
Unforunately, the average of one incident per week resulting in a fatality is continuing. It started out as a bit of a joke, but it's rapidly become a curse. It's particularly poignant that the latest incident which happened this afternoon involved one of the drivers I trained with. If anything, I find this more shocking than having been directly involved in a fatality myself. Out of the five of us that qualified, two of us have already had a fatality in the two months since qualifying. These are staggering statistics that I am totally at a loss to explain. While such incidents are random in their nature, the number and frequency has got people wondering and asking questions.
Monday started quietly enough, although I was treated to an unusual and slightly comical sight on my last run up to London. As I was approaching Tottenham Hale I noticed that a train was sitting stationary at an unusual location. As I got a bit closer, I could see that the driver was speaking on the radio to the signaller and looking upwards out of the cab window. It was only as I followed his gaze that I noticed what he was looking at. There, snagged in the overhead lines, was a bright orange toy balloon. As odd as it looked, I quite understood why he stopped. Even something as innocuous as this can bring down the overhead lines if it gets caught by a passing pantograph, so we have to keep an eagle eye out for such obstructions and stop short of any that we see. I had thought that this might mean a trip around the Southbury line for the first time since passing out, but the obstruction had been dealt with by then and I travelled along the booked route instead.
Someone else wasn't quite so lucky on the following evening, as whoever was driving one of the last trains of Tuesday evening managed to bring down a large section of overhead lines at Hackney Downs. When I booked on the following morning I was informed of this and the fact that services were being diverted via Stratford, but I wasn't aware of the impact of the event until I went to take my first train. Even though it came in at the expected time, it transpired that it wasn't my train after all but the one fifteen minutes ahead. I did wonder why the driver seemed adamant that he wasn't due for relief at that point, but a quick comparison of headcodes soon revealed the cause. The train that I eventually took over rolled in twenty minutes later. As a newly qualified driver I don't yet sign all the routes we cover, which meant that I needed to be accompanied by another driver to guide me through Stratford. Sharing the cab again after getting used to being on my own took a while to adjust to, but it was nice to have someone to chat with while waiting for red signals to clear.
Disruption such as this has other pluses and minuses. On the minus side, each trip took far longer than was booked which meant having to deal with awkward passengers. However, so that a semblance of a service could be run the timetable got severly cut back which resulted in cancellations and fewer trains to be driven. By the end of my turn, I worked roughly the same amount of hours as I would have under normal circumstances, got home at the same time and yet did less driving. All in all it wasn't a bad way to celebrate my birthday and certainly gave plenty to talk about.
Things got back to normal by Wednesday afternoon which meant that Thursday should have been a straightforward day. Unfortunately, I was the victim of other infrastructure problems. A failed signal on my first run cost me a hefty delay, and a points problem in the afternoon meant that I got the trip around the Southbury route that I missed on Monday. I was offered the Stratford alternative, but I was alone so had to decline. Even so, it worked out well. The train in front of me took the Stratford option and arrived at Liverpool Street more than ten minutes after me. As a result, I made my booked slot for my last run whereas I would have missed it if I'd gone by Stratford.
Unforunately, the average of one incident per week resulting in a fatality is continuing. It started out as a bit of a joke, but it's rapidly become a curse. It's particularly poignant that the latest incident which happened this afternoon involved one of the drivers I trained with. If anything, I find this more shocking than having been directly involved in a fatality myself. Out of the five of us that qualified, two of us have already had a fatality in the two months since qualifying. These are staggering statistics that I am totally at a loss to explain. While such incidents are random in their nature, the number and frequency has got people wondering and asking questions.
Thursday 30 March 2006
"Kick me"
While I was off work following my incident, I received a text message from my minder in which he called me "probably the unluckiest bastard on the railway". I'm beginning to think that he's right as, thinking back, I think I've had at least one thing happen every shift since passing out. Prior to that my luck had been pretty good, so I don't know what I've done to deserve this. It's almost as if I'm walking around with the cosmic equivalent of a piece of paper with "kick me" written on taped to my back. I guess I should have been in for a bad time when I relieved the depot's resident Harbinger of Doom off the Unit of the Beast (317666) on Monday for my first drive on my own since my fatality, but things went so well. Perhaps the Fates were just lulling me into a false sense of security.
As mentioned in the previous entry, I had the same job twice in a row this week. It was actually quite a nice one with plenty of time allowed to carry out a thorough train prep before the unit was needed in the platform and I was needed
on the Stansted Express. However, it was a case of contrasts and similarities.
Train Prep
On Tuesday the unit to be prepped was full of litter but fault free, while Wednesday's unit had at least been cleaned of litter but was labouring under a number of minor faults.
First Train
The first set of Stansted Express units I drove didn't seem to want to go London, as they were down on power heading towards the capital but went like stink going back towards the airport. Even though I checked both units out at Liverpool Street, I couldn't find a single thing wrong with them. Strangely this happened both days, even though I checked that they weren't the same pair of units.
Second Train
The second pair of units driven after my break were fine, although I had to fail the train near Cheshunt on the way down to Stansted on Tuesday after losing interlock due to what later turned out to be a door fault in, you guessed it, the eighth carriage. I don't think the punters were best pleased with facing the prospect of missing their flights, but I must have made a good enough show of looking exasperated and trying to get things moving again as they mercifully chose not to lay into me about it, even when I went past them the second time. I got given a different set of units for my final run down towards Stansted which behaved themselves, as did the set I had on Wednesday. However, I was keeping a beady eye on the interlock light the whole way just to be sure.
At least I can say that I've clocked up another first. On Wednesday I arrived at work to find my very first "please explain" in my pigeon hole asking for more information about the nature of the failure. I had guessed that this was coming, so I had already written a driver's report form. In fact, I had written it while still on the unit that had caused me all the problems in the first place while waiting for the signaller to give me the road back to London.
Please let next week be incident free.
As mentioned in the previous entry, I had the same job twice in a row this week. It was actually quite a nice one with plenty of time allowed to carry out a thorough train prep before the unit was needed in the platform and I was needed
on the Stansted Express. However, it was a case of contrasts and similarities.
Train Prep
On Tuesday the unit to be prepped was full of litter but fault free, while Wednesday's unit had at least been cleaned of litter but was labouring under a number of minor faults.
First Train
The first set of Stansted Express units I drove didn't seem to want to go London, as they were down on power heading towards the capital but went like stink going back towards the airport. Even though I checked both units out at Liverpool Street, I couldn't find a single thing wrong with them. Strangely this happened both days, even though I checked that they weren't the same pair of units.
Second Train
The second pair of units driven after my break were fine, although I had to fail the train near Cheshunt on the way down to Stansted on Tuesday after losing interlock due to what later turned out to be a door fault in, you guessed it, the eighth carriage. I don't think the punters were best pleased with facing the prospect of missing their flights, but I must have made a good enough show of looking exasperated and trying to get things moving again as they mercifully chose not to lay into me about it, even when I went past them the second time. I got given a different set of units for my final run down towards Stansted which behaved themselves, as did the set I had on Wednesday. However, I was keeping a beady eye on the interlock light the whole way just to be sure.
At least I can say that I've clocked up another first. On Wednesday I arrived at work to find my very first "please explain" in my pigeon hole asking for more information about the nature of the failure. I had guessed that this was coming, so I had already written a driver's report form. In fact, I had written it while still on the unit that had caused me all the problems in the first place while waiting for the signaller to give me the road back to London.
Please let next week be incident free.
Tuesday 28 March 2006
Back to the coalface
Well folks, I'm now back at work properly and have completed my first full job which, I'm pleased to report, passed without incident. It was quite odd being back at the pointy end after such a long time off, but I've had plenty of opportunity to settle back into the routine before being allowed out on my own. In addition to the front-end turns that I did last week, I had the pleasure of a driver manager for company for the first half of yesterday's job. I was due a ride anyway as part of my post-qualification assessment as well as a post-incident ride, so the two were combined and both despatched at the same time.
Although I feel that I've dealt with the after effects of the fatality quite well, it has still left a discernable mark. I noticed yesterday that I have become very sensitive to and aware of people on station platforms, level crossings and footbridges. Consequently I was getting quite "horn happy" and blowing up at anything (including a plastic bag blown across Windmill Lane Crossing). I'm hoping that I'll get used to people being around the railway the more that I drive, but at the moment I shall continue to employ a "better safe than sorry" approach and will continue to whistle whenever I feel the need.
It doesn't help that fatalities are currently a hot topic of conversation among my colleagues at the moment as, unfortunately, there have been quite a few on our lines. In the five weeks since my incident we have averaged one incident per week with six people losing their lives, which is an incredibly high number for such a short space of time. We've also been under the media spotlight again as a direct consequence of the double fatality at a crossing near Angel Road. Since that particular incident, a number of drivers have reported seeing people loitering on the crossing and on the lineside which only increases the risk of another incident at the same location.
Today and tomorrow I have the same job, which includes a train prep in the carriage sidings. In one respect I'm quite looking forward to this, as I haven't done a full train prep since the traction course last summer. I'm just glad that it's on the beginning of the job, so I shall be going in early to make sure I've plenty of time.
Although I feel that I've dealt with the after effects of the fatality quite well, it has still left a discernable mark. I noticed yesterday that I have become very sensitive to and aware of people on station platforms, level crossings and footbridges. Consequently I was getting quite "horn happy" and blowing up at anything (including a plastic bag blown across Windmill Lane Crossing). I'm hoping that I'll get used to people being around the railway the more that I drive, but at the moment I shall continue to employ a "better safe than sorry" approach and will continue to whistle whenever I feel the need.
It doesn't help that fatalities are currently a hot topic of conversation among my colleagues at the moment as, unfortunately, there have been quite a few on our lines. In the five weeks since my incident we have averaged one incident per week with six people losing their lives, which is an incredibly high number for such a short space of time. We've also been under the media spotlight again as a direct consequence of the double fatality at a crossing near Angel Road. Since that particular incident, a number of drivers have reported seeing people loitering on the crossing and on the lineside which only increases the risk of another incident at the same location.
Today and tomorrow I have the same job, which includes a train prep in the carriage sidings. In one respect I'm quite looking forward to this, as I haven't done a full train prep since the traction course last summer. I'm just glad that it's on the beginning of the job, so I shall be going in early to make sure I've plenty of time.
Tuesday 21 March 2006
Abducted by aliens
In case any of you were wondering, I am still alive and well and have not been abducted by aliens.
The reason for the lack of updates is that I was involved with a railway incident on the day before my previous entry. It was only my fifth solo driving turn and a day given over entirely to Stansted Express services and, surprisingly for me, started without incident. Unfortunately, it didn't last. As I was driving through Clapton station on my way back down the the airport, a person ran out from behind the steps to the ticket office and jumped off the edge of the platform directly in front of my train. Even though I sounded the warning horn and applied the brakes, there was no way that I could avoid running the person over.
I had thought that my reaction to having a fatality would be very different and that I would be more emotional than I was. Apart from the expected rush of adrenalin and the shock of the event, I managed to stay quite calm about the situation. In fact, even while sitting there waiting for the emergency services the whole thing seemed most surreal that I wondered for a moment whether or not I had just imagined the whole thing and was stopping the job for no reason. This impression was reinforced by the other people on the platform who must have seen the incident still just standing there impassively as if they were waiting for their train. However, I had already decided that I would not go back and look if I was ever involved with a fatality, and I wasn't about to change my mind on that. I could quite happily live with someone else doing the checking for me.
When they arrived, the emergency services were brilliant. They took control of the situation and made sure that I was OK. They really couldn't do enough for me and even made sure that I didn't see the recovery process or the body itself. The same goes for the managers and colleagues at work who showed great concern for my welfare and helped me through all the necessary paperwork required after an incident such as this.
Naturally, such an incident triggers the "Chain of Care" procedure, which is intended to assist me back to work. Consequently, I have been booked off work since the incident and taking counselling sessions to help me deal with the memories of the incident and the emotions that they generate. Fortunately, there hasn't been any emotional reaction yet. I guess that this is partly down to the fact that railway fatalities were never shied away from throughout training and it is a subject that I had already devoted an amount of time to think about. I pretty quickly went through the rational process of thinking that "it wasn't me that killed this person, it was the train", "if it hadn't have been me it would have been the bloke behind me" and "if they hadn't jumped under a train they would have found some other means". If anything, the counsellor is happy that I'm dealing with events well but is concerned that I am perhaps a little too rational about it.
I think that my lack of reaction probably stems also from the way in which the incident happened. While no fatality is good, it was for me at least quite "soft". If it had been more gruesome or appeared not to be that person's deliberate action I'm certain that I would have been more affected by it.
Of course, this all means that it is almost a month since I last drove a train, which is going to affect my progress a little. However, I am going back to work tomorrow and have agreed a staged return to work so that I have the opportunity to get back into a good cab routine and buid my confidence back up. If anything, I'm feeling more nervous about how rusty I've become than I am about going back over the route where it happened. However, none of this has dampened my feelings towards driving as a job and I'm looking forward to getting back into the seat again.
The reason for the lack of updates is that I was involved with a railway incident on the day before my previous entry. It was only my fifth solo driving turn and a day given over entirely to Stansted Express services and, surprisingly for me, started without incident. Unfortunately, it didn't last. As I was driving through Clapton station on my way back down the the airport, a person ran out from behind the steps to the ticket office and jumped off the edge of the platform directly in front of my train. Even though I sounded the warning horn and applied the brakes, there was no way that I could avoid running the person over.
I had thought that my reaction to having a fatality would be very different and that I would be more emotional than I was. Apart from the expected rush of adrenalin and the shock of the event, I managed to stay quite calm about the situation. In fact, even while sitting there waiting for the emergency services the whole thing seemed most surreal that I wondered for a moment whether or not I had just imagined the whole thing and was stopping the job for no reason. This impression was reinforced by the other people on the platform who must have seen the incident still just standing there impassively as if they were waiting for their train. However, I had already decided that I would not go back and look if I was ever involved with a fatality, and I wasn't about to change my mind on that. I could quite happily live with someone else doing the checking for me.
When they arrived, the emergency services were brilliant. They took control of the situation and made sure that I was OK. They really couldn't do enough for me and even made sure that I didn't see the recovery process or the body itself. The same goes for the managers and colleagues at work who showed great concern for my welfare and helped me through all the necessary paperwork required after an incident such as this.
Naturally, such an incident triggers the "Chain of Care" procedure, which is intended to assist me back to work. Consequently, I have been booked off work since the incident and taking counselling sessions to help me deal with the memories of the incident and the emotions that they generate. Fortunately, there hasn't been any emotional reaction yet. I guess that this is partly down to the fact that railway fatalities were never shied away from throughout training and it is a subject that I had already devoted an amount of time to think about. I pretty quickly went through the rational process of thinking that "it wasn't me that killed this person, it was the train", "if it hadn't have been me it would have been the bloke behind me" and "if they hadn't jumped under a train they would have found some other means". If anything, the counsellor is happy that I'm dealing with events well but is concerned that I am perhaps a little too rational about it.
I think that my lack of reaction probably stems also from the way in which the incident happened. While no fatality is good, it was for me at least quite "soft". If it had been more gruesome or appeared not to be that person's deliberate action I'm certain that I would have been more affected by it.
Of course, this all means that it is almost a month since I last drove a train, which is going to affect my progress a little. However, I am going back to work tomorrow and have agreed a staged return to work so that I have the opportunity to get back into a good cab routine and buid my confidence back up. If anything, I'm feeling more nervous about how rusty I've become than I am about going back over the route where it happened. However, none of this has dampened my feelings towards driving as a job and I'm looking forward to getting back into the seat again.
Thursday 23 February 2006
My big mouth
I notice from my last entry that I was bemoaning the fact that this week was going to be rather dull. Well, I have been proved wrong in spectacular style. Still, according to some of my colleagues I am now a proper driver.
Unfortunately, I don't feel at liberty at the present moment in time to go into any details on such a public website just at the moment. However, it does mean that I won't be doing any driving for a little while during which time this weblog probably won't get updated very often. So, apologies for that. Don't worry though, dear reader. I will be back very soon.
They do say that you should be careful what you wish for.
Unfortunately, I don't feel at liberty at the present moment in time to go into any details on such a public website just at the moment. However, it does mean that I won't be doing any driving for a little while during which time this weblog probably won't get updated very often. So, apologies for that. Don't worry though, dear reader. I will be back very soon.
They do say that you should be careful what you wish for.
Sunday 19 February 2006
Christine
Although it's now been over a week since passing out, I've still only completed three solo driving turns. This is mainly down to me taking the last of my annual leave left over from 2005 (which also explains why I've not updated the weblog recently). However, today was a veritable cornucopia of happenings.
Because of engineering work I was let off the Stansted Express duties and put onto the London to Harlow shuttle. Some of these trains would have been Cambridge or Bishops Stortford services, which meant that I spent the first couple of trips sliding around trying to get my eye back in for braking at stations that the faster Stansted Express services don't call at. It all came back to me eventually, although I did manage to give myself a bit of a scare first time into Roydon and Ponders End stations. Fortunately, I managed not to go skating past the stop board.
I also had the opportunity to do something for the very first time.
When our routes were resignalled a few years back, no-one thought to put in any bi-directional signalling at Harlow Town station to allow for trains to be turned back to London. This means that trains terminating there have to make an unsignalled wrong direction movement at some point to be crossed back onto the correct line through manually operated points. This means taking instructions from a handsignaller. Fortunately, as I had to travel as a passenger up to London before taking my first train out, I got to see the movement being done by an experienced driver before I was expected to do it myself. It wasn't actually as difficult as I thought it might have been, but it was nice to know that I wasn't going to make a fearful mess of the thing when it came to my turn.
As if that wasn't enough, Spurs were playing at home this afternoon which meant that I got my first experience of a football train. I am continually amazed at the number of people that can squeeze themselves into a train when they are motivated to get somewhere. I thought that weekday peak loadings were impressive, but commuters have got nothing on football fans. I can only assume that they must have been wedged into the overhead racks and sitting on each other's laps for everyone on the platform at Northumberland Park to have managed to get onboard. The train certainly felt fatter as a result, but on a positive note all the extra weight gave amazing grip on the rail in drizzly conditions and cancelled out all the slipping that I'd been experiencing up until then.
Unfortunately, today looks to have been a glimmer in an otherwise dull week. From tomorrow I shall be back on the Stansted Express. While these runs tend to be fairly routine, they are at least quite easy with few stops and a train host to deal with the punters and the PA. On the downside, it does mean that I am likely to come back into contact with my Nemesis. The same unit that suffered the faulty cab radio on my first day decided to take a "sicky" while I was driving it on day two. I had sensed that the traction power was ebbing away until the train felt like it was on half power. Unfortunately, there were no fault indications on either unit to diagnose what the problem was or even which unit was suffering from it. It was only when I handed the train over to a colleague that I realised what was wrong. As he was pulling away, I couldn't hear any noise from the traction motors on one unit. It's a good thing it was working in multiple with another unit or I would have been stuck somewhere with no power and no hope. I'm sure that unit doesn't like me. If it looks like I have to drive it again I shall probably just go straight home again.
Who says train driving is dull...?
Because of engineering work I was let off the Stansted Express duties and put onto the London to Harlow shuttle. Some of these trains would have been Cambridge or Bishops Stortford services, which meant that I spent the first couple of trips sliding around trying to get my eye back in for braking at stations that the faster Stansted Express services don't call at. It all came back to me eventually, although I did manage to give myself a bit of a scare first time into Roydon and Ponders End stations. Fortunately, I managed not to go skating past the stop board.
I also had the opportunity to do something for the very first time.
When our routes were resignalled a few years back, no-one thought to put in any bi-directional signalling at Harlow Town station to allow for trains to be turned back to London. This means that trains terminating there have to make an unsignalled wrong direction movement at some point to be crossed back onto the correct line through manually operated points. This means taking instructions from a handsignaller. Fortunately, as I had to travel as a passenger up to London before taking my first train out, I got to see the movement being done by an experienced driver before I was expected to do it myself. It wasn't actually as difficult as I thought it might have been, but it was nice to know that I wasn't going to make a fearful mess of the thing when it came to my turn.
As if that wasn't enough, Spurs were playing at home this afternoon which meant that I got my first experience of a football train. I am continually amazed at the number of people that can squeeze themselves into a train when they are motivated to get somewhere. I thought that weekday peak loadings were impressive, but commuters have got nothing on football fans. I can only assume that they must have been wedged into the overhead racks and sitting on each other's laps for everyone on the platform at Northumberland Park to have managed to get onboard. The train certainly felt fatter as a result, but on a positive note all the extra weight gave amazing grip on the rail in drizzly conditions and cancelled out all the slipping that I'd been experiencing up until then.
Unfortunately, today looks to have been a glimmer in an otherwise dull week. From tomorrow I shall be back on the Stansted Express. While these runs tend to be fairly routine, they are at least quite easy with few stops and a train host to deal with the punters and the PA. On the downside, it does mean that I am likely to come back into contact with my Nemesis. The same unit that suffered the faulty cab radio on my first day decided to take a "sicky" while I was driving it on day two. I had sensed that the traction power was ebbing away until the train felt like it was on half power. Unfortunately, there were no fault indications on either unit to diagnose what the problem was or even which unit was suffering from it. It was only when I handed the train over to a colleague that I realised what was wrong. As he was pulling away, I couldn't hear any noise from the traction motors on one unit. It's a good thing it was working in multiple with another unit or I would have been stuck somewhere with no power and no hope. I'm sure that unit doesn't like me. If it looks like I have to drive it again I shall probably just go straight home again.
Who says train driving is dull...?
Thursday 9 February 2006
The loneliness of the DOO driver
Well folks, I survived my first solo turn.
It was a bit weird being in the cab all on my own. I found that I kept looking over to the secondman's seat expecting a comment or remark only to find it empty. It wasn't just the cab that seemed empty, as the messrooms had a similar feel too. I also seemed to spend an awful lot of time talking and singing to myself, which is worrying. Then again, when there's no-one else around you can't feel embarrassed about it.
At the risk of sounding immodest, I didn't feel as nervous as I thought I might. I made sure that I didn't rush about and gave myself plenty of time to change ends so that things didn't get forgotten or otherwise overlooked, and I drove as I always had done when with my minder (but then, I know no other way). This, combined with being in my own little bubble insulated from the rest of the world, actually made for a surprisingly relaxing day. That said, I did have a scare on my second trip when the cab radio went wonky and I had to stop and get instructions from the signaller via a signalpost phone. That certainly got the old heart pumping as I mentally scrabbled around trying to remember if I was doing the right thing.
All in all I had a really great day and I'm looking forward to my next turn of duty on Monday. I don't expect that every day will be as cushy, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
It was a bit weird being in the cab all on my own. I found that I kept looking over to the secondman's seat expecting a comment or remark only to find it empty. It wasn't just the cab that seemed empty, as the messrooms had a similar feel too. I also seemed to spend an awful lot of time talking and singing to myself, which is worrying. Then again, when there's no-one else around you can't feel embarrassed about it.
At the risk of sounding immodest, I didn't feel as nervous as I thought I might. I made sure that I didn't rush about and gave myself plenty of time to change ends so that things didn't get forgotten or otherwise overlooked, and I drove as I always had done when with my minder (but then, I know no other way). This, combined with being in my own little bubble insulated from the rest of the world, actually made for a surprisingly relaxing day. That said, I did have a scare on my second trip when the cab radio went wonky and I had to stop and get instructions from the signaller via a signalpost phone. That certainly got the old heart pumping as I mentally scrabbled around trying to remember if I was doing the right thing.
All in all I had a really great day and I'm looking forward to my next turn of duty on Monday. I don't expect that every day will be as cushy, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
Wednesday 8 February 2006
The chequered flag
Today is the day that I have been waiting for. A little over ten months ago I walked in off the street knowing absolutely nothing about what being a train driver involved. At every stage along the way I was sure they would tell me that I wasn't good enough to make the grade, and yet they kept asking me back. And now, having completed my final assessment, I am no longer a trainee.
Obviously I'm really pleased to have finally passed out, there is a sense of anticlimax about it. After all these months of work leading up to this point I was expecting to feel more elated, but I guess that this is just the start of my career as a driver. As good as the preparation has been to bring me to this point and as helpful and knowledgeable as the various instructors have been, I still feel that there's so much more that I don't know and will only start to learn once I'm out there having to rely on no-one but myself. However, I would like to publicly thank everyone who has provided me with even the least bit of information, advice or encouragement. At the risk of turning irretrievably mushy, I feel very privileged to work with such a great bunch of people from whom I will no doubt continue to learn.
So, where does it all go from here? Well, in the true tradition of chucking people in at the deep end, I have my first solo turn tomorrow morning. As I've only passed the core route, it will be a fairly bland day of airport services. However, being the first time out on my own it won't be dull. I would imagine that "terrifying" would be a more accurate description. I'll have twenty of these solo turns before I then learn the rest of the routes. Once all that's out the way, I shall be fully into the roster and have a more varied workload.
As for this weblog, I intend to continue to add to it as it would be a real shame just to end it here. I hope that it has been interesting and possibly even amusing on occassion. Above all, I hope that it has inspired other would-be drivers out there that it is possible to achieve your ambition.
Heck, if I could do it, what's stopping you...?
Obviously I'm really pleased to have finally passed out, there is a sense of anticlimax about it. After all these months of work leading up to this point I was expecting to feel more elated, but I guess that this is just the start of my career as a driver. As good as the preparation has been to bring me to this point and as helpful and knowledgeable as the various instructors have been, I still feel that there's so much more that I don't know and will only start to learn once I'm out there having to rely on no-one but myself. However, I would like to publicly thank everyone who has provided me with even the least bit of information, advice or encouragement. At the risk of turning irretrievably mushy, I feel very privileged to work with such a great bunch of people from whom I will no doubt continue to learn.
So, where does it all go from here? Well, in the true tradition of chucking people in at the deep end, I have my first solo turn tomorrow morning. As I've only passed the core route, it will be a fairly bland day of airport services. However, being the first time out on my own it won't be dull. I would imagine that "terrifying" would be a more accurate description. I'll have twenty of these solo turns before I then learn the rest of the routes. Once all that's out the way, I shall be fully into the roster and have a more varied workload.
As for this weblog, I intend to continue to add to it as it would be a real shame just to end it here. I hope that it has been interesting and possibly even amusing on occassion. Above all, I hope that it has inspired other would-be drivers out there that it is possible to achieve your ambition.
Heck, if I could do it, what's stopping you...?
Thursday 2 February 2006
Other ranks
As a driver, it's not very often that you get the opportunity to mix with or talk to any of the many professions that keep the railways running. As a result, each grade tends to have a slightly jaundiced view of everyone else. Therefore, it was rather nice to dispell some of these myths today.
Because of the way that things have worked out with my assessment, I have indeed managed to wangle an extra day's route learning so that I can "sign" the diversionary routes. However, there are no scheduled passenger services over one of these routes, which meant that it had to be walked. Given the biting cold of the wind I guess I couldn't have chosen a better day, so I was glad that the route to be walked was only a mile or so long.
It also benefitted from a lovely warm signalbox at about half distance in which we could shelter and pick the signaller's brains. Although the precise workings of the signalbox are still as arcane to me as they were when we visited Cambridge PSB and Kings Lynn box all those months ago, the signaller himself was friendliness personified and a mine of useful information. It almost made me feel bad for all the nasty things I'd said and thought about his colleagues at Liverpool Street IECC. He talked through all the possible shunt moves and signal indications while skilfully juggling passenger and freight movements coming through his patch. He didn't even mind answering lots of questions that probably all came at the most inconvenient of times for him. What a lovely man.
Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said about a look-out for a worksite we passed. Just as we drew up to him he started firing off lots of daft questions about why we weren't wearing hard hats and didn't have a look-out. He didn't seem to understand who we were (even though I was wearing the uniform coat) and why we were out there. He even earned us a reprimand from the site supervisor who yelled at us to "Stop distracting the look-out!!". So I yelled back to make clear that it was him talking to us and not the other way around.
Other than that, the assessments so far have been OK. I've had the written assessments for PTS and the core route together with a few hours driving. This still leaves the biggies of rules and traction, together with the additional diversionary routes and yet more driving. Still, I now have a nice long weekend in which to relax (although I fear I may spend a significant amount of that time fretting).
Because of the way that things have worked out with my assessment, I have indeed managed to wangle an extra day's route learning so that I can "sign" the diversionary routes. However, there are no scheduled passenger services over one of these routes, which meant that it had to be walked. Given the biting cold of the wind I guess I couldn't have chosen a better day, so I was glad that the route to be walked was only a mile or so long.
It also benefitted from a lovely warm signalbox at about half distance in which we could shelter and pick the signaller's brains. Although the precise workings of the signalbox are still as arcane to me as they were when we visited Cambridge PSB and Kings Lynn box all those months ago, the signaller himself was friendliness personified and a mine of useful information. It almost made me feel bad for all the nasty things I'd said and thought about his colleagues at Liverpool Street IECC. He talked through all the possible shunt moves and signal indications while skilfully juggling passenger and freight movements coming through his patch. He didn't even mind answering lots of questions that probably all came at the most inconvenient of times for him. What a lovely man.
Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said about a look-out for a worksite we passed. Just as we drew up to him he started firing off lots of daft questions about why we weren't wearing hard hats and didn't have a look-out. He didn't seem to understand who we were (even though I was wearing the uniform coat) and why we were out there. He even earned us a reprimand from the site supervisor who yelled at us to "Stop distracting the look-out!!". So I yelled back to make clear that it was him talking to us and not the other way around.
Other than that, the assessments so far have been OK. I've had the written assessments for PTS and the core route together with a few hours driving. This still leaves the biggies of rules and traction, together with the additional diversionary routes and yet more driving. Still, I now have a nice long weekend in which to relax (although I fear I may spend a significant amount of that time fretting).
Monday 30 January 2006
The fast one
Well folks, the end is almost upon me. I have finished the required hours with my minder and am now facing the final assessment to prove my competence (or otherwise) as a train driver.
The euphoria was almost spoiled on Friday night when a fight broke out on our train. I'd only just started rolling down the platform at Liverpool Street with the last train of the day to Hertford when there was the sound of shouting and clumping around from the front coach. We stopped the train pretty sharpish and opened the doors to deal with the situation before we were happy to continue. Turns out that an abusive passenger decided that he was going to have a pop at an off-duty Special Constable (after having been shown his ID). If that wasn't enough to qualify him for the "Twit of the Day" award, he chose to do it on one of only two trains currently fitted with CCTV. Needless to say he was forcibly ejected from the train by station security and did not get home that night.
The other fly in the ointment stems from my upcoming assessment, part of which is to "sign" our depot's core route. Having spoken to the chaps in the office, it would seem that I'm also going to be expected to "sign" an additional diversionary route at the same time. I was a bit annoyed as I hadn't been warned about this in advance, but it seems that they've got me over a barrel. I was intending to tell them that I'm not ready and request a couple of extra days to learn the route, but they've made it clear that doing this will delay my passing out as a qualified driver. What rankles the most is that they've done it in a rather underhand way. While they haven't said that this extra route is part of the core requirement, they have said that I won't be assessed until I'm ready to "sign" both routes and that requesting extra days for route learning will mean that my assessment will be rescheduled for a later date.
I can understand why they expect this, especially if the main route is blocked for whatever reason (as it was today). Plus, as it's not such a tricky route to learn, I'm half inclined to just do it. However, I do feel that it's extremely cheeky of them to spring this on me at very short notice. I think that a chat might be in order to clear this one up. Either way, I might be able to blag an extra day or two depending on how things pan out for the rest of this week.
Well, my ordeal starts tomorrow afternoon with as assessment of my knowledge of PTS (remember that...?) and the core route, and will last several days. Hopefully by the end of next week I shall be passed out as a fully-fledged driver.
Wish me luck!!
The euphoria was almost spoiled on Friday night when a fight broke out on our train. I'd only just started rolling down the platform at Liverpool Street with the last train of the day to Hertford when there was the sound of shouting and clumping around from the front coach. We stopped the train pretty sharpish and opened the doors to deal with the situation before we were happy to continue. Turns out that an abusive passenger decided that he was going to have a pop at an off-duty Special Constable (after having been shown his ID). If that wasn't enough to qualify him for the "Twit of the Day" award, he chose to do it on one of only two trains currently fitted with CCTV. Needless to say he was forcibly ejected from the train by station security and did not get home that night.
The other fly in the ointment stems from my upcoming assessment, part of which is to "sign" our depot's core route. Having spoken to the chaps in the office, it would seem that I'm also going to be expected to "sign" an additional diversionary route at the same time. I was a bit annoyed as I hadn't been warned about this in advance, but it seems that they've got me over a barrel. I was intending to tell them that I'm not ready and request a couple of extra days to learn the route, but they've made it clear that doing this will delay my passing out as a qualified driver. What rankles the most is that they've done it in a rather underhand way. While they haven't said that this extra route is part of the core requirement, they have said that I won't be assessed until I'm ready to "sign" both routes and that requesting extra days for route learning will mean that my assessment will be rescheduled for a later date.
I can understand why they expect this, especially if the main route is blocked for whatever reason (as it was today). Plus, as it's not such a tricky route to learn, I'm half inclined to just do it. However, I do feel that it's extremely cheeky of them to spring this on me at very short notice. I think that a chat might be in order to clear this one up. Either way, I might be able to blag an extra day or two depending on how things pan out for the rest of this week.
Well, my ordeal starts tomorrow afternoon with as assessment of my knowledge of PTS (remember that...?) and the core route, and will last several days. Hopefully by the end of next week I shall be passed out as a fully-fledged driver.
Wish me luck!!
Thursday 26 January 2006
Always the last to know
Perhaps not unreasonably, there is an expectation from members of the public that, if you wear the uniform, you must know everything. Unfortunately, I was totally ill-equipped to fulfil the role of "Know-er of All Things".
Regrettably there was another fatality on our patch this evening just as the peak was subsiding. Whenever such things happen it takes time to get things up and running again, particualarly if there are no diversionary routes, as was the case tonight. Predictably, this didn't cause us any problems until our last run when we were due to take a slow train from Stratford down to Stansted Airport, being relieved by another driver at Bishops Stortford. This should have been a nice little run without any incident but, starting from Stratford, we had obviously been overlooked. By the time we had got to Tottenham Hale our train was being announced as going only as far as Bishops Stortford. First we'd heard of it...!! I had to shout down the platform at the station staff to get this confirmed.
So, that was where we were going and it would be up to our relief to worry about what happened after that. We made the necessary announcements and off we went. Eventually we arrive at what we still believe is our destination and open the doors only for a group of passengers with suitcases to get on. Funny, thinks I. It didn't take long for the questions to start. "'Scuse me, mate. This is going to the Airport, isn't it?", Is it? "It's just that we were told it was". Oh, well if you say so.
Such problems are evidently not restricted to the frontline staff either. Even though the office are aware of my progress, they hadn't twigged that I would complete my required hours by the end of this week. When I mentioned this to them they went into a flap. The result is that I start my final assessment next week, although it might not be until the week after that I complete it due to other demands on the Assessor's time.
Regrettably there was another fatality on our patch this evening just as the peak was subsiding. Whenever such things happen it takes time to get things up and running again, particualarly if there are no diversionary routes, as was the case tonight. Predictably, this didn't cause us any problems until our last run when we were due to take a slow train from Stratford down to Stansted Airport, being relieved by another driver at Bishops Stortford. This should have been a nice little run without any incident but, starting from Stratford, we had obviously been overlooked. By the time we had got to Tottenham Hale our train was being announced as going only as far as Bishops Stortford. First we'd heard of it...!! I had to shout down the platform at the station staff to get this confirmed.
So, that was where we were going and it would be up to our relief to worry about what happened after that. We made the necessary announcements and off we went. Eventually we arrive at what we still believe is our destination and open the doors only for a group of passengers with suitcases to get on. Funny, thinks I. It didn't take long for the questions to start. "'Scuse me, mate. This is going to the Airport, isn't it?", Is it? "It's just that we were told it was". Oh, well if you say so.
Such problems are evidently not restricted to the frontline staff either. Even though the office are aware of my progress, they hadn't twigged that I would complete my required hours by the end of this week. When I mentioned this to them they went into a flap. The result is that I start my final assessment next week, although it might not be until the week after that I complete it due to other demands on the Assessor's time.
Sunday 15 January 2006
The graveyard shift
It's 1:15am and I'm just in from one of our later jobs.
To be honest I don't much look forward to these Saturday late night turns, as there always seems to be something happening. On Friday night our train was hit by a missile of some sort resulting in a broken window, so I was expecting tonight to have been as eventful. At weekends, there tends to be large numbers of kids hanging about stations and riding on trains. In the most part they are just a bit loud and boisterous, but from time to time you get a group that just wants to cause trouble. Thankfully, most of the kids out and about tonight fell into the former group and, in spite of a whole evening up and down one of our more troublesome lines, we got nothing worse than a door being briefly pulled.
Following on from my previous entry, I've done a bit of digging around and managed to track down my missing hours. It would seem that six days worth of hours have not been recorded, which leaves my record about 25 hours short. Added to my current total, I reckon that it will only be another week or two until I will have completed my hours. One of the others in the same group as myself has already completed his and sits his final assessment next week.
I'm still not sure what all the MCB's in the PMOS cupboard are, though...
To be honest I don't much look forward to these Saturday late night turns, as there always seems to be something happening. On Friday night our train was hit by a missile of some sort resulting in a broken window, so I was expecting tonight to have been as eventful. At weekends, there tends to be large numbers of kids hanging about stations and riding on trains. In the most part they are just a bit loud and boisterous, but from time to time you get a group that just wants to cause trouble. Thankfully, most of the kids out and about tonight fell into the former group and, in spite of a whole evening up and down one of our more troublesome lines, we got nothing worse than a door being briefly pulled.
Following on from my previous entry, I've done a bit of digging around and managed to track down my missing hours. It would seem that six days worth of hours have not been recorded, which leaves my record about 25 hours short. Added to my current total, I reckon that it will only be another week or two until I will have completed my hours. One of the others in the same group as myself has already completed his and sits his final assessment next week.
I'm still not sure what all the MCB's in the PMOS cupboard are, though...
Friday 6 January 2006
Back to the books
Happy New Year to everyone!!
The festive season turned out to be a fairly quiet time. Although I worked up to a pretty eventful Christmas Eve, I managed to wangle plenty of leave so that I didn't have to go back to work until Tuesday of this week. However, I still managed to fill most of that time off with visiting family, over-eating and exchanging gifts. It was almost a relief to go back to work and drive trains just so that I had something constructive to do.
Now that I am back in the saddle, I have decided that I really ought to start revising all the things that I learned on the Rules and Traction courses that I attended a lifetime ago. I feel pretty confident that most of the more regular things are still floating around quite close to the front of my head, but I know that there's an awful lot that I'm now worryingly hazy about. For example, the question that I most dread my minder asking is "Name the MCB's in the PMOS electrical cupboard", as I really can't remember more than about half a dozen.
The trouble is that I'm not entirely sure how long I've got. Given the amount of time that I've now been out driving with a minder I had thought that my final assessment might be sometime in the next month or two, but I've yet to hear anything definite. I can't even make an educated guess, as the number of hours they have recorded for me appears to be somewhat short of the total I had been expecting. Having looked more deeply into the situation, it appears that there is a four week gap in my record. While I can confirm that I was not driving over two of these weeks, it seems that someone somewhere might have mislaid some record sheets or failed to add the hours to my total. Either way, it could make quite a bit of difference.
Looks like a mystery fit for Hercule Poirot...
The festive season turned out to be a fairly quiet time. Although I worked up to a pretty eventful Christmas Eve, I managed to wangle plenty of leave so that I didn't have to go back to work until Tuesday of this week. However, I still managed to fill most of that time off with visiting family, over-eating and exchanging gifts. It was almost a relief to go back to work and drive trains just so that I had something constructive to do.
Now that I am back in the saddle, I have decided that I really ought to start revising all the things that I learned on the Rules and Traction courses that I attended a lifetime ago. I feel pretty confident that most of the more regular things are still floating around quite close to the front of my head, but I know that there's an awful lot that I'm now worryingly hazy about. For example, the question that I most dread my minder asking is "Name the MCB's in the PMOS electrical cupboard", as I really can't remember more than about half a dozen.
The trouble is that I'm not entirely sure how long I've got. Given the amount of time that I've now been out driving with a minder I had thought that my final assessment might be sometime in the next month or two, but I've yet to hear anything definite. I can't even make an educated guess, as the number of hours they have recorded for me appears to be somewhat short of the total I had been expecting. Having looked more deeply into the situation, it appears that there is a four week gap in my record. While I can confirm that I was not driving over two of these weeks, it seems that someone somewhere might have mislaid some record sheets or failed to add the hours to my total. Either way, it could make quite a bit of difference.
Looks like a mystery fit for Hercule Poirot...
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