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Post by rheostar on Dec 1, 2023 22:52:16 GMT
Did there used to be Bounds Green terminators years ago? No, trains never terminated at Bounds Green. Used to be regular Wood Green reversers ioff peak and evenings. Trains took too long to reverse at Wood Green, so they were taken out of the timetable when the service level was increased in the early 90's. Was a Wood Green - Barons Court shuttle which hardly saw the daylight! The thought of doing Barons Court - Wood Green shuttles still make me shudder, horrible turns.
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Post by rheostar on Jul 20, 2022 7:14:01 GMT
A friend took a picture of Finsbury Park pit. You can just about see the deeper section on the right hand side. Finsbury Park pit by rheostar, on Flickr
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Post by rheostar on Jul 20, 2022 7:02:05 GMT
RMT have basically accepted what ASLEF agreed in May 2021 so they've been on strike for 33 weekends for absolutely nothing And that is why I am an ASLEF member I dread to think how many times something similar's happened over the years.
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Post by rheostar on Jul 8, 2022 7:15:13 GMT
marri260: It's an obvious requirement that the driver needs to see the signals. The new fleet introduces a number of changes. Firstly, it is some 7 m longer than the old train and in some stations the train will have to stop with the cab in the tunnel. This means that the driver might not be able to see the starter signal and the signal might need to be moved. When we had guards on the '73 stock, motormen had to stop with the cab in the tunnel or the guard wouldn't have been able to open the rear cab door to observe the platform. Don't think many signals will need to be moved as most station starters are a few metres into the tunnel.
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Post by rheostar on Jun 3, 2022 9:54:56 GMT
Yes, SPaD mitigation on WD8A which is just inside the covered way. Though it isn't at the top of the list, WD8A is stil hit on a regular basis despite the 3 repeaters, 2 speed restrictions, its own sign reminding drivers it is there and WDX643 slowing you right down if there is a train in the EB platform at Hammersmith as you approach it - all in an attempt to mitigate against SPaDs on WD8A. Many, many years ago when I was a road trainer, I used to emphasise where WD8a was and to be very careful when approaching it. It didn’t make any difference as I can remember that within weeks of passing out, several of my former trainees hitting WD8a.
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Post by rheostar on May 20, 2022 7:17:48 GMT
At Earl's Court District, the diamond crossover on the eastbound was reinstalled Christmas 2016, but that's too long ago.
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Post by rheostar on Apr 27, 2022 12:50:11 GMT
It's rather grey. The signalling on the branch hasn't been maintained for many years, and all the fuses have been removed. It would be possible to transfer a train on the branch for filming, but only under special arrangements. It wouldn't be possible to move a defective train onto the branch on the whim of a controller during the middle of the day. Any train going to or from the Alwych branch would have to be done under a possession.
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Post by rheostar on Apr 27, 2022 7:13:27 GMT
Surely anyone who hasn't done a specific move in 6 months can get a "pilot" (I'll check my rulebook) Strictly speaking, yes. There are occasions during disruption where trains are reversed at little used reversing points, Down Street being one of them where the majority of drivers haven't been for years. I guess they will be within their rights to ask for a pilot, you'll be pushed to find one at Green Park Station and if it means being short tripped with the possibility of a cut away, the majority may just remember how to accept a shunt signal and stop at the stopping mark :-) From memory, I can't think of one occasion where a driver refused to take a train into Down Street sidings if they were being short tripped.
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Post by rheostar on Jan 30, 2022 9:47:04 GMT
wtt-59, which is itself a PDF says: "A digital version of this Timetable can be found on the Establishment Planning Sharepoint site at transportforlondon.sharepoint.com/sites/EPTimetables/" What do they mean by digital version? Could there be a spreadsheet available, pretty please?! In Service Control, we'd download and print out the digital PDF version of the timetable, then put each page into a clear plastic folder. The line controllers would use this version to keep track of cancellations, short tripped trains or reforms using a chinagraph pencil. At the end of each traffic day the chinagraph marks made on the timetable are cleaned off. The digital version is in a slightly bigger format to the printed and bound timetable making it easier to write on with a chinagraph pencil. The same was done for TTNs. It's not very high tech, but it worked. To my knowledge, there was never a spreadsheet version of the timetable available.
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Post by rheostar on Jan 5, 2022 8:37:59 GMT
Does the union pay strike benefits for work lost during the action? Nope. Re Night Tube, on the Piccadilly line we found that after about 02:00 most trains were running around empty. There might've been a couple of people on trains in the central area, but it certainly didn't justify the service we were running. We thought the better option would've been to extend traffic hours by an hour on Friday and Saturday evenings. That would've served 95% of people wanting to use the railway, the cost to LU would've been minimal and allowed some engineering work on Saturday/Sunday morning. But we don't know nuffink, we were only operational managers.
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Post by rheostar on Jan 2, 2022 22:15:08 GMT
I don't know if its a typo but the RMT announcement said that members will not be booking on for "any duties commencing from 20:30 on any Friday until 08:00 the next day and not booking on for any duties commencing from 20:30 on any Saturday until 08:00 the next day". if that is correct then it would be Night Tube and most of the earlies. www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-confirms-further-strike-action-on-night-tube-from-new-year/Good news for the late turn drivers! For a driver working early turns both Saturday and Sunday, losing two days pay will start to hurt quite quickly.
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Post by rheostar on Oct 20, 2021 18:01:38 GMT
Was it Barons Court to Wood Green ? Think it was. I just remember that it was a lot of tunnels!
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Post by rheostar on Oct 19, 2021 21:38:55 GMT
Don’t remember the last time Barons Court was used to reverse scheduled trains. Years ago, it was a regular off-peak reversing point but apart from unscheduled use, I can’t recall any occasions in recent years where trains have been booked to reverse there. Scheduled reversers must've stopped around 1980/81. As a guard, I remember doing a duty that was booked to reverse at Barons Court. However, I qualified as a Motorman in 1981 and never did a duty scheduled to reverse at BC again.
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Post by rheostar on Oct 9, 2021 10:58:44 GMT
No that particular one they were all changed in the early 00’s as they were getting hard to read with years and years of nicotine and were very yellow. They wern't yellow, they were brown! :-D
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Post by rheostar on Aug 20, 2021 17:10:53 GMT
The word going around the mess rooms is that RMT have quietly called of next week's strike, so quietly that TfL are still warning that it might go ahead You were right, the strike’s been called off.
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Post by rheostar on Jun 13, 2021 9:44:27 GMT
Hi today we moved the AIT in to 1 shed to remove spares for the Backerloo line Has Northfields Depot got road access and an area to enable rolling stock to be removed on a low loader lorry ? There is road access from Northfields Avenue that goes into the depot. In fact, if you look on Google maps there appears to be a train loaded onto something on the depot road.,
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Post by rheostar on May 30, 2021 8:21:03 GMT
I wonder what it would take to get it allowed to carry passengers? I have a horrible feeling the answer is "rather a lot". Remember the reason the rest of the fleet were refurbished was for fire safety, so I'd imagine the same stringent (or even more stringent) regs would apply if you're carrying fare-paying "passengers". The last time I was on the train (about four years ago now) it was in a pretty poor condition, so the estimate of 'rather a lot' is probably an understatement!
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Post by rheostar on May 26, 2021 7:19:47 GMT
...And the plan now is to scrap it and the AIT is going plus the two bombed cars the start of the new build of the Northfields Depot work is starting. Duuno why, but I thought the bombed units had been scrapped ages ago. Where in the yard have they been kept?
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Post by rheostar on May 4, 2021 12:50:04 GMT
What is odd is that normally the D&A team arrive before you book on, your duty is covered by a spare while you are tested and in my 18 years on trains I have never heard of anyone starting their shift then being tested after they've done part of it. The D&A team could turn up at any time of the day. The last one I took part in, they turned up around 11:00 and stayed until 16:00, carrying out tests on available staff on both the early and late shifts.
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Post by rheostar on Apr 12, 2021 9:46:04 GMT
They was in a separate room downstairs commonly know as room 39 it had computers and screens and could control the east end of the line for all diffent sorts of running although they were very old computers that were a bit temperamental. they were staffed full time by 2 people although do believe they wasn't signalmen but controllers for some reason I can't rember . The computers were HP1000s that LU bought second hand from the US Army, There was nothing technical in the move, the main reason the computers were relocated to Room 39 was the politics in the main control room. There was a lot of animosity towards the new SDM grade from the existing SSO. It was very unpleasant in the room at times. The 'somewhere in central London' even included building a new control room on a triangle of land at Acton Town and at one point, South Ken was looked at but dismissed (It's somewhat ironic that the Picc ended up there years later!) . The two new rooms at Arnos Grove and Acton Town became some of the most expensive store rooms on the Underground. From memory, only about five or six of the SSOs became SDMs. They were fine at operating the PEECS system, but couldn't qualify as controllers. For several years the people that qualified only on the signalling desk remained as SDMs, but earning a higher rate of pay than the SSOs. This was part of the animosity towards some the SDMs. In my Flickr album there's pictures of the HP1000s and the original computer desk in the control room. Follow the link below. www.flickr.com/photos/13358266@N02/albums/72157697764060185/with/31059057048/
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Post by rheostar on Apr 4, 2021 18:37:36 GMT
As part of the Piccadilly line Service Control team, we visitied the Hammersmith control centre just after it'd been built as originally, the Piccadilly line control room was to have gone into the same building. We thought it was a horrible place. The Piccadilly line dodged a bullet in going to South Ken.
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Post by rheostar on Jan 8, 2021 8:02:22 GMT
That would be one of the two 3-car double-ended units that are temporarily withdrawn each autumn to act as rail adhesion trains, one west the other east. These are now having the temporary equipment removed and will be returned to passenger service. Hi we are still running are RAT train on the west end of the Piccadilly line filled it up to day and it went out. Sandite equipement fitted in the RAT. Pictures taken by a former colleague of mine at LU. Sandite 2 by rheostar, on Flickr Sandite 3 by rheostar, on Flickr Sandite 1 by rheostar, on Flickr
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Post by rheostar on Dec 5, 2020 11:01:01 GMT
Normally I would understand that this period is the sensible time to carry out track renewals etc, however this year it seems exactly the wrong time to do these works because the Government has effectively said the COVID movement restrictions will be briefly lifted and people will finally be free to travel between Christmas Eve and New Year. There have been loads of posts suggesting the tube and TFL rail services are currently quite lightly loaded - which to be honest is what you might expect with the Government stressing that people stay home and avoid non essential travel. Engineering work such as the points renewal at Acton Town are planned months, if not years ahead of time, and are usually part of larger projects. Cancelling such major work would have seriously detrimental effects to the railway and other projects that come later. It would also cost LuL millions.
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Post by rheostar on Nov 16, 2020 10:50:12 GMT
I wonder how will the stopping positions change when the new trains arrive, and whether extensive platform extension works need to be done. I also wonder if because of longer trains some curves need to be smoothened out since they are relatively sharp already on the 73 stock. The trains can't be significantly longer than the 73 stock already in use or they won't fit into shorter platforms such as Holloway Road or Caledonian Road. As drivers when we still had guards, trains had to stop on the stopping diamond usually located just inside the headwall tunnel mouth or else the guard would still be inside the tunnel at the rear of the train. Most of the original stopping diamonds are still in place. Using a seven car train won't give any problems going around South Ken bends, unlike the 73 stock that has six cars.
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Post by rheostar on Oct 3, 2020 7:45:21 GMT
Nope, still operational staff. The (Duty) Network Operations Manager role, now called Network Operations Tactical Manager is effectively the Service Manager for the L.U.C.C. There must be a department in LU that thinks up manager titles. I was a DOM, SCM, DLCM and lastly an SM. Did exactly the same job, just a different title dreampt up in the various reorganisations over the years.
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Post by rheostar on Sept 23, 2020 21:56:33 GMT
That's him. He was in the early 2000s documentary talking to another driver who'd nearly had a one under and was quite shaken by it. I didn't know he was still at LU now! So his role is more office based than operational I guess? Yep, he's control room based now. I'd speak to him several times during a shift if we were working at the same time.
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Post by rheostar on Sept 22, 2020 21:31:02 GMT
There was a station manager called Andy H (think he worked on one of the sub surface lines?) who was in the early 2000s documentary The Tube and was also in the 2012 documentary of the same name. Andy H was a driver and DTM on the District line. He later went to the NOC/NCC as a NOM (can't remember the original name), first at 55 Broadway and latterly in the LUCC at Palestra. He's still there now.
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Post by rheostar on Jul 24, 2020 8:07:26 GMT
Operating a "manual door valve" (I think that's its official title) is not an approved method of stopping a train from moving. The member of station staff did the right thing by waving their arms above their head, it doesn't matter what the other member of staff was doing, if both aren't indicating that its safe to proceed the driver should not move the train. 100% driver error Totally agree. Station staff should never try to stop a train by operating a butterfly cock. They could be putting themselves in danger by trying to operate the cock as the train's moving off. If the driver didn't see the member of staff waving their hands above their head then it's a driver error.
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Post by rheostar on May 11, 2020 10:30:22 GMT
Or in the case of my mate last Friday, he's just hit 90's down at Acton. Oops. That's never good!
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Post by rheostar on May 11, 2020 7:58:03 GMT
They should then be ignored as that's PK2's ;-) and the not so new train managers saying train approaching cockfosters meaning cockfosters station .. sorry going off topic The phrase used is, "...he's just hit 1's up at Cock."
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