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!
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