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.