Bank holiday 'action'

So just a brief note to show what my bank holiday 'early' consisted of! 

A 0250 get up saw me in work for just gone 4ish. After collecting the usual stuff and signing for notices a small gathering of staff had a wonder downstairs for the first set of empties to Chester. 

There wasn't anything on the platform and we found that a overrunning track possession still had the up and down East and Up and down Fast closed to traffic and so the signallers were having a mare getting units off the depot. 

Eventually a 150/1 rolls in onto platform 10 and we pile on. We all have a little section of the train each and I settle down into a dark corner near a heater. I then spend the rest of the journey having a good look at the inside of my eyelids!! 

We arrive at Chester and I find my driver already on the platform with Bond themed 142007 fired up and ready. Because this unit has been left on the platform overnight myself and the driver have to do our own 'mini prep' of the train. My main job is to commission the doors for service. This is done by basically opening all the doors on the train in a specific order, testing all of the door buttons and the bell buzzers on 'all four corners.'

Door test complete and coffee supplies topped up (25p at Chester Mess bargain!). I've noted in the repair book that two of the internal door close buttons don't work, the toilet seat has fallen off and there is an air leak in the destination blind cupboard. Nothing to serious and I book her in for a welfare check from the fitter when we arrive back into Picc. 

The journey is mega quiet and I have one man who missed the last train and has slept on the station from Chester to Northwich and then surprise of the morning is a passenger at Ashley!! Was so quiet I enjoyed the ride on the old bus seats as a passenger all the way back! 

To Hadfield next and even on a bank holiday at 0750 I'd had to eject two lads for no money and no ticket at Ashburys! Then got a load of idiots (one who didn't realise I'd seen his Network Rail ID!!) at Glossop! Quick break (and a cheeky BK brekkie) and then a round trip to Crewe (out via the airport back via Stockport) saw the day finished nicely at 1150 ish! 

All in all a nice quiet shift.

Hope your all well folks

The guard! 

Delay by royal decree!

So each TOC will employ someone or a team to attribute delays to other TOCs or Network Rail. A delay can cost a TOC £350 per minute for any delay over 3 minutes. (Or at least that's my understanding of it) so therefor it makes sense to have these teams. 

Ours is based at our York control room.

We are encouraged as guards to report delays as they happen and give a reason if possible. 

So a typical phone call would consist of giving your head code (train describing number). The length of delay and the cause or company you believe to be the cause. (Normally TPE or Virgin!!).

So on my second trip to Stoke the two expresses that leave for Manchester before me left perfectly on time but the signal didn't come 'off' for me in the bay. 

Now I'd noticed a large police presence on the station but I did not for one minute expect the entire royal train to cross over the mainline in front of me! Apparently Prince Charles had decided to go out for a day out in Stoke!! 

Despite all the fun and games I was now leaving 4 late from Stoke so today managed to attribute a delay to the Royal Family! (Ok ok to DBS but that's not the point!)

The guy on delays said it certainly made a change to putting a TPE head code in!

Sorry about the photo quality it caught me on the hop! 

Have a safe evening

The Guard 

Company Brief day (Training)

Well had 7 and a half hours of training today. These 'briefs' used to be called safety briefs as they used to contain training concerning our safety critical jobs. However they now contain all sorts as I will explain below. 

Having worked in a large healthcare trust prior to the railways, where training is often talked about but never really transpires due to 'budget constraints' it really surprises me as to how hard and what effort the privatised railways goto to keep staff up to date. But we train crew are out door dwellers and 7 hours in a small room with 9 others and dodgy air con is enough to tire anyone! 

Today brief contained reminders of the safety critical nature of our jobs.

Firstly - power operated door procedure failures, with CCTV footage of real incidents broken down for us to discuss as a reminder of just how serious these incidents can be. This lead nicely onto a brief regarding the outcome of the Liverpool, James Street incident, which as you would expect provoked a good debate. We then moved onto on train Fire training which was again a interesting reminder of procedures. 

We then moved onto something new the company are starting to assess us on called 'non technical skills' which very briefly concerns the ways in which we behave whilst performing our everyday tasks.  We had a 42ish minute lunch break and then went into the second session.

The afternoon consisted of a customer service refresh and then just basically went into silly mode with manual handling training and health and safety training. (Both videos played by some really dodgy actors).

It's my belief health and safety is 99% common sense and it drives me insane having it rammed down our throats! But hey ho we live in a nanny state and have to prepare to fail I suppose! 

We followed this with a interesting (ish) session on safety critical communications which involves 'playing' signallers and train crew to practice giving emergency messages. 

So I'm home now after nearly 8 hours of death by PowerPoint and media player! Tired and ready to go to bed for tomorrow's 0609 start which in fairness does start with a nice 1st class trip on Virgin to Stoke! 

Bye for now guys

Stay safe

The guard.

Disclaimer. Published in a rush without proof reading so please excuse any typos! 

Photo - Proper train at Piccadilly! I do miss 37's hauling passenger trains! 

 

Copper and an amusing entry!

Two little snippets from today for you ladies and gents. Firstly the electrification of the Chat moss line seems to be really taking shape now and yesterday morning I noticed nice new bright copper contact wire had gone up running along the length of the M602. Hopefully we'll be seeing 'new' EMU's down there before long.

Second, I had a 142 on loan from Heaton Depot to Newton Heath today. One end had a original Regional Railways NE blind in it which someone here on 'the west' decided he was going to note as a defect! I enclose a photo of the said defect report!
You've got to love the comedy reply from the fitters at Newton Heath!

That's all for now.

More soon!

The Guard