Well, bloody busy two days on the Piccadilly Line! I never did find out the original cause of Tuesday’s disruption for definite, I heard both signal failure and trackside fire at Oakwood (nothing saying it couldn’t have been both, I suppose!). My train finally turned up approximately 45 minutes late. I was due to go to Ruislip but was turned at Rayners Lane, which got me back to Arnos *just* in time to not have to take late meal relief, so I picked up my second train after a rushed dinner roughly on time. Whilst I’d been out on the Uxbridge branch there had been reports on the radio that one of the two signalling computers for the Turnpike Lane - Cockfosters stretch had gone down, and they were working with just the one.
I was going to T5, and the train trailing me through Central London (about 1 minute behind) was also going, so when I arrived at Hatton Cross (several minutes early), I wasn’t held to time and then at T5 was given the signal straight into the siding and, when finally remerging to head east, I was also given the signal early. Off I trundled, finally running into congestion partway through Central London as the signalling computers had now given up the ghost entirely, crashing and locking up constantly. Local control was taken, but it was then discovered that the local computer absolutely refused to let them reverse trains at Arnos Grove… a fairly important facility at the best of times, let alone when all your trains are running late and out of sequence. OOOPS! They were trying to turn trains at Wood Green (and Oakwood if necessary), but these don’t have the third platform so there’s the inevitable delay caused by tipping out..!
Due to the early departure from T5, I actually didn’t finish too late, probably about ten minutes or so later than I should have done and due to the time of the finish, there is time built into the shift to take a staff train back to Arnos to book off, which I don’t have to do, so I did still finish comfortably within my hours. However, because they’d used all the sidings up earlier trying to recover the service (staff trains run from Cockfosters to Arnos sidings, where they are left to form the early staff trains back to the depot in the morning and then the first westbounds from Cockfosters), they were having to run staff taxis from Oakwood…!
Today I came in, headed over to the westbound platform and, again, found the collection of drivers that normally means that the service is screwed. My own train eventually arrived about 50 minutes late. I headed towards Rayners Lane as scheduled (bizarrely, as I came into South Harrow eastbound, onto the platform came one of the people who I’d been out with that morning before work…!), and then headed east. I was obviously running rather late at this point and, as I entered Piccadilly Circus, the radio went and I picked it up, expecting to be asked to reverse Wood Green, since I was due to get off for meal break at Acton on the westbound. However, I was completely thrown by the controller asking me to reverse Kings Cross east to west, which is a move I’ve never yet done in pracitce and is rather trickier than a normal reversing move. Thankfully I think I got it all right, and I trundled off towards Acton having no idea where my train was going - it was booked to run to Uxbridge, and I wasn’t told to go to Heathrow, but they had Rayners Lane shuttles in, soooo…!
However, it was soon to become incredibly irrelevant because, as I coasted towards Earl’s Court, the radio sprang to life. The Rayners shuttles reverse via the sidings to the east of the platforms, and it transpired that there was now a signal failure around the sidings. As I reached Barons Court, I heard the train in front of us being held at Hammersmith, and we were held at Barons Court on a red signal. I kept dumping people onto the still incoming District line trains, and then was finally given a green signal - and more importantly, the signal past the starter also cleared, showing I was able to go all the way into Hammersmith platform.
So off I headed. Halfway there, the request came for all trains on the west up to Hammersmith to hold in platforms, so down I had to sit. Luckily there was a CSA in place already so between us (and despite my fairly clear PA’s!) we fielded the same batch of questions over again. The District line was also having issues, with all trains being diverted to Richmond, as staff had to get down on the track at Acton and secure lots of points.
We eventually got going again - the District were moving first so we managed to offload a lot of my passengers to them, and to a Picc line train sent down the local lines - and my meal break, which had been saved by the short tripping at Kings Cross, was now completely beyond hope. I pulled into Acton at 20:20, I should have been off that train at 19:25, and my official, minimum-required meal break was booked to start at 19:55. The DMT on the platform told me to come back at 2100, which I duly did, to find that my second train was also (unsurprisingly) running late, so I could pick it up after all.
I was due to go round the loop at Heathrow T4, which I did, arriving pack at Acton about 15 minutes after the next train I was meant to pick up had gone. This second train is an odd one that runs empty from South Harrow sidings, comes down to Acton, goes into the east sidings, goes into the west sidings (I would pick it up on the west to run into the west siding), then comes back out to run east in service to Oakwood. Due to this, I knew there was a reasonable chance it would be running close to on time or have been cancelled (or at least have the siding dance bit cancelled!) so I called the DMT on the westbound to see if she knew if it was due in or not, since earlier they’d had a list of which trains were coming in. Eventually she came over to deal with us all (there were about a dozen drivers congregated on the eastbound) and it turned out my train was indeed at Green Park without me, so I travelled back as a passenger, arriving at Oakwood about ten minutes late.
Today: rest day.
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