Underground Gal

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..!