Brown trousers optional

I'm very pleased to say that your humble correspondent has survived the week to report on passing the first training module.

Being totally new to the railways, I and my colleagues were first required to take and pass the Personal Track Safety (PTS) assessment so that we could be passed competent to wander around the railway environment. Although we'd been out around Hornsey depot letting off fire extinguishers and playing with track circuit clips and detonators, this was small beer in comparison with what was required to pass the PTS assessment.

As well as a written exam, we had to do a practical track walking exercise that required crossing the running lines. The particular running lines in question form one of the busier parts of the East Coast Mainline a scant four miles outside Kings Cross along which GNER, WAGN and Hull Trains expresses travel at 95mph. Not at all daunting, then.
As things turned out, it wasn't too bad and I didn't need a change of undies. Although we had to get right the way across all six running lines and the Ferme Park Sidings none of us ended up as a messy smear on the front of a GNER express. To be honest, there was a small track crew out working ont the down slow line in a 'red zone' (see, I learnt something), and I spent most of the time watching their lookout to get advance warning of any 'down' trains as he had a better view around the flyover than I had. Cheating? Possibly. They still gave me my PTS card though, so I suppose I shouldn't complain.