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Post by PiccNT on Jan 17, 2018 15:57:11 GMT
I have an old training CD explaining all of the possible moves on the line. Could upload that you YouTube if that will be useful?
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Post by PiccNT on Dec 21, 2017 0:47:04 GMT
Manual driving is an issue. Whilst I consider myself a fairly competent driver (others may disagree) capable of driving at up to line speed when possible, I do sit up front with other drivers as I travel to my pick up points or just cadging a lift. As North End states, there are some really slow drivers around. Saying that, the timetable is very forgiving (especially the Autumn Timetable) and unless you are driving extremely slowly, you will probably not be pulled up for it. There were some posts advertised recently for assessors that will sit in the car and then with the driver to assess their driving. Whether this will improve things, I have no idea.
The other issue with manual driving is the fear of having a SPaD and this will slow some drivers down especially if they have a bit of history in this area. Along with signal failures (seems to be a lot recently at Acton Town), incorrect signals lowered holding things up, passenger emergency alarms, vomit, defective trains, no cover for some duties and the list goes on, plus the fact that some of the dot matrix's are pretty inaccurate (Picc Circus EB is a particularly bad one), these are some reasons why there are gaps. Fortunately, we have quite a few reversing points where the service can be recovered a little easier. An example of this was last Saturday, I was on my way to Uxbridge and was told to reverse at Barons Court as there were gaps on the EB. I'm not sure I've seen as many people on the platforms at Knightsbridge, Hyde Park Corner, Green Park and all the way to Kings X. Thank you Winter Wonderland!
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Post by PiccNT on Dec 1, 2017 11:43:01 GMT
Yes, it's a new Signalling Equipment Room as part of 4LM. Work is due to start any time now and will take about 6 months to complete and then Thales will install their signalling equipment.
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Post by PiccNT on Nov 21, 2017 16:19:48 GMT
Today was no track fault despite which was being said over the media and from TfL Are you able to tell us what it was? Yesterday was also reported as a track fault (at South Kensington) and today has been reported as a track fault at Acton Town. I believe there was a signal failure at Acton as well yesterday which affected the District line. Yesterday was indeed a track fault. It was a broken running rail immediately east of South Kensington EB. Once a temporary repair was put in place, we had a 5 Mph speed restriction over it. Not in work today so not aware of what today's issues are.
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Post by PiccNT on Nov 16, 2017 13:52:18 GMT
The RAT caused a bit of a delay a few days ago when it had a SPaD at Oakwood!
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Post by PiccNT on Oct 18, 2017 8:59:50 GMT
From what I can make out, it really only affects the Piccadilly Line (maybe Northern). Trainees cannot jump over T/Op's that are on waiting lists for other lines so that pretty much discounts the Victoria, Central and Jubilee as there are big waiting lists for those lines. Certainly on the Piccadilly Line, many of the Night Tube drivers would willingly go full time with a proviso that they continue to cover Night Tube duties until their place has been back filled. I fully understand that the unions would be opposed to this as the two grades have to be kept separated and it wouldn't be particularly easy to schedule but it's a way to satisfy the existing staff and help support the day service.
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Post by PiccNT on Oct 17, 2017 10:19:55 GMT
I believe that there was a signal failure at HotH that affected one of the local lines.
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Post by PiccNT on Oct 8, 2017 14:42:04 GMT
Obviously as is very easy to figure out there's a shortage of Night Tube Picc drivers! I wonder where they all went? 18 of us went full time. Some have left, some are on sick leave, some are on annual leave, some are completing action plans and some have moved onto other jobs. Quite a few in the school and they will start to fill the vacancies from next week when I believe the first of them have their road tests.
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Post by PiccNT on Sept 26, 2017 9:19:39 GMT
One under Marble Arch. Train 104 EB was timetabled to go to Hainault but instead was reversed at Leytonstone on Platform 2, the driver refused to accept the signal over to Plat. 2 because they hadn't been told about the short turn. Wood Lane are possibly the worst control room on the combine although I'm told that the Piccadilly are worse We have a reputation to uphold! Personally speaking, I have never had an issue with any of our Controllers. I have always been polite to them and they have reciprocated. I can understand however why they sometimes can sound a little stressed. We have our fair share of incidents that would test the patience of Job although it seems that any incident such as a signal failure or SPaD at say 8am will screw the service up for almost the rest of the day. Then of course they have to deal with us lot! We appear to be heading off topic
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Post by PiccNT on Sept 19, 2017 0:20:34 GMT
The timetable notice does specify which platform each train goes into but that could of course change.
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Post by PiccNT on Aug 24, 2017 13:09:35 GMT
Basically it's trial on the Jubilee Line where T/Ops can opt to work a 4 day week instead of 5. Duties are a maximum of 9:30 and they receive an extra 44 days off per annum for working 1 day less. I think it's true to say that the two unions have different views on it. From what I've heard, the T/Ops on the trial seem to like it and at least one of the unions wishes the trial to be extended to other lines.
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Post by PiccNT on Aug 18, 2017 12:14:05 GMT
Question. If Night Tube drivers require corrective action plans under the instruction of an Instructor Operator are the IOps released from their "normal" duties to work Friday and Saturday nights or do the NT drivers have to swap to "normal" duties? Night Tube staff are not allowed to book on before 20:30 on Friday/Saturday so what happens is the I/Ops works up to their own duty time and that's it so the CAP is perhaps 2 x 2 or 3 hours. We have one I/Op that pretty much disregards this and is willing to work overnight but this strictly speaking breaches the (ridiculous) oil & water agreement. I think sometimes a bit of common sense should prevail mainly for the sake of the inexperienced drivers.
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Post by PiccNT on Aug 18, 2017 9:16:25 GMT
Is there a reason that the entire section of night tube picc line get a picc service and as suggested before, every other train doesn't run as a northfields to arnos grove service? Given that the picc line does have rolling stock issues, wouldnt this help improve reliability? Will the service pattern change? It's more staffing issues at the moment. I believe the service pattern needs to be looked at especially because of low usage at the extremes and the issues around tipping out at T5 but as mentioned earlier, a lot of T/Ops on the Picc are top of the waiting lists to move to other lines so the other lines need the Picc to release them, Night Tube staff then get moved to FT to replace the departed FT staff and as we have seen, that has led to a shortage on the Night Tube. It should be back to full strength by Xmas but loads more NT staff will be needed to go FT to cover vacancies and to release others to other lines. Basically can't recruit/train fast enough. The company thought that they could resource the Night Tube with reduced numbers and they probably could if existing staff were all working but there is a fair amount of sick leave, annual leave, refresher training (undertaken Mon-Fri so is missing from duty the weekend before and the weekend after) and re-training after incidents. So, all in all, far too few staff to run a half decent service.
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Post by PiccNT on Aug 15, 2017 10:40:58 GMT
It is really frustrating, as someone who passed the Night Tube T/Ops assessments back in June and is now waiting for an unknown start date (as no training course availability until at least the New Year), to hear of the lack of operators when I am so desperate for a job. Hopefully this is this an unusual 'blip' in the planning & organisational capabilities within this area? I understand your frustration. I think the planning could have been better and it doesn't seem that complicated to work out how many T/Ops are required across all of the lines and resource accordingly. There are only so many places available at the training school and they are working flat out with both promotional upgrades (station staff and others moving to T/Ops) as well as externals joining for Night Tube. The bulk of the movement is on the Piccadilly Line as there are a lot of full time T/Ops that have transfers in for other lines so we need a constant flow of new recruits to fill both full time and part time roles. Hopefully you will get a start date soon.
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Post by PiccNT on Aug 15, 2017 9:26:52 GMT
Point taken North End. The predominant operational incidents on the line are SPaDs. Just couldn't force myself to type that acronym out yesterday! We have seen a mixture of station starters and running signals and they normally occur towards the latter part of the shift when concentration levels are dipping. Strangely enough, and it's probably a coincidence, those of us that came through early without any disruption in our training have kept out of trouble. It seems to be mainly the T/Ops that had fragmented training and sometimes went weeks without an Inst/Op that have come a cropper. I think that there are aspects of the training that could be improved to eliminate some of the errors such as focusing more on signals and their behaviour. It's one thing looking ahead and seeing red, green or yellow but you really need to fully understand how they work in conjunction with each other and in differing circumstances. Maybe I should head off to Skills Development!
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Post by PiccNT on Aug 14, 2017 9:51:43 GMT
As a former Night Tube T/Op on the Picc, I can offer my view on it. I have also accompanied my Night Tube colleagues on other lines to get a feel on what it's like compared with the Picc. As most of you are aware, the Picc is the only NT line manually driven. The levels of concentration needed are substantially higher than the ATO lines. In terms of customer traffic, as it became more established, probably from March onwards, it has got busier and busier. Not the whole line but certainly the more central area. I regularly had a full train going through town at 3 or 4 in the morning and that was with a 10 minute headway.
The current difficulties are because of sick absence, staff unavailable due to operational incidents and also because some of us, me included, were moved onto full time. There are plenty of new NT T/Ops in training and they will gradually fill the vacancies. Because the busiest section does not include the extremes, I think maybe every other train should be an Arnos Grove to Northfields service and we should terminate at Heathrow 2&3 to stop the never ending aggravation of trying to get the drunks off the train at T5 as we have to reverse in the sidings.
Back to my point about concentration levels. Working for just 2 nights is very hard. From personal experience, I used to sleep normally on a Thursday night and try to rest on Friday late afternoon but could never sleep then so I was up all day Friday and worked the entire night. Towards the end of the shift I was extremely tired and that is where you are likely to make mistakes. My comment above regarding staff being absent for operational incidents, quite a bit of this could well be attributed to fatigue whereas on an ATO line, you are far less likely to make an error.
So, the service is well used but needs tweaking. Whether it will ever pay for itself is another question! Oh and North End's point about the state of the trains is very valid. We have witnessed things worse that vomit on our trains as if that wasn't bad enough. We have vomit squads along the line to try and keep the trains in service but when we walk through the trains when we stable them in the depots, they are normally in a terrible state. Night Tube for me was a great experience but I'm glad to have moved on!
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Post by PiccNT on Aug 9, 2017 13:02:04 GMT
I was routed down there yesterday. I was booked to Uxbridge but went to T5 instead. When I got back to Hounslow Central it was obvious that I would get to Acton Town about 20 minutes early and I was being relieved there so I called the Controller to ask to be held on the EBL at Northfields until my booked time. I do occasionally get sent down there if trains are out of the correct order.
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Post by PiccNT on Aug 4, 2017 12:53:50 GMT
Maybe slightly Off Topic, but booking hall and platform Next Train indicators at Alperton were showing Cockfosters as both the eastbound and westbound destinations on Sunday evening. Yes, I was a South Harrow reverser on Sunday and noticed I was on the dot matrix as Cockfosters at 2 or 3 stations. I think by the time I got to the Sudbury's I was "Check front of train".
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Post by PiccNT on Jul 5, 2017 11:24:58 GMT
Thanks for the advice. I'll hold tight and see what I get given then... Yes, you may well get what you want although if you are going into a full time T/Op job, you will be sent where there are vacancies and not a waiting list. So that pretty much excludes the Jubilee, Victoria and Central Lines, the east end of the District & H&C and parts of the Northern. Not much of a waiting list on the Bakerloo or normally Earl's Court, Edgware Road, Acton Town (D). There is also quite a big list of T/Op's with transfers away from the Picc so that will also be a distinct possibility.
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Post by PiccNT on Jul 3, 2017 21:33:21 GMT
I notice this quite a lot. The worst station is I think Hyde Park Corner WB but a lot of them do say 2 minutes when I reach the station.
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Post by PiccNT on Jun 1, 2017 16:25:41 GMT
As from next Monday, due to the uplift to 890v regenerative braking on the District, the 1973 stock will no longer be permitted to be routed to High Street Kensington. We will still be permitted as far as West Kensington but will have to cut out certain equipment (heating and AC) before being authorised East of Hammersmith.
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Post by PiccNT on May 30, 2017 9:51:31 GMT
We have a line information book that is written I believe by an I/Op. Basically covers moves and other general information but agree that there is nothing in the rule book or line supplement.
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Post by PiccNT on May 29, 2017 19:53:13 GMT
We are permitted on the Picc to have our offside cab door open during hot weather. For safety reasons, the near side door must not be open while the train is in motion. All cab door must remain closed if there is another authorised person in the cab.
There are the guidelines that we are issued with.
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Post by PiccNT on May 17, 2017 10:33:42 GMT
Sunday only, Network Rail Engineering Work Between Gunnersbury and Richmond
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Post by PiccNT on May 10, 2017 18:30:05 GMT
Cockfosters? Well, I'm sure Harry Redknapp once said that it was never an easy place to go, or was that anywhere? Being almost based there, I'm afraid I have to move you on and in Laurel & Hardy's words, Be Big, so with that in mind I will nip down the road to High Barnet.
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Post by PiccNT on May 2, 2017 11:55:48 GMT
Yes, although if we are running non-stop down the local line, we have a 20mph speed limit through those stations. Incidentally, whilst on the fast lines, if any station starter is at danger, we tend to stop just before the beginning of the platform. Stopping in the platform and not opening doors will cause other issues!
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Post by PiccNT on Apr 29, 2017 17:14:56 GMT
I was told whilst on my training as a train op that driving with the cab door was ok as long as it was the offside (opposite side to the driver). It seems that this story wasn't researched at all. I hear on the pic that it is a rarity to find the cab door interlock switch to be in the normal position! The problem with having the offside door open is that if that's the platform side anyone (and I'm thinking drunks) can get in the cab. The 1992s don't have cab door interlock switches, indeed as I've never driven on other Lines (apart from the W&C) I didn't even know they existed. Yes, a constant cause of "No movement" when you take the train over and leave the cab door open. Some idiot has cut the interlock back in!
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Post by PiccNT on Apr 16, 2017 21:35:30 GMT
Well I know they are in the tunnel section from Earls Court to Barons Court on both roads Well maybe so but the newly installed "lamps" are brighter than the sun :-)
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Post by PiccNT on Apr 16, 2017 18:09:14 GMT
<<rincew1nd>> Originally posted in this thread, here's a quote for context: <</rincew1nd>>Talking of lights, and going off topic slightly, the signal bulbs between Manor House and Turnpike Lane EB have all been replaced with LED's. They are so bright you almost need sunglasses along that section. There's more then that on the Picc you sure you been looking correctly In the open sections maybe but these are the only ones, to my knowledge, in tunnel sections.
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Post by PiccNT on Apr 16, 2017 15:58:54 GMT
<<rincew1nd>> Originally posted in this thread, here's a quote for context:
Looks to me as tho brighter bulbs have been fitted They've probably just cleaned out the dust/condensation in the diffusers <</rincew1nd>>Talking of lights, and going off topic slightly, the signal bulbs between Manor House and Turnpike Lane EB have all been replaced with LED's. They are so bright you almost need sunglasses along that section.
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