Springwatch

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.