Lost in a haze

As is often the case this time of year, there was a wee bit of fog about yesterday evening which made for a new experience.

Unfortunately, due to railway lines having to be fairly flat they were often built in the bottoms of river valleys close to water, making them prone to becoming fog-bound. Our route is no different, following, as it does, the course of the Lea and Stort all the way from Clapton to beyond Bishops Stortford. So thick was the fog that you couldn't see one end of Broxbourne station from the other, and anything that wasn't illuminated was totally invisible. Braking points were obscured and stations only loomed out of the murk at the last minute, which made stopping at stations a hit and miss affair. Imagine holding a sheet of grey paper 6 inches from the end of your nose and then running at the world at 85mph, and you'll get a fair idea of what it was like. However, in my case I was running at the world in 250 tons of train with several hundred people on board. Even so, I still managed to complete a run down to the Airport in 42 minutes, observing all speed restrictions.

I was at least lucky enough that the job started with several trips on the Stansted Express. Not having to worry about stopping at places meant that I could check out how bad conditions were and how visible (or otherwise) my braking points would be. I was glad of having had that opportunity for when I had to finish the job with a round of slow stopping services to the airport. On the flipside, I did have to worry about station duties which I didn't have to before. It can be quite hard to judge when to close the doors when the rear of the train is partially obscured by fog.

I'm pleased to report that my regular minder was back yesterday, and managed to complete the job without falling off his chair.