The Road Not Taken…

Published on January 19, 2011 in CSA and Driving. 2 Comments

I pulled the train into Caledonian Road westbound on my first half yesterday, and heard a knock on my cab door. I got up to see who it was, and it turned out to be someone who had been on Customer Service Assistant training with me. More than that, though, she was the one who was assigned to Kings Cross and hated the idea, and wanted to swap with me - who’d been given Cockfosters, and hated the idea. For a glorious twenty four hours I walked around in a daze, amazed that I’d get to work at Kings Cross, only to be sharply brought back down to earth the next day when she said she was going to go to Kings Cross after all, as her boyfriend had talked her into it.

At the time, I was absolutely devastated, although looking back - I probably wouldn’t be a T/Op now if I’d ended up there. A huge part of the reason that I got through training when I did (only two groups before all new T/Op training ceased) is that L and I pestered the DSM’s at Arnos about out training dates, and they managed to get us switched from the Northern Line waiting list to the Piccadilly one, which was shorter. I doubt I’d have done that by myself. I don’t know how much difference it made in the interview, but one thing that did come up during the question about whether you’d looked into the T/Op role was the fact that, being based on the Arnos Grove group of stations, there was quite a lot of interaction with drivers based at Ash House, so it was easy to find out about the job from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

Also, the other day, there were two foxes who appeared to be copulating in the cess by the eastbound local between South Ealing and Acton Town. I’ll leave you with that pleasant mental image, as I am due for a dentist visit. *groan!*

New Timetable…

Published on December 14, 2010 in Driving. 0 Comments

The new timetable came in on the Piccadilly line on Sunday. I wasn’t there to see it, I was on a rest day! However, I was there yesterday, and there was utter chaos almost the whole time I was at work… although, to be fair, not down to the change! It was one of those days where little niggly problems seemed to pile on top of each other. Earlier there had been a problem with the signalling somewhere along the Uxbridge branch. Something else happened while I was on my mealbreak (I never did find out what!), so I had to reform a train for my second half. That came in the late because the train two before it had been given the wrong signal at Acton Town. Then something went wrong at Hounslow West. Then a train went defective at Holborn at the tail end of the peak and had to be taken out of service. Turning trains at more uncommon places (Kings Cross, Hounslow Central, Wood Green) was helping a bit but also causing more temporary delays to the trains behind while they carried out the moves. And there was also some sort of incident at Arnos Grove, too! In the end my train, which was due to finish in the depot at 19:50 didn’t actually get in there until about 20:25. Not good!

Autumn Days and the Rails are Slippery

Published on November 26, 2010 in Driving. 3 Comments

…and the flats are getting very loud!

Hey ho, another long break from writing, without any real excuse for it beyond really not feeling like it a lot of the time.  I had four teeth out at the beginning of September which, as you might imagine, was not an especially brilliant experience.  Although I’ll grant it wasn’t much worse than the two years of agonising toothache that had precluded it - including one night in April when my partner ended up driving me to an emergency dentist near Bounds Green at about 3 in the morning.

Work has been very same-y - not helped by the fact that the debates over the benefits or otherwise of the new “fixed link” rostering system are still dragging on.  The vote was about this time last year, I think - and it’s finally coming in mid-December with our timetable change.  Positions have been finalised and, unsurprisingly, those who got what they wanted are happy, and those who didn’t, aren’t so happy.  I actually ended up with what I wanted and more than I expected, in a way.  With the timetable change we are losing six lines of the roster and so I expected to be back in the pool - ie, back to not knowing what I was doing from week to week.  Instead, people who requested fixed links and didn’t get on them have been put in the pool instead, meaning I’m on the roster.  This was rather a relief as my partner books his working patterns around my own, and I was dreading going back to not knowing what I was going to be doing from week to week.

On the downside, it means there may be no more turning to the ‘mafia’ for last minute shift changes when we want to go out to specific events.  And while I ought to be easily able to swap a Saturday rest day for a midweek one, it’s a lot more effort to do the legwork myself rather than firing off a text.  Oh, well!

In the meantime, in non-work related news, my partner whisked me off to York for a few days recently and, after a few hours browsing the National Railway Museum, we went back to the (five star) hotel we were staying in and he upgraded himself to fiancé, which was (obviously!) rather pleasant.  We’re marrying in June next year.

Back on work related incidents… I was at Rayners Lane on the eastbound two days ago and waiting for the points to shift, and they were not obliging.  Then I heard the sound of the trainstop going down, looked up, and sure enough, I’d been given the signal to the Metropolitan Line!  Tempting though it was to take it, I behaved and reached out to call the signaller, only for her to manage to jump in first and apologise.  I waited for the signal to release and be set correctly, and off I went.  Despite this, I still got in a minute or two early at Arnos Grove.

Off the top of my head, I really can’t think of anything else of excitement recently - oh, I did end up running “fast down the local” a few days back.  This means that, instead of going on the Piccadilly’s fast lines between Hammersmith and Acton Town, I instead ran down the District Line, without stopping at any of their stations.  I believe it’s the first time I’ve done so westbound since doing it during training - nearly two and a half years ago!  The driver in front of me at Hammersmith station had exceeded his allowed driving hours and insisted on stabling his train in Hammersmith siding.  Upon arriving at Acton, I gave my train to someone else and was then sent over to catch an eastbound back to Hammersmith, where I was escorted onto the train that had been left in the siding.  We did this the “easy” way by having another train draw alongside it so I got out of the one we were riding in, and then clambered up into the one in the siding.  At my size, there is no graceful way to get into our trains from the ground..!  Thankfully it doesn’t have to be done too often.

Despite the post title, it really is feeling like winter now!  Thankfully this week I’ve had shifts starting around 8am, leaving me plenty of time to get there by bus - and a bloody relief that is too, given how badly frozen up my car has been each morning, even after the sun’s been on it a while.  My car is pretty old and doesn’t defrost easily, plus the *inside* of the windscreen tends to get a coating of ice as well, so it’s always rather a mammoth task.  I am waiting for it to finally give up the ghost so I can get a newer one that’s not so much hassle on freezing cold mornings - or nights, come to that, given that finishing shifts after midnight or so on icy nights often requires a stint of de-icing the car before I can head home.

More Delays

Published on March 31, 2010 in Driving. 1 Comment

Yet another PEA last night, and once again on the approach to Acton Town - this time, however, it was just a kid who’d grasped at it. Still, frustrating as I was already running late thanks to some ‘interesting’ choices made at Arnos Grove, that had resulted in me leaving about 8 minutes late with a large gap in front of me… shortly before 5pm. By the time I got to King’s Cross at about quarter past, the train was heaving, and Holborn, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Green Park and Earl’s Court were all so bad that I was having stand times of about a minute, whch, of course, was simply exacerbating the problem; the other stations were all also fairly bad. Even going up the Rayners branch wasn’t as quick as it ordinarily would be as it was taking so long to unload passengers.

There were delays on Sunday night too, and when I was leaving Hatton Cross eastbound I got a call from the controller asking me to expect relief and reform at Arnos Grove - in other words, instead of taking the train to Cockfosters and then stabling it in the depot as planned, I would get off the train at Arnos Grove and another driver would take it from there, changing the train number to his own. Unfortunately when I arrived, the platform was deserted! After waiting a few moments to see if anyone was charging down the platform to relieve me, I rang up the DMTs and was told that my relieving driver had been sat on a train in the sidings and was on his way over now; clearly there had been some chinese-whispers sort of problem.

Off to work soon and battling with toothache today. We’ve been trying for over a week to get hold of the correct person to schedule the extraction, but he’s always out! Someone has been taking endless messages for us (if we call her a few more times we’ll probably be on Christmas card exchanging terms) but he never gets back in contact. Still, it’s the first time it’s flared up badly since I came back off annual leave (I had a very bad attack in the middle of that!) so things could be worse. And it looks like the extraction will hopefully be no later than June.

PIOT

Published on March 28, 2010 in Driving. 0 Comments

So, with my two weeks annual leave finally over and done with, I headed back to work on Tuesday feeling fairly positive.  (Leave was a hellish drag by the middle of the second week!) I had two trips to Heathrow Terminal 4 and back to do - simple enough.  However, coming into Acton Town on the westbound the first time round, lights started flashing, alarms sounding, and on came the brakes.  Yes, it was PEA time - a mere two feet away from where I needed to stop the train.  I found out the problem, overrode the brake and berthed properly, opened the doors, and thankfully there was a member of staff already at the headwall on the platform, presumably ticking off train numbers as they sometimes have to do.  Off he went, and found out that there was a woman who had collapsed and wasn’t coming round.  In the end we had to get the ambulance to come, and the whole affair took about half an hour to deal with - I ended up reversing in the siding at Northfields instead of going through to Heathrow.  During all this there was another PEA apparently going on somewhere around Finsbury Park, and then yet another while I was Northfields.  The rest of the week has, however, been fairly calm - although yesterday was an annoying sort of day where, thanks to the Victoria line closure and having a huge gap in front of my first train, I seemed to be constantly losing time due to overcrowding.  Commuters at least react to the door chimes, Saturday evening people just keep on going at the same pace, crowding 20 of them through a single leaf door as if there were all the time in the world and they weren’t holding the door open and delaying the train, allowing even *more* people to build up at the next station… argh!

In a few weeks I have what is called “continuous development” - it used to be known as “Annual Testing Of Rules” (ATOR), which gives you slightly more of an idea of what it is!  We have to have our train driving licences renewed on a regular basis, so we have to do things like retake the fire safety test, retake our stock test (identifying/fixing defects with the train) and be tested on certain rules and procedures.  Unfortunately it means being at work for 9 in the morning, which means travelling at rush hour - bleh!  Still, at least it is at Arnos and Oakwood (for the stock tests, which have to be done on a train, obviously!).  When I did my CSA one (about two weeks before going for driver training!) I had to travel down to Leicester Square for it.

Odds and Ends

Published on February 27, 2010 in Driving and Other. 0 Comments

Last night I was sitting at the signals outside Acton Town on the eastbound, and all off a sudden lights start flashing and annoying sounds start blaring: yes, it’s Passenger Emergency Alarm time! Apparently someone in the fifth car had collapsed, although he had come round moments after hitting the floor. Annoyingly enough, the train I was in was one where the wording had rubbed off the Alarm Acknowledged and Talkback buttons. The whole thing was dealt with fairly quickly; I called up the Line Controller who answered almost immediately, and once we did get into the platform (the train ahead of us was reversing via the sidings and had to be detrained, resulting in a delay) station staff were already in position and had got the man off the train and reset the alarm before I’d made it three cars back.

In other observations, the tunnel layout between Green Park and Piccadilly Circus eastbound causes a slightly weird visual effect. The only signals between the two are the home signals (of which there are three) outside Piccadilly Circus. These are on the right hand side of the tunnel and, being homes, they are all fairly close to the platform (as opposed to be being distributed at roughly even distances through the whole Green Park to Picc Circus tunnel). The tunnel curves quite sharply to the left as it becomes the platform, and as a result, the platform comes into view before the actual signals do - only by a second or two (depending on speed), but still enough to give one a momentary jolt of surprise if there is a train in the platform, because for a moment all you can see is the rear of the train ahead, with apparently no signals (red OR green!) in between.

One more week (and moving onto earlies after two weeks of lates), and then it’s off on holiday. For the first time in four years I’m actually going abroad; we’re heading to France to visit my Aunt, who moved there shortly after I moved to London.

As a result of the house move last autumn, we’re still sorting through endless boxes and bags of things. One of the things we’ve come across have been a couple of home videos that have ended up in my possession somehow or the other - my family went through a rather nasty schism back in 2003 and there was never any coherant plan about who took what - and they’ve been rather interesting to see… especially given the high frequency of trains! There’s a visit to the Bluebell, shots of me waving from a train on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch, a ride on a Santa Special at Swanage back in 1989, model railways in France and Devon as well as Bekonscot, the Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway (at the time of our visit it was called the Torbay Steam Railway), some more recent shots of South West Trains services from Poole… Honestly, I didn’t stand a chance, did I?

An Actual Update?!

Published on February 11, 2010 in Driving. 4 Comments

I realised the other day that I’ve been driving for longer than I was on the stations, which had sort of passed me by! At the end of this month, it is in fact three years since I joined LU.

Some recent (by ‘recent’ I mean since mid-December…) occurances have included:

- stupid bloke running for the train at Baron’s Court the day before the heavy snowfalls started in December. Unsurprisingly, he slipped and fell, ending with one leg between the platform and the (closed) train doors just as I was releasing the brakes to move off. I dropped the handle, reopened the train doors, opened my own door and, seeing he was getting up with no problems, called, “That’s why we don’t run on platforms!”, and then closed the doors again and moved off with him onboard; far more than he deserved, frankly. I reported the incident to the Line Controller and did get a little shaky as I explained what had happened - if I’d moved off more promptly or he’d slipped a little later, that could have become nasty - but was back to normal a station or two later.

- Yesterday while leaving the platform eastbound at Ickenham, I suddenly noticed smoke issuing in a thin column from the foor foot, at a point where sleeper and ballast met. Unfortunately I couldn’t stop in time to investigate, so all I could do was call up the Met controller and report it. Oddly enough, having seen that yesterday, today I saw staff with a fire extinguisher on the track at Arnos while heading to pick up a train on the eastbound platform, followed by a DMT boarding my train westbound at Oakwood because someone had reported smouldering there! We didn’t find anything, though.

- My very first trespasser. I think it was last Sunday. As I was leaving Hounslow East on the east, there was a radio call for the train approaching Osterley westbound, saying that someone else had reported a possible sighting of a trespasser. Accordingly I slowed a little as well and, on arrival at Osterley, also received a call informing me of it and asking me to move off at caution speed from Osterley. As the westbound train had reached the platform before me and apparently seen nothing, I didn’t expect to see anything myself, but moved off slowly nonetheless. Moving into the disused platforms of the old Osterley & Spring Grove, I suddenly noticed something moving on the westbound platform - someone was crawling under the cable run and onto the (very narrow) platform, nearly pitching onto the track in the process. I called the controller, who heard ‘trespasser’ as ‘technical officer’, and later appeared to have misunderstood ‘disused platforms’ as he seemed to want me to tell the person to walk - down the track! - to the westbound platform at Osterley. However, it did all get ironed out and I spoke to the person in question (who seemed several braincells short) and passed the instruction to wait there and the next train would hopefully stop to pick him up. Presumably that all went alright as I didn’t hear any subsequent calls about people under trains..!

- I came across pink vomit in a train while doing a run of three weeks of dead lates. No one had reported it and I didn’t see it while closing the train up, so the first I knew of it was while walking back through the train having put it on the sidings (I’d done a staff train run back to Arnos).

- Last week I was on dead earlies. J and I had been out to a party on Wednesday evening, leaving early so I could get home and be in bed for 10, since I had to be up shortly after 4am. Despite actually managing to sleep more thoroughly than usual, I was finding the shift fairly hard going and the first half was a run out to Uxbridge and back. As I coasted into Acton Town on the westbound, the radio went, and it was the controller asking me to divert to Northfields - the points at Ruislip had mucked up. So in I went for a 40 minute sit at Northfields - and since I was going for meal break at Acton on the east, I then only had to drive Northfields - Acton before going for breakfast. The second half of the shift was what is known as three pipes, starting at Acton on the east, going to Cockfosters, coming back to Northfields, and then finishing at Arnos Grove. (In other words, three times across London.) Unfortunately, at Finsbury Park on the east first time round, I was delayed, and it turned out that there were signalling problems in the Arnos area (some later rumours claimed it was a new trainee on the signals) and as a result, by the time I reached Cockfosters, I was running about twenty minutes late. Due to the sheer number of trains, and the seeming lack of action being taken to sort the problem out, I also lost some time on the westbound. There was a change of shift in the control room while I was heading west, though, and they started turning trains. I expected to simply be given a short turnaround at Northfields, but no, I was called up at South Kensington and told to reverse in Barons Court sidings. That went fairly smoothly, although one couple on the train did ask in surprise, “Isn’t it still going to Northfields, then?” and I pointed out I’d announced that at South Kensington. I refrained from pointing out I’d also announced it on the approach to Earl’s Court, at Earl’s Court (both suggestions to wait at Earl’s Court due to wider platforms and being in the dry!) and after leaving Earl’s Court, not to mention having changed the DVA…! Still, they seemed to be the only ones (and I did lose a lot at Earl’s Court!), so presumably the PA in that car simply wasn’t as clear. Well, that’s the generous explanation, anyway. So - there was more sitting around, this time in the sidings, and then I headed back east. There were still some delays in the Arnos area - just enough to net me five minutes overtime.

- One train I picked up at Arnos on the east recently was joined by a train technician. The J door (the door separating the cab and the saloon) had apparently swung open three times since Heathrow while the train was in motion. The Acton TT had claimed that the bloke based at Arnos would be able to fix it. Which to be fair, he did try to do. By stripping down the latch mechanism. While the train was in motion and in service. Some of the people in the first car seemed a bit bemused, and I got a few odd looks from drivers coming the opposite way. Still, even though he admitted it wasn’t a perfect fix, I didn’t have any trouble with it at all on my trip after that.

- Leaving Cockfosters one day I lost the pilot light about a car out, followed immediately by a passenger emergency alarm. Someone had got a bag stuck in the door enough for me to get the pilot light when stationary, but not enough to keep it while the train moved. The SS kindly came out and freed the bag before I’d got three cars down - a driver from a train in another platform let me know - but he hadn’t reset the alarm, so when I opened up the train at the front again, it was still going, and I couldn’t set off. Thankfully we got it reset without me having to trudge all the way back (it was in the sixth car - he’d dived for the train when the doors were already closing) and then I was on my way.

- Obviously, the snow. I recall no dramatic train stories of my own about that - helped by the fact that I was on leave for most of the December stuff. However, my partner drove up from south London on one of the worst days. I live in a rather hilly area, and he couldn’t get into my actual road to park. I had to take shovels out to the road I live off just to help him dig out enough to actually get the car semi-up onto the pavement there. While we were doing this, there were two middle-aged ladies standing nearby giving commentary on all the other cars trying (and completely and utterly failing) to get up the hill.

- While helping to file an incident report form, the program used to fill it in decided that the date was January 1st, 1782. And it absolutely refused to let us file it for any date after that as those dates hadn’t happened yet and were in the future. Hurrah technology! I gather it was eventually resolved.

- A few weeks ago, on a Monday, I had a snip turn starting at 8pm. J had been here during the day, but had to head back home for work at about 5pm. At a few minutes to 7, I headed for the door, then realised I didn’t have my car keys. I went back into the lounge to find them and just as I got to my bag, the home phone rang. I picked it up, not expecting anything of excitement, and it turned out to be my Aunt letting me know that Granny had finally passed away. We had a very brief conversation and I headed out for work. She’s essentially been gone for so long - she’s had Alzheimer’s for about 15 years, 10 of those of the severity where she doesn’t know who any of us are - that it just didn’t really make any impact on me, I suppose.

So there you have it. As for why I’ve not written much, the reasons are myriad. Mainly, I’ve not been using the computer as much in general - I never got round to buying a new computer chair after moving, so I’m on a solid wooden dining chair, which doesn’t encourage long bouts of sitting in front of the computer! When I started this, my partner was a complete and utter computer addict and we spent most of our time side by side on our computers. As I didn’t have as much I wanted to do on mine as he did, I used to do things like update this to keep myself busy. There’s also the fact that my ex was not really interested in hearing about the Underground much, whereas my current partner is - so instead of feeling I have to tell *someone* about what happened today or I’ll burst, what usually happens is I tell him and then pretty much forget about it. I also come across fewer weird people as a driver and “I drove to Heathrow and back without much happening” doesn’t make for a very interesting post. And if I tell you about the weird things people do when they don’t manage to get on my train, management might start suspecting I try trapping them in the doors on purpose to get writing material! (Seriously, though: kicking a moving train because you’ll have to wait a minute for the next one may not be wise.) Finally though, there’s been intradepot strife going on for months now over the introduction of a different rostering system. It’s made for a very unpleasant working environment at times, with incredibly loud arguments with varying levels of bile, maliciousness and profanity. It’s almost a relief when they start arguing about football instead..! The upshot, though, is that quite often I come home and the last thing I am in the frame of mind for is writing positively about work.

I have, however, started using Twitter more frequently: feel free to follow me on there!

Am Alive, Really

Published on October 30, 2009 in Driving. 1 Comment

Annual leave and a house move - plus laziness! - primarily account for my lack of updates lately.

I’ve had a few compliments from passengers lately - a few weeks back a couple on a Saturday afternoon, getting off the train at Cockfosters, thanked me for the smooth journey, and not long after that I had another (female) customer who, also at Cockfosters, asked if I was the driver and expressed surprise at there *being* female drivers..! Yesterday I had a thank you from a passenger for keeping them updated on the delays going on (and it turned out she lived in the same area as me), and later that day also ended up chatting with a couple who got off the train at Arnos after misunderstanding the driver’s PA messge. I also had a rather sweet toddler waving frantically at me at Baron’s Court last night..! Today I had a thank you from a chap at Cockfosters, as well.

We had utter chaos on the line on Monday evening after a person under a train at Manor House. I was coming back east at the time - the incident was on the westbound - and it happened shortly after I’d dropped off a District line driver at Earl’s Court. We didn’t hit any major delays immediately.. a few more reds than usual, but that had already been the case between Acton and Hammersmith anyway. By the time I got past Piccadilly Circus it was starting to get bad, though, and I was held outside Russell Square for quite a while, then *at* Russell Square. The platform was packed and there was a DSM on the platform at the headwall, who wanted to know if I was going through to Arnos or not. Several trains were being turned at Kings Cross to enable us to run some sort of westbound through Central London, but I was going through as far as I knew, so on they all tried to squeeze. We got held again outside Kings Cross due to two reversers ahead of us, but the advantage was, of course, a fairly clear run through to Arnos after that, and even picked up a DMT at Finsbury and dropped her at Manor House. In fact, I don’t think we got held again until we were nearly at Arnos. There was also, thankfully, a train waiting to go east to Cockfosters (mine was an Arnos terminator), so I didn’t even have to deal with any questions or complaints on that front. Not so luckily, there was no one to take my train from me. I headed down to the other end of the train to see if the driver was there but, on arriving at the west end, turned back to see that the signal had been given for the train to go east. I knew there were no drivers up there whatsoever, so ended up having to call up the harried DMT to let him know that there was no relief and also the signalling complication.

I was late for meal relief by this point but, given how destroyed the service was, that wasn’t really a major problem. I was eventually sent over to the eastbound and told to await further instructions, and when I got there the train that I should have originally been on (albeit about an hour earlier!) was in the middle platform with nobody on it. I called the DMT and asked if I should take it, but was told no, so I settled down to wait and was eventually given an eastbound train with no idea a) what its new number was, b) where it was going after getting to Cockfosters (and couldn’t find out myself due to not knowing the new number…) and c) having no idea when I’d be relieved. As we’d had several trains turned and this had been sitting in the platform for several minutes before I was given it, I took it to Cockfosters and then set about finding out the answers to a and b at least. It turned out to be a Terminal 5 train that, according to the timetable, I could bring back as far as Arnos Grove on the east without going into overtime. Assuming, of course, that there was no late running… except that the train should have left Cockfosters ten minutes prior to the time it did and there were still severe delays to the line!

I got to Acton Town without major incident, although it was slow going Hammersmith to Acton. However, at Acton, the signal for the Uxbridge branch was lowered (I’d been semi-expecting this.. the platform describers had been showing T5 correctly until about Kings Cross, and then started showing Uxbridge). Luckily there was a DMT on the platform who looked at my train (showing T5!) and the signal (showing the Uxbridge branch!) and was on the problem almost before I’d got the doors open.

The singal was changed and I trundled off down the Heathrow branch, and was eventually told to reverse Terminals 1, 2 & 3, which was a new experience for me… and one that luckily went off without a hitch. I was, however, still running late, and was also utterly exhausted. I picked up two other drivers at Northfields, which turned out to be a saving grace as it made the journey go a lot faster and helped me stay awake.

The train was, I believe, meant to go to Cockfosters and stable, but on arriving at Oakwood - already about 25 minutes over my finish time - it was given the signal for the depot, so I took it. I detrained the first car, another driver did the second, and then two knights in shining armour (or supervisors in white shirts, anyway), came and dealt with the rest.

So, train finally stabled safely, I put in a docket for half an hour’s overtime the next day, and went home for some much needed sleep - and that’s my Monday in far more detail than you ever wanted to know.

Earlier in the month I had my first ever person overcarried to the sidings - Rayners Lane, in this case. He’d leapt on the train as the doors were closing and the supervisor detraining that car hadn’t noticed until I was getting back in the cab, and didn’t manage to get my attention in time, so I knew nothing about it until I made my way through the middle cab (my train had a double ended unit in) and nearly leapt through the roof in surprise. I called the Met controller who already knew about the situation as the supervisor had informed him, and the Rayners Lane cabin managed to let us out early. Even so, my the time I’d changed ends and set the train up and got the signal and drawn out into the platform it all took quite a while, and he still had to go up and over the stairs to catch the next Uxbridge train. He took it fairly well apart from a few grumbles, and I managed to bite my tongue and *not* say “Well, that’ll teach you to leap on as the doors are closing!” or words to that effect, so all round it could have gone a lot worse.

I also finally got to reverse at Hounslow Central a while back; there had been a recurring signal failure earlier in the day and the service never quite recovered, and I ended up being short-tripped there to try to get me back on time - much to the annoyance of all the passengers, although I thankfully heard very little about it, having made it perfectly clear in my PA that I had tried to find out when the next Heathrow was but my radio calls had gone unanswered, and that the best thing for them to do was to get off the train promptly and allow me to change ends and get the train out of the way so that if there was one behind, I wouldn’t be holding it up!

Anyway, I’m sure that’s quite enough from me for now..!

Bang!

Published on September 1, 2009 in Driving. 4 Comments

Approaching Southgate on the westbound last night, the home signals stayed red. I was a bit confused; you can see the signals for quite a distance and they really should have cleared by the time I got there. I stopped the train at the first red, made a PA about how the previous train must still be in the platform, and a few seconds later got a direct radio call informing me that they believed the train in front was on fire. Oops! New PA.

Sat and waited, and waited, heard a general radio announcement about the delay, and then control got back to me on the radio asking if my signal was still red - it was, as were the other two homes. Control’s slightly-worried response that he thought the train was out of the platform and that he would find out what was going on had me starting to revise in my head the procedure for passing signals at danger, and when he did get back to me a few minutes later that was confirmed - I was to pass A910A, A910B and A910C at danger and then pull just my cab into the platform and follow the DMT’s instructions.

I got into the tunnel mouth and saw the train ahead of me, just outside the platform - and white lights on the front, indicating that it was going to be brought back *into* the platform. This was confirmed by the DMT and supervisor, I handed over my train keys to the SS (so that there was no chance of my train moving) and then got caught up on the gossip while the DMT went back to the other train, traction current was taken off for him to remove something from the track, and then the train was finally moved back into the platform, stopping a couple of feet short of my own train.

It turned out that what had happened was that one of the compressors had blown out - with such a load bang that the station staff upstairs had heard it and come running down, initially suspecting someone had kicked it/knocked over some of the escalator hoardings, and with such force that a side panel had been blown off. The smell of burning on the platform was quite intense although, with Southgate being in its own little tunnel section, it was dispersing a bit - although maybe I just got used to it because I was there for about half an hour in the end!

The train was finally moved off and, once it was clear of the platform and the station starter had returned to green, I pulled into the platform and then set off myself. Due to still being under the rule from passing the previous signals at danger, I had to stay in slow speed until nearly the end of the tunnel, but the incident train was being driven fairly slowly anyway so it didn’t make a huge deal of difference. I was now running about 50 minutes late. I was due to pick another train up at Acton to go east, and assumed that it would have departed without me long before - but no, they’d kindly put the damn thing on the sidings so I could take it east late!

Catching Up…

Published on August 29, 2009 in Driving. 0 Comments

I keep meaning to write but when I get home I’m too mentally drained; I’ve been sleeping badly due to three health issues rearing themselves at once - one is over and done with (a bout of tonsillitis) but the others are still ongoing and neither are an easy fix. One is going to require a hospital visit and in the meantime, because I would prefer to keep working, I can’t take strong enough painkillers to quash it entirely. The third will hopefully clear up next week - unfortunately I had to let it run for five weeks to prove that it was enough of a problem to actually get something done about it. And although the course of treatment (which takes ten days) will clear the problem up immediately, there isn’t anything to say it won’t just recur at the end of the ten days… argh! Thankfully from the 6th I’m on leave for a fortnight so I may manage to recharge my batteries in between dashing all over London seeing people that I’ve had to put off because I’ve had no mental energy for anything but sleep and work.

I seem to keep getting spare shifts, which really isn’t helping much - since doing nights mid-July I’ve had four weeks with two spare shifts in, I think (including next week). Two I lost by getting them switched to running turns, thankfully. Today I sat around for two and a half hours before starting driving, which tends to kill my brain off - L ‘kindly’ came in and shared some details of a recent dream she had. Which was very sweet of her.. (!). Well, it made a change from sharing our usual SPAD dreams, anyway. I had one recently where, after having the actual SPAD (which was caused by two repeaters going blank), the brakes failed and the train started up again and derailed in a garden. It was supposed to be set on the eastbound between Arnos and Southgate but had that usual rather dubious geography that tends to occur in dreams - whereas in reality houses back the line just before the tunnel mouth, we actually ended up in a front garden in a small cul-de-sac.

I’ve passed the 1938 stock twice recently - once while it was stopped on the westbound local between South Ealing and Northfields (having glimpsed it coming out of the sidings at Arnos ahead of me). On this occasion it was stationary and I was able to coast the train past and make a PA for anyone interested in knowing what it was. The second occasion was in the dark a day or two back: it was on the eastbound local, presumably bound for Upminster where it will be on display this weekend for the depot open day. It was in motion, as was I, and I had a moment of confusion as I knew it wasn’t a battery loco but couldn’t think what else it could be until it got a little nearer!

I had a saloon intruder alarm go off today departing Terminal 5 eastbound, but nothing was obviously disturbed once I got to T12&3 and could go back to investigate. One of the panels seemed a little loose, but was secured enough that it should still have been making more than enough contact to register as closed - if we’d had a rough time pulling away from the platform I might have been inclined to think it had just lost contact briefly, but it was a fairly smooth departure, so goodness only knows!

I had my [url=http://www.coralleane.co.uk/wordpress/?p=289]nemesis train[/url] to drive for the first time since it wrenched my shoulder last August. Thankfully, everything went smoothly and there were no injuries this time! And how weird it is to think that it’s now nearly a year since I actually passed out. L had a P&D (Performance and Development) thingy recently and I don’t think I’ve had one as a T/Op at all yet - even though they’re meant to be done every year or six months (can’t remember which!). Still, given that I’m fairly content where I am, I’m not too bothered!

During the tonsillitis bout I needed to come back to work before I was fit to drive - well, I was fit to *drive*, but I wasn’t fit to make PA’s or communicate safely over the radio as my voice was weak and painful to use when it was working at all. I did a day of light duties, running round and collecting staff files for new starters at the depot for the admin office. The first place I went was East Finchley, and it wasn’t until I’d collected the file and was making my way to the bus stop that I realised that East Finchley was very nearly where I ended up working. I wonder how things would have turned out had I been on the Northern and not the Picc? It was definitely one of those moments where you can see your alternative life branching off, almost..!