Defective Movements

At the time this all kicked off I could hear on the radio that there was an H & C driver (and possibly an Instructor - though not sure) saying that he'd been gapped leaving 'the angle'.

I heard him say that he was going to move the train from the rear cab back onto juice with another driver assisting in the front .


However, I heard nothing after this, so I suspect the problem was more complex........ I'll check the day's log tomorrow. TBH I don't think this had either anything to do with the weekend's engineering nor was the train known to be defective when it attempted to leave TS.

My trainee and I didn't do quite so bad; we picked up Acton west 15 late, were short tripped at Barking, leaving there 35 late and finally (having gone through to Richmond) arrived at ECTE 35 late.

All good fun........

I'm not surprised it had flat batteries after sitting with no traction current for 4 days. As to why they decided to move it at 7:30am on a weekday, this was a question being asked by quite a few people (including managers) today!

apparently not!!

I can't really comment, but it doesn't seem to be the brightest option taken. After all, Heritage specials seem to be run during weekends/slack hours......

Surprised they found one of our drivers to go down there without a pilotman! The only turns that ever touch Triangle are 2 night duties (one Edgware Rd and one Hammersmith off the top of my head). Luckily I wasn't caught up in ti.

Isn't there a TT at Earl's Ct any more?Aren't DMT's allowed to touch stuff under the sole bar?They used to when they were Area Managers,paddles aren't just for lifting shoes off juice.

Probably because the Train Operators on the EB were due for a crew relief and were refusing to run east of Barking in accordance with the PTOA....

Or a slow/trainee operator, making gap in the service into a bigger gap in the service....

Were H&C trains all short worked to Plaistow/Whitechapel too?

Of course in a few years time the current Signal Operators in there will be on the stations. That'll be the good ones as well as the not so good ones.
What with TfL's current "resourcing strategy" of getting people off the street, straight from school and the local bookies to come in as controllers, with no railway experience, things are bound to be a whole lot worse.

In the meantime let's use the current (majority) staff's knowledge of ancient, clapped out equipment and getting the service back up and running and .... errr..... get rid of em!


World Class eh?

I would agree. . . . . Railway experience is a must for people who wish to have more of a responsible role within any area of the business, be it Service Control, Trains or Stations.

It will get worse before it gets better unfortunately.

I can just see BA advertising jobs for 747 pilots in ' Baggage Handlers Weekly ' . . . . They wouldn't do it so why do we ?

Dave, I would love to inform each T/Op that he or she will reverse here, divert there at the start of each journey, as you are well aware we work in a real time world and unfortunately we cannot always give notice in advance ( would be interested to know whether it was the L/C you spoke to at Barking or the SO, as there have been cases when the SO at Barking as arranged with the T/Op and kept us out of the loop altogether) The night turn SM was advised by the H&C SM that the train was in full working order ( as per the Hammersmith DDM) Who are we to argue if we are told that the train is in working order not to let it run.

Yes I am staff !

Oh it comes from much higher than that!

I can't say definitively who gave us the instruction to accept the bay road; it was my trainee who actually took the call, but I do accept that it is often Barking Cabin that contcts us at that location.

Of course I accept that you cannot keep every train 100% in the loop, but surely you have enough tools available to you to make more proactive decisions than was the case on Tuesday?

There was obviously a lamentable lack of trains at the west end of the line. I can understand that trains due for relief at either Baking or Upminster need to go at least as far as their relieving points - and west end turns which still have a good amount of time before due for relief or book off too - but early reversing of trains at available points east to west surely would have helped reduce the late reliefs at Earls Court where it would have at least achieved some reduction in the congestion in this area?

You know as well as I do that t's very easy to be 'insular' on these occasions, but I know from conversations with a good number who got caught up in it all that there seemed a lamentable lack of effort to resolve the situation.

Interesting about the misinformation concerning the state of the defective train given to the District SM; this certainly differs to what I was told by a west end TOM.

I know it's a case od 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' in these situations, but I hope you can see what I'm driving at!

Unfortunately its the same old story time and time again, the left hand never knows what the right hand is doing and usually when it all goes belly up they try to blame something or someone else.

I'm just pleased that we finally have proof that District line controllers exist.

They've never answered the radio in all the years i've run over their tracks!