Tubeguru gets a new job

[tubeguru]

A tale of two turns.

The last couple of days at work have been a little interesting for one reason or another and I'm glad of a day off to recover from all the excitement.

On Friday I had my first drive to Swansea properly on my own. I'd had a drive "on my own" before but I'd had a route learner in the cab with me so technically it wasn't the same. Before I even left Paddington there were reports of big signalling problems at Cardiff westbound, but as it takes two hours to get to Cardiff I was hopeful they could be sorted out before I got there.

Unfortunately they weren't and at Rumney River Bridge Junction just east of Cardiff I found myself in a long queue of trains waiting to go into the station. It took about 10 to 15 minutes to drive two miles under restrictive signals and then we had a long wait at Cardiff station. This was because trains from Bristol Temple Meads to Cardiff had been cancelled and everyone had been shipped round to Bristol Parkway station and were on my train. It was also raining heavily and we left Cardiff about 20 minutes down.

Between Cardiff and Bridgend is a 21-mile stretch of line with a linespeed of 75mph (with a small bit of 85 thrown in for good measure). It's a bit of a laborious drag along there but it wasn't helped this time by me catching up a Maesteg stopper that had been let out of Cardiff ahead of me. I caught him at the Miskin loops and followed him for the next 11 miles at a crawl, losing loads more time in the process.

After Bridgend I was finally able to get the hammer down and arrived in Swansea a good 35 minutes late with half my break wiped out. The return journey was a little easier, including the aforementioned numpties at Pyle trying to remove themselves from the gene pool and arriving at Bristol Parkway to pick up a Padd driver who'd had to drive a train out there because of the disruption. He was a bit annoyed that I managed to make up 10 minutes of timetable time to arrive in Paddington bang on 23.42 so he couldn't get out of taking a train down to Old Oak Common.

After that I was hoping yesterday might be a little easier - 18.00 to 03.10 spare, so it was inevitable that I'd be sent down the Oak to work on the shed and sort out all the trains arriving back after a Saturday out. But that would have been the case if there WERE any trains. At about 5pm some pikeys stole a whole load of signalling cable in the Iver area, wiping out four signals in the process. Those of you who've read the rule book will know that under such circumstances Temporary Block Working is introduced with a max speed of 50mph through the affected area. This led to a huge backlog of trains piled up west of Iver. Many services were terminated at Reading but a lot more had to come through to get the right number of trains at the Oak ready for today's services.

The train I was supposed to be taking to the Oak at 18.50 never arrived and I was left sitting about at Paddington with several other drivers who one by one disappeared home or to take trains to Reading. At 23.30 I called control and confirmed that it would more than likely to me and another driver left with the task of taking all the empty HSTs down the Oak as the booked drivers would have been driving way over their time and probably wouldn't want to do it. They said yes it would be him and me, but had no idea in what order the trains would be going as control were sitting in an office in Swindon whereas I was in the heart of the (in)action.

So I called up the base room at Paddington and told them that I'd be taking whatever came in and could they tell me where the next one was (our screen in the mess room shows the line from Paddington to Hanwell and there were no trains coming towards us). So I spent the next five hours taking empties to the Oak, getting a taxi back to Paddington and then going again, all the time trying to avoid the somewhat pissed-off travelling public.

One driver who I relieved told me tales of a punch up on the train at Swindon, passengers asking for his name (as if it was his fault) and the correct spelling of First Group chairman Moir Lockhead, as if writing to the chairman of the parent company was going to get them anywhere?! With no trains leaving Paddington after 00.30 and several packed trains arriving IN after that time there were quite a lot of people with no means of getting home as the tube had stopped running too. As a result on arriving back from the Oak at about 02.45 following my third set move I was confronted with a huge queue of people at the taxi rank stretching all the way back down platform one and into the station.

There were a handful of people still there at 04.15 as I got back from my fourth and final move; FGW's taxi bill may be a bit higher this month. I then had a 30-minute drive home before falling into bed at 5am. Mind you, I was being paid for my first hour of sleep as the company agreed to pay me 12 hours for staying on to help clear the mess up.

Who'd have this job?

[RichieG]

I did wonder what the problems last night were. All they said over the tannoy at Paddington were 'Signalling problems between here and Reading'. As it happened, my 10.30 train from Paddington to Bristol was relatively unaffected by then, but I was probably rather lucky in that. There were however queues of people waiting at Bristol for taxis to take them down the M5, ironically the same direction I was going to be driving anyway. I think I had missed the main problems at Paddington and we were only in Reading 10 minutes late. According to the train manager though, the train I was on was packed solid of people... The picture isn't great actually, but there were only three people in coach A where I was, and actually B looked similarly unfull too...

[Garion]

Aww sounds like fun.

Yeah the Maesteg trains are always slow. Between Cardiff and Bridgend, where the FGW trains run direct, the Maesteg trains stop at three intermediate stations before calling at Bridgend.

At the match in town, I heard on the tv that the stadium announcer guy said that services were cancelled around/east of Newport. Good thing I wasnt travelling lol.

And yeah the Pikeys are the same here. They steal everything thats not bolted down. They're notorious here for their work and dealings.

Cheer up Neil. Tomorrow is another day

[Sam]

I'm sure Neil isn't too unhappy with 12 hours pay...

[greatkingrat]

I can imagine the headline

LAZY TRAIN DRIVERS GET PAID WHILE ASLEEP

[tubeguru]

I'm sure Neil isn't too unhappy with 12 hours pay...

Especially as six of them were at Sunday rate.

[Starkey7]

Well Neil that's quite an account! Sounds horribly frustrating at the end though. They really should have a better way of ferrying you drivers around than paying for taxis all the time, I reckon. But I'm not sure what...

Is there really any point in relaxing a 75mph limit to a 85mph on short sections? Depends how short I suppose.

My journeys on FGW are on the whole very enjoyable and I often arrive early at my destination. There's a really funny train manager who has done late shifts recently; he's Spanish and he keeps everyone amused. He seems to enjoy his job and have fun - do you know him?

[tubeguru]

The increase in speed between LLanharan and Bridgend is due to slightly longer signal spacing. I suppose it allows you to gain a couple of minutes.

The train manager in question - yes I know who you mean. He's a character - he once had his hair dyed peroxide blonde but I think he's gone back to a more normal colour now.

[Sam]

The railway seems to attract many an odd character!! I'm sure it wouldn't be the same without them

[zeibura]

Aha, so that's what happened I was in Avebury on that friday with the signalling problems and got held up somewhat at Swindon in those delays. When the train came they announced something like "because of the delays, all ticket restrictions have been lifted". We were wondering, does that mean we could have gone and sat in first class if we wanted, or just that advance ticket holders don't have to travel on their stated train?

[tubeguru]

Aha, so that's what happened I was in Avebury on that friday with the signalling problems and got held up somewhat at Swindon in those delays. When the train came they announced something like "because of the delays, all ticket restrictions have been lifted". We were wondering, does that mean we could have gone and sat in first class if we wanted, or just that advance ticket holders don't have to travel on their stated train?

It's usually the distinction between peak/off-peak, saver/open returns and things like that. I don't think first class is included in that.

[moley]

Aha, so that's what happened I was in Avebury on that friday with the signalling problems and got held up somewhat at Swindon in those delays. When the train came they announced something like "because of the delays, all ticket restrictions have been lifted". We were wondering, does that mean we could have gone and sat in first class if we wanted, or just that advance ticket holders don't have to travel on their stated train?

It's usually the distinction between peak/off-peak, saver/open returns and things like that. I don't think first class is included in that.

Standard class and First class tickets are different tickets. A standard class ticket is not a restricted first class ticket.

The restrictions that they are refering to are normally timing restrictions: i.e. If your ticket is for the 3pm train then you must get that train even if it's running 45 minutes late. If they lift restrictions then you can get the 2.30 train which rolls into your station at say 3.10 (40 minutes late) without incurring a penalty.

[Starkey7]

I've always felt it extremely cold-hearted of them not to allow what you just mentioned, Moley. After all, if a train is more than half an hour late, surely the very least that they could do would be to allow you to travel at the time you originally chose, albeit on a different train, out of common decency and politeness.

[tubeguru]

Anyone in the vicinity of the Oxford to Paddington route on Monday morning would have seen the unusual sight of a passenger service utilising loco and coaches. Not only that, it was the sleeper stock that had come up from Penzance on Sundat night.

A lack of available sets had led control to send the sleepers empty to Oxford to work the 09.00 to Paddington.

And here's the proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhOFBExR0ss. This video shows the train leaving Reading for Oxford with the empties .

The driver is Mr Long, an ex-BR man who is one of the few drivers still certified to drive locos on the mainline.

[tubeguru]

Yesterday (Saturday the 20th of February) saw a double-header steam special from Tyseley to Didcot Parkway. I was on the 10.30 from Temple Meads to Paddington and I knew something was up as I came into Swindon station and saw hoardes of people with cameras everywhere. A quick enquiry filled me in on what was going on. The steam train was about 20 minutes behind me coming down from Cheltenham.

This video shows the steam train leaving Swindon, but the other reason I've put this up is that for some reason the guy taking the video down in one of the Network Rail car parks has decided to put the video footage of me going past him in my HST and giving him a toot!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QD4XowUqvY