www.traindriver.org
Becoming a Train Driver - A Trainees' Blog
This is a blog written by a new recruit to ‘One’ railways in West Anglia (now National Express East Anglia) who joined the railway in March 2005 after several years in other jobs. The experiences are typical of what can be expected at a passenger TOC and cover his experiences from interview to passing out nearly a year later, then his first few months as a qualified driver. It was written both to illustrate the training process and to provide information and encouragement to other trainees and people considering train driving as a career.
Many thanks to the author for allowing me to display this blog
Many thanks to the author for allowing me to display this blog
Wednesday, 9th March 2005
The story so far...
Having already been through the recruitment and selection process there's so much to catch up on. So, let me begin by setting the scene.
Before submitting my application to become a trainee train driver with 'one' railway, I had no experience of working on the railways. My background was always in admin and customer service, but I was ready for a total change. I wasn't sure in exactly what direction I wanted to head, but I was sure that it would be out of an office.
Pre-Selection
Having read the ‘How to Become a Train Driver’ webpage, I was already aware of the types of tests and assessments I was likely to encounter. So, when I was called to an assessment, I was surprised that it was only going to comprise a concentration and mechanical comprehension test. It later transpired that this was just a pre-selection process to weed out the total no-hopers.
Even though this was just a pre-selection process, it was still tough. I was expecting that we would get the infamous Group Bourdon "dots" test but we ended up with the SCAAT test instead, which demands mental adaptability as well as concentration.
Still, it was good to meet some of the other candidates and chat between the tests. I was quite surprised that there were a number who were returning to driving having been away from it for some time, and that I was very much in the minority in not having a railway background. It was quite an honour to have been told that I'd successfully progressed to the next stage.
Assessment Centre
The next stage of the selection process takes a whole day during which candidates face the entire battery of aptitude tests and a structured interview. For me, this was due to take place in an obscure office near Watford town centre. However, they failed to inform me that the venue had been switched at the last minute because workmen in the building were making an unacceptable amount of noise. So, having had a hair-raising journey around the M25 to get there, I had to wait an agonising 30 minutes for the test administrator to collect myself and one other candidate. The substitute venue in a Regus building was hardly any better, as a fire alert the previous day had meant that their heating boiler had gone offline overnight and the offices were still freezing cold. Still, we reckoned that if we could pass the assessments in such trying conditions we should be assured of a position.
As we'd previously done the Mechanical Comprehension test at the pre-selection session, we weren't expected to do another. However, even though we'd all taken the SCAAT test just over a week previously, we were still expected to do the Group Bourdon test. I can't speak for the other candidates but, compared to the SCAAT test, I found the Group Bourdon to be much easier. Then it was the TRP and RAAT tests about which there's not much to tell. After that, we were all led in one by one for the computerised Fast Reaction & Co-ordination Test. As I was due to go third out of five I had plenty of time to build up a head of nervous energy, which was not helped when the first candidate came out a physically and emotionally broken man. When my turn came I made a bad start by trying to be too quick and belting the buttons and pedals far too hard but, with a bit of coaching, I managed to settle down.
With the tests out of the way, there was time to settle the nerves before the structured interview. If anything, this was the part that I was most dreading. However, the interviewer put my mind to rest immediately by telling me that I'd managed "...straight A's" on all the tests. If she had been better looking I'd have kissed her. Anyway, it did the trick I was soon relaxing into it and merrily chatting away about this and that until she had filled in all the boxes on her form.
And with that I was free to go.
Medical
I never heard that I had passed the Assessment Centre but assumed that I must have when I was called to attend a medical.
There's not very much to report about this, except that the chap who was nearly broken by the Fast Reaction & Co-ordination Test must have done alright in the end as he was sitting in the medical centre waiting room as I arrived. However, it is probably worth mentioning that I have never been so thoroughly examined as I was that day.
The Offer
All of this just about brings me up to date. It was always very hard to judge how I had performed at each stage, as I really had no idea what they were looking for. To have come out the other side with a formal offer of a position as a trainee driver was brilliant beyond words. Just yesterday I received all the various paperwork, including a copy of a contract of employment, new entrant's details form, a staff travel pass application and details of where to go for an induction. So, from 4th April, I'm going to be a trainee train driver for 'one' railway!
The only slightly worrying point is that the accompanying letter says that the offer is still conditional on passing the medical and on getting acceptable references. I hope I get it, as I've already had to hand in my notice for my current job.
Saturday, 9th April 2005
"Hello, good evening and welcome"
It seems that my fears were unfounded. Shortly after the last entry I received details of an induction week starting on 4th April at the Ipswich Town football ground at Portman Road .
The week itself was billed as a corporate induction, and centred primarily on 'one' as a company and why we were important as individuals. As someone new to the company and the industry, it was interesting and surprising to hear more about the basis on which the 'one' franchise was won, and the nature of the relationships between the various railway companies and the effect that this has on the services being offered.
Although there was a lot of corporate blather, there were sessions on customer service, conflict management and communication. Some of these topics may seem a bit odd for drivers to cover, but the group was mixed and included newly inducted customer service staff and even engineers.
The worth of these sessions was ably demonstrated on a "field trip" that took place on the Tuesday. Having split into smaller groups we were tasked with surveying four 'one' stations. The day itself saw a fair bit of disruption, with signalling problems, failed trains at Liverpool Street and on the mainline at both Stowmarket and Diss, and a fatality on the West Anglia network all contributing to the fun of the day. For our group starting at Ipswich , we spent all day on the trains and actually saw very few stations due to the importance of making connections. With all this chaos around, one of the biggest priorities was making sure that passengers were informed at all times, and it was plain to see the important role that drivers had to play in this, even when not actually driving.
As well as inducting us into the company way of thinking, there were sessions on some of the relevant legislation that we would be expected to have to comply with, some basic fire safety training and an introduction to track safety and railway terminology from a no-nonsense former fitter of many years experience. The last of these was one of the most interesting and enjoyable sessions of the week, and the only one in which I took copious notes. Having been apprenticed to the railways during the last days of steam, the trainer was never short of an amusing or thought provoking anecdote to illustrate some point or other.
All in all it was a relaxed and very interesting week. I don't think that there was an awful lot that I would consider was "training" as such as so much of it was commonsense, but I would consider it a very good grounding in the basics of the company's ethos and the expectations that they have of me as an employee. How much of it stays with me by the time I complete the training process remains to be seen.
Tuesday, 12th April 2005
Let's start again, shall we?
First week at the Hornsey training school and it seems like the wheels have already fallen off.
While we were busy swanning about in Ipswich last week, our instructor was scratching his head wondering where we all were. Due to a mix up somewhere along the line it would seem that us trainee drivers should not have been swanning around in the luxury at Ipswich at all, but slumming it in the training school portacabin straight away receiving a far more "driver-orientated" induction. Not only that, but what we should have covered we didn't, and what we should have been provided with we weren't. Scratch day one, as we all head to the Bishops Stortford depot to collect hi-vis vests, rule books, sectional appendix and all the other paraphernalia that we should have had from day one. Still, it was a lovely afternoon for a walk down by the river with the wife.
To our trainer's great credit (and with a bit of re-scheduling), we are now back to where we should have been at this point last week. With fire safety and emergency first aid tomorrow followed by personal track safety for the rest of the week, we should at least be in a position to start driver training proper by next Monday.
Friday, 15th April 2005
Brown trousers optional
I'm very pleased to say that your humble correspondent has survived the week to report on passing the first training module.
Being totally new to the railways, I and my colleagues were first required to take and pass the Personal Track Safety (PTS) assessment so that we could be passed competent to wander around the railway environment. Although we'd been out around Hornsey depot letting off fire extinguishers and playing with track circuit clips and detonators, this was small beer in comparison with what was required to pass the PTS assessment – you have to get all the questions right.
As well as a written exam, we had to do a practical track walking exercise that required crossing the running lines. The particular running lines in question form one of the busier parts of the East Coast Mainline a scant four miles outside Kings Cross along which GNER, WAGN and Hull Trains expresses travel at 95mph. Not at all daunting, then.
As things turned out, it wasn't too bad and I didn't need a change of undies. Although we had to get right the way across all six running lines and the Ferme Park Sidings none of us ended up as a messy smear on the front of a GNER express. To be honest, there was a small track crew out working on the down slow line in a 'red zone' (see, I learnt something), and I spent most of the time watching their lookout to get advance warning of any 'down' trains as he had a better view around the flyover than I had. Cheating? Possibly. They still gave me my PTS card though, so I suppose I shouldn't complain.
Monday, 25th April 2005
All quiet on the Western Front
Since passing my PTS assessment there hasn't really been an awful lot of note to report. The driver training is still in its initial induction phase, and we're getting some fairly basic introductions to the various facets of the job of train driver.
As well as classroom sessions and sessions out in the depot we've had out days to the various locations at which we will be based. So far we've had introductions to the publications and notices that drivers are expected to use, arrangements for signing on and off duty and a brief look at some of the more major systems on the Class 317 EMU that forms our basic traction. This week will be spent mostly looking at signalling systems. The tone has been quite relaxed with the emphasis on getting a flavour of each topic before having to worry about getting as heavily engrossed as we will need to be to pass the Rules training that will come later. Even so, it's amazing how much we've all learnt in such a short space of time.
Still haven't even got close to driving a train yet, though.
Tuesday, 3rd May 2005
Absolute (Mental) Block
Well, I was warned that things might get a bit more complicated as time went on. Having spent all last week being introduced to the basic concepts of signalling (basic...?!), we're now getting into the somewhat murkier waters of passing signals at danger with and without authority, temporary block working and train failures.
Everything was going swimmingly last week. We had a cab-riding exercise on one day with task books to complete and an out day to Cambridge Integrated Electronic Signalling Centre (IECC) and Kings Lynn signalbox to show us how the theory translated into practice. Frankly, Cambridge IECC was a bit of a waste of time as the signallers didn't tell us much and we were left to fathom things out for ourselves ("So, tell us what it all does". "Er, well the red lights are the trains. Any questions?"). Kings Lynn signalbox was much better with the signaller giving a full description of what he was doing and even letting us throw some points. I can't pretend that I understood absolutely everything, but I think I've taken in enough to stand me in good stead for my rules course. I even managed to get my head around TPWS, which our trainer had warned us was not an easy subject to understand, so I thought I was doing well.
I think that this week might be a bit more of a challenge for me. Having grasped how things work when everything is running as it should and what all the different types of signals and aspects mean, there is still an awful lot more to understand. Given that it's one of the few things that stops us all bumping into each other I can see why a good understanding of signalling is vital. Doesn't make it any less complicated, though.
So, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to put the kettle on before settling down with some light reading.
Monday, 9th May 2005
"Sybiiill...!!!"
Someone once said that a little knowledge can be dangerous. As from today, I and the others in the class have the piece of paper as proof of that. Having passed the final assessment for the "Introduction to Rules" course, our little knowledge and us are being allowed to progress to the next phase of the training.
The next stage is three weeks of 'front-end turns', where we will each shadow a driver to see how the basic theory we have learned is carried out in practice. In some respects I'm quite hoping that the network will fall flat on it's face at least once so that I can see things like signals being passed at danger (with authority, naturally) and assisting failed trains. It would be quite dull to spend the whole three weeks just shuttling up and down on greens the whole time and never seeing what happens when the excrement hits the fan.
Today also marks the last day for us in civvies, as we have finally taken delivery of our uniforms. Some of it is OK, but I've got a particular bugbear with the shirts that we've been issued. At first glance they have the sheen of fair quality kit, but on closer inspection this sheen is revealed as only superficial. The shirts are truly awful. Had it been my own money they would have been straight back to the shop to be exchanged. I spent two and a half tortuous hours trying to iron my six shirts, none of which appear to have a straight seam between them. (Before anyone comments, I'm actually a bit of a Domestic God and a dab hand at ironing shirts.) And as for the sleeves...!! By the time I'd got to the last one, I'd been reduced to a Basil Fawlty-esque rage and had more than once bent double over the offending garment in a rictus of fury, silently shaking my fist at it as if daring it to crease in the wrong place. At the least my wife had the decency not to dissolve into gales of laughter.
Well, not quite.
Thursday, 12th May 2005
Signing on
No, I've not been given the sack. Well, not yet anyway.
This week I have been playing at being a train driver and doing everything that a train driver does (er, except actually driving any trains obviously). For the last couple of days I have been up at 4am to sign-on for an early turn, drinking tea and reading discarded newspapers in messrooms, and answering the daft questions of the travelling public ("Yes this train is the Stansted Express, as it clearly says on the departure board, the platform monitor, the train destination indicator and in big orange lettering on the side of every coach you myopic muppet...!!!"). Oh, and I've also been riding in the secondman's seat to observe the railway.
So far it's been really interesting, with trips to Chingford and Stansted Airport ad nauseum. I'm hoping that I'll have the chance to visit a few of the more exotic destinations as the weeks progress (Hertford, Cambridge...?) so that I can get to see as much of the West Anglia network as possible. I'm not yet sure in exactly what way it's helping me in my training. While talking about and drawing things in the classroom are all well and good, I imagine that actually seeing them out in the real world will help to make them more memorable. Thanks to a track circuit and points failure at Hackney Downs this morning I've already seen how signals are passed at danger with authority, and feel confident that I can remember the procedure.
On another note, the new uniform is causing some hilarity. Unlike most of the drivers I've seen so far, I have retained my youthful figure and still resemble a giant matchstick (slender body and large bonce), which means that everything is far too baggy on me. The blazers have already been returned and replacements ordered, although there's nothing that can be done about the tent-like shirts. Still, as the driver's uniform is identical to those worn by ticket inspectors, I now have the uncanny knack of emptying a carriage of fare-dodging schoolkids and other riff-raff and enjoying a quiet and relaxing ride home.
Wednesday, 18th May 2005
I can't believe this is work
This train driving lark is great fun!! OK so I'm not actually doing anything yet, but I'm still having a great time. Apart from a couple of signalling failures which caused a fair bit of delay, the days have been uneventful. Speaking to the drivers I've been placed with, this is just the way we like it.
As well as getting a good view of the driving I've been picking up quite a bit of information about the more mundane things work out on a day-to-day basis, which will be really helpful. I must admit to being really mystified by all the rosters and notices on my first few visits to the depot and wondering how I would ever get on, but once someone has explained what it all means and how you can swap turns between drivers it's a whole lot less daunting. Quite a few drivers seem to have swapped all their unwanted shifts and have managed to get themselves onto permanent earlies, afternoons or nights depending on what suits them best, which seems to be fine. In fact, with some negotiation and a bit of judicious swapping with other drivers, it seems that you can pretty much suit yourself when you work and when you don't as long as all the turns are covered.
It's going to be quite a shock to the system when I have to go back to the school for rules at the end of the month.
Wednesday, 25th May 2005
Delays, delays, delays...
I'm a little cross today, as I've just had confirmation that our rules course is to be delayed by a week. Added to the week that we are already behind because of the corporate induction at Ipswich , we have lost two weeks in as many months. Next week should have been the second week of our rules course but instead we will be getting an extra week of front end turns.
I guess it's understandable that someone wants to take some leave, but it does grate a wee bit when we've been told that we can't at least until the classroom phase of the training is over. My view is that what's good for the goose is surely good for the gander, and that we should have been presented with the option of also taking some leave. Not a happy bunny.
In an interesting twist on life imitating art, I was subjected to the worst delays so far. ( Liverpool Street signallers should look away now.) For some reason that neither of us could fathom we were delayed getting out of Stansted Airport on a slow 'up' train and were put inside virtually everywhere to let every man and his dog pass. Five late at the airport had grown to almost twenty late by the time we arrived at Liverpool Street with a train groaning with people. This then became ten late on the way 'down', and even then a slow train was let in front of us as we were stopped at Bethnal Green, at which juncture my driver made an apt comment (the exact phrasing of which currently escapes me) that evoked a picture of the two of us being forcibly made to participate in an unnatural sexual act with a salad vegetable.
Friday, 3rd June 2005
Edited highlights
Today was the last day of front end turns. I feel a little sad about this, as I have very much enjoyed them.
Looking back, I'm afraid that not all of my hopes and expectations were fulfilled. While I did see some of the procedures that we had talked about in the classroom enacted, it was mostly fairly low-level stuff brought on by track circuit and signalling failures. Not one of the trains I travelled on developed anything like a major fault resulting in a failure, which was a shame as I very much wanted to see how assistance was provided. The worst that we got was having to batter various things on Class 315 EMU's (notably recalcitrant doors) in order to make them work properly. One of my colleagues got luckier with an undemanded brake application while proceeding at speed along the Lea Valley , although they did manage to get going again.
What I was most amazed at was the sheer stupidity of the travelling public. While they are generally fairly docile and able to grasp simple information (destinations, stopping patterns, timetables and the like), many cannot. Regrettably, most of these are users of the Stansted Express. Here are a few of the gems that I have witnessed over the past four weeks.
Late Running
Heading down the platform to the front of a slow train to Stansted Airport , I was accosted by a young lady in the doorway of the Express unit in the facing platform. She was a little aerated that the train was looking like being five late leaving London and that she had missed her flight. I explained that there were signalling problems affecting trains entering and leaving, that it takes about 45 minutes to reach the airport and that delays do happen.
"But I've missed my flight three times before because of this", she insisted. She wasn't best pleased when I gently suggested that perhaps her experiences should have taught her to catch an earlier train to avoid such problems happening again.
Fare Dodgers
I've had a pretty good run of these (ahem) individuals. From emptying carriages of schoolkids because they took me to be a ticket inspector to a fare-dodger almost knocking me flying in his bid to escape the attentions of a gang of real inspectors. The winner for bare-faced cheek went to a young lady who brazenly asked me "Is it OK if I get on this train without a ticket?".
Um, no.
Foot-Draggers
There seems to be a certain section of people who assume that all trains are 8 cars long, and will insist on waiting at the "8 Car Stop" board. When the train turns out to be only 4 cars, there will be one of two reactions. The first group will hurry back down the platform to board the train. The second group will amble gently in the train's general direction with the vague notion of boarding. Two gentlemen of the latter group got left behind because the driver was unwilling to wait for them to deign to board his train; much to their consternation.
As a little postscript, the uniform is once again causing grief. Having been through the wash once, the stitching of the hems at the bottoms of the legs has come undone on two out of the three pairs of trousers I have been issued with. I feel that words will soon be exchanged on this matter.
Monday, 6th June 2005
Back to school
After the front end turns comes the Rules Course.
With the change of activity comes a change of location. For the next couple of months, our place of work will not be a Portakabin in the Hornsey depot car park, but a cosy little room under the eaves at the Cambridge drivers’ depot. It's not a bad little set-up, and much more convenient to get to in the morning. Travelling up by train each day we're going the opposite direction to all the other commuters heading into the 'big smoke', which means that we have the rare pleasure of getting seats. On the downside, the building we are in is so close to the country end of Cambridge station that we have to temporarily halt proceedings every time a diesel service pulls in or out of platforms 4, 5 and 6. Standing outside we are barely in a position of safety as Ipswich bound Sprinters pull in and out of the platform.
I had been warned previously that the course content was very similar to the introductory course that we had done. In fact, one Silverlink driver who had just completed his rules course in the next classroom to us at Hornsey reckoned that it was 95% the same but more in-depth, with just 5% completely new content. And so day one proved; even down to the identical handouts. Still, I guess it's good revision.
Tuesday, 14th June 2005
Stating the bleedin' obvious
It would seem that I was perhaps a little hasty in my previous assessment of the rules course content. There are indeed quite a few differences between this and the content of the introductory course that we had previously sat at Hornsey, it's just that you need to look closely to find them.
It was at about the halfway point of last week that it suddenly hit home to me that I didn't actually know exactly what our instructor was talking about at all times. This actually came as something of a shock and caused me to sit up and pay a bit more attention. Instead of just nodding and making a mental note to look up my notes from Hornsey, I decided that I would make a conscious effort to listen and absorb, and would ask any questions as they occurred to me rather than bottling them up for another time. I'm only going to get this opportunity to learn an awful lot of really important information about my roles and responsibilities, so I really must make sure that I understand it fully before I get out there myself.
One other aspect of the rules course that has caught us all out is just how pedantic it can be. It's not good enough just to know in your head how you would carry out a certain task if you can't describe it. At our first weekly assessment, we all failed to complete a question asking how we would quickly protect a section of line we had just passed over that had a track defect in it. We all knew that it was by using a track circuit operating clip, but what we had singularly failed to mention was the very first thing we would do to make this possible. That is, to stop the train. I thought that this went without saying (I suppose the instructor imagined that I would just toss the clip out the window and hope that by some enormous fluke it would snap onto the rails just so), but we were all mistaken and got this question marked for review.
Duh...!!
Tuesday, 21st June 2005
Bees
'Swarm, isn't it?
As southern Britain swelters in proper mid-summer weather for once, the company's slavish insistence on full uniform means that we're suffering along with everyone else. Sadly our training room suffers from a total lack of air conditioning or anything else that could make conditions more bearable. However, at least we aren't out driving at the moment. We found out today that the temperature measured in a driving cab over the weekend topped 103 degrees.
All of this is having a bit of an effect on my poor addled brain. Things that seemed fairly straightforward on induction are now fiendishly complicated. Perhaps it's the added elements that weren't covered before or maybe it's just that I'm too hot and our trainer's words are just washing over me without sinking in. Whatever, this week is proving to be a challenge as I struggle to assimilate lots of information in trying circumstances. Even writing this entry is proving bothersome.
On the plus side, the lesson of the first week has been successfully learnt. Both your humble correspondent and one of his colleagues managed to pass last week's assessment with no reviews.
Friday, 24th June 2005
"It's illogical, captain"
As if we haven't got enough things to try and get our heads around, I managed to get myself into a proper tizzy over some railway terminology.
Today we were covering the various types of speed restrictions that can be imposed, part of which is to learn about the different signs used to denote these and their expected layout. I wasn't too worried about these sessions as they had already been covered in some depth on induction and felt pretty confident that I had them taped.
All was going swimmingly until the trainer started talking about things being "in rear of" or "in advance of" certain objects. At this point alarm bells started going off inside my head, as I knew that the things that we being described as being "in advance of" something must be after whatever fixed point was being referred to in the direction of travel, and those that were described as being "in rear of" it would be reached first! Having shaken my head a few times to see if these seemingly contradictory statements would somehow arrange themselves into a sensible pattern I felt I had to ask. "Please sir", I heard myself say. "Please can you explain that again?"
Well, blow me if he wasn't right. It turns out that things appearing "in rear of" a certain point really are before you get to that point, and those that are "in advance of it" are beyond it! So, an AWS magnet for a signal is some 200 yards "in rear of" the signal, but the SPAD indicator that catches you the other side is "in advance of" the signal. When pressed, the trainer could only surmise that these are terms introduced by signallers. Be that as it may, it struck me as a daft convention given that trackside features such as signs and signals are actually laid out for the benefit of drivers. It would make far more sense if things that you reach first, like an AWS magnet, were described as "ahead of" the signal because it's in front of it and that anything you pass after whatever fixed point is referred to as being "in rear of" it.
But then I guess that's far too sensible. [Since this blog was written Rule Book terminology has been revised to eliminate this confusion].
Monday, 27th June 2005
Intermission
One of the great features of the rules course that I am sitting is that there is a one week break between the end of week three and the start of week four. The idea is basically to allow the first part of the training to sink in before moving on to the weightier matters of train failures, accidental train division, fires and other such diverting subjects.
While it's not exactly a week off, it is the first (and probably only) opportunity to take any annual leave. What we probably should be doing is revising and spending some time consolidating our learning so far and, being conscientious trainees and a credit to the company, that is what we are doing. However, we are all taking at least two days off to allow the batteries to recharge and rest the old grey matter. I'm hoping that as a result of this week, the penny that has been circling the slot for a little while now will finally drop.
Wednesday, 6th July 2005
Eeep...!!
The speed at which the weeks are passing is getting a little bit scary. I'm trying desperately not to think about the fact that the final rules exam and the end of the course is now just a smidgen over a week away. Because of this, I don't really want to dwell too much on the course content.
That said, I will just briefly mention the level of clairvoyance that it appears is required for the job of driver. Normally everything is fine and life is a bed of roses. However, as soon as the balloon goes up it is a different matter. A pulled passcom is a fairly quick and easy problem to deal with but a train fire (even a small one) is extremely serious. Quite how you deal with a passcom which has been pulled because of a fire that you are unaware of is something that I'm hoping experience will show me how to deal with. In the meantime, I just hope that it never happens. [This is something that happened to a Great Western HST near Maidenhead some years ago with appalling results. There was also a disastrous sleeper train fire near Taunton in the ‘seventies. The trouble is that the situation can have escalated out of control before the train crew is properly aware of what is happening].
In the meantime, I'm using that great internet resource eBay to make up for what I feel are deficiencies in my equipment. So far I've bought a natty 'one' leather wallet for my PTS card and travel passes and a belt holster for a carriage key and '21' key. It sounds a bit naff, but it will make my life a lot easier if I know that these keys are secure and that I can reach them easily when needed.
Thursday, 7th July 2005
Reality Check
The real world came crashing into the classroom in the most jarring of manners today following the terrorist attacks on London 's transport network.
Although we were shielded from the full impact of these atrocities by distance, the knock-on affect on the railways were still felt. We managed to struggle on with our training for a while (which, ironically, was on train accidents, emergency protection and train evacuation), but we had to give up after our trainer vanished at the behest of the depot manager. Instead, we drank tea in the messroom and watched events unfold on TV in the company of many 'one' and WAGN drivers. After a while we were told that we might as well go home, and so we did.
Being serious, I just don't have the words to express the sadness and outrage that I feel as a result of these attacks. The deliberate targeting of innocent civilians at the height of the peak is nothing short of cowardly and simply cannot be justified to further any agenda. However, I do feel a lot of pride and admiration towards the railwaymen and women of all grades on both National Rail and London Underground who did sterling work today to ensure that a bad situation was not made any worse. I honestly can say that I feel honoured to be joining a profession that conducts itself in this way and just hope that, should the time ever come, I can measure up to the example that was set today.
Friday, 15th July 2005
"...and relax."
I'm a very happy chappy today, as I have passed my rules exam. Having actually sat the exam yesterday I spent most of last night as a ball of nerves until I heard the outcome this morning by text message from our trainer.
One of the things that I was most worried about was that there appeared to be a couple of spurious questions in the last weekly assessment where the expected answer was different from that given in the handouts and, in one notable case, the Rule Book. It was all a bit hard to explain, especially given that the bloke who wrote the course material also wrote the assessments and is supposed to be hot on rules. It certainly made me worry whether there would be any similarly 'odd' questions in the final exam.
The question that caused all the problems was: "If your train is involved in a train accident what are your four main priorities?" The handout listed them in the following order:
Still, while we all understood what we would actually do should this scenario ever arise, we were smart enough to know to give the answer that was expected of us so that we got through the assessment.
Although the thought of being passed competent is a little scary, having completed this part of my training I shall be kicking back and relaxing tonight. If I may be forgiven a little immodesty, having been asked a total of 452 assessment questions throughout the duration of this course, I'm hugely chuffed to have only had eight marked for review.
Monday, 18th July 2005
Dirty bits
The first day of the traction course was a real breath of fresh air after being stuck inside a classroom doing rules.
After some quick pieces of admin, we were lead outside for what seemed to be the first time in absolutely ages and allowed to wander around the outside of our basic traction, the Class 317 EMU. Even though we are only looking at and identifying all the mucky bits below floor level that the carriage washers never reach, it was still interesting and very informative. Once we've covered a bit more about the various air and electrical systems and how they all relate to each other I'm sure it will begin to make sense, but I'm not worrying about that at the moment.
I must remember to buy either some disposable latex gloves and/or wet wipes before I go out driving in case I have to isolate anything in service.
Since ending our rules course, our numbers have also swelled from six to eight, which is nice. I'm not sure quite how well the two new guys will fit in with the rest of us, as we've become quite a close-knit group. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.
Tuesday, 19th July 2005
Train Porn
Having spent all yesterday looking at the dirty underside of a Class 317, we spent most of today inside the unit looking at cocks. It all sounds a little bit sordid but, in order to pass our traction training, we need to know all about them. The cocks in question related specifically to the pantograph and the other equipment up on the roof that carries out the job of collecting juice from the overheads.
It all seemed fairly straightforward when the trainer was there to explain everything, but it is beginning to dawn on me the extent to which traction is much more abstract than the rules course was. For example, there are quite a few different things that could prevent you raising the pantograph and not many indications to help you track down exactly where the problem might be. At least with some of the rules questions if you didn't actually know the answer you could deduce most of them. Unfortunately it seems that, at this point at least, I'm going to have to put in a lot of effort to learn each part.
At least I've managed to get my first train fault out of the way quickly. Once we'd all had a go at cutting in the auxiliary power and raising the pantograph under supervision and been shown the whereabouts of the various MCB's and isolating cocks, we were all going to have a go at doing this unsupervised. Being nearest the cab I went first. All went swimmingly with the pantograph going up and giving power until *phutt*, and out went all the lights. At first I thought I'd been stitched up but tried again anyway with the same result. I realised later what I should have done (press 'Aux Set' and 'Pan Up' together), but by then it was too late. The others wouldn't let me off the unit until last in case I broke the steps as well. I have a nasty feeling that this might have been a reputation forming event.
Thursday, 28th July 2005
"The knee bone's connected to the thigh bone..."
It seems that I was right about my reputation within the group as a train breaker sticking. Although I've had no further incidents, I'm still referred to as a Jonah.
In fact, this particular title could just as easily apply to one of our number who got a bit keen when exploring the differences between the Mark 1 version of the Class 317 and the slightly less old Mark 2. Despite warnings that the units we were exploring had been prepped for service and that we should leave them exactly as we'd found them, he noticed that the passcoms were different and decided to pull one. Cue several minutes of consternation as his group tried to work out how to reset it. Unfortunately, being the first I fear that this is not going to be enough to shift the attention away from myself.
Away from the diverting subject of breaking trains, we've been getting down to the minute details of our units. As a commuter I'd always dismissed them as being old, basic and a bit naff but, as a trainee driver, I'm learning a new respect for them from their hidden complexities. For example, I'd never known that the air suspension could sense the weight of each coach and automatically adjust the brake pressure in each brake step accordingly. That this is all done by air without any electronic intervention is quite amazing.
The flip side to this is that there are some daft design touches, particularly in relation to the positioning of air isolation cocks. Some units have an internal and external cock for some air systems, but these are in different places in the circuit for each system. Some parts of the air system don't have an isolating cock at all which would require the isolation of the entire coach from the rest of the train in the event of an air leak (e.g. the supplementary main air reservoir on Mark 2 units). A bigger headache is the positioning of a passenger bulkhead inside refurbished Mark 2 units which makes access to the isolation cocks all but totally impossible.
Still, it's nice to be outside in the fresh air after all those weeks stuck inside a classroom all the time. It certainly makes things a lot easier to understand when you can go out to a unit and see the systems and practice the procedures (or "play", as our instructor would have it).
Tuesday, 2nd August 2005
At last...!!
Yesterday was the day that I and my classmates had been waiting for all these months. Almost four months after starting employment with the company we got our first taste of driving.
OK, so the journey only lasted about 300 yards and did not exceed 5mph, but it still felt like a major milestone to us all. I can't say that I was too worried or overawed by the experience as it was in the safe confines of Hornsey depot. The first time out on the mainline will be a different matter, though. Naturally we all made our fair share of silly learners mistakes like forgetting to reset the DRA and getting muddled up with the directions in which the brake and power controllers move, but no-one dropped the DSD (except at the instructors prompting) or bashed into anything. The other thing that we also all failed at was correctly picking braking points to correctly stop at chosen landmarks, but that will come with experience.
Today's driving exercises were a bit more practical as we practiced coupling and uncoupling, or "controlled collisions" as the instructor called them. Hopefully with practice the various stages of each operation will gradually sink in and the elementary errors will stop.
Tuesday, 9th August 2005
Repetition, repetition, repetition
Since last week's entry there's not been much to report. It would seem that we have now covered all of the required knowledge on our basic traction and are spending our time mopping up any points that we feel we don't fully grasp and endlessly practicing things like coupling and uncoupling units, train prep and fault finding.
Although the practice is good and helpful to get the various procedures set in our minds, I'm just beginning to get a little bored with the course. I guess I'm just getting a bit impatient now. Maybe I'm overdue a break. We've all started talking wistfully about the possibility of taking some leave so that we might be able to have a holiday. If there is one criticism that I could level at the structure and administration of the driver training programme it is that each element of the training follows hard on the heels of the one before and there's no chance to stop and have a breather. There's an awful lot of hard work involved in taking on board and understanding all this new information, and I know that I'm beginning to feel tired.
Hopefully there will be an opportunity for some time off once we get to the minder driving stage, but that isn't due to start until mid-September. Until then we'll keep soldiering on.
Monday, 22nd August 2005
Scream if you want to go faster
Apologies for the lack of recent updates. I haven't vanished off the face of the earth (well, not yet anyway).
It would seem that the endless practice that we had earlier this month has stood us in good stead, as we all passed our traction assessments (and not before time). Thanks to the excellent preparation that we had received at Hornsey, the biggest challenge facing us was how to avoid getting sunstroke or, for those who had their assessment on the Friday, getting soaked to the skin.
Unlike all the other assessments we've had so far, the traction assessment is a two part affair with a written and a practical part. The other difference was that, while the written part was administered at the Hornsey training school by our instructor, the practicals take place at the driver depots and are carried out by driver managers. Even so, both parts were fairly relaxed affairs.
Now that the traction course is complete, we have reached the end of the main classroom phase of the training. Although there are a couple more courses that we need to take, the emphasis is now on getting some hands-on experience. For two weeks starting from today we are allowed out with an empty train to play on the mainline between Cambridge and Stansted Airport . At last, we have started to actually drive trains. It was quite a weird experience being able to drive at up to 90mph with other trains around and having to obey signals and speed restrictions when all we've been used to so far is pootling about in the depot.
My own driving turn was fairly unspectacular. Taking over the train at Newport on our way up to Stansted Airport , I was only able to attain a maximum of 70mph. However, I did make a pretty good fist of stopping at the 8 car board at Elsenham and only ran a few feet past the DOO monitors. It's going to take a little while to get used to the way that the train handles and how to control it, but I feel we're well on the way. The only small fly in the ointment was a sour-faced Central Trains driver who was waiting for us to clear Stansted North Junction so that he could get the road up to Cambridge . He couldn't have been there for very long, but he certainly made sure I was aware that he wasn't a happy chap. I shall have to look out for him tomorrow.
At least I don't have to buy the cream cakes tomorrow, unlike two unfortunates who failed to cancel the AWS in time.
Saturday, 3rd September 2005
Out with a whimper
Once again, sorry for the lack of updates. My PC decided to die an unpleasant death and I had to wait for a replacement which only arrived a couple of days ago.
Well, the two weeks with an empty unit is now up and we all seem to have done very well. As well as getting some practice in of controlling a train, we practiced station stops and station duties at various points and with varying degrees of success. Perhaps somewhat uncharitably, other drivers have seized on our train as an excuse to explain any delays they had accrued and "late running of crew training train" featured heavily on the delay reporting sheet. I guess some of this was justified, as the various signallers either wouldn't allow us to depart on time or would take decisions in our favour (which included holding a southbound freight service so that he could show us the bi-directional movements at Audley End).
It would have been nice to have had the chance of a bit more practice, but we were only diagrammed for two return trips before the train was needed again for the evening peak. Once these had been split between the seven of us, it meant that on most days each trainee only got between 15 and 20 minutes at the controls. In between turns, we passed the time by playing cards, reading, sleeping and chatting. Although this meant that the atmosphere was nicely chilled, it also made the days seem very long. Still, I successfully managed not to put on too much weight from eating cakes (although, to be fair, they weren't required to be bought very often).
Next week should be a traction conversion course to cover Class 315 EMU's but, because of a miscommunication between the various parties involved, this isn't happening until later this month. In fact, it took several of us phoning various people to get even that organised, as each thought it was the responsibility of the other. Sadly this is not untypical and won't be sorted until all driver training is finally taken in-house. So, instead of traction conversion we have an extra week of front end turns.
Oh goody.
Friday, 9th September 2005
Funky moves
What looked like being a rather dull week actually contained a few little nuggets of interest. OK, sure I was stuck up the front of a Stansted Express unit looking at the same old scenery for far longer that I would have liked, but it wasn't all bad.
Monday's job was a nice easy one which ended up at Hornsey depot. This is a move I've already seen once and, having been at the training school there for a number of weeks, I was already quite familiar with the depot layout. The same could not be said about Ilford, where we ended up on Tuesday. That is one complicated looking place, and the run along the 'Down Electric' line from Liverpool Street was rather daunting. Although I've travelled along this route many times as a passenger, I had never seen the line ahead and never quite appreciated quite how scary it is to drive. The signals along that stretch come up thick and fast and for every one signal on the 'Main' lines there were two on the 'Electric' lines. In fact, it was typical to find a signal at each end of every station platform. On top of that, one particular signal at Manor Park has an OLE (overhead line) neutral section on the run up. Stopping at that signal (as we almost had to) with the 8 car EMU formation we were driving would have had the pantograph of the rear unit in the neutral section meaning no traction power from that part of the train to assist in starting. I'm sure with time and practice I'll get the hang of it, but in the half-dark on Tuesday night it had me worried.
A day spent on the Stansted Express was an anticlimax after all that, but yesterday's job ended up with a little gem. Because of an engineers possession between Harlow Town and Audley End our last train terminated at Harlow Town and, to facilitate it's return to London, was crossed over onto the 'Up Cambridge' at the ground frame and ran wrong road into the station.
Now all this is completed, I'm quite looking forward to getting on with the job. From next Monday we shall all be back at Hornsey for a week and have had our Class 315 conversion confirmed for the following week. What happens after that I just don't know. I'm hoping that we will start with our minders about then but something tells me that it's unlikely.
I guess we shall just have to wait and see...
Monday, 19th September 2005
Spot the difference
The end finally seems to be in sight. Having spent all last week on a ‘Principles of Route Learning’ course which was as dull and pointless as a 10W light bulb, we are into what promises to be the final stage before being allowed out with a minder. Yes folks, it's the long awaited Class 315 conversion course.
Quite a few drivers and instructors have said that there really isn't that much difference between these and the Class 317 units we have already driven, but I didn't quite appreciate how similar they were until today. Almost every system is exactly the same, and just a few are in different places. This makes things nice and simple and easy to grasp, which is a relief given that our basic traction course now seems so very long ago. The only real differences are that there are fewer fault indications than on a Class 317 and more things that will bring you to a embarrassing halt. Of particular concern is the DSD, which works like the deadman's handle of yore. On the Class 315 this operates instantaneously and requires a fair bit of pressure to keep it down, unlike the Class 317 which allows the driver a couple of seconds grace.
Having spent today looking around the inside and outside of a unit (well, as best as we could given that it was in a platform at the time), tomorrow we will have to drive one. However, given that these units normally only work suburban services, it isn't as easy to diagram a brake handling train. Therefore, our train tomorrow morning will have passengers on, which means that we will all have to be much more careful and conscientious about stopping on the mark, completing station duties, running to time and generally doing everything properly than we were with out empty Class 317. So, no pressure then.
Commuters of Chingford; you have been warned.
Wednesday, 21st September 2005
Eyes like saucers
Today is a day to remember, as it was our first day driving with our minders. Never mind shuttling up and down a siding or getting a brief drive, this was a full turn of duty with stops, passengers and a timetable to keep.
It would have been nice if they'd broken us in gently, but instead I drew the short straw. An intense 9 hours and 42 minutes of stopping suburban services with tight turnaround times was not an ideal introduction. Still, at least it gave me plenty of opportunities to practice stopping at stations and carrying out station duties. Eighty-three to be precise.
I was glad that I got on well with the Class 315 yesterday, as almost the entire job was driving one. Once they're up and running they are quite a nice train to drive, with good acceleration and braking. On the downside they do require a higher degree of organisation and dexterity than the Class 317. Just to get into the cab and prepare for departure requires no fewer than four keys, none of which operate more than one lock. Then there's having to coordinate the local door control switches, egress cocks and door key switches to ensure that the cab vestibule doors don't fly open at inopportune moments; not to mention having to hold the power controller down before moving the master switch so that the brake doesn’t go straight in. I know that I'll get there eventually, but it can be a bit of a palaver and I felt like I was all over the place for a while.
All of this has left me feeling absolutely knackered. As it's all new I was concentrating entirely on driving to the exclusion of everything else. This wasn't helped in any way by the first part of the job being virtually non-stop with little turnaround time at each destination.
On the other hand, I've already had my first problem. The signaller was unable to clear a faulty signal, which meant that I had to call him up and be given authority to pass it at danger. Not bad for my first day.
So, if you'll excuse me, I'm off for a kip. Tomorrow it's all airport runs, which should be a less frenetic.
Monday, 26th September 2005
Comedy of errors
I'm very pleased to say that my minder driving is going very well indeed and that I'm enjoying it very much. The initial nervousness has now all but gone, and even two return trips out to Enfield Town in a Class 315 hasn't dampened my spirits.
Being on late turns this week, I've had my first experience of driving in the dark. From road driving experience I knew that it would be totally different to driving in the light, but it's even more dodgy on the rails. A particular problem is differentiating between what is and what is not a signal. Indeed, quite a large number of lights in the vicinity of the lineside appear to have been erected and sited without any thought to how they might appear to drivers. Thankfully real signals tend to stand out pretty well against the background by virtue of being dazzlingly bright, although this in itself caused me a few headaches as they blot out everything else in their immediate vicinity (including stop boards and DOO monitors). Obviously, with some practice and experience, I should get a better idea of the layout of places and have to rely less on actually seeing something in order to judge how to stop at it. Still, it's still early days.
On a more amusing note, there appears to have been a few mix ups at Liverpool Street box this evening, which left my minder and I looking like chumps. Firstly, we were routed wrongly onto the 'Down Fast' line at Bethnal Green rather than the 'Down Suburban'. When we stopped and queried it and advised the signaller that we would not be able to make our booked stop at London Fields from the 'Down Fast', we were told that the correct route had been set due to a problem at London Fields and that we would have to miss out that station. We couldn't see any problem when we went past, but we'll give him the benefit of the doubt on that one.
The second blooper that affected us was at Seven Sisters. We'd just run empty down from Cheshunt and had run onto the chord at Seven Sisters Junction to reverse back into the station before running down to Broxbourne. We'd just changed ends and set up the cab when the signal came off early. Thinking that the signaller knew what he/she was doing, we took it and pulled into Seven Sisters platform some 12 minutes early. Big mistake, as we'd been pulled out ahead of an Enfield Town service we should have been following. Many PA announcements and impromptu visits to the cab window later, and we left on time with a train groaning with punters. The last I saw of the Enfield Town service was that it was being advertised as being about 15 minutes late at Edmonton Green.
Although we were the butt of other people's mistakes today, I wouldn't want people to get the impression that I think I know it all. I made my own share of mistakes. I forgot to announce London Fields as a station stop on our first trip down to Enfield Town and had to deal with people coming to the cab window to ask whether we were stopping there. I also moved the master switch to "off" by mistake rather than selecting "neutral" when waiting at a red signal and had to set up the cab radio again. I've also got a less than perfect record at stopping on the mark or pulling up to other units at Liverpool Street .
But then, I am still learning...
Sunday, 9th October 2005
Getting the hump
Apologies once again, dear reader, for not updating the blog over the last couple of weeks.
I have been busy racking up the hours at the controls, which I am still pleased to report is going well. As I'm getting familiar with the actual driving of trains I'm having to concentrate less on it, which means that I've been able to gradually add in extra bits, like PA announcements. As all of our services are driver-only operated, making announcements is part of our job. I'm beginning to get into the swing of it, although I'm having to think about the best time to make them so that they don't distract me from the more important job of driving safely.
Stopping at the boards is still causing some problems, though. I feel like I'm making progress on this and am developing my own braking technique, but my minder is concerned that I make too many adjustments to the brake on the run up the platform to the stopping point. Maybe so, but I'm getting more accurate with my stopping points and am able to keep to time, and don't necessarily see my technique as being bad. I understand what he's saying, but I still feel like I'm learning and getting a feel for what's what. For example, I've learnt now that a heavily loaded train behaves very differently from a lightly loaded one and will adjust my braking accordingly. When I get to a point where I know with some level of confidence exactly how any given train will behave and where it will stop, I won't have to make so many adjustments. However, until I get that experience and confidence I am either overestimating or underestimating and need to adjust for that accordingly.
Last week I got my first look at Hornsey depot from the driver's seat. I'm sure that it's actually quite straightforward, but there are a number of traps to catch out the unwary such as "stop" boards that are faded or missing altogether. It doesn't help when the shunters’ handsignals are not always clear. I had one chap signalling me off the wash road in the depot with an unlit bardic lamp. Needless to say I couldn't see him and sat there like a prune for some little while until he spotted what was amiss.
One other miscommunication that caught us out was the altered workings. It turned out that the arrangements that had been published for drivers was a complete work of fiction which caused us some confusion over our stopping patterns on two of our trips. It worked to our advantage on the first affected trip, as we weren't actually booked to stop at some of the stations shown a stops in the notices. However, on the second trip the notices said that we had a fast run back up to London , even though the station information screens at various intermediate stops suggested differently. We got a few odd looks and exasperated waves as we blatted through non-stop, but we were just doing what we had been told. Thankfully nothing has been said about it since.
Wednesday, 19th October 2005
Pillar to post
Things have been fairly quiet of late, so there hasn't been much to report. I've been shuttling up and down the West Anglia routes at the control of various services, making my stops, doing PA announcements and generally keeping out of the way. It's been quite nice. There was one day last week when the (ahem) excrement hit the airscrew which resulted in some impressive delays and one of our trips to Enfield being cancelled, but that's about it.
Unfortunately, this week I have been chopped and changed around a fair bit because my minder is unwell. In the last three days I've had two different minders and will have yet another tomorrow, this time from a different depot. At least it's kept me out there driving, as I had feared that I'd be bumped back down to front-end turns again, but it's meant that I've had to get acquainted with new minders and they with me. Still, it's quite nice to have my driving assessed by other people as well as my regular minder so that I can get a balanced view on my progress.
Hopefully by the time I get back from my week off (to which I am very much looking forward) my minder will be well again.
Thursday, 20th October 2005
I'm a failure
Well, it's finally happened. I've failed a train. Given my previous 'Jonah Complex' I'm surprised it's taken this long. It was actually something of an anticlimax when it finally happened. Predictably it had to be a door fault on a Class 315 rather than anything more spectacular, but safety first...!!
We were at Hackney Downs on our way down to Hertford East when I noticed that people were having trouble getting into the leading coach and that the orange hazard light on the side of the carriage was not coming on. Given the number of times you have to shout "Press and hold" at punters because they can't operate the door buttons correctly and the frequency with which hazard lights fail, I initially though nothing of it. However, the minder I was with jumped out at the next stop to investigate and found that there was no door release on that coach at all. A phone call to control later, and I'm turfing everyone out at Seven Sisters, changing ends and heading back to London empty as the unit cannot continue in service.
Ironically, I'd just been speaking to another trainee before setting out who was telling me that he had lost all his main air after hitting a large bird between Ware and Hertford East (he wasn't sure whether it was a swan or a goose). Perhaps I should have taken that as an omen and gone to somewhere less risky, like Enfield Town . Still, it meant that I got a nice early finish to round the day off. What a result!!
Monday, 31st October 2005
Trick or treat
Actually, there are only 'treats' to report so far.
Last week, the wife and I had ourselves a little holiday in a cottage in the Highlands of Scotland. The idea was that we would rest, relax and recharge our batteries after what has seemed a very long and busy year so far. From my own perspective, it was just the tonic I needed.
Today's turn was my first one after our break, and I was feeling a little nervous. However, I didn't need to worry as the job was a nice gentle one to ease me back into driving. A round each to Chingford and Hertford East, then empties to Ilford. It was the same job that I observed from the secondman's side a few weeks back (see Funky Moves: Friday 9th September) but, from the driver's side, it wasn't quite as hard as I'd expected. With the exception of one that is hidden behind a bridge, it was actually quite easy to see which signal applies to which line and where everything goes. They are even nice enough to throw in an extra double yellow aspect to compensate for the tight signal spacing between Stratford and Ilford. Even so, there is still plenty going on that can cause distraction and a fair bit to learn before I could ever 'sign' that route, especially with all the possible moves that can be made around Stratford and the length of line signalled for bi-directional movements.
I'm still not back with my own minder though, as he's now on leave. Still, this week's minder seems nice enough and pretty much just left me to get on with things, which I'm taking as something of a compliment.
Having had the 'treat' I think the 'trick' comes later in the week, as it looks like I'll be rushing about on airports and suburbans.
Thursday, 3rd November 2005
Slip sliding away
Given today's date, I would have thought that we would have been well into the throes of autumn by now. However, when I look out of my window all I can see are ranks of trees covered in lush green leaves. Even today's high winds have failed to dislodge very many. We're supposed to be deep into "silly season", and yet there's hardly been any problems.
Although the leaves are resolutely staying put, there has been quite a bit of slipping going on caused by wet rails. This isn't helped much by Network Rail treating the tracks with high pressure water jets to blast the leaves off the railhead. I suspect that I was following one of these treatment trains yesterday evening while driving an 'all stops' service to Stansted Airport . All was fine until after we had left Broxbourne (a known starting point for treatment trains), but I had awful trouble getting going again at every stop after that. In fact, I would be lucky to get 50mph before having to brake for the next station, even where the stations were well spaced apart.
That said, it was much better today. I even took advantage of being in charge of an empty train to practice some "panic stops". There wasn't even the merest hint of a slip, even when braking hard in step 3 (which we are encouraged not to use for routine braking). There was even plenty of grip to get away from station stops. I don't expect this situation to last for very much longer but, while the weather remains mild, the leaves won't be much of a problem.
In other news, punter power came to my rescue the other day. I'd been lumbered with an 8 car Stansted Express train which had a set of dodgy doors on both sides, meaning that they needed to be shut by hand before leaving every station. This wasn't too much bother at the airport or at Liverpool Street where there were plenty of platform staff to assist, but at Tottenham Hale there was no-one to help us. Thankfully, on one trip, I was just considering whether to get out and sort the doors myself when I saw a passenger step forward and do the honours, allowing us to get on our way. What a lovely man.
Monday, 14th November 2005
Two steps forward, one step back
I am very pleased to report that I and my colleagues have finally finished the last part of classroom training that our job requires. From here on, we are no longer under the auspices of the Hornsey training school.
This last part was a SPAD Awareness and Route Risk course. I was initially worried how they were going to make this last a whole week without resorting to saying "Don't go past the red ones" really slowly. However, it was quite in depth and looked at all manner of factors that can affect a driver's performance and could contribute to an incident. It's not just about poorly sited signals and the like, but could be environmental (e.g. sun affecting a signal), external (e.g. something more interesting happening just off the railway) or internal (e.g. mental and physical preparedness). From studying some actual incidents, it's quite sobering to realise how something with the potential to cause major havoc can have its root in something so small and minor that it could easily be overlooked. It certainly gave me food for thought.
Today was supposed to be back at the pointy end putting all the theory into practice. It's been four weeks since I've been with my regular minder, so I was quite looking forward to picking up from where we left off. Sadly, we didn't get very far through the job before the wheels fell off that particular wagon. After leaving Tottenham Hale on a 'Down' Stansted Express service my minder was taken ill. After a quick conflab with the depot we called a halt at Broxbourne, turfed all the punters off and sat blocking the 'Down Main' until my minder was carted off in an ambulance and I was met by a driver manager so that I could take the train back to London . Given all the other things that were going wrong this morning, it was just one more thing to be dealt with. On the downside it does mean that I'm going to be back to square one in terms of getting any driving in the coming weeks, especially since another group of trainees have started with minders taking up all the spare men. I guess I can but wait and see.
Hope he's alright...
Saturday, 19th November 2005
Pulling my chain
Boy, what an interesting evening. I have counted myself quite lucky that everything so far has gone well and I've not had to deal with any problems. However, all that went out of the window today.
It all started innocuously enough, with a pulled passcom (communication cord) on my first run up to London . Thankfully it was at a booked station stop and was almost certainly done by a group of teenagers in the rear coach as they got off the train. This was simple enough to rectify, but it still lost a couple of minutes.
After that it all went quiet until the last trip of the evening down to Hertford. We got cautioned by the signaller out of Cheshunt because a train a couple of slots ahead of us had hit a sofa that had been placed on the mainline. Even when we got to the location, there were still cushions and tatters of fabric littering the lineside, but nothing much resembling furniture. Once onto the branch we managed to pick up a group of hardened door-pullers who proceeded to make my life a misery. My minder then had an entertaining ten minutes chasing them away while I changed ends. With a bit of maneuvering, some technical shenanigans with the unit and the sound of an emergency service vehicle siren nearby (nothing to do with us), we managed to get away and leave the little (ahem) whatsits behind.
All of this got the old adrenalin going and has left me wondering if I'm cut out for that side of the job. Because we don't have guards or conductors on our trains, everything is down to the driver. Problem is that there's enough in the driving to keep me busy without having to worry about keeping the peace also. Without an imposing minder I'm not sure how I would have coped with this situation on my own, as I'm quite a timid person and slightly built which leaves me wary of confronting trouble head-on. In some perverse way, it would be good to expose myself to more experiences like this while I have the back-up of a minder so that I can develop strategies of my own. However, I could quite happily manage without the aggro.
Either way, I'm pretty certain that I wouldn't have tackled tonight's problems the same way as my minder did. It's just not my style.
Tuesday, 22nd November 2005
Lost in a haze
As is often the case this time of year, there was a wee bit of fog about yesterday evening which made for a new experience.
Unfortunately, due to railway lines having to be fairly flat they were often built in the bottoms of river valleys close to water, making them prone to becoming fog-bound. Our route is no different, following, as it does, the course of the Lea and Stort all the way from Clapton to beyond Bishops Stortford. So thick was the fog that you couldn't see one end of Broxbourne station from the other, and anything that wasn't illuminated was totally invisible. Braking points were obscured and stations only loomed out of the murk at the last minute, which made stopping at stations a hit and miss affair. Imagine holding a sheet of grey paper 6 inches from the end of your nose and then running at the world at 85mph, and you'll get a fair idea of what it was like. However, in my case I was running at the world in 250 tons of train with several hundred people on board. Even so, I still managed to complete a run down to the Airport in 42 minutes, observing all speed restrictions.
I was at least lucky enough that the job started with several trips on the Stansted Express. Not having to worry about stopping at places meant that I could check out how bad conditions were and how visible (or otherwise) my braking points would be if I were stopping. I was glad of having had that opportunity for when I had to finish the job with a round of slow stopping services to the airport. On the flipside, I did have a worry about station duties which I hadn’t encountered before: It can be quite hard to judge when to close the doors when the rear of the train is partially obscured by fog.
I'm pleased to report that my regular minder was back yesterday, and managed to complete the job without falling off his chair.
Monday, 5th December 2005
Facts of life
There is never an easy way to broach the subject of fatalities on the railways. They are an ever-present risk to drivers and train-crew, and have unfortunately come crashing into my little world in quite a big way just lately.
Obviously there was the recent and widely reported tragedy at Elsenham, but there has been yet another this evening. This time the fatality happened at Hackney Downs and was the result of a suicide. Thankfully I was up the Hertford branch at the time it happened, but the recovery was still in progress when I called at Hackney Downs on the way back well over an hour later. By that time, the services on our lines had been comprehensively disrupted which caused many services to be delayed or cancelled. It's quite surprising how much havoc the selfish actions of a single person can cause.
Having said that, my overriding emotional response to such events is deep sadness. Whether through accident or deliberate action, I can't help but feel that a life has been wasted and that there will inevitably be others, such as friends or family members, whose lives will be horribly affected as a result.
Monday, 12th December 2005
Uncharted territory
For a suburban rail company it's not often that you get an entire job where you never get to your main London terminus, and yet that's exactly what happened today.
The company has been very brave and almost completely re-cast the winter timetable, which now includes services to Stratford as well as Liverpool Street . This afternoon's job was actually a lovely little six hour turn with plenty of time at the end of each run. For me, it was an opportunity to drive over a route that I had never even seen before. Although it was a little daunting the first time through, it's not actually too difficult.
On the down side, the new timetable is going to take a little bit of getting used to. Not only are most of the passengers a little bemused as to the destination and routing of the trains, but the new (and not totally logical stopping patterns) are likely to catch out unwary drivers resulting in "failed to calls" or station overruns.
More than once today I've had people coming up to the cab window either wanting to know where the train stopped or why it's not stopping at a particular station. The biggest shift seems to be for passengers on the Hertford East branch. Previously, the majority of trains called at all stations via Southbury and Seven Sisters. Now there are none in the week that follow that route, and now there are some that don't even go to Liverpool Street . After tonight's experience, I shall be countering this by making lots of loud and clear PA announcements so that no-one can say that they weren't told.
Chatting to my minder tonight, it seems that time is rapidly catching up with me. By our reckoning, it will probably only take another five or six weeks for me to complete the requisite number of hours before taking the final assessment. I have mixed emotions about this. I'm a little surprised as the time seems to have gone by remarkably quickly, while also being impatient to get it all over and done with. However, the primary emotion is fear about how much I have probably forgotten and will need to revise.
So, it's back to the books for me.
Friday, 16th December 2005
Class reunion
My minder said to me some weeks back that you never forget the people that you trained with and that the friendships that you have with them will always remain special. I believed him then, but I believe him all the more now.
On the Wednesday of this week, I managed to bump into all but one of the trainees that I started with in Ipswich way back in April. While this may seem insignificant to some, it's not always the case that you see the same people day after day as you would do in an office. Instead, you may see some people fairly regularly but others will remain strangers for weeks on end. So, to see so many of the folk I started with on the same day was a rarity. It was great to catch up with them all and to find out how they have been getting on. Some had good news and other not so good news. Either way, we're all progressing along the same path towards being fully qualified drivers, even if some of us are feeling more bumps than others.
I'm sure that, whatever befalls us in the future, this job will have brought me a clutch of new friends and people that I will never forget. It may be that our paths will diverge at some point, but I hope that the friendships I have now will stand the test of time.
Friday, 6 January 2006
Back to the books
Happy New Year to everyone!!
The festive season turned out to be a fairly quiet time. Although I worked up to a pretty eventful Christmas Eve, I managed to wangle plenty of leave so that I didn't have to go back to work until Tuesday of this week. However, I still managed to fill most of that time off with visiting family, over-eating and exchanging gifts. It was almost a relief to go back to work and drive trains just so that I had something constructive to do.
Now that I am back in the saddle, I have decided that I really ought to start revising all the things that I learned on the Rules and Traction courses that I attended a lifetime ago. I feel pretty confident that most of the more regular things are still floating around quite close to the front of my head, but I know that there's an awful lot that I'm now worryingly hazy about. For example, the question that I most dread my minder asking is "Name the MCB's in the PMOS electrical cupboard", as I really can't remember more than about half a dozen.
The trouble is that I'm not entirely sure how long I've got. Given the amount of time that I've now been out driving with a minder I had thought that my final assessment might be sometime in the next month or two, but I've yet to hear anything definite. I can't even make an educated guess, as the number of hours they have recorded for me appears to be somewhat short of the total I had been expecting. Having looked more deeply into the situation, it appears that there is a four week gap in my record. While I can confirm that I was not driving over two of these weeks, it seems that someone somewhere might have mislaid some record sheets or failed to add the hours to my total. Either way, it could make quite a bit of difference.
Looks like a mystery fit for Hercule Poirot...
Sunday, 15th January 2006
The graveyard shift
It's 1:15am and I'm just in from one of our later jobs.
To be honest I don't much look forward to these Saturday late night turns, as there always seems to be something happening. On Friday night our train was hit by a missile of some sort resulting in a broken window, so I was expecting tonight to have been as eventful. At weekends, there tends to be large numbers of kids hanging about stations and riding on trains. For the most part they are just a bit loud and boisterous, but from time to time you get a group that just wants to cause trouble. Thankfully, most of the kids out and about tonight fell into the former group and, in spite of a whole evening up and down one of our more troublesome lines, we got nothing worse than a door being briefly pulled.
Following on from my previous entry, I've done a bit of digging around and managed to track down my missing hours. It would seem that six days worth of hours have not been recorded, which leaves my record about 25 hours short. Added to my current total, I reckon that it will only be another week or two until I will have completed my hours. One of the others in the same group as myself has already completed his and sits his final assessment next week.
I'm still not sure what all the MCB's in the PMOS cupboard are, though...
Thursday, 26th January 2006
Always the last to know
Perhaps not unreasonably, there is an expectation from members of the public that, if you wear the uniform, you must know everything. Unfortunately, I was totally ill-equipped to fulfill the role of "Know-er of All Things".
Regrettably there was another fatality on our patch this evening just as the peak was subsiding. Whenever such things happen it takes time to get things up and running again, particularly if there are no diversionary routes, as was the case tonight. Predictably, this didn't cause us any problems until our last run when we were due to take a slow train from Stratford down to Stansted Airport , being relieved by another driver at Bishops Stortford. This should have been a nice little run without any incident but, starting from Stratford , we had obviously been overlooked. By the time we had got to Tottenham Hale our train was being announced as going only as far as Bishops Stortford. First we'd heard of it...!! I had to shout down the platform at the station staff to get this confirmed.
So, that was where we were going and it would be up to our relief to worry about what happened after that. We made the necessary announcements and off we went. Eventually we arrive at what we still believe is our destination and open the doors only for a group of passengers with suitcases to get on. Funny, thinks I. It didn't take long for the questions to start. "'Scuse me, mate. This is going to the Airport, isn't it?", Is it? "It's just that we were told it was". Oh, well if you say so.
Such problems are evidently not restricted to the frontline staff either. Even though the office are aware of my progress, they hadn't twigged that I would complete my required hours by the end of this week. When I mentioned this to them they went into a flap. The result is that I start my final assessment next week, although it might not be until the week after that I complete it due to other demands on the Assessor's time.
Monday, 30th January 2006
The fast one
Well folks, the end is almost upon me. I have finished the required hours with my minder and am now facing the final assessment to prove my competence (or otherwise) as a train driver.
The euphoria was almost spoiled on Friday night when a fight broke out on our train. I'd only just started rolling down the platform at Liverpool Street with the last train of the day to Hertford when there was the sound of shouting and clumping around from the front coach. We stopped the train pretty sharpish and opened the doors to deal with the situation before we were happy to continue. Turns out that an abusive passenger decided that he was going to have a pop at an off-duty Special Constable (after having been shown his ID). If that wasn't enough to qualify him for the "Twit of the Day" award, he chose to do it on one of only two trains currently fitted with CCTV. Needless to say he was forcibly ejected from the train by station security and did not get home that night.
The other fly in the ointment stems from my upcoming assessment, part of which is to "sign" our depot's core route. Having spoken to the chaps in the office, it would seem that I'm also going to be expected to "sign" an additional diversionary route at the same time. I was a bit annoyed as I hadn't been warned about this in advance, but it seems that they've got me over a barrel. I was intending to tell them that I'm not ready and request a couple of extra days to learn the route, but they've made it clear that doing this will delay my passing out as a qualified driver. What rankles the most is that they've done it in a rather underhand way. While they haven't said that this extra route is part of the core requirement, they have said that I won't be assessed until I'm ready to "sign" both routes and that requesting extra days for route learning will mean that my assessment will be rescheduled for a later date.
I can understand why they expect this, especially if the main route is blocked for whatever reason (as it was today). Plus, as it's not such a tricky route to learn, I'm half inclined to just do it. However, I do feel that it's extremely cheeky of them to spring this on me at very short notice. I think that a chat might be in order to clear this one up. Either way, I might be able to blag an extra day or two depending on how things pan out for the rest of this week.
Well, my ordeal starts tomorrow afternoon with as assessment of my knowledge of PTS (remember that...?) and the core route, and will last several days. Hopefully by the end of next week I shall be passed out as a fully-fledged driver.
Wish me luck!!
Thursday, 2nd February 2006
Other ranks
As a driver, it's not very often that you get the opportunity to mix with or talk to any of the many professions that keep the railways running. As a result, each grade tends to have a slightly jaundiced view of everyone else. Therefore, it was rather nice to dispel some of these myths today.
Because of the way that things have worked out with my assessment, I have indeed managed to wangle an extra day's route learning so that I can "sign" the diversionary routes. However, there are no scheduled passenger services over one of these routes, which meant that it had to be walked. Given the biting cold of the wind I guess I couldn't have chosen a better day, so I was glad that the route to be walked was only a mile or so long.
It also benefited from a lovely warm signalbox at about half distance in which we could shelter and pick the signaller's brains. Although the precise workings of the signalbox are still as arcane to me as they were when we visited Cambridge IECC and Kings Lynn box all those months ago, the signaller himself was friendliness personified and a mine of useful information. It almost made me feel bad for all the nasty things I'd said and thought about his colleagues at Liverpool Street IECC. He talked me through all the possible shunt moves and signal indications while skillfully juggling passenger and freight movements coming through his patch. He didn't even mind answering lots of questions that probably all came at the most inconvenient of times for him. What a lovely man.
Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said about a look-out for a worksite we passed. Just as we drew up to him he started firing off lots of daft questions about why we weren't wearing hard hats and didn't have a look-out. He didn't seem to understand who we were (even though I was wearing the uniform coat) and why we were out there. He even earned us a reprimand from the site supervisor who yelled at us to "Stop distracting the look-out!!". So I yelled back to make clear that it was him talking to us and not the other way around.
Other than that, the assessments so far have been OK. I've had the written assessments for PTS and the core route together with a few hours driving. This still leaves the biggies of rules and traction, together with the additional diversionary routes and yet more driving. Still, I now have a nice long weekend in which to relax (although I fear I may spend a significant amount of that time fretting).
Wednesday, 8th February 2006
The chequered flag
Today is the day that I have been waiting for. A little over ten months ago I walked in off the street knowing absolutely nothing about what being a train driver involved. At every stage along the way I was sure they would tell me that I wasn't good enough to make the grade, and yet they kept asking me back. And now, having completed my final assessment, I am no longer a trainee.
Obviously I'm really pleased to have finally passed out, there is a sense of anticlimax about it. After all these months of work leading up to this point I was expecting to feel more elated, but I guess that this is just the start of my career as a driver. As good as the preparation has been to bring me to this point and as helpful and knowledgeable as the various instructors have been, I still feel that there's so much more that I don't know and will only start to learn once I'm out there having to rely on no-one but myself. However, I would like to publicly thank everyone who has provided me with even the least bit of information, advice or encouragement. At the risk of turning irretrievably mushy, I feel very privileged to work with such a great bunch of people from whom I will no doubt continue to learn.
So, where does it all go from here? Well, in the true tradition of chucking people in at the deep end, I have my first solo turn tomorrow morning. As I've only passed on the core route, it will be a fairly bland day of airport services. However, being the first time out on my own it won't be dull. I would imagine that "terrifying" would be a more accurate description. I'll have twenty of these solo turns before I then learn the rest of the routes. Once all that's out the way, I shall be fully into the roster and have a more varied workload.
As for this weblog, I intend to continue to add to it as it would be a real shame just to end it here. I hope that it has been interesting and possibly even amusing on occasion. Above all, I hope that it has inspired other would-be drivers out there that it is possible to achieve your ambition.
Heck, if I could do it, what's stopping you...?
Thursday, 9th February 2006
The loneliness of the DOO driver
Well folks, I survived my first solo turn.
It was a bit weird being in the cab all on my own. I found that I kept looking over to the secondman's seat expecting a comment or remark only to find it empty. It wasn't just the cab that seemed empty, as the messrooms had a similar feel too. I also seemed to spend an awful lot of time talking and singing to myself, which is worrying. Then again, when there's no-one else around you can't feel embarrassed about it.
At the risk of sounding immodest, I didn't feel as nervous as I thought I might. I made sure that I didn't rush about and gave myself plenty of time to change ends so that things didn't get forgotten or otherwise overlooked, and I drove as I always had done when with my minder (but then, I know no other way). This, combined with being in my own little bubble insulated from the rest of the world, actually made for a surprisingly relaxing day. That said, I did have a scare on my second trip when the cab radio went wonky and I had to stop and get instructions from the signaller via a signalpost phone. That certainly got the old heart pumping as I mentally scrabbled around trying to remember if I was doing the right thing.
All in all I had a really great day and I'm looking forward to my next turn of duty on Monday. I don't expect that every day will be as cushy, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
Sunday, 19th February 2006
Christine
Although it's now been over a week since passing out, I've still only completed three solo driving turns. This is mainly down to me taking the last of my annual leave left over from 2005 (which also explains why I've not updated the weblog recently). However, today was a veritable cornucopia of happenings.
Because of engineering work I was let off the Stansted Express duties and put onto the London to Harlow shuttle. Some of these trains would have been Cambridge or Bishops Stortford services, which meant that I spent the first couple of trips sliding around trying to get my eye back in for braking at stations that the faster Stansted Express services don't call at. It all came back to me eventually, although I did manage to give myself a bit of a scare first time into Roydon and Ponders End stations. Fortunately, I managed not to go skating past the stop board.
I also had the opportunity to do something for the very first time.
When our routes were resignalled a few years back, no-one thought to put in any bi-directional signalling at Harlow Town station to allow for trains to be turned back to London . This means that trains terminating there have to make an unsignalled wrong direction movement at some point to be crossed back onto the correct line through manually operated points. This means taking instructions from a handsignaller. Fortunately, as I had to travel as a passenger up to London before taking my first train out, I got to see the movement being done by an experienced driver before I was expected to do it myself. It wasn't actually as difficult as I thought it might have been, but it was nice to know that I wasn't going to make a fearful mess of the thing when it came to my turn.
As if that wasn't enough, Spurs were playing at home this afternoon which meant that I got my first experience of a football train. I am continually amazed at the number of people that can squeeze themselves into a train when they are motivated to get somewhere. I thought that weekday peak loadings were impressive, but commuters have got nothing on football fans. I can only assume that they must have been wedged into the overhead racks and sitting on each other's laps for everyone on the platform at Northumberland Park to have managed to get onboard. The train certainly felt fatter as a result, but on a positive note all the extra weight gave amazing grip on the rail in drizzly conditions and cancelled out all the slipping that I'd been experiencing up until then.
Unfortunately, today looks to have been a glimmer in an otherwise dull week. From tomorrow I shall be back on the Stansted Express. While these runs tend to be fairly routine, they are at least quite easy with few stops and a train host to deal with the punters and the PA. On the downside, it does mean that I am likely to come back into contact with my Nemesis. The same unit that suffered the faulty cab radio on my first day decided to take a "sicky" while I was driving it on day two. I had sensed that the traction power was ebbing away until the train felt like it was on half power. Unfortunately, there were no fault indications on either unit to diagnose what the problem was or even which unit was suffering from it. It was only when I handed the train over to a colleague that I realised what was wrong. As he was pulling away, I couldn't hear any noise from the traction motors on one unit. It's a good thing it was working in multiple with another unit or I would have been stuck somewhere with no power and no hope. I'm sure that unit doesn't like me. If it looks like I have to drive it again I shall probably just go straight home again.
Who says train driving is dull...?
Thursday, 23rd February 2006
My big mouth
I notice from my last entry that I was bemoaning the fact that this week was going to be rather dull. Well, I have been proved wrong in spectacular style. Still, according to some of my colleagues I am now a proper driver.
Unfortunately, I don't feel at liberty at the present moment in time to go into any details on such a public website just at the moment. However, it does mean that I won't be doing any driving for a little while during which time this weblog probably won't get updated very often. So, apologies for that. Don't worry though, dear reader. I will be back very soon.
They do say that you should be careful what you wish for.
Tuesday, 21st March 2006
Abducted by aliens
In case any of you were wondering, I am still alive and well and have not been abducted by aliens.
The reason for the lack of updates is that I was involved with a railway incident on the day before my previous entry. It was only my fifth solo driving turn and a day given over entirely to Stansted Express services and, surprisingly for me, started without incident. Unfortunately, it didn't last. As I was driving through Clapton station on my way back down to the airport, a person ran out from behind the steps to the ticket office and jumped off the edge of the platform directly in front of my train. Even though I sounded the warning horn and applied the brakes, there was no way that I could avoid running the person over.
I had thought that my reaction to having a fatality would be very different and that I would be more emotional than I was. Apart from the expected rush of adrenalin and the shock of the event, I managed to stay quite calm about the situation. In fact, even while sitting there waiting for the emergency services the whole thing seemed most surreal that I wondered for a moment whether or not I had just imagined the whole thing and was stopping the job for no reason. This impression was reinforced by the other people on the platform who must have seen the incident still just standing there impassively as if they were waiting for their train. However, I had already decided that I would not go back and look if I was ever involved with a fatality, and I wasn't about to change my mind on that. I could quite happily live with someone else doing the checking for me.
When they arrived, the emergency services were brilliant. They took control of the situation and made sure that I was OK. They really couldn't do enough for me and even made sure that I didn't see the recovery process or the body itself. The same goes for the managers and colleagues at work who showed great concern for my welfare and helped me through all the necessary paperwork required after an incident such as this.
Naturally, such an incident triggers the "Chain of Care" procedure, which is intended to assist me back to work. Consequently, I have been booked off work since the incident and taking counselling sessions to help me deal with the memories of the incident and the emotions that they generate. Fortunately, there hasn't been any emotional reaction yet. I guess that this is partly down to the fact that railway fatalities were never shied away from throughout training and it is a subject that I had already devoted an amount of time to think about. I pretty quickly went through the rational process of thinking that "it wasn't me that killed this person, it was the train", "if it hadn't have been me it would have been the bloke behind me" and "if they hadn't jumped under a train they would have found some other means". If anything, the counsellor is happy that I'm dealing with events well but is concerned that I am perhaps a little too rational about it.
I think that my lack of reaction probably stems also from the way in which the incident happened. While no fatality is good, it was for me at least quite "soft". If it had been more gruesome or appeared not to be that person's deliberate action I'm certain that I would have been more affected by it.
Of course, this all means that it is almost a month since I last drove a train, which is going to affect my progress a little. However, I am going back to work tomorrow and have agreed a staged return to work so that I have the opportunity to get back into a good cab routine and build my confidence back up. If anything, I'm feeling more nervous about how rusty I've become than I am about going back over the route where it happened. However, none of this has dampened my feelings towards driving as a job and I'm looking forward to getting back into the seat again.
Tuesday, 28th March 2006
Back to the coalface
Well folks, I'm now back at work properly and have completed my first full job which, I'm pleased to report, passed without incident. It was quite odd being back at the pointy end after such a long time off, but I've had plenty of opportunity to settle back into the routine before being allowed out on my own. In addition to the front-end turns that I did last week, I had the pleasure of a driver manager for company for the first half of yesterday's job. I was due a ride anyway as part of my post-qualification assessment as well as a post-incident ride, so the two were combined and both dispatched at the same time.
Although I feel that I've dealt with the after effects of the fatality quite well, it has still left a discernable mark. I noticed yesterday that I have become very sensitive to and aware of people on station platforms, level crossings and footbridges. Consequently I was getting quite "horn happy" and blowing up at anything (including a plastic bag blown across Windmill Lane Crossing). I'm hoping that I'll get used to people being around the railway the more that I drive, but at the moment I shall continue to employ a "better safe than sorry" approach and will continue to whistle whenever I feel the need.
It doesn't help that fatalities are currently a hot topic of conversation among my colleagues at the moment as, unfortunately, there have been quite a few on our lines. In the five weeks since my incident we have averaged one incident per week with six people losing their lives, which is an incredibly high number for such a short space of time. We've also been under the media spotlight again as a direct consequence of the double fatality at a crossing near Angel Road . Since that particular incident, a number of drivers have reported seeing people loitering on the crossing and on the lineside which only increases the risk of another incident at the same location.
Today and tomorrow I have the same job, which includes a train prep in the carriage sidings. In one respect I'm quite looking forward to this, as I haven't done a full train prep since the traction course last summer. I'm just glad that it's on the beginning of the job, so I shall be going in early to make sure I've plenty of time.
Thursday, 30th March 2006
"Kick me"
While I was off work following my incident, I received a text message from my minder in which he called me "probably the unluckiest bastard on the railway". I'm beginning to think that he's right as, thinking back, I've had at least one thing happen every shift since passing out. Prior to that my luck had been pretty good, so I don't know what I've done to deserve this. It's almost as if I'm walking around with the cosmic equivalent of a piece of paper with "kick me" written on taped to my back. I guess I should have been in for a bad time when I relieved the depot's resident Harbinger of Doom off the Unit of the Beast (317 666) on Monday for my first drive on my own since my fatality, but things went so well. Perhaps the Fates were just lulling me into a false sense of security.
As mentioned in the previous entry, I had the same job twice in a row this week. It was actually quite a nice one with plenty of time allowed to carry out a thorough train prep before the unit was needed in the platform and I was needed
on the Stansted Express. However, it was a case of contrasts and similarities.
Train Prep
On Tuesday the unit to be prepped was full of litter but fault free, while Wednesday's unit had at least been cleaned of litter but was labouring under a number of minor faults.
First Train
The first set of Stansted Express units I drove didn't seem to want to go London, as they were down on power heading towards the capital but went like stink going back towards the airport. Even though I checked both units out at Liverpool Street , I couldn't find a single thing wrong with them. Strangely this happened both days, even though I checked that they weren't the same pair of units.
Second Train
The second pair of units driven after my break were fine, although I had to fail the train near Cheshunt on the way down to Stansted on Tuesday after losing traction interlock due to what later turned out to be a door fault in, you guessed it, the eighth carriage. I don't think the punters were best pleased with facing the prospect of missing their flights, but I must have made a good enough show of looking exasperated and trying to get things moving again as they mercifully chose not to lay into me about it, even when I went past them the second time. I got given a different set of units for my final run down towards Stansted which behaved themselves, as did the set I had on Wednesday. However, I was keeping a beady eye on the interlock light the whole way just to be sure.
At least I can say that I've clocked up another first. On Wednesday I arrived at work to find my very first "please explain" in my pigeon hole asking for more information about the nature of the failure. I had guessed that this was coming, so I had already written a driver's report form. In fact, I had written it while still on the unit that had caused me all the problems in the first place while waiting for the signaller to give me the road back to London .
Please let next week be incident free.
Friday, 7th April 2006
Round the houses
I'm not entirely sure exactly where to begin, as this week has been a bit of a rollercoaster. Fortunately my bad luck has held off for the duration, although I have been victim of the misfortune of others.
Monday started quietly enough, although I was treated to an unusual and slightly comical sight on my last run up to London . As I was approaching Tottenham Hale I noticed that a train was sitting stationary at an unusual location. As I got a bit closer, I could see that the driver was speaking on the radio to the signaller and looking upwards out of the cab window. It was only as I followed his gaze that I noticed what he was looking at. There, snagged in the overhead lines, was a bright orange toy balloon. As odd as it looked, I quite understood why he stopped. Even something as innocuous as this can bring down the overhead lines if it gets caught by a passing pantograph, so we have to keep an eagle eye out for such obstructions and stop short of any that we see. I had thought that this might mean a trip around the Southbury line for the first time since passing out, but the obstruction had been dealt with by then and I travelled along the booked route instead.
Someone else wasn't quite so lucky on the following evening, as whoever was driving one of the last trains of Tuesday evening managed to bring down a large section of overhead lines at Hackney Downs. When I booked on the following morning I was informed of this and the fact that services were being diverted via Stratford, but I wasn't aware of the impact of the event until I went to take my first train. Even though it came in at the expected time, it transpired that it wasn't my train after all but the one fifteen minutes ahead. I did wonder why the driver seemed adamant that he wasn't due for relief at that point, but a quick comparison of headcodes soon revealed the cause. The train that I eventually took over rolled in twenty minutes later. As a newly qualified driver I don't yet sign all the routes we cover, which meant that I needed to be accompanied by another driver to guide me through Stratford . Sharing the cab again after getting used to being on my own took a while to adjust to, but it was nice to have someone to chat with while waiting for red signals to clear.
Disruption such as this has other pluses and minuses. On the minus side, each trip took far longer than was booked which meant having to deal with awkward passengers. However, so that a semblance of a service could be run the timetable got severely cut back which resulted in cancellations and fewer trains to be driven. By the end of my turn, I worked roughly the same amount of hours as I would have under normal circumstances, got home at the same time and yet did less driving. All in all it wasn't a bad way to celebrate my birthday and certainly gave plenty to talk about.
Things got back to normal by Wednesday afternoon which meant that Thursday should have been a straightforward day. Unfortunately, I was the victim of other infrastructure problems. A failed signal on my first run cost me a hefty delay, and a points problem in the afternoon meant that I got the trip around the Southbury route that I missed on Monday. I was offered the Stratford alternative, but I was alone so had to decline. Even so, it worked out well. The train in front of me took the Stratford option and arrived at Liverpool Street more than ten minutes after me. As a result, I made my booked slot for my last run whereas I would have missed it if I'd gone by Stratford .
Unfortunately, the average of one incident per week resulting in a fatality is continuing. It started out as a bit of a joke, but it's rapidly become a curse. It's particularly poignant that the latest incident which happened this afternoon involved one of the drivers I trained with. If anything, I find this more shocking than having been directly involved in a fatality myself. Out of the five of us that qualified, two of us have already had a fatality in the two months since qualifying. These are staggering statistics that I am totally at a loss to explain. While such incidents are random in their nature, the number and frequency has got people wondering and asking questions.
Wednesday, 12th April 2006
Won't they learn...?
Well folks, it's the early hours of Wednesday morning and I've had a very rare occurrence. Today's shift went almost entirely without hitch. I say almost entirely, as things didn't go precisely as planned. However, given the dramas that I've suffered recently, being swapped off one pair of units and onto another was hardly dramatic.
The same couldn't have been said about Sunday evening's job, though. The first pair of units I took over were dreadful. The London-end unit was on half power only due to a traction motor fault suffered earlier in the day, while the country-end unit leaked rain into the driving cab like a sieve. Because the driving desk was awash with water and contains circuits energised at 110 volts DC, I refused to take the units back to the airport on the grounds of safety. Being a Sunday I had hoped that this would get me out of a round, but they had other ideas for me and asked if I could shunt the units separately into a vacant platform so that the formation would be reversed and the leaky cab "boxed-in". This was all new to me, but the signaller talked me through the move so that it went smoothly. Sadly, I only managed to get halfway through the shunt when I was asked to take just the single unit that had been at the London end for my next working rather than completing the shunt. I agreed to this, but informed them that the unit was only on half power to which their response was "half power is better than no power". It was by far the slowest run to the airport that I've ever done, which wasn't helped by a lack of grip due to wet rails.
It seems that the spate of fatalities on our lines has not impressed on people just how dangerous the railways are. I had a terrible feeling of foreboding yesterday that there would be another one that evening, and that it could happen to me. This wasn't helped any when I saw two young lads on the ‘Up’ side cess by Sawbridgeworth not more than a few metres from my train. Although I'm pretty poor at judging ages, I would have to guess that they couldn't have been aged more than 10 and 8, and were probably brothers. Imagine what their mother must have felt if the Police had to go and break the news to her that her two boys had been killed because they had been trespassing on the railway. This, together with the number of fatalities and other mischief that we have experienced of late, is why I have chosen to display prominent links to the excellent Track Off website which aims to educate children and young people about the dangers posed by the railways.
Wednesday, 19th April 2006
Company man
Looking back over the past few entries, it seems that all I've done is whinge about how rotten my luck is and all the things that have gone wrong. Since then, things have been very quiet and I've just got on with my booked jobs with little in the way of incident. The problem with this (if it can be called such) is that there's very little of interest to report.
That said, today was another one of "those days". A fire overnight at Hackney Downs had knocked out the signalling in the immediate vicinity of the station which meant similar arrangements being put in place to when the wires came down at the same location a fortnight back. As I still don't "sign" the Stratford route, I was almost left on the sidelines after the first part of my job was cancelled. This deficiency on my route card means that when such diversions are in force I am, as the supervisor put it, "as much use as mudflaps on a tortoise". So, for the first hour or so I sat spare in the messroom. Unbelievably this was the first time ever that I've had to do this, and I was looking forward to getting away early. Typically, this state of affairs didn't last as I was called on to relieve another driver and, by the time I'd got to London , there was enough signalling back on for me to continue with my booked job.
Prior to all this excitement, I have been getting stuck in with the punters. Mostly it's been pointing out which train goes where or just confirming that the train with the orange "Stansted Express" branding is in fact the Stansted Express and that, yes, it does indeed go to London. However, there have been a few more challenging queries that I despatched with aplomb. Although it isn't really part of my job I actually enjoy the contact with people, especially as the driving itself can be fairly solitary experience. If only the managers who took my induction last year could have seen me, their little hearts would have burst with pride.
My workload should be getting more varied soon, as I've been informed that I have almost completed my twenty solo turns and will be out route learning next week. In some respects, I'm surprised that I've not yet done the twenty turns as it seems to have taken ages. Admittedly, taking a little leave after qualifying plus the previous unpleasantness at Clapton has padded things out a fair bit, but even so…. By the summer I should have completed my route card and will be a fully fledged driver, albeit still a probationer. However, route learning does mean that I shall be away from driving for a little while until it's completed. I shall just have to make sure I make the most of the last few core route jobs while I've got them.
Friday, 5th May 2006
No news is good news
It's gratifying to say that things have been very quiet of late. I completed the last of my twenty solo turns without incident and am now out learning the rest of the routes that will eventually make up my workload.
So far I've been learning the Enfield Town and Hertford East branches, which are both pretty straightforward. However, from Monday I shall be starting to learn the routes around Stratford which will culminate the week after with the hefty stretch of line from London Liverpool Street to Seven Kings, which I'm assuming will include Ilford depot. However, on Wednesday of next week I shall have the mother-of-all route exams, as I attempt to sign three routes in a single day. Admittedly it's far from ideal, but it's just happened that way because of the way that my rest days and annual leave have fallen.
In the meantime, I've been kicking back and enjoying the sunshine whilst on my rostered week of leave. It's a bit inconvenient that it's fallen where it has, but it's been nice to have a long lie-in and catch up on those niggling little jobs that I've been studiously ignoring whilst at work.
Thursday, 25th May 2006
A to Z
Since last I wrote, I've been engaged in almost continual route learning and one by one ticking off each of the routes that I shall be required to drive. Unlike some of my colleagues, I've not been taken off from time to time to cover driving jobs, which is both good and bad. On the good side, it means that I can concentrate on the job in hand without any distractions and will hopefully be able to rattle off all the routes in short order.
On the negative side, I am beginning to feel that the pace is perhaps a little too fast for my own liking. My preference would be to learn a route and then, having "signed" it, get a chance to drive over that route a few times on my own so that I can start to become properly familiar with it before moving onto the next one. Admittedly I do already have the advantage of having driven almost all of our routes several times when out with my minder. In addition, not everyone feels the same way as me, with a few mentioning that they are perfectly happy with the pace of learning.
Even so, I have raised this as an issue with the managers and, to their credit, they are taking my request seriously. I have already had one day next week when I was rostered to be learning the line north to Cambridge changed to a driving job which will see me out on my own at Hertford East and at Ilford depot, and I have been promised that there will be more before I have to knuckle down again to learn Cambridge.
Beyond that, there's not been much to report. I've only had a handful of driving jobs since my last entry, and those that I have had have passed relatively uneventfully. That's not to say that things have been quiet on our lines. Our unlucky streak has continued over the past few weeks with repeated issues affecting the overhead electrification. By my reckoning there have been four cases of "de-wiring" and one failed booster transformer, all of which have required the current to be isolated for varying periods of time. There has also been a freight train derailment to contend with, together with the usual problems that plague us from time to time. Thankfully there have been no further fatalities.
Sunday, 4th June 2006
Left hand - Right hand
I've been quite a busy bunny of late. I have now "signed" all the routes with the exception of Cambridge , and have been back out driving again. As promised, I have been enjoying a much more varied workload, with trips out to Stratford , Ilford and Hertford East. I do still get the occasional Airport turn, but it's no longer my staple work.
Of course, being back in the cab means that I've been directly involved with the fun and games that have been going on. By far the most amusing incident involved an emergency speed restriction that has been put in on the 'Down' Suburban line at Bethnal Green station. Once Network Rail knew that it was required, it should have been a simple matter of putting out the relevant lineside signs on each line, but oh no. What started off as a single board facing the wrong way on the 'Down' Main soon escalated into a farce of huge proportions.
When I called it in to the signaller, he informed me that he'd already been told and that someone was going out to sort it. Sure enough, as I left London I saw a track worker doing the honours. I did feel a little sorry for him as I went by, as he was stranded out in the middle of a six track stretch of line with trains whizzing by on all sides. I don't suppose that it helped that me on the 'Down' Suburban and an Anglia driver on the 'Down' Main both whistled him up at exactly the same time while another train approached in the other direction along the 'Up' Suburban. For the lack of anywhere better to stand, he just flattened himself against the boards he was adjusting and hoped for the best. Even though he was obscuring them, I wasn't sure that he hadn't made matters worse by turning all three boards on that post around. As I passed by the same spot again almost two hours later I could see that this was exactly what had happened, so I called it in for a second time. The signaller was incredulous and sounded not a little pissed off with the news, but I had no idea why. I only learned yesterday that the reason for this was that it had taken six attempts to get these boards facing the right way, and even then this only happened because they sent out a different bloke at the sixth attempt.
That's not to say that I've been above such matters myself. I almost had a stand-up row with the signaller on the Harlow workstation because I had convinced myself that I had the wrong headcode. He was right of course, but I was out of his area before I'd realised my mistake. I blame the 5am start and the similarity between the "6" on my outbound headcode and the "9" on my return trip, so skipped ahead to the headcode of my next working. What a twit...!! I've not heard anything more about it, so I presume he had a laugh about it with his colleagues but did nothing more about it.
Tuesday, 6th June 2006
Dispensing the unpleasantries
Well, it's been an unusual day for me today. The job I was on today required me to travel as a passenger on almost as many trains as I had to drive. However, the sun was out and I was in a good mood, so everything went swimmingly. Perhaps it was the weather that put everyone in a better mood than normal and made them better disposed towards everyone else, as more people were seen to be smiling and taking the time to stop and talk. I even had a few "thank you's".
The first train I worked was what I jokingly call "the school bus", as it is used heavily by children on their way home from school. They had obviously invented a little game to see who was the bravest and could stay off the train the longest at each stop without getting left behind. They must have had a great deal of practice, as they evidently knew exactly how long the door hustle alarms sound for before the doors themselves start to close. No matter how far they had strayed from the train when I made to close the doors, they always managed to get back on.
Of course, when the weather's hot we begin to feel the heat. Driving around with the windows open can be tricky, as it makes the cab very noisy. Two trips like that and I realised that the hearing in my left ear had been temporarily deadened. It wasn't a problem when in the train as I could still hear all the cab systems, but it became noticeable the moment I sat down in a quiet spot for a break (although everything returned to normal within a few minutes). So, it was cab vent only after that. These are generally brilliant when you're belting along, but they have no filters on them. Consequently anything that gets scooped up from the outside is spat straight into the cab. It is for this reason that they are sometimes referred to as "wasp dispensers". Wasps weren't my problem today, but midges were. Each time I swatted one another would appear as if by magic. On the return trip, I made sure I kept everything closed so that at least one cab remained a mozzie-free haven. Thankfully by then the evening was beginning to cool down.
Wednesday, 14th June 2006
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 is 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 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's car park.
The story so far...
Having already been through the recruitment and selection process there's so much to catch up on. So, let me begin by setting the scene.
Before submitting my application to become a trainee train driver with 'one' railway, I had no experience of working on the railways. My background was always in admin and customer service, but I was ready for a total change. I wasn't sure in exactly what direction I wanted to head, but I was sure that it would be out of an office.
Pre-Selection
Having read the ‘How to Become a Train Driver’ webpage, I was already aware of the types of tests and assessments I was likely to encounter. So, when I was called to an assessment, I was surprised that it was only going to comprise a concentration and mechanical comprehension test. It later transpired that this was just a pre-selection process to weed out the total no-hopers.
Even though this was just a pre-selection process, it was still tough. I was expecting that we would get the infamous Group Bourdon "dots" test but we ended up with the SCAAT test instead, which demands mental adaptability as well as concentration.
Still, it was good to meet some of the other candidates and chat between the tests. I was quite surprised that there were a number who were returning to driving having been away from it for some time, and that I was very much in the minority in not having a railway background. It was quite an honour to have been told that I'd successfully progressed to the next stage.
Assessment Centre
The next stage of the selection process takes a whole day during which candidates face the entire battery of aptitude tests and a structured interview. For me, this was due to take place in an obscure office near Watford town centre. However, they failed to inform me that the venue had been switched at the last minute because workmen in the building were making an unacceptable amount of noise. So, having had a hair-raising journey around the M25 to get there, I had to wait an agonising 30 minutes for the test administrator to collect myself and one other candidate. The substitute venue in a Regus building was hardly any better, as a fire alert the previous day had meant that their heating boiler had gone offline overnight and the offices were still freezing cold. Still, we reckoned that if we could pass the assessments in such trying conditions we should be assured of a position.
As we'd previously done the Mechanical Comprehension test at the pre-selection session, we weren't expected to do another. However, even though we'd all taken the SCAAT test just over a week previously, we were still expected to do the Group Bourdon test. I can't speak for the other candidates but, compared to the SCAAT test, I found the Group Bourdon to be much easier. Then it was the TRP and RAAT tests about which there's not much to tell. After that, we were all led in one by one for the computerised Fast Reaction & Co-ordination Test. As I was due to go third out of five I had plenty of time to build up a head of nervous energy, which was not helped when the first candidate came out a physically and emotionally broken man. When my turn came I made a bad start by trying to be too quick and belting the buttons and pedals far too hard but, with a bit of coaching, I managed to settle down.
With the tests out of the way, there was time to settle the nerves before the structured interview. If anything, this was the part that I was most dreading. However, the interviewer put my mind to rest immediately by telling me that I'd managed "...straight A's" on all the tests. If she had been better looking I'd have kissed her. Anyway, it did the trick I was soon relaxing into it and merrily chatting away about this and that until she had filled in all the boxes on her form.
And with that I was free to go.
Medical
I never heard that I had passed the Assessment Centre but assumed that I must have when I was called to attend a medical.
There's not very much to report about this, except that the chap who was nearly broken by the Fast Reaction & Co-ordination Test must have done alright in the end as he was sitting in the medical centre waiting room as I arrived. However, it is probably worth mentioning that I have never been so thoroughly examined as I was that day.
The Offer
All of this just about brings me up to date. It was always very hard to judge how I had performed at each stage, as I really had no idea what they were looking for. To have come out the other side with a formal offer of a position as a trainee driver was brilliant beyond words. Just yesterday I received all the various paperwork, including a copy of a contract of employment, new entrant's details form, a staff travel pass application and details of where to go for an induction. So, from 4th April, I'm going to be a trainee train driver for 'one' railway!
The only slightly worrying point is that the accompanying letter says that the offer is still conditional on passing the medical and on getting acceptable references. I hope I get it, as I've already had to hand in my notice for my current job.
Saturday, 9th April 2005
"Hello, good evening and welcome"
It seems that my fears were unfounded. Shortly after the last entry I received details of an induction week starting on 4th April at the Ipswich Town football ground at Portman Road .
The week itself was billed as a corporate induction, and centred primarily on 'one' as a company and why we were important as individuals. As someone new to the company and the industry, it was interesting and surprising to hear more about the basis on which the 'one' franchise was won, and the nature of the relationships between the various railway companies and the effect that this has on the services being offered.
Although there was a lot of corporate blather, there were sessions on customer service, conflict management and communication. Some of these topics may seem a bit odd for drivers to cover, but the group was mixed and included newly inducted customer service staff and even engineers.
The worth of these sessions was ably demonstrated on a "field trip" that took place on the Tuesday. Having split into smaller groups we were tasked with surveying four 'one' stations. The day itself saw a fair bit of disruption, with signalling problems, failed trains at Liverpool Street and on the mainline at both Stowmarket and Diss, and a fatality on the West Anglia network all contributing to the fun of the day. For our group starting at Ipswich , we spent all day on the trains and actually saw very few stations due to the importance of making connections. With all this chaos around, one of the biggest priorities was making sure that passengers were informed at all times, and it was plain to see the important role that drivers had to play in this, even when not actually driving.
As well as inducting us into the company way of thinking, there were sessions on some of the relevant legislation that we would be expected to have to comply with, some basic fire safety training and an introduction to track safety and railway terminology from a no-nonsense former fitter of many years experience. The last of these was one of the most interesting and enjoyable sessions of the week, and the only one in which I took copious notes. Having been apprenticed to the railways during the last days of steam, the trainer was never short of an amusing or thought provoking anecdote to illustrate some point or other.
All in all it was a relaxed and very interesting week. I don't think that there was an awful lot that I would consider was "training" as such as so much of it was commonsense, but I would consider it a very good grounding in the basics of the company's ethos and the expectations that they have of me as an employee. How much of it stays with me by the time I complete the training process remains to be seen.
Tuesday, 12th April 2005
Let's start again, shall we?
First week at the Hornsey training school and it seems like the wheels have already fallen off.
While we were busy swanning about in Ipswich last week, our instructor was scratching his head wondering where we all were. Due to a mix up somewhere along the line it would seem that us trainee drivers should not have been swanning around in the luxury at Ipswich at all, but slumming it in the training school portacabin straight away receiving a far more "driver-orientated" induction. Not only that, but what we should have covered we didn't, and what we should have been provided with we weren't. Scratch day one, as we all head to the Bishops Stortford depot to collect hi-vis vests, rule books, sectional appendix and all the other paraphernalia that we should have had from day one. Still, it was a lovely afternoon for a walk down by the river with the wife.
To our trainer's great credit (and with a bit of re-scheduling), we are now back to where we should have been at this point last week. With fire safety and emergency first aid tomorrow followed by personal track safety for the rest of the week, we should at least be in a position to start driver training proper by next Monday.
Friday, 15th April 2005
Brown trousers optional
I'm very pleased to say that your humble correspondent has survived the week to report on passing the first training module.
Being totally new to the railways, I and my colleagues were first required to take and pass the Personal Track Safety (PTS) assessment so that we could be passed competent to wander around the railway environment. Although we'd been out around Hornsey depot letting off fire extinguishers and playing with track circuit clips and detonators, this was small beer in comparison with what was required to pass the PTS assessment – you have to get all the questions right.
As well as a written exam, we had to do a practical track walking exercise that required crossing the running lines. The particular running lines in question form one of the busier parts of the East Coast Mainline a scant four miles outside Kings Cross along which GNER, WAGN and Hull Trains expresses travel at 95mph. Not at all daunting, then.
As things turned out, it wasn't too bad and I didn't need a change of undies. Although we had to get right the way across all six running lines and the Ferme Park Sidings none of us ended up as a messy smear on the front of a GNER express. To be honest, there was a small track crew out working on the down slow line in a 'red zone' (see, I learnt something), and I spent most of the time watching their lookout to get advance warning of any 'down' trains as he had a better view around the flyover than I had. Cheating? Possibly. They still gave me my PTS card though, so I suppose I shouldn't complain.
Monday, 25th April 2005
All quiet on the Western Front
Since passing my PTS assessment there hasn't really been an awful lot of note to report. The driver training is still in its initial induction phase, and we're getting some fairly basic introductions to the various facets of the job of train driver.
As well as classroom sessions and sessions out in the depot we've had out days to the various locations at which we will be based. So far we've had introductions to the publications and notices that drivers are expected to use, arrangements for signing on and off duty and a brief look at some of the more major systems on the Class 317 EMU that forms our basic traction. This week will be spent mostly looking at signalling systems. The tone has been quite relaxed with the emphasis on getting a flavour of each topic before having to worry about getting as heavily engrossed as we will need to be to pass the Rules training that will come later. Even so, it's amazing how much we've all learnt in such a short space of time.
Still haven't even got close to driving a train yet, though.
Tuesday, 3rd May 2005
Absolute (Mental) Block
Well, I was warned that things might get a bit more complicated as time went on. Having spent all last week being introduced to the basic concepts of signalling (basic...?!), we're now getting into the somewhat murkier waters of passing signals at danger with and without authority, temporary block working and train failures.
Everything was going swimmingly last week. We had a cab-riding exercise on one day with task books to complete and an out day to Cambridge Integrated Electronic Signalling Centre (IECC) and Kings Lynn signalbox to show us how the theory translated into practice. Frankly, Cambridge IECC was a bit of a waste of time as the signallers didn't tell us much and we were left to fathom things out for ourselves ("So, tell us what it all does". "Er, well the red lights are the trains. Any questions?"). Kings Lynn signalbox was much better with the signaller giving a full description of what he was doing and even letting us throw some points. I can't pretend that I understood absolutely everything, but I think I've taken in enough to stand me in good stead for my rules course. I even managed to get my head around TPWS, which our trainer had warned us was not an easy subject to understand, so I thought I was doing well.
I think that this week might be a bit more of a challenge for me. Having grasped how things work when everything is running as it should and what all the different types of signals and aspects mean, there is still an awful lot more to understand. Given that it's one of the few things that stops us all bumping into each other I can see why a good understanding of signalling is vital. Doesn't make it any less complicated, though.
So, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to put the kettle on before settling down with some light reading.
Monday, 9th May 2005
"Sybiiill...!!!"
Someone once said that a little knowledge can be dangerous. As from today, I and the others in the class have the piece of paper as proof of that. Having passed the final assessment for the "Introduction to Rules" course, our little knowledge and us are being allowed to progress to the next phase of the training.
The next stage is three weeks of 'front-end turns', where we will each shadow a driver to see how the basic theory we have learned is carried out in practice. In some respects I'm quite hoping that the network will fall flat on it's face at least once so that I can see things like signals being passed at danger (with authority, naturally) and assisting failed trains. It would be quite dull to spend the whole three weeks just shuttling up and down on greens the whole time and never seeing what happens when the excrement hits the fan.
Today also marks the last day for us in civvies, as we have finally taken delivery of our uniforms. Some of it is OK, but I've got a particular bugbear with the shirts that we've been issued. At first glance they have the sheen of fair quality kit, but on closer inspection this sheen is revealed as only superficial. The shirts are truly awful. Had it been my own money they would have been straight back to the shop to be exchanged. I spent two and a half tortuous hours trying to iron my six shirts, none of which appear to have a straight seam between them. (Before anyone comments, I'm actually a bit of a Domestic God and a dab hand at ironing shirts.) And as for the sleeves...!! By the time I'd got to the last one, I'd been reduced to a Basil Fawlty-esque rage and had more than once bent double over the offending garment in a rictus of fury, silently shaking my fist at it as if daring it to crease in the wrong place. At the least my wife had the decency not to dissolve into gales of laughter.
Well, not quite.
Thursday, 12th May 2005
Signing on
No, I've not been given the sack. Well, not yet anyway.
This week I have been playing at being a train driver and doing everything that a train driver does (er, except actually driving any trains obviously). For the last couple of days I have been up at 4am to sign-on for an early turn, drinking tea and reading discarded newspapers in messrooms, and answering the daft questions of the travelling public ("Yes this train is the Stansted Express, as it clearly says on the departure board, the platform monitor, the train destination indicator and in big orange lettering on the side of every coach you myopic muppet...!!!"). Oh, and I've also been riding in the secondman's seat to observe the railway.
So far it's been really interesting, with trips to Chingford and Stansted Airport ad nauseum. I'm hoping that I'll have the chance to visit a few of the more exotic destinations as the weeks progress (Hertford, Cambridge...?) so that I can get to see as much of the West Anglia network as possible. I'm not yet sure in exactly what way it's helping me in my training. While talking about and drawing things in the classroom are all well and good, I imagine that actually seeing them out in the real world will help to make them more memorable. Thanks to a track circuit and points failure at Hackney Downs this morning I've already seen how signals are passed at danger with authority, and feel confident that I can remember the procedure.
On another note, the new uniform is causing some hilarity. Unlike most of the drivers I've seen so far, I have retained my youthful figure and still resemble a giant matchstick (slender body and large bonce), which means that everything is far too baggy on me. The blazers have already been returned and replacements ordered, although there's nothing that can be done about the tent-like shirts. Still, as the driver's uniform is identical to those worn by ticket inspectors, I now have the uncanny knack of emptying a carriage of fare-dodging schoolkids and other riff-raff and enjoying a quiet and relaxing ride home.
Wednesday, 18th May 2005
I can't believe this is work
This train driving lark is great fun!! OK so I'm not actually doing anything yet, but I'm still having a great time. Apart from a couple of signalling failures which caused a fair bit of delay, the days have been uneventful. Speaking to the drivers I've been placed with, this is just the way we like it.
As well as getting a good view of the driving I've been picking up quite a bit of information about the more mundane things work out on a day-to-day basis, which will be really helpful. I must admit to being really mystified by all the rosters and notices on my first few visits to the depot and wondering how I would ever get on, but once someone has explained what it all means and how you can swap turns between drivers it's a whole lot less daunting. Quite a few drivers seem to have swapped all their unwanted shifts and have managed to get themselves onto permanent earlies, afternoons or nights depending on what suits them best, which seems to be fine. In fact, with some negotiation and a bit of judicious swapping with other drivers, it seems that you can pretty much suit yourself when you work and when you don't as long as all the turns are covered.
It's going to be quite a shock to the system when I have to go back to the school for rules at the end of the month.
Wednesday, 25th May 2005
Delays, delays, delays...
I'm a little cross today, as I've just had confirmation that our rules course is to be delayed by a week. Added to the week that we are already behind because of the corporate induction at Ipswich , we have lost two weeks in as many months. Next week should have been the second week of our rules course but instead we will be getting an extra week of front end turns.
I guess it's understandable that someone wants to take some leave, but it does grate a wee bit when we've been told that we can't at least until the classroom phase of the training is over. My view is that what's good for the goose is surely good for the gander, and that we should have been presented with the option of also taking some leave. Not a happy bunny.
In an interesting twist on life imitating art, I was subjected to the worst delays so far. ( Liverpool Street signallers should look away now.) For some reason that neither of us could fathom we were delayed getting out of Stansted Airport on a slow 'up' train and were put inside virtually everywhere to let every man and his dog pass. Five late at the airport had grown to almost twenty late by the time we arrived at Liverpool Street with a train groaning with people. This then became ten late on the way 'down', and even then a slow train was let in front of us as we were stopped at Bethnal Green, at which juncture my driver made an apt comment (the exact phrasing of which currently escapes me) that evoked a picture of the two of us being forcibly made to participate in an unnatural sexual act with a salad vegetable.
Friday, 3rd June 2005
Edited highlights
Today was the last day of front end turns. I feel a little sad about this, as I have very much enjoyed them.
Looking back, I'm afraid that not all of my hopes and expectations were fulfilled. While I did see some of the procedures that we had talked about in the classroom enacted, it was mostly fairly low-level stuff brought on by track circuit and signalling failures. Not one of the trains I travelled on developed anything like a major fault resulting in a failure, which was a shame as I very much wanted to see how assistance was provided. The worst that we got was having to batter various things on Class 315 EMU's (notably recalcitrant doors) in order to make them work properly. One of my colleagues got luckier with an undemanded brake application while proceeding at speed along the Lea Valley , although they did manage to get going again.
What I was most amazed at was the sheer stupidity of the travelling public. While they are generally fairly docile and able to grasp simple information (destinations, stopping patterns, timetables and the like), many cannot. Regrettably, most of these are users of the Stansted Express. Here are a few of the gems that I have witnessed over the past four weeks.
Late Running
Heading down the platform to the front of a slow train to Stansted Airport , I was accosted by a young lady in the doorway of the Express unit in the facing platform. She was a little aerated that the train was looking like being five late leaving London and that she had missed her flight. I explained that there were signalling problems affecting trains entering and leaving, that it takes about 45 minutes to reach the airport and that delays do happen.
"But I've missed my flight three times before because of this", she insisted. She wasn't best pleased when I gently suggested that perhaps her experiences should have taught her to catch an earlier train to avoid such problems happening again.
Fare Dodgers
I've had a pretty good run of these (ahem) individuals. From emptying carriages of schoolkids because they took me to be a ticket inspector to a fare-dodger almost knocking me flying in his bid to escape the attentions of a gang of real inspectors. The winner for bare-faced cheek went to a young lady who brazenly asked me "Is it OK if I get on this train without a ticket?".
Um, no.
Foot-Draggers
There seems to be a certain section of people who assume that all trains are 8 cars long, and will insist on waiting at the "8 Car Stop" board. When the train turns out to be only 4 cars, there will be one of two reactions. The first group will hurry back down the platform to board the train. The second group will amble gently in the train's general direction with the vague notion of boarding. Two gentlemen of the latter group got left behind because the driver was unwilling to wait for them to deign to board his train; much to their consternation.
As a little postscript, the uniform is once again causing grief. Having been through the wash once, the stitching of the hems at the bottoms of the legs has come undone on two out of the three pairs of trousers I have been issued with. I feel that words will soon be exchanged on this matter.
Monday, 6th June 2005
Back to school
After the front end turns comes the Rules Course.
With the change of activity comes a change of location. For the next couple of months, our place of work will not be a Portakabin in the Hornsey depot car park, but a cosy little room under the eaves at the Cambridge drivers’ depot. It's not a bad little set-up, and much more convenient to get to in the morning. Travelling up by train each day we're going the opposite direction to all the other commuters heading into the 'big smoke', which means that we have the rare pleasure of getting seats. On the downside, the building we are in is so close to the country end of Cambridge station that we have to temporarily halt proceedings every time a diesel service pulls in or out of platforms 4, 5 and 6. Standing outside we are barely in a position of safety as Ipswich bound Sprinters pull in and out of the platform.
I had been warned previously that the course content was very similar to the introductory course that we had done. In fact, one Silverlink driver who had just completed his rules course in the next classroom to us at Hornsey reckoned that it was 95% the same but more in-depth, with just 5% completely new content. And so day one proved; even down to the identical handouts. Still, I guess it's good revision.
Tuesday, 14th June 2005
Stating the bleedin' obvious
It would seem that I was perhaps a little hasty in my previous assessment of the rules course content. There are indeed quite a few differences between this and the content of the introductory course that we had previously sat at Hornsey, it's just that you need to look closely to find them.
It was at about the halfway point of last week that it suddenly hit home to me that I didn't actually know exactly what our instructor was talking about at all times. This actually came as something of a shock and caused me to sit up and pay a bit more attention. Instead of just nodding and making a mental note to look up my notes from Hornsey, I decided that I would make a conscious effort to listen and absorb, and would ask any questions as they occurred to me rather than bottling them up for another time. I'm only going to get this opportunity to learn an awful lot of really important information about my roles and responsibilities, so I really must make sure that I understand it fully before I get out there myself.
One other aspect of the rules course that has caught us all out is just how pedantic it can be. It's not good enough just to know in your head how you would carry out a certain task if you can't describe it. At our first weekly assessment, we all failed to complete a question asking how we would quickly protect a section of line we had just passed over that had a track defect in it. We all knew that it was by using a track circuit operating clip, but what we had singularly failed to mention was the very first thing we would do to make this possible. That is, to stop the train. I thought that this went without saying (I suppose the instructor imagined that I would just toss the clip out the window and hope that by some enormous fluke it would snap onto the rails just so), but we were all mistaken and got this question marked for review.
Duh...!!
Tuesday, 21st June 2005
Bees
'Swarm, isn't it?
As southern Britain swelters in proper mid-summer weather for once, the company's slavish insistence on full uniform means that we're suffering along with everyone else. Sadly our training room suffers from a total lack of air conditioning or anything else that could make conditions more bearable. However, at least we aren't out driving at the moment. We found out today that the temperature measured in a driving cab over the weekend topped 103 degrees.
All of this is having a bit of an effect on my poor addled brain. Things that seemed fairly straightforward on induction are now fiendishly complicated. Perhaps it's the added elements that weren't covered before or maybe it's just that I'm too hot and our trainer's words are just washing over me without sinking in. Whatever, this week is proving to be a challenge as I struggle to assimilate lots of information in trying circumstances. Even writing this entry is proving bothersome.
On the plus side, the lesson of the first week has been successfully learnt. Both your humble correspondent and one of his colleagues managed to pass last week's assessment with no reviews.
Friday, 24th June 2005
"It's illogical, captain"
As if we haven't got enough things to try and get our heads around, I managed to get myself into a proper tizzy over some railway terminology.
Today we were covering the various types of speed restrictions that can be imposed, part of which is to learn about the different signs used to denote these and their expected layout. I wasn't too worried about these sessions as they had already been covered in some depth on induction and felt pretty confident that I had them taped.
All was going swimmingly until the trainer started talking about things being "in rear of" or "in advance of" certain objects. At this point alarm bells started going off inside my head, as I knew that the things that we being described as being "in advance of" something must be after whatever fixed point was being referred to in the direction of travel, and those that were described as being "in rear of" it would be reached first! Having shaken my head a few times to see if these seemingly contradictory statements would somehow arrange themselves into a sensible pattern I felt I had to ask. "Please sir", I heard myself say. "Please can you explain that again?"
Well, blow me if he wasn't right. It turns out that things appearing "in rear of" a certain point really are before you get to that point, and those that are "in advance of it" are beyond it! So, an AWS magnet for a signal is some 200 yards "in rear of" the signal, but the SPAD indicator that catches you the other side is "in advance of" the signal. When pressed, the trainer could only surmise that these are terms introduced by signallers. Be that as it may, it struck me as a daft convention given that trackside features such as signs and signals are actually laid out for the benefit of drivers. It would make far more sense if things that you reach first, like an AWS magnet, were described as "ahead of" the signal because it's in front of it and that anything you pass after whatever fixed point is referred to as being "in rear of" it.
But then I guess that's far too sensible. [Since this blog was written Rule Book terminology has been revised to eliminate this confusion].
Monday, 27th June 2005
Intermission
One of the great features of the rules course that I am sitting is that there is a one week break between the end of week three and the start of week four. The idea is basically to allow the first part of the training to sink in before moving on to the weightier matters of train failures, accidental train division, fires and other such diverting subjects.
While it's not exactly a week off, it is the first (and probably only) opportunity to take any annual leave. What we probably should be doing is revising and spending some time consolidating our learning so far and, being conscientious trainees and a credit to the company, that is what we are doing. However, we are all taking at least two days off to allow the batteries to recharge and rest the old grey matter. I'm hoping that as a result of this week, the penny that has been circling the slot for a little while now will finally drop.
Wednesday, 6th July 2005
Eeep...!!
The speed at which the weeks are passing is getting a little bit scary. I'm trying desperately not to think about the fact that the final rules exam and the end of the course is now just a smidgen over a week away. Because of this, I don't really want to dwell too much on the course content.
That said, I will just briefly mention the level of clairvoyance that it appears is required for the job of driver. Normally everything is fine and life is a bed of roses. However, as soon as the balloon goes up it is a different matter. A pulled passcom is a fairly quick and easy problem to deal with but a train fire (even a small one) is extremely serious. Quite how you deal with a passcom which has been pulled because of a fire that you are unaware of is something that I'm hoping experience will show me how to deal with. In the meantime, I just hope that it never happens. [This is something that happened to a Great Western HST near Maidenhead some years ago with appalling results. There was also a disastrous sleeper train fire near Taunton in the ‘seventies. The trouble is that the situation can have escalated out of control before the train crew is properly aware of what is happening].
In the meantime, I'm using that great internet resource eBay to make up for what I feel are deficiencies in my equipment. So far I've bought a natty 'one' leather wallet for my PTS card and travel passes and a belt holster for a carriage key and '21' key. It sounds a bit naff, but it will make my life a lot easier if I know that these keys are secure and that I can reach them easily when needed.
Thursday, 7th July 2005
Reality Check
The real world came crashing into the classroom in the most jarring of manners today following the terrorist attacks on London 's transport network.
Although we were shielded from the full impact of these atrocities by distance, the knock-on affect on the railways were still felt. We managed to struggle on with our training for a while (which, ironically, was on train accidents, emergency protection and train evacuation), but we had to give up after our trainer vanished at the behest of the depot manager. Instead, we drank tea in the messroom and watched events unfold on TV in the company of many 'one' and WAGN drivers. After a while we were told that we might as well go home, and so we did.
Being serious, I just don't have the words to express the sadness and outrage that I feel as a result of these attacks. The deliberate targeting of innocent civilians at the height of the peak is nothing short of cowardly and simply cannot be justified to further any agenda. However, I do feel a lot of pride and admiration towards the railwaymen and women of all grades on both National Rail and London Underground who did sterling work today to ensure that a bad situation was not made any worse. I honestly can say that I feel honoured to be joining a profession that conducts itself in this way and just hope that, should the time ever come, I can measure up to the example that was set today.
Friday, 15th July 2005
"...and relax."
I'm a very happy chappy today, as I have passed my rules exam. Having actually sat the exam yesterday I spent most of last night as a ball of nerves until I heard the outcome this morning by text message from our trainer.
One of the things that I was most worried about was that there appeared to be a couple of spurious questions in the last weekly assessment where the expected answer was different from that given in the handouts and, in one notable case, the Rule Book. It was all a bit hard to explain, especially given that the bloke who wrote the course material also wrote the assessments and is supposed to be hot on rules. It certainly made me worry whether there would be any similarly 'odd' questions in the final exam.
The question that caused all the problems was: "If your train is involved in a train accident what are your four main priorities?" The handout listed them in the following order:
- The passage of trains is stopped on each obstructed line.
- The signaller is informed and the emergency services are summoned if required.
- Carry out protection where required.
- Ensure the passengers are safe.
Still, while we all understood what we would actually do should this scenario ever arise, we were smart enough to know to give the answer that was expected of us so that we got through the assessment.
Although the thought of being passed competent is a little scary, having completed this part of my training I shall be kicking back and relaxing tonight. If I may be forgiven a little immodesty, having been asked a total of 452 assessment questions throughout the duration of this course, I'm hugely chuffed to have only had eight marked for review.
Monday, 18th July 2005
Dirty bits
The first day of the traction course was a real breath of fresh air after being stuck inside a classroom doing rules.
After some quick pieces of admin, we were lead outside for what seemed to be the first time in absolutely ages and allowed to wander around the outside of our basic traction, the Class 317 EMU. Even though we are only looking at and identifying all the mucky bits below floor level that the carriage washers never reach, it was still interesting and very informative. Once we've covered a bit more about the various air and electrical systems and how they all relate to each other I'm sure it will begin to make sense, but I'm not worrying about that at the moment.
I must remember to buy either some disposable latex gloves and/or wet wipes before I go out driving in case I have to isolate anything in service.
Since ending our rules course, our numbers have also swelled from six to eight, which is nice. I'm not sure quite how well the two new guys will fit in with the rest of us, as we've become quite a close-knit group. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.
Tuesday, 19th July 2005
Train Porn
Having spent all yesterday looking at the dirty underside of a Class 317, we spent most of today inside the unit looking at cocks. It all sounds a little bit sordid but, in order to pass our traction training, we need to know all about them. The cocks in question related specifically to the pantograph and the other equipment up on the roof that carries out the job of collecting juice from the overheads.
It all seemed fairly straightforward when the trainer was there to explain everything, but it is beginning to dawn on me the extent to which traction is much more abstract than the rules course was. For example, there are quite a few different things that could prevent you raising the pantograph and not many indications to help you track down exactly where the problem might be. At least with some of the rules questions if you didn't actually know the answer you could deduce most of them. Unfortunately it seems that, at this point at least, I'm going to have to put in a lot of effort to learn each part.
At least I've managed to get my first train fault out of the way quickly. Once we'd all had a go at cutting in the auxiliary power and raising the pantograph under supervision and been shown the whereabouts of the various MCB's and isolating cocks, we were all going to have a go at doing this unsupervised. Being nearest the cab I went first. All went swimmingly with the pantograph going up and giving power until *phutt*, and out went all the lights. At first I thought I'd been stitched up but tried again anyway with the same result. I realised later what I should have done (press 'Aux Set' and 'Pan Up' together), but by then it was too late. The others wouldn't let me off the unit until last in case I broke the steps as well. I have a nasty feeling that this might have been a reputation forming event.
Thursday, 28th July 2005
"The knee bone's connected to the thigh bone..."
It seems that I was right about my reputation within the group as a train breaker sticking. Although I've had no further incidents, I'm still referred to as a Jonah.
In fact, this particular title could just as easily apply to one of our number who got a bit keen when exploring the differences between the Mark 1 version of the Class 317 and the slightly less old Mark 2. Despite warnings that the units we were exploring had been prepped for service and that we should leave them exactly as we'd found them, he noticed that the passcoms were different and decided to pull one. Cue several minutes of consternation as his group tried to work out how to reset it. Unfortunately, being the first I fear that this is not going to be enough to shift the attention away from myself.
Away from the diverting subject of breaking trains, we've been getting down to the minute details of our units. As a commuter I'd always dismissed them as being old, basic and a bit naff but, as a trainee driver, I'm learning a new respect for them from their hidden complexities. For example, I'd never known that the air suspension could sense the weight of each coach and automatically adjust the brake pressure in each brake step accordingly. That this is all done by air without any electronic intervention is quite amazing.
The flip side to this is that there are some daft design touches, particularly in relation to the positioning of air isolation cocks. Some units have an internal and external cock for some air systems, but these are in different places in the circuit for each system. Some parts of the air system don't have an isolating cock at all which would require the isolation of the entire coach from the rest of the train in the event of an air leak (e.g. the supplementary main air reservoir on Mark 2 units). A bigger headache is the positioning of a passenger bulkhead inside refurbished Mark 2 units which makes access to the isolation cocks all but totally impossible.
Still, it's nice to be outside in the fresh air after all those weeks stuck inside a classroom all the time. It certainly makes things a lot easier to understand when you can go out to a unit and see the systems and practice the procedures (or "play", as our instructor would have it).
Tuesday, 2nd August 2005
At last...!!
Yesterday was the day that I and my classmates had been waiting for all these months. Almost four months after starting employment with the company we got our first taste of driving.
OK, so the journey only lasted about 300 yards and did not exceed 5mph, but it still felt like a major milestone to us all. I can't say that I was too worried or overawed by the experience as it was in the safe confines of Hornsey depot. The first time out on the mainline will be a different matter, though. Naturally we all made our fair share of silly learners mistakes like forgetting to reset the DRA and getting muddled up with the directions in which the brake and power controllers move, but no-one dropped the DSD (except at the instructors prompting) or bashed into anything. The other thing that we also all failed at was correctly picking braking points to correctly stop at chosen landmarks, but that will come with experience.
Today's driving exercises were a bit more practical as we practiced coupling and uncoupling, or "controlled collisions" as the instructor called them. Hopefully with practice the various stages of each operation will gradually sink in and the elementary errors will stop.
Tuesday, 9th August 2005
Repetition, repetition, repetition
Since last week's entry there's not been much to report. It would seem that we have now covered all of the required knowledge on our basic traction and are spending our time mopping up any points that we feel we don't fully grasp and endlessly practicing things like coupling and uncoupling units, train prep and fault finding.
Although the practice is good and helpful to get the various procedures set in our minds, I'm just beginning to get a little bored with the course. I guess I'm just getting a bit impatient now. Maybe I'm overdue a break. We've all started talking wistfully about the possibility of taking some leave so that we might be able to have a holiday. If there is one criticism that I could level at the structure and administration of the driver training programme it is that each element of the training follows hard on the heels of the one before and there's no chance to stop and have a breather. There's an awful lot of hard work involved in taking on board and understanding all this new information, and I know that I'm beginning to feel tired.
Hopefully there will be an opportunity for some time off once we get to the minder driving stage, but that isn't due to start until mid-September. Until then we'll keep soldiering on.
Monday, 22nd August 2005
Scream if you want to go faster
Apologies for the lack of recent updates. I haven't vanished off the face of the earth (well, not yet anyway).
It would seem that the endless practice that we had earlier this month has stood us in good stead, as we all passed our traction assessments (and not before time). Thanks to the excellent preparation that we had received at Hornsey, the biggest challenge facing us was how to avoid getting sunstroke or, for those who had their assessment on the Friday, getting soaked to the skin.
Unlike all the other assessments we've had so far, the traction assessment is a two part affair with a written and a practical part. The other difference was that, while the written part was administered at the Hornsey training school by our instructor, the practicals take place at the driver depots and are carried out by driver managers. Even so, both parts were fairly relaxed affairs.
Now that the traction course is complete, we have reached the end of the main classroom phase of the training. Although there are a couple more courses that we need to take, the emphasis is now on getting some hands-on experience. For two weeks starting from today we are allowed out with an empty train to play on the mainline between Cambridge and Stansted Airport . At last, we have started to actually drive trains. It was quite a weird experience being able to drive at up to 90mph with other trains around and having to obey signals and speed restrictions when all we've been used to so far is pootling about in the depot.
My own driving turn was fairly unspectacular. Taking over the train at Newport on our way up to Stansted Airport , I was only able to attain a maximum of 70mph. However, I did make a pretty good fist of stopping at the 8 car board at Elsenham and only ran a few feet past the DOO monitors. It's going to take a little while to get used to the way that the train handles and how to control it, but I feel we're well on the way. The only small fly in the ointment was a sour-faced Central Trains driver who was waiting for us to clear Stansted North Junction so that he could get the road up to Cambridge . He couldn't have been there for very long, but he certainly made sure I was aware that he wasn't a happy chap. I shall have to look out for him tomorrow.
At least I don't have to buy the cream cakes tomorrow, unlike two unfortunates who failed to cancel the AWS in time.
Saturday, 3rd September 2005
Out with a whimper
Once again, sorry for the lack of updates. My PC decided to die an unpleasant death and I had to wait for a replacement which only arrived a couple of days ago.
Well, the two weeks with an empty unit is now up and we all seem to have done very well. As well as getting some practice in of controlling a train, we practiced station stops and station duties at various points and with varying degrees of success. Perhaps somewhat uncharitably, other drivers have seized on our train as an excuse to explain any delays they had accrued and "late running of crew training train" featured heavily on the delay reporting sheet. I guess some of this was justified, as the various signallers either wouldn't allow us to depart on time or would take decisions in our favour (which included holding a southbound freight service so that he could show us the bi-directional movements at Audley End).
It would have been nice to have had the chance of a bit more practice, but we were only diagrammed for two return trips before the train was needed again for the evening peak. Once these had been split between the seven of us, it meant that on most days each trainee only got between 15 and 20 minutes at the controls. In between turns, we passed the time by playing cards, reading, sleeping and chatting. Although this meant that the atmosphere was nicely chilled, it also made the days seem very long. Still, I successfully managed not to put on too much weight from eating cakes (although, to be fair, they weren't required to be bought very often).
Next week should be a traction conversion course to cover Class 315 EMU's but, because of a miscommunication between the various parties involved, this isn't happening until later this month. In fact, it took several of us phoning various people to get even that organised, as each thought it was the responsibility of the other. Sadly this is not untypical and won't be sorted until all driver training is finally taken in-house. So, instead of traction conversion we have an extra week of front end turns.
Oh goody.
Friday, 9th September 2005
Funky moves
What looked like being a rather dull week actually contained a few little nuggets of interest. OK, sure I was stuck up the front of a Stansted Express unit looking at the same old scenery for far longer that I would have liked, but it wasn't all bad.
Monday's job was a nice easy one which ended up at Hornsey depot. This is a move I've already seen once and, having been at the training school there for a number of weeks, I was already quite familiar with the depot layout. The same could not be said about Ilford, where we ended up on Tuesday. That is one complicated looking place, and the run along the 'Down Electric' line from Liverpool Street was rather daunting. Although I've travelled along this route many times as a passenger, I had never seen the line ahead and never quite appreciated quite how scary it is to drive. The signals along that stretch come up thick and fast and for every one signal on the 'Main' lines there were two on the 'Electric' lines. In fact, it was typical to find a signal at each end of every station platform. On top of that, one particular signal at Manor Park has an OLE (overhead line) neutral section on the run up. Stopping at that signal (as we almost had to) with the 8 car EMU formation we were driving would have had the pantograph of the rear unit in the neutral section meaning no traction power from that part of the train to assist in starting. I'm sure with time and practice I'll get the hang of it, but in the half-dark on Tuesday night it had me worried.
A day spent on the Stansted Express was an anticlimax after all that, but yesterday's job ended up with a little gem. Because of an engineers possession between Harlow Town and Audley End our last train terminated at Harlow Town and, to facilitate it's return to London, was crossed over onto the 'Up Cambridge' at the ground frame and ran wrong road into the station.
Now all this is completed, I'm quite looking forward to getting on with the job. From next Monday we shall all be back at Hornsey for a week and have had our Class 315 conversion confirmed for the following week. What happens after that I just don't know. I'm hoping that we will start with our minders about then but something tells me that it's unlikely.
I guess we shall just have to wait and see...
Monday, 19th September 2005
Spot the difference
The end finally seems to be in sight. Having spent all last week on a ‘Principles of Route Learning’ course which was as dull and pointless as a 10W light bulb, we are into what promises to be the final stage before being allowed out with a minder. Yes folks, it's the long awaited Class 315 conversion course.
Quite a few drivers and instructors have said that there really isn't that much difference between these and the Class 317 units we have already driven, but I didn't quite appreciate how similar they were until today. Almost every system is exactly the same, and just a few are in different places. This makes things nice and simple and easy to grasp, which is a relief given that our basic traction course now seems so very long ago. The only real differences are that there are fewer fault indications than on a Class 317 and more things that will bring you to a embarrassing halt. Of particular concern is the DSD, which works like the deadman's handle of yore. On the Class 315 this operates instantaneously and requires a fair bit of pressure to keep it down, unlike the Class 317 which allows the driver a couple of seconds grace.
Having spent today looking around the inside and outside of a unit (well, as best as we could given that it was in a platform at the time), tomorrow we will have to drive one. However, given that these units normally only work suburban services, it isn't as easy to diagram a brake handling train. Therefore, our train tomorrow morning will have passengers on, which means that we will all have to be much more careful and conscientious about stopping on the mark, completing station duties, running to time and generally doing everything properly than we were with out empty Class 317. So, no pressure then.
Commuters of Chingford; you have been warned.
Wednesday, 21st September 2005
Eyes like saucers
Today is a day to remember, as it was our first day driving with our minders. Never mind shuttling up and down a siding or getting a brief drive, this was a full turn of duty with stops, passengers and a timetable to keep.
It would have been nice if they'd broken us in gently, but instead I drew the short straw. An intense 9 hours and 42 minutes of stopping suburban services with tight turnaround times was not an ideal introduction. Still, at least it gave me plenty of opportunities to practice stopping at stations and carrying out station duties. Eighty-three to be precise.
I was glad that I got on well with the Class 315 yesterday, as almost the entire job was driving one. Once they're up and running they are quite a nice train to drive, with good acceleration and braking. On the downside they do require a higher degree of organisation and dexterity than the Class 317. Just to get into the cab and prepare for departure requires no fewer than four keys, none of which operate more than one lock. Then there's having to coordinate the local door control switches, egress cocks and door key switches to ensure that the cab vestibule doors don't fly open at inopportune moments; not to mention having to hold the power controller down before moving the master switch so that the brake doesn’t go straight in. I know that I'll get there eventually, but it can be a bit of a palaver and I felt like I was all over the place for a while.
All of this has left me feeling absolutely knackered. As it's all new I was concentrating entirely on driving to the exclusion of everything else. This wasn't helped in any way by the first part of the job being virtually non-stop with little turnaround time at each destination.
On the other hand, I've already had my first problem. The signaller was unable to clear a faulty signal, which meant that I had to call him up and be given authority to pass it at danger. Not bad for my first day.
So, if you'll excuse me, I'm off for a kip. Tomorrow it's all airport runs, which should be a less frenetic.
Monday, 26th September 2005
Comedy of errors
I'm very pleased to say that my minder driving is going very well indeed and that I'm enjoying it very much. The initial nervousness has now all but gone, and even two return trips out to Enfield Town in a Class 315 hasn't dampened my spirits.
Being on late turns this week, I've had my first experience of driving in the dark. From road driving experience I knew that it would be totally different to driving in the light, but it's even more dodgy on the rails. A particular problem is differentiating between what is and what is not a signal. Indeed, quite a large number of lights in the vicinity of the lineside appear to have been erected and sited without any thought to how they might appear to drivers. Thankfully real signals tend to stand out pretty well against the background by virtue of being dazzlingly bright, although this in itself caused me a few headaches as they blot out everything else in their immediate vicinity (including stop boards and DOO monitors). Obviously, with some practice and experience, I should get a better idea of the layout of places and have to rely less on actually seeing something in order to judge how to stop at it. Still, it's still early days.
On a more amusing note, there appears to have been a few mix ups at Liverpool Street box this evening, which left my minder and I looking like chumps. Firstly, we were routed wrongly onto the 'Down Fast' line at Bethnal Green rather than the 'Down Suburban'. When we stopped and queried it and advised the signaller that we would not be able to make our booked stop at London Fields from the 'Down Fast', we were told that the correct route had been set due to a problem at London Fields and that we would have to miss out that station. We couldn't see any problem when we went past, but we'll give him the benefit of the doubt on that one.
The second blooper that affected us was at Seven Sisters. We'd just run empty down from Cheshunt and had run onto the chord at Seven Sisters Junction to reverse back into the station before running down to Broxbourne. We'd just changed ends and set up the cab when the signal came off early. Thinking that the signaller knew what he/she was doing, we took it and pulled into Seven Sisters platform some 12 minutes early. Big mistake, as we'd been pulled out ahead of an Enfield Town service we should have been following. Many PA announcements and impromptu visits to the cab window later, and we left on time with a train groaning with punters. The last I saw of the Enfield Town service was that it was being advertised as being about 15 minutes late at Edmonton Green.
Although we were the butt of other people's mistakes today, I wouldn't want people to get the impression that I think I know it all. I made my own share of mistakes. I forgot to announce London Fields as a station stop on our first trip down to Enfield Town and had to deal with people coming to the cab window to ask whether we were stopping there. I also moved the master switch to "off" by mistake rather than selecting "neutral" when waiting at a red signal and had to set up the cab radio again. I've also got a less than perfect record at stopping on the mark or pulling up to other units at Liverpool Street .
But then, I am still learning...
Sunday, 9th October 2005
Getting the hump
Apologies once again, dear reader, for not updating the blog over the last couple of weeks.
I have been busy racking up the hours at the controls, which I am still pleased to report is going well. As I'm getting familiar with the actual driving of trains I'm having to concentrate less on it, which means that I've been able to gradually add in extra bits, like PA announcements. As all of our services are driver-only operated, making announcements is part of our job. I'm beginning to get into the swing of it, although I'm having to think about the best time to make them so that they don't distract me from the more important job of driving safely.
Stopping at the boards is still causing some problems, though. I feel like I'm making progress on this and am developing my own braking technique, but my minder is concerned that I make too many adjustments to the brake on the run up the platform to the stopping point. Maybe so, but I'm getting more accurate with my stopping points and am able to keep to time, and don't necessarily see my technique as being bad. I understand what he's saying, but I still feel like I'm learning and getting a feel for what's what. For example, I've learnt now that a heavily loaded train behaves very differently from a lightly loaded one and will adjust my braking accordingly. When I get to a point where I know with some level of confidence exactly how any given train will behave and where it will stop, I won't have to make so many adjustments. However, until I get that experience and confidence I am either overestimating or underestimating and need to adjust for that accordingly.
Last week I got my first look at Hornsey depot from the driver's seat. I'm sure that it's actually quite straightforward, but there are a number of traps to catch out the unwary such as "stop" boards that are faded or missing altogether. It doesn't help when the shunters’ handsignals are not always clear. I had one chap signalling me off the wash road in the depot with an unlit bardic lamp. Needless to say I couldn't see him and sat there like a prune for some little while until he spotted what was amiss.
One other miscommunication that caught us out was the altered workings. It turned out that the arrangements that had been published for drivers was a complete work of fiction which caused us some confusion over our stopping patterns on two of our trips. It worked to our advantage on the first affected trip, as we weren't actually booked to stop at some of the stations shown a stops in the notices. However, on the second trip the notices said that we had a fast run back up to London , even though the station information screens at various intermediate stops suggested differently. We got a few odd looks and exasperated waves as we blatted through non-stop, but we were just doing what we had been told. Thankfully nothing has been said about it since.
Wednesday, 19th October 2005
Pillar to post
Things have been fairly quiet of late, so there hasn't been much to report. I've been shuttling up and down the West Anglia routes at the control of various services, making my stops, doing PA announcements and generally keeping out of the way. It's been quite nice. There was one day last week when the (ahem) excrement hit the airscrew which resulted in some impressive delays and one of our trips to Enfield being cancelled, but that's about it.
Unfortunately, this week I have been chopped and changed around a fair bit because my minder is unwell. In the last three days I've had two different minders and will have yet another tomorrow, this time from a different depot. At least it's kept me out there driving, as I had feared that I'd be bumped back down to front-end turns again, but it's meant that I've had to get acquainted with new minders and they with me. Still, it's quite nice to have my driving assessed by other people as well as my regular minder so that I can get a balanced view on my progress.
Hopefully by the time I get back from my week off (to which I am very much looking forward) my minder will be well again.
Thursday, 20th October 2005
I'm a failure
Well, it's finally happened. I've failed a train. Given my previous 'Jonah Complex' I'm surprised it's taken this long. It was actually something of an anticlimax when it finally happened. Predictably it had to be a door fault on a Class 315 rather than anything more spectacular, but safety first...!!
We were at Hackney Downs on our way down to Hertford East when I noticed that people were having trouble getting into the leading coach and that the orange hazard light on the side of the carriage was not coming on. Given the number of times you have to shout "Press and hold" at punters because they can't operate the door buttons correctly and the frequency with which hazard lights fail, I initially though nothing of it. However, the minder I was with jumped out at the next stop to investigate and found that there was no door release on that coach at all. A phone call to control later, and I'm turfing everyone out at Seven Sisters, changing ends and heading back to London empty as the unit cannot continue in service.
Ironically, I'd just been speaking to another trainee before setting out who was telling me that he had lost all his main air after hitting a large bird between Ware and Hertford East (he wasn't sure whether it was a swan or a goose). Perhaps I should have taken that as an omen and gone to somewhere less risky, like Enfield Town . Still, it meant that I got a nice early finish to round the day off. What a result!!
Monday, 31st October 2005
Trick or treat
Actually, there are only 'treats' to report so far.
Last week, the wife and I had ourselves a little holiday in a cottage in the Highlands of Scotland. The idea was that we would rest, relax and recharge our batteries after what has seemed a very long and busy year so far. From my own perspective, it was just the tonic I needed.
Today's turn was my first one after our break, and I was feeling a little nervous. However, I didn't need to worry as the job was a nice gentle one to ease me back into driving. A round each to Chingford and Hertford East, then empties to Ilford. It was the same job that I observed from the secondman's side a few weeks back (see Funky Moves: Friday 9th September) but, from the driver's side, it wasn't quite as hard as I'd expected. With the exception of one that is hidden behind a bridge, it was actually quite easy to see which signal applies to which line and where everything goes. They are even nice enough to throw in an extra double yellow aspect to compensate for the tight signal spacing between Stratford and Ilford. Even so, there is still plenty going on that can cause distraction and a fair bit to learn before I could ever 'sign' that route, especially with all the possible moves that can be made around Stratford and the length of line signalled for bi-directional movements.
I'm still not back with my own minder though, as he's now on leave. Still, this week's minder seems nice enough and pretty much just left me to get on with things, which I'm taking as something of a compliment.
Having had the 'treat' I think the 'trick' comes later in the week, as it looks like I'll be rushing about on airports and suburbans.
Thursday, 3rd November 2005
Slip sliding away
Given today's date, I would have thought that we would have been well into the throes of autumn by now. However, when I look out of my window all I can see are ranks of trees covered in lush green leaves. Even today's high winds have failed to dislodge very many. We're supposed to be deep into "silly season", and yet there's hardly been any problems.
Although the leaves are resolutely staying put, there has been quite a bit of slipping going on caused by wet rails. This isn't helped much by Network Rail treating the tracks with high pressure water jets to blast the leaves off the railhead. I suspect that I was following one of these treatment trains yesterday evening while driving an 'all stops' service to Stansted Airport . All was fine until after we had left Broxbourne (a known starting point for treatment trains), but I had awful trouble getting going again at every stop after that. In fact, I would be lucky to get 50mph before having to brake for the next station, even where the stations were well spaced apart.
That said, it was much better today. I even took advantage of being in charge of an empty train to practice some "panic stops". There wasn't even the merest hint of a slip, even when braking hard in step 3 (which we are encouraged not to use for routine braking). There was even plenty of grip to get away from station stops. I don't expect this situation to last for very much longer but, while the weather remains mild, the leaves won't be much of a problem.
In other news, punter power came to my rescue the other day. I'd been lumbered with an 8 car Stansted Express train which had a set of dodgy doors on both sides, meaning that they needed to be shut by hand before leaving every station. This wasn't too much bother at the airport or at Liverpool Street where there were plenty of platform staff to assist, but at Tottenham Hale there was no-one to help us. Thankfully, on one trip, I was just considering whether to get out and sort the doors myself when I saw a passenger step forward and do the honours, allowing us to get on our way. What a lovely man.
Monday, 14th November 2005
Two steps forward, one step back
I am very pleased to report that I and my colleagues have finally finished the last part of classroom training that our job requires. From here on, we are no longer under the auspices of the Hornsey training school.
This last part was a SPAD Awareness and Route Risk course. I was initially worried how they were going to make this last a whole week without resorting to saying "Don't go past the red ones" really slowly. However, it was quite in depth and looked at all manner of factors that can affect a driver's performance and could contribute to an incident. It's not just about poorly sited signals and the like, but could be environmental (e.g. sun affecting a signal), external (e.g. something more interesting happening just off the railway) or internal (e.g. mental and physical preparedness). From studying some actual incidents, it's quite sobering to realise how something with the potential to cause major havoc can have its root in something so small and minor that it could easily be overlooked. It certainly gave me food for thought.
Today was supposed to be back at the pointy end putting all the theory into practice. It's been four weeks since I've been with my regular minder, so I was quite looking forward to picking up from where we left off. Sadly, we didn't get very far through the job before the wheels fell off that particular wagon. After leaving Tottenham Hale on a 'Down' Stansted Express service my minder was taken ill. After a quick conflab with the depot we called a halt at Broxbourne, turfed all the punters off and sat blocking the 'Down Main' until my minder was carted off in an ambulance and I was met by a driver manager so that I could take the train back to London . Given all the other things that were going wrong this morning, it was just one more thing to be dealt with. On the downside it does mean that I'm going to be back to square one in terms of getting any driving in the coming weeks, especially since another group of trainees have started with minders taking up all the spare men. I guess I can but wait and see.
Hope he's alright...
Saturday, 19th November 2005
Pulling my chain
Boy, what an interesting evening. I have counted myself quite lucky that everything so far has gone well and I've not had to deal with any problems. However, all that went out of the window today.
It all started innocuously enough, with a pulled passcom (communication cord) on my first run up to London . Thankfully it was at a booked station stop and was almost certainly done by a group of teenagers in the rear coach as they got off the train. This was simple enough to rectify, but it still lost a couple of minutes.
After that it all went quiet until the last trip of the evening down to Hertford. We got cautioned by the signaller out of Cheshunt because a train a couple of slots ahead of us had hit a sofa that had been placed on the mainline. Even when we got to the location, there were still cushions and tatters of fabric littering the lineside, but nothing much resembling furniture. Once onto the branch we managed to pick up a group of hardened door-pullers who proceeded to make my life a misery. My minder then had an entertaining ten minutes chasing them away while I changed ends. With a bit of maneuvering, some technical shenanigans with the unit and the sound of an emergency service vehicle siren nearby (nothing to do with us), we managed to get away and leave the little (ahem) whatsits behind.
All of this got the old adrenalin going and has left me wondering if I'm cut out for that side of the job. Because we don't have guards or conductors on our trains, everything is down to the driver. Problem is that there's enough in the driving to keep me busy without having to worry about keeping the peace also. Without an imposing minder I'm not sure how I would have coped with this situation on my own, as I'm quite a timid person and slightly built which leaves me wary of confronting trouble head-on. In some perverse way, it would be good to expose myself to more experiences like this while I have the back-up of a minder so that I can develop strategies of my own. However, I could quite happily manage without the aggro.
Either way, I'm pretty certain that I wouldn't have tackled tonight's problems the same way as my minder did. It's just not my style.
Tuesday, 22nd November 2005
Lost in a haze
As is often the case this time of year, there was a wee bit of fog about yesterday evening which made for a new experience.
Unfortunately, due to railway lines having to be fairly flat they were often built in the bottoms of river valleys close to water, making them prone to becoming fog-bound. Our route is no different, following, as it does, the course of the Lea and Stort all the way from Clapton to beyond Bishops Stortford. So thick was the fog that you couldn't see one end of Broxbourne station from the other, and anything that wasn't illuminated was totally invisible. Braking points were obscured and stations only loomed out of the murk at the last minute, which made stopping at stations a hit and miss affair. Imagine holding a sheet of grey paper 6 inches from the end of your nose and then running at the world at 85mph, and you'll get a fair idea of what it was like. However, in my case I was running at the world in 250 tons of train with several hundred people on board. Even so, I still managed to complete a run down to the Airport in 42 minutes, observing all speed restrictions.
I was at least lucky enough that the job started with several trips on the Stansted Express. Not having to worry about stopping at places meant that I could check out how bad conditions were and how visible (or otherwise) my braking points would be if I were stopping. I was glad of having had that opportunity for when I had to finish the job with a round of slow stopping services to the airport. On the flipside, I did have a worry about station duties which I hadn’t encountered before: It can be quite hard to judge when to close the doors when the rear of the train is partially obscured by fog.
I'm pleased to report that my regular minder was back yesterday, and managed to complete the job without falling off his chair.
Monday, 5th December 2005
Facts of life
There is never an easy way to broach the subject of fatalities on the railways. They are an ever-present risk to drivers and train-crew, and have unfortunately come crashing into my little world in quite a big way just lately.
Obviously there was the recent and widely reported tragedy at Elsenham, but there has been yet another this evening. This time the fatality happened at Hackney Downs and was the result of a suicide. Thankfully I was up the Hertford branch at the time it happened, but the recovery was still in progress when I called at Hackney Downs on the way back well over an hour later. By that time, the services on our lines had been comprehensively disrupted which caused many services to be delayed or cancelled. It's quite surprising how much havoc the selfish actions of a single person can cause.
Having said that, my overriding emotional response to such events is deep sadness. Whether through accident or deliberate action, I can't help but feel that a life has been wasted and that there will inevitably be others, such as friends or family members, whose lives will be horribly affected as a result.
Monday, 12th December 2005
Uncharted territory
For a suburban rail company it's not often that you get an entire job where you never get to your main London terminus, and yet that's exactly what happened today.
The company has been very brave and almost completely re-cast the winter timetable, which now includes services to Stratford as well as Liverpool Street . This afternoon's job was actually a lovely little six hour turn with plenty of time at the end of each run. For me, it was an opportunity to drive over a route that I had never even seen before. Although it was a little daunting the first time through, it's not actually too difficult.
On the down side, the new timetable is going to take a little bit of getting used to. Not only are most of the passengers a little bemused as to the destination and routing of the trains, but the new (and not totally logical stopping patterns) are likely to catch out unwary drivers resulting in "failed to calls" or station overruns.
More than once today I've had people coming up to the cab window either wanting to know where the train stopped or why it's not stopping at a particular station. The biggest shift seems to be for passengers on the Hertford East branch. Previously, the majority of trains called at all stations via Southbury and Seven Sisters. Now there are none in the week that follow that route, and now there are some that don't even go to Liverpool Street . After tonight's experience, I shall be countering this by making lots of loud and clear PA announcements so that no-one can say that they weren't told.
Chatting to my minder tonight, it seems that time is rapidly catching up with me. By our reckoning, it will probably only take another five or six weeks for me to complete the requisite number of hours before taking the final assessment. I have mixed emotions about this. I'm a little surprised as the time seems to have gone by remarkably quickly, while also being impatient to get it all over and done with. However, the primary emotion is fear about how much I have probably forgotten and will need to revise.
So, it's back to the books for me.
Friday, 16th December 2005
Class reunion
My minder said to me some weeks back that you never forget the people that you trained with and that the friendships that you have with them will always remain special. I believed him then, but I believe him all the more now.
On the Wednesday of this week, I managed to bump into all but one of the trainees that I started with in Ipswich way back in April. While this may seem insignificant to some, it's not always the case that you see the same people day after day as you would do in an office. Instead, you may see some people fairly regularly but others will remain strangers for weeks on end. So, to see so many of the folk I started with on the same day was a rarity. It was great to catch up with them all and to find out how they have been getting on. Some had good news and other not so good news. Either way, we're all progressing along the same path towards being fully qualified drivers, even if some of us are feeling more bumps than others.
I'm sure that, whatever befalls us in the future, this job will have brought me a clutch of new friends and people that I will never forget. It may be that our paths will diverge at some point, but I hope that the friendships I have now will stand the test of time.
Friday, 6 January 2006
Back to the books
Happy New Year to everyone!!
The festive season turned out to be a fairly quiet time. Although I worked up to a pretty eventful Christmas Eve, I managed to wangle plenty of leave so that I didn't have to go back to work until Tuesday of this week. However, I still managed to fill most of that time off with visiting family, over-eating and exchanging gifts. It was almost a relief to go back to work and drive trains just so that I had something constructive to do.
Now that I am back in the saddle, I have decided that I really ought to start revising all the things that I learned on the Rules and Traction courses that I attended a lifetime ago. I feel pretty confident that most of the more regular things are still floating around quite close to the front of my head, but I know that there's an awful lot that I'm now worryingly hazy about. For example, the question that I most dread my minder asking is "Name the MCB's in the PMOS electrical cupboard", as I really can't remember more than about half a dozen.
The trouble is that I'm not entirely sure how long I've got. Given the amount of time that I've now been out driving with a minder I had thought that my final assessment might be sometime in the next month or two, but I've yet to hear anything definite. I can't even make an educated guess, as the number of hours they have recorded for me appears to be somewhat short of the total I had been expecting. Having looked more deeply into the situation, it appears that there is a four week gap in my record. While I can confirm that I was not driving over two of these weeks, it seems that someone somewhere might have mislaid some record sheets or failed to add the hours to my total. Either way, it could make quite a bit of difference.
Looks like a mystery fit for Hercule Poirot...
Sunday, 15th January 2006
The graveyard shift
It's 1:15am and I'm just in from one of our later jobs.
To be honest I don't much look forward to these Saturday late night turns, as there always seems to be something happening. On Friday night our train was hit by a missile of some sort resulting in a broken window, so I was expecting tonight to have been as eventful. At weekends, there tends to be large numbers of kids hanging about stations and riding on trains. For the most part they are just a bit loud and boisterous, but from time to time you get a group that just wants to cause trouble. Thankfully, most of the kids out and about tonight fell into the former group and, in spite of a whole evening up and down one of our more troublesome lines, we got nothing worse than a door being briefly pulled.
Following on from my previous entry, I've done a bit of digging around and managed to track down my missing hours. It would seem that six days worth of hours have not been recorded, which leaves my record about 25 hours short. Added to my current total, I reckon that it will only be another week or two until I will have completed my hours. One of the others in the same group as myself has already completed his and sits his final assessment next week.
I'm still not sure what all the MCB's in the PMOS cupboard are, though...
Thursday, 26th January 2006
Always the last to know
Perhaps not unreasonably, there is an expectation from members of the public that, if you wear the uniform, you must know everything. Unfortunately, I was totally ill-equipped to fulfill the role of "Know-er of All Things".
Regrettably there was another fatality on our patch this evening just as the peak was subsiding. Whenever such things happen it takes time to get things up and running again, particularly if there are no diversionary routes, as was the case tonight. Predictably, this didn't cause us any problems until our last run when we were due to take a slow train from Stratford down to Stansted Airport , being relieved by another driver at Bishops Stortford. This should have been a nice little run without any incident but, starting from Stratford , we had obviously been overlooked. By the time we had got to Tottenham Hale our train was being announced as going only as far as Bishops Stortford. First we'd heard of it...!! I had to shout down the platform at the station staff to get this confirmed.
So, that was where we were going and it would be up to our relief to worry about what happened after that. We made the necessary announcements and off we went. Eventually we arrive at what we still believe is our destination and open the doors only for a group of passengers with suitcases to get on. Funny, thinks I. It didn't take long for the questions to start. "'Scuse me, mate. This is going to the Airport, isn't it?", Is it? "It's just that we were told it was". Oh, well if you say so.
Such problems are evidently not restricted to the frontline staff either. Even though the office are aware of my progress, they hadn't twigged that I would complete my required hours by the end of this week. When I mentioned this to them they went into a flap. The result is that I start my final assessment next week, although it might not be until the week after that I complete it due to other demands on the Assessor's time.
Monday, 30th January 2006
The fast one
Well folks, the end is almost upon me. I have finished the required hours with my minder and am now facing the final assessment to prove my competence (or otherwise) as a train driver.
The euphoria was almost spoiled on Friday night when a fight broke out on our train. I'd only just started rolling down the platform at Liverpool Street with the last train of the day to Hertford when there was the sound of shouting and clumping around from the front coach. We stopped the train pretty sharpish and opened the doors to deal with the situation before we were happy to continue. Turns out that an abusive passenger decided that he was going to have a pop at an off-duty Special Constable (after having been shown his ID). If that wasn't enough to qualify him for the "Twit of the Day" award, he chose to do it on one of only two trains currently fitted with CCTV. Needless to say he was forcibly ejected from the train by station security and did not get home that night.
The other fly in the ointment stems from my upcoming assessment, part of which is to "sign" our depot's core route. Having spoken to the chaps in the office, it would seem that I'm also going to be expected to "sign" an additional diversionary route at the same time. I was a bit annoyed as I hadn't been warned about this in advance, but it seems that they've got me over a barrel. I was intending to tell them that I'm not ready and request a couple of extra days to learn the route, but they've made it clear that doing this will delay my passing out as a qualified driver. What rankles the most is that they've done it in a rather underhand way. While they haven't said that this extra route is part of the core requirement, they have said that I won't be assessed until I'm ready to "sign" both routes and that requesting extra days for route learning will mean that my assessment will be rescheduled for a later date.
I can understand why they expect this, especially if the main route is blocked for whatever reason (as it was today). Plus, as it's not such a tricky route to learn, I'm half inclined to just do it. However, I do feel that it's extremely cheeky of them to spring this on me at very short notice. I think that a chat might be in order to clear this one up. Either way, I might be able to blag an extra day or two depending on how things pan out for the rest of this week.
Well, my ordeal starts tomorrow afternoon with as assessment of my knowledge of PTS (remember that...?) and the core route, and will last several days. Hopefully by the end of next week I shall be passed out as a fully-fledged driver.
Wish me luck!!
Thursday, 2nd February 2006
Other ranks
As a driver, it's not very often that you get the opportunity to mix with or talk to any of the many professions that keep the railways running. As a result, each grade tends to have a slightly jaundiced view of everyone else. Therefore, it was rather nice to dispel some of these myths today.
Because of the way that things have worked out with my assessment, I have indeed managed to wangle an extra day's route learning so that I can "sign" the diversionary routes. However, there are no scheduled passenger services over one of these routes, which meant that it had to be walked. Given the biting cold of the wind I guess I couldn't have chosen a better day, so I was glad that the route to be walked was only a mile or so long.
It also benefited from a lovely warm signalbox at about half distance in which we could shelter and pick the signaller's brains. Although the precise workings of the signalbox are still as arcane to me as they were when we visited Cambridge IECC and Kings Lynn box all those months ago, the signaller himself was friendliness personified and a mine of useful information. It almost made me feel bad for all the nasty things I'd said and thought about his colleagues at Liverpool Street IECC. He talked me through all the possible shunt moves and signal indications while skillfully juggling passenger and freight movements coming through his patch. He didn't even mind answering lots of questions that probably all came at the most inconvenient of times for him. What a lovely man.
Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said about a look-out for a worksite we passed. Just as we drew up to him he started firing off lots of daft questions about why we weren't wearing hard hats and didn't have a look-out. He didn't seem to understand who we were (even though I was wearing the uniform coat) and why we were out there. He even earned us a reprimand from the site supervisor who yelled at us to "Stop distracting the look-out!!". So I yelled back to make clear that it was him talking to us and not the other way around.
Other than that, the assessments so far have been OK. I've had the written assessments for PTS and the core route together with a few hours driving. This still leaves the biggies of rules and traction, together with the additional diversionary routes and yet more driving. Still, I now have a nice long weekend in which to relax (although I fear I may spend a significant amount of that time fretting).
Wednesday, 8th February 2006
The chequered flag
Today is the day that I have been waiting for. A little over ten months ago I walked in off the street knowing absolutely nothing about what being a train driver involved. At every stage along the way I was sure they would tell me that I wasn't good enough to make the grade, and yet they kept asking me back. And now, having completed my final assessment, I am no longer a trainee.
Obviously I'm really pleased to have finally passed out, there is a sense of anticlimax about it. After all these months of work leading up to this point I was expecting to feel more elated, but I guess that this is just the start of my career as a driver. As good as the preparation has been to bring me to this point and as helpful and knowledgeable as the various instructors have been, I still feel that there's so much more that I don't know and will only start to learn once I'm out there having to rely on no-one but myself. However, I would like to publicly thank everyone who has provided me with even the least bit of information, advice or encouragement. At the risk of turning irretrievably mushy, I feel very privileged to work with such a great bunch of people from whom I will no doubt continue to learn.
So, where does it all go from here? Well, in the true tradition of chucking people in at the deep end, I have my first solo turn tomorrow morning. As I've only passed on the core route, it will be a fairly bland day of airport services. However, being the first time out on my own it won't be dull. I would imagine that "terrifying" would be a more accurate description. I'll have twenty of these solo turns before I then learn the rest of the routes. Once all that's out the way, I shall be fully into the roster and have a more varied workload.
As for this weblog, I intend to continue to add to it as it would be a real shame just to end it here. I hope that it has been interesting and possibly even amusing on occasion. Above all, I hope that it has inspired other would-be drivers out there that it is possible to achieve your ambition.
Heck, if I could do it, what's stopping you...?
Thursday, 9th February 2006
The loneliness of the DOO driver
Well folks, I survived my first solo turn.
It was a bit weird being in the cab all on my own. I found that I kept looking over to the secondman's seat expecting a comment or remark only to find it empty. It wasn't just the cab that seemed empty, as the messrooms had a similar feel too. I also seemed to spend an awful lot of time talking and singing to myself, which is worrying. Then again, when there's no-one else around you can't feel embarrassed about it.
At the risk of sounding immodest, I didn't feel as nervous as I thought I might. I made sure that I didn't rush about and gave myself plenty of time to change ends so that things didn't get forgotten or otherwise overlooked, and I drove as I always had done when with my minder (but then, I know no other way). This, combined with being in my own little bubble insulated from the rest of the world, actually made for a surprisingly relaxing day. That said, I did have a scare on my second trip when the cab radio went wonky and I had to stop and get instructions from the signaller via a signalpost phone. That certainly got the old heart pumping as I mentally scrabbled around trying to remember if I was doing the right thing.
All in all I had a really great day and I'm looking forward to my next turn of duty on Monday. I don't expect that every day will be as cushy, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
Sunday, 19th February 2006
Christine
Although it's now been over a week since passing out, I've still only completed three solo driving turns. This is mainly down to me taking the last of my annual leave left over from 2005 (which also explains why I've not updated the weblog recently). However, today was a veritable cornucopia of happenings.
Because of engineering work I was let off the Stansted Express duties and put onto the London to Harlow shuttle. Some of these trains would have been Cambridge or Bishops Stortford services, which meant that I spent the first couple of trips sliding around trying to get my eye back in for braking at stations that the faster Stansted Express services don't call at. It all came back to me eventually, although I did manage to give myself a bit of a scare first time into Roydon and Ponders End stations. Fortunately, I managed not to go skating past the stop board.
I also had the opportunity to do something for the very first time.
When our routes were resignalled a few years back, no-one thought to put in any bi-directional signalling at Harlow Town station to allow for trains to be turned back to London . This means that trains terminating there have to make an unsignalled wrong direction movement at some point to be crossed back onto the correct line through manually operated points. This means taking instructions from a handsignaller. Fortunately, as I had to travel as a passenger up to London before taking my first train out, I got to see the movement being done by an experienced driver before I was expected to do it myself. It wasn't actually as difficult as I thought it might have been, but it was nice to know that I wasn't going to make a fearful mess of the thing when it came to my turn.
As if that wasn't enough, Spurs were playing at home this afternoon which meant that I got my first experience of a football train. I am continually amazed at the number of people that can squeeze themselves into a train when they are motivated to get somewhere. I thought that weekday peak loadings were impressive, but commuters have got nothing on football fans. I can only assume that they must have been wedged into the overhead racks and sitting on each other's laps for everyone on the platform at Northumberland Park to have managed to get onboard. The train certainly felt fatter as a result, but on a positive note all the extra weight gave amazing grip on the rail in drizzly conditions and cancelled out all the slipping that I'd been experiencing up until then.
Unfortunately, today looks to have been a glimmer in an otherwise dull week. From tomorrow I shall be back on the Stansted Express. While these runs tend to be fairly routine, they are at least quite easy with few stops and a train host to deal with the punters and the PA. On the downside, it does mean that I am likely to come back into contact with my Nemesis. The same unit that suffered the faulty cab radio on my first day decided to take a "sicky" while I was driving it on day two. I had sensed that the traction power was ebbing away until the train felt like it was on half power. Unfortunately, there were no fault indications on either unit to diagnose what the problem was or even which unit was suffering from it. It was only when I handed the train over to a colleague that I realised what was wrong. As he was pulling away, I couldn't hear any noise from the traction motors on one unit. It's a good thing it was working in multiple with another unit or I would have been stuck somewhere with no power and no hope. I'm sure that unit doesn't like me. If it looks like I have to drive it again I shall probably just go straight home again.
Who says train driving is dull...?
Thursday, 23rd February 2006
My big mouth
I notice from my last entry that I was bemoaning the fact that this week was going to be rather dull. Well, I have been proved wrong in spectacular style. Still, according to some of my colleagues I am now a proper driver.
Unfortunately, I don't feel at liberty at the present moment in time to go into any details on such a public website just at the moment. However, it does mean that I won't be doing any driving for a little while during which time this weblog probably won't get updated very often. So, apologies for that. Don't worry though, dear reader. I will be back very soon.
They do say that you should be careful what you wish for.
Tuesday, 21st March 2006
Abducted by aliens
In case any of you were wondering, I am still alive and well and have not been abducted by aliens.
The reason for the lack of updates is that I was involved with a railway incident on the day before my previous entry. It was only my fifth solo driving turn and a day given over entirely to Stansted Express services and, surprisingly for me, started without incident. Unfortunately, it didn't last. As I was driving through Clapton station on my way back down to the airport, a person ran out from behind the steps to the ticket office and jumped off the edge of the platform directly in front of my train. Even though I sounded the warning horn and applied the brakes, there was no way that I could avoid running the person over.
I had thought that my reaction to having a fatality would be very different and that I would be more emotional than I was. Apart from the expected rush of adrenalin and the shock of the event, I managed to stay quite calm about the situation. In fact, even while sitting there waiting for the emergency services the whole thing seemed most surreal that I wondered for a moment whether or not I had just imagined the whole thing and was stopping the job for no reason. This impression was reinforced by the other people on the platform who must have seen the incident still just standing there impassively as if they were waiting for their train. However, I had already decided that I would not go back and look if I was ever involved with a fatality, and I wasn't about to change my mind on that. I could quite happily live with someone else doing the checking for me.
When they arrived, the emergency services were brilliant. They took control of the situation and made sure that I was OK. They really couldn't do enough for me and even made sure that I didn't see the recovery process or the body itself. The same goes for the managers and colleagues at work who showed great concern for my welfare and helped me through all the necessary paperwork required after an incident such as this.
Naturally, such an incident triggers the "Chain of Care" procedure, which is intended to assist me back to work. Consequently, I have been booked off work since the incident and taking counselling sessions to help me deal with the memories of the incident and the emotions that they generate. Fortunately, there hasn't been any emotional reaction yet. I guess that this is partly down to the fact that railway fatalities were never shied away from throughout training and it is a subject that I had already devoted an amount of time to think about. I pretty quickly went through the rational process of thinking that "it wasn't me that killed this person, it was the train", "if it hadn't have been me it would have been the bloke behind me" and "if they hadn't jumped under a train they would have found some other means". If anything, the counsellor is happy that I'm dealing with events well but is concerned that I am perhaps a little too rational about it.
I think that my lack of reaction probably stems also from the way in which the incident happened. While no fatality is good, it was for me at least quite "soft". If it had been more gruesome or appeared not to be that person's deliberate action I'm certain that I would have been more affected by it.
Of course, this all means that it is almost a month since I last drove a train, which is going to affect my progress a little. However, I am going back to work tomorrow and have agreed a staged return to work so that I have the opportunity to get back into a good cab routine and build my confidence back up. If anything, I'm feeling more nervous about how rusty I've become than I am about going back over the route where it happened. However, none of this has dampened my feelings towards driving as a job and I'm looking forward to getting back into the seat again.
Tuesday, 28th March 2006
Back to the coalface
Well folks, I'm now back at work properly and have completed my first full job which, I'm pleased to report, passed without incident. It was quite odd being back at the pointy end after such a long time off, but I've had plenty of opportunity to settle back into the routine before being allowed out on my own. In addition to the front-end turns that I did last week, I had the pleasure of a driver manager for company for the first half of yesterday's job. I was due a ride anyway as part of my post-qualification assessment as well as a post-incident ride, so the two were combined and both dispatched at the same time.
Although I feel that I've dealt with the after effects of the fatality quite well, it has still left a discernable mark. I noticed yesterday that I have become very sensitive to and aware of people on station platforms, level crossings and footbridges. Consequently I was getting quite "horn happy" and blowing up at anything (including a plastic bag blown across Windmill Lane Crossing). I'm hoping that I'll get used to people being around the railway the more that I drive, but at the moment I shall continue to employ a "better safe than sorry" approach and will continue to whistle whenever I feel the need.
It doesn't help that fatalities are currently a hot topic of conversation among my colleagues at the moment as, unfortunately, there have been quite a few on our lines. In the five weeks since my incident we have averaged one incident per week with six people losing their lives, which is an incredibly high number for such a short space of time. We've also been under the media spotlight again as a direct consequence of the double fatality at a crossing near Angel Road . Since that particular incident, a number of drivers have reported seeing people loitering on the crossing and on the lineside which only increases the risk of another incident at the same location.
Today and tomorrow I have the same job, which includes a train prep in the carriage sidings. In one respect I'm quite looking forward to this, as I haven't done a full train prep since the traction course last summer. I'm just glad that it's on the beginning of the job, so I shall be going in early to make sure I've plenty of time.
Thursday, 30th March 2006
"Kick me"
While I was off work following my incident, I received a text message from my minder in which he called me "probably the unluckiest bastard on the railway". I'm beginning to think that he's right as, thinking back, I've had at least one thing happen every shift since passing out. Prior to that my luck had been pretty good, so I don't know what I've done to deserve this. It's almost as if I'm walking around with the cosmic equivalent of a piece of paper with "kick me" written on taped to my back. I guess I should have been in for a bad time when I relieved the depot's resident Harbinger of Doom off the Unit of the Beast (317 666) on Monday for my first drive on my own since my fatality, but things went so well. Perhaps the Fates were just lulling me into a false sense of security.
As mentioned in the previous entry, I had the same job twice in a row this week. It was actually quite a nice one with plenty of time allowed to carry out a thorough train prep before the unit was needed in the platform and I was needed
on the Stansted Express. However, it was a case of contrasts and similarities.
Train Prep
On Tuesday the unit to be prepped was full of litter but fault free, while Wednesday's unit had at least been cleaned of litter but was labouring under a number of minor faults.
First Train
The first set of Stansted Express units I drove didn't seem to want to go London, as they were down on power heading towards the capital but went like stink going back towards the airport. Even though I checked both units out at Liverpool Street , I couldn't find a single thing wrong with them. Strangely this happened both days, even though I checked that they weren't the same pair of units.
Second Train
The second pair of units driven after my break were fine, although I had to fail the train near Cheshunt on the way down to Stansted on Tuesday after losing traction interlock due to what later turned out to be a door fault in, you guessed it, the eighth carriage. I don't think the punters were best pleased with facing the prospect of missing their flights, but I must have made a good enough show of looking exasperated and trying to get things moving again as they mercifully chose not to lay into me about it, even when I went past them the second time. I got given a different set of units for my final run down towards Stansted which behaved themselves, as did the set I had on Wednesday. However, I was keeping a beady eye on the interlock light the whole way just to be sure.
At least I can say that I've clocked up another first. On Wednesday I arrived at work to find my very first "please explain" in my pigeon hole asking for more information about the nature of the failure. I had guessed that this was coming, so I had already written a driver's report form. In fact, I had written it while still on the unit that had caused me all the problems in the first place while waiting for the signaller to give me the road back to London .
Please let next week be incident free.
Friday, 7th April 2006
Round the houses
I'm not entirely sure exactly where to begin, as this week has been a bit of a rollercoaster. Fortunately my bad luck has held off for the duration, although I have been victim of the misfortune of others.
Monday started quietly enough, although I was treated to an unusual and slightly comical sight on my last run up to London . As I was approaching Tottenham Hale I noticed that a train was sitting stationary at an unusual location. As I got a bit closer, I could see that the driver was speaking on the radio to the signaller and looking upwards out of the cab window. It was only as I followed his gaze that I noticed what he was looking at. There, snagged in the overhead lines, was a bright orange toy balloon. As odd as it looked, I quite understood why he stopped. Even something as innocuous as this can bring down the overhead lines if it gets caught by a passing pantograph, so we have to keep an eagle eye out for such obstructions and stop short of any that we see. I had thought that this might mean a trip around the Southbury line for the first time since passing out, but the obstruction had been dealt with by then and I travelled along the booked route instead.
Someone else wasn't quite so lucky on the following evening, as whoever was driving one of the last trains of Tuesday evening managed to bring down a large section of overhead lines at Hackney Downs. When I booked on the following morning I was informed of this and the fact that services were being diverted via Stratford, but I wasn't aware of the impact of the event until I went to take my first train. Even though it came in at the expected time, it transpired that it wasn't my train after all but the one fifteen minutes ahead. I did wonder why the driver seemed adamant that he wasn't due for relief at that point, but a quick comparison of headcodes soon revealed the cause. The train that I eventually took over rolled in twenty minutes later. As a newly qualified driver I don't yet sign all the routes we cover, which meant that I needed to be accompanied by another driver to guide me through Stratford . Sharing the cab again after getting used to being on my own took a while to adjust to, but it was nice to have someone to chat with while waiting for red signals to clear.
Disruption such as this has other pluses and minuses. On the minus side, each trip took far longer than was booked which meant having to deal with awkward passengers. However, so that a semblance of a service could be run the timetable got severely cut back which resulted in cancellations and fewer trains to be driven. By the end of my turn, I worked roughly the same amount of hours as I would have under normal circumstances, got home at the same time and yet did less driving. All in all it wasn't a bad way to celebrate my birthday and certainly gave plenty to talk about.
Things got back to normal by Wednesday afternoon which meant that Thursday should have been a straightforward day. Unfortunately, I was the victim of other infrastructure problems. A failed signal on my first run cost me a hefty delay, and a points problem in the afternoon meant that I got the trip around the Southbury route that I missed on Monday. I was offered the Stratford alternative, but I was alone so had to decline. Even so, it worked out well. The train in front of me took the Stratford option and arrived at Liverpool Street more than ten minutes after me. As a result, I made my booked slot for my last run whereas I would have missed it if I'd gone by Stratford .
Unfortunately, the average of one incident per week resulting in a fatality is continuing. It started out as a bit of a joke, but it's rapidly become a curse. It's particularly poignant that the latest incident which happened this afternoon involved one of the drivers I trained with. If anything, I find this more shocking than having been directly involved in a fatality myself. Out of the five of us that qualified, two of us have already had a fatality in the two months since qualifying. These are staggering statistics that I am totally at a loss to explain. While such incidents are random in their nature, the number and frequency has got people wondering and asking questions.
Wednesday, 12th April 2006
Won't they learn...?
Well folks, it's the early hours of Wednesday morning and I've had a very rare occurrence. Today's shift went almost entirely without hitch. I say almost entirely, as things didn't go precisely as planned. However, given the dramas that I've suffered recently, being swapped off one pair of units and onto another was hardly dramatic.
The same couldn't have been said about Sunday evening's job, though. The first pair of units I took over were dreadful. The London-end unit was on half power only due to a traction motor fault suffered earlier in the day, while the country-end unit leaked rain into the driving cab like a sieve. Because the driving desk was awash with water and contains circuits energised at 110 volts DC, I refused to take the units back to the airport on the grounds of safety. Being a Sunday I had hoped that this would get me out of a round, but they had other ideas for me and asked if I could shunt the units separately into a vacant platform so that the formation would be reversed and the leaky cab "boxed-in". This was all new to me, but the signaller talked me through the move so that it went smoothly. Sadly, I only managed to get halfway through the shunt when I was asked to take just the single unit that had been at the London end for my next working rather than completing the shunt. I agreed to this, but informed them that the unit was only on half power to which their response was "half power is better than no power". It was by far the slowest run to the airport that I've ever done, which wasn't helped by a lack of grip due to wet rails.
It seems that the spate of fatalities on our lines has not impressed on people just how dangerous the railways are. I had a terrible feeling of foreboding yesterday that there would be another one that evening, and that it could happen to me. This wasn't helped any when I saw two young lads on the ‘Up’ side cess by Sawbridgeworth not more than a few metres from my train. Although I'm pretty poor at judging ages, I would have to guess that they couldn't have been aged more than 10 and 8, and were probably brothers. Imagine what their mother must have felt if the Police had to go and break the news to her that her two boys had been killed because they had been trespassing on the railway. This, together with the number of fatalities and other mischief that we have experienced of late, is why I have chosen to display prominent links to the excellent Track Off website which aims to educate children and young people about the dangers posed by the railways.
Wednesday, 19th April 2006
Company man
Looking back over the past few entries, it seems that all I've done is whinge about how rotten my luck is and all the things that have gone wrong. Since then, things have been very quiet and I've just got on with my booked jobs with little in the way of incident. The problem with this (if it can be called such) is that there's very little of interest to report.
That said, today was another one of "those days". A fire overnight at Hackney Downs had knocked out the signalling in the immediate vicinity of the station which meant similar arrangements being put in place to when the wires came down at the same location a fortnight back. As I still don't "sign" the Stratford route, I was almost left on the sidelines after the first part of my job was cancelled. This deficiency on my route card means that when such diversions are in force I am, as the supervisor put it, "as much use as mudflaps on a tortoise". So, for the first hour or so I sat spare in the messroom. Unbelievably this was the first time ever that I've had to do this, and I was looking forward to getting away early. Typically, this state of affairs didn't last as I was called on to relieve another driver and, by the time I'd got to London , there was enough signalling back on for me to continue with my booked job.
Prior to all this excitement, I have been getting stuck in with the punters. Mostly it's been pointing out which train goes where or just confirming that the train with the orange "Stansted Express" branding is in fact the Stansted Express and that, yes, it does indeed go to London. However, there have been a few more challenging queries that I despatched with aplomb. Although it isn't really part of my job I actually enjoy the contact with people, especially as the driving itself can be fairly solitary experience. If only the managers who took my induction last year could have seen me, their little hearts would have burst with pride.
My workload should be getting more varied soon, as I've been informed that I have almost completed my twenty solo turns and will be out route learning next week. In some respects, I'm surprised that I've not yet done the twenty turns as it seems to have taken ages. Admittedly, taking a little leave after qualifying plus the previous unpleasantness at Clapton has padded things out a fair bit, but even so…. By the summer I should have completed my route card and will be a fully fledged driver, albeit still a probationer. However, route learning does mean that I shall be away from driving for a little while until it's completed. I shall just have to make sure I make the most of the last few core route jobs while I've got them.
Friday, 5th May 2006
No news is good news
It's gratifying to say that things have been very quiet of late. I completed the last of my twenty solo turns without incident and am now out learning the rest of the routes that will eventually make up my workload.
So far I've been learning the Enfield Town and Hertford East branches, which are both pretty straightforward. However, from Monday I shall be starting to learn the routes around Stratford which will culminate the week after with the hefty stretch of line from London Liverpool Street to Seven Kings, which I'm assuming will include Ilford depot. However, on Wednesday of next week I shall have the mother-of-all route exams, as I attempt to sign three routes in a single day. Admittedly it's far from ideal, but it's just happened that way because of the way that my rest days and annual leave have fallen.
In the meantime, I've been kicking back and enjoying the sunshine whilst on my rostered week of leave. It's a bit inconvenient that it's fallen where it has, but it's been nice to have a long lie-in and catch up on those niggling little jobs that I've been studiously ignoring whilst at work.
Thursday, 25th May 2006
A to Z
Since last I wrote, I've been engaged in almost continual route learning and one by one ticking off each of the routes that I shall be required to drive. Unlike some of my colleagues, I've not been taken off from time to time to cover driving jobs, which is both good and bad. On the good side, it means that I can concentrate on the job in hand without any distractions and will hopefully be able to rattle off all the routes in short order.
On the negative side, I am beginning to feel that the pace is perhaps a little too fast for my own liking. My preference would be to learn a route and then, having "signed" it, get a chance to drive over that route a few times on my own so that I can start to become properly familiar with it before moving onto the next one. Admittedly I do already have the advantage of having driven almost all of our routes several times when out with my minder. In addition, not everyone feels the same way as me, with a few mentioning that they are perfectly happy with the pace of learning.
Even so, I have raised this as an issue with the managers and, to their credit, they are taking my request seriously. I have already had one day next week when I was rostered to be learning the line north to Cambridge changed to a driving job which will see me out on my own at Hertford East and at Ilford depot, and I have been promised that there will be more before I have to knuckle down again to learn Cambridge.
Beyond that, there's not been much to report. I've only had a handful of driving jobs since my last entry, and those that I have had have passed relatively uneventfully. That's not to say that things have been quiet on our lines. Our unlucky streak has continued over the past few weeks with repeated issues affecting the overhead electrification. By my reckoning there have been four cases of "de-wiring" and one failed booster transformer, all of which have required the current to be isolated for varying periods of time. There has also been a freight train derailment to contend with, together with the usual problems that plague us from time to time. Thankfully there have been no further fatalities.
Sunday, 4th June 2006
Left hand - Right hand
I've been quite a busy bunny of late. I have now "signed" all the routes with the exception of Cambridge , and have been back out driving again. As promised, I have been enjoying a much more varied workload, with trips out to Stratford , Ilford and Hertford East. I do still get the occasional Airport turn, but it's no longer my staple work.
Of course, being back in the cab means that I've been directly involved with the fun and games that have been going on. By far the most amusing incident involved an emergency speed restriction that has been put in on the 'Down' Suburban line at Bethnal Green station. Once Network Rail knew that it was required, it should have been a simple matter of putting out the relevant lineside signs on each line, but oh no. What started off as a single board facing the wrong way on the 'Down' Main soon escalated into a farce of huge proportions.
When I called it in to the signaller, he informed me that he'd already been told and that someone was going out to sort it. Sure enough, as I left London I saw a track worker doing the honours. I did feel a little sorry for him as I went by, as he was stranded out in the middle of a six track stretch of line with trains whizzing by on all sides. I don't suppose that it helped that me on the 'Down' Suburban and an Anglia driver on the 'Down' Main both whistled him up at exactly the same time while another train approached in the other direction along the 'Up' Suburban. For the lack of anywhere better to stand, he just flattened himself against the boards he was adjusting and hoped for the best. Even though he was obscuring them, I wasn't sure that he hadn't made matters worse by turning all three boards on that post around. As I passed by the same spot again almost two hours later I could see that this was exactly what had happened, so I called it in for a second time. The signaller was incredulous and sounded not a little pissed off with the news, but I had no idea why. I only learned yesterday that the reason for this was that it had taken six attempts to get these boards facing the right way, and even then this only happened because they sent out a different bloke at the sixth attempt.
That's not to say that I've been above such matters myself. I almost had a stand-up row with the signaller on the Harlow workstation because I had convinced myself that I had the wrong headcode. He was right of course, but I was out of his area before I'd realised my mistake. I blame the 5am start and the similarity between the "6" on my outbound headcode and the "9" on my return trip, so skipped ahead to the headcode of my next working. What a twit...!! I've not heard anything more about it, so I presume he had a laugh about it with his colleagues but did nothing more about it.
Tuesday, 6th June 2006
Dispensing the unpleasantries
Well, it's been an unusual day for me today. The job I was on today required me to travel as a passenger on almost as many trains as I had to drive. However, the sun was out and I was in a good mood, so everything went swimmingly. Perhaps it was the weather that put everyone in a better mood than normal and made them better disposed towards everyone else, as more people were seen to be smiling and taking the time to stop and talk. I even had a few "thank you's".
The first train I worked was what I jokingly call "the school bus", as it is used heavily by children on their way home from school. They had obviously invented a little game to see who was the bravest and could stay off the train the longest at each stop without getting left behind. They must have had a great deal of practice, as they evidently knew exactly how long the door hustle alarms sound for before the doors themselves start to close. No matter how far they had strayed from the train when I made to close the doors, they always managed to get back on.
Of course, when the weather's hot we begin to feel the heat. Driving around with the windows open can be tricky, as it makes the cab very noisy. Two trips like that and I realised that the hearing in my left ear had been temporarily deadened. It wasn't a problem when in the train as I could still hear all the cab systems, but it became noticeable the moment I sat down in a quiet spot for a break (although everything returned to normal within a few minutes). So, it was cab vent only after that. These are generally brilliant when you're belting along, but they have no filters on them. Consequently anything that gets scooped up from the outside is spat straight into the cab. It is for this reason that they are sometimes referred to as "wasp dispensers". Wasps weren't my problem today, but midges were. Each time I swatted one another would appear as if by magic. On the return trip, I made sure I kept everything closed so that at least one cab remained a mozzie-free haven. Thankfully by then the evening was beginning to cool down.
Wednesday, 14th June 2006
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 is 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 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's car park.
