Class 165 surprise

Yes, S/B off platform 2 at Harrow-on-the-Hill onto the unelectrified NR line to Marylebone.

Yes it did! They had to scotch and clip off the adjacent down line (into platform 3) which shut that off too. Several Chilterns were reversed North from platform 2. Eventually the train was brought back onto the platform and sent to Rickmansworth.

The reason for the error in the first place was the Met train was Rick-Neasden ECS booked local line but the signalman at Harrow though it was a Chiltern train!

It's all very easy to make assumptions of what the driver may or may not have been thinking. At the time in question, the driver may have been running on "auto-pilot." How many car drivers here have taken a wrong turn somewhere, or have driven for a few minutes and not remembered anything about the trip itself

Because it came about through a lack of concentration (for whatever reason) the difference about the lack of pointwork, the fact that he hadn't crossed over etc.etc. will not have figured until it was too late.

I think there was a points problem at Watford South Junction on the day so the train was routed onto the up fast line when it was normally booked to run non stop on the local line. Please note this was an empty stock movement, the train was out of service and the driver would not have stopped anywhere!

Considering the train would usually run straight across Harrow Nth Junction at some speed, the driver was probably on 'auto-pilot' and at the end of his shift. It is excussable I must say. The other problem was both driver and signaller got it wrong. If either had paid attention it wouldn't have happened. Remember, nobody was hurt and nothing was damaged. It made the Underground news too ;D

Time for ACO (Automatic Car Operation) maybe? Google have recently been testing self-driving cars and these tests have so far been quite successful.

I too have done this. In my case it was a junction on a business park sort of place I'd never been to before in Bristol (other than driving into it some hours earlier). It was about 10:30pm and pitch black. I was busy trying to navigate the unsigned roads to try and get back onto the main road, saw traffic lights ahead of me on green and proceeded towards them, checking the junction I was at was clear. It wasn't until I was halfway across the nearer junction that one of my passengers said I'd gone through a red light. I just hadn't seen the nearer set of lights at all. I suspect most car drivers have done something similar too.

The same can happen on railways, which is why drivers get road trained (so they know where they are and don't have to concentrate on finding their way - even as a pedestrian it's a quicker and less mentally taxing journey and you see more of what is going on around you when you know where you're going than when you don't); and why signals are sighted to avoid what I think is called "read through" (I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong)