Post by solidbond on Apr 17, 2005 23:59:50 GMT
Following on from Q8s story earlier, here is a similar story of my own.
Back in the 80’s, I was a guard on the Central Line. Got to work one day doing a middle turn, about 1330 start. Booked on at Hainault, with no sign of any problems on the line. The first half of the duty was an absolute killer! Hainault – Ealing Broadway – Newbury Park – Ealing Broadway – White City for grub!. I can’t remember what the second half was supposed to do, but after a first half like that, I’m sure there couldn’t have been too much!
All was going well as we went west, until we reached Shepherd’s Bush (SB). We were delayed there for a short while, before we continued on to Ealing. When we got to Ealing I asked my driver what the problem had been. He told me that the foreman at SB had told him there was a problem with the water levels on the Eastbound. Now there were pumps to remove excess water installed in the SB – White City area, but they were, for some reason, linked to the tunnel lights. It seems that, if the tunnel lights were switched OFF the pumps also switched off – but to reset the pumps was more involved that just switching the tunnel lights back on! Apparently, there had been a new foreman at SB that morning, and, not having been told otherwise, on seeing the tunnel lights on, had switched them off! The foreman at SB had been telling my driver that he had reported the water level rising, but so far nothing had been done.
Well, we left Ealing to go back to Newbury Park, and it was a bit of a slow journey approaching White City. We were held at White City for a little while, and my driver informed me that there were signals failing between WC and SB – not surprising really! Sure enough, as we approached SB my driver called me on the Loudaphone (basically an electrical version of 2 cans and a piece of string!!) to tell me he was applying the rule to get into SB. I went to the back cab to check the tail lights, as I was supposed to do, and as we moved off I was looking out the rear cab window – the water level was certainly high – it was even above the current rails!! How the traction current remained on I’ll never know, but as the shoes on the rear car (and probably each of the other motored cars) hit the water there was an loud ‘whoosh’ sound, and there was condensation appearing on the outside of all the windows!
We continued our journey to Newbury Park without further incident, but of course we still needed to go back to Ealing, and then to White City for our meal relief! We left Newbury Park some 5 minutes late, and again, all was well until we got to Liverpool Street. By this time it was 1700, but the signalman came out of the signal cabin on the platform to tell me that we were going to be held there for 5 minutes – due to the fact that there was one more train, right behind us, and that one was the last one to have left Leytonstone, some 15 minutes running time away!!
Well, to make matters worse, on this particular night, West Ham were playing at QPR, and there were a few fans on my train making there way to the game. Given that it was now the peak hour (the peak hours were more clearly defined years ago than they are now!!) it was very slow going through the centre of town. Station announcements were being made to tell passengers to get on my train, even if they were going to West Ruislip destinations – but even those going one or two stops were struggling to board!!
After dropping the West Ham fans off at SB, we finally arrived at White City, heading westbound to Ealing, some 30 minutes late, at the time when we should have been arriving there on the eastbound!
We continued to Ealing, but on the way I noticed that there were a lot of trains trying to go eastbound, and not moving very much! So on arrival at Ealing, I suggested to my driver that we talk to the line controller, and ask him to let us know when we to leave so that we can at least reach the platform at West Acton. Bearing in mind that there were no train radios in those days, this had to be done using the ‘railway automatic telephone system’, (which to this day is known at the Auto phone system)
We stayed at Ealing Broadway for about 30 mins in the end, when we finally got the all clear to proceed – however it was only as far as West Acton! At the time we left Ealing, the QPR v West Ham match was just due to kick off. When we finally arrived at White City, where we had been due to get off for our meal relief, we were some 3 hours late! It had taken over two hours to get from Ealing Broadway to White City, which should have taken 11 minutes! The train alongside us had fared even worse – they had taken 3 hours to get from Northolt, 13 minutes away!
Well, having arrived at White City, we were now supposed to be on our meal relief, albeit some 3 hours late, but we were told that there was no relief for the train. We suggested putting it in the depot, but were told that the depot was filled about an hour or so earlier, and we couldn’t put it in the siding as that was needed to reverse trains, and therefore we would have to take it through to Leytonstone! Reluctantly we accepted this, and proceeded eastbound, (not very happy!!) On arrival at Shepherds Bush, what was awaiting us? Only the West Ham fans on their way home from the match with QPR!!! I worked out that, not only had my train taken the fans to the match, but we had left Ealing as the match had kicked off, got to North Acton at half-time, got to White City at full-time, and were now taking the fans home again!!
On arrival at Leytonstone there was a crew waiting to take the train to Hainault, but since they would then have had to go back to Leytonstone ‘on the cushions’, ie as passengers, and since I had to go to Hainault to go home, I agreed to work the train through to Hainault myself. By the time I got to Hainault I had been working that same train for almost 8 hours, without a break!
Back in the 80’s, I was a guard on the Central Line. Got to work one day doing a middle turn, about 1330 start. Booked on at Hainault, with no sign of any problems on the line. The first half of the duty was an absolute killer! Hainault – Ealing Broadway – Newbury Park – Ealing Broadway – White City for grub!. I can’t remember what the second half was supposed to do, but after a first half like that, I’m sure there couldn’t have been too much!
All was going well as we went west, until we reached Shepherd’s Bush (SB). We were delayed there for a short while, before we continued on to Ealing. When we got to Ealing I asked my driver what the problem had been. He told me that the foreman at SB had told him there was a problem with the water levels on the Eastbound. Now there were pumps to remove excess water installed in the SB – White City area, but they were, for some reason, linked to the tunnel lights. It seems that, if the tunnel lights were switched OFF the pumps also switched off – but to reset the pumps was more involved that just switching the tunnel lights back on! Apparently, there had been a new foreman at SB that morning, and, not having been told otherwise, on seeing the tunnel lights on, had switched them off! The foreman at SB had been telling my driver that he had reported the water level rising, but so far nothing had been done.
Well, we left Ealing to go back to Newbury Park, and it was a bit of a slow journey approaching White City. We were held at White City for a little while, and my driver informed me that there were signals failing between WC and SB – not surprising really! Sure enough, as we approached SB my driver called me on the Loudaphone (basically an electrical version of 2 cans and a piece of string!!) to tell me he was applying the rule to get into SB. I went to the back cab to check the tail lights, as I was supposed to do, and as we moved off I was looking out the rear cab window – the water level was certainly high – it was even above the current rails!! How the traction current remained on I’ll never know, but as the shoes on the rear car (and probably each of the other motored cars) hit the water there was an loud ‘whoosh’ sound, and there was condensation appearing on the outside of all the windows!
We continued our journey to Newbury Park without further incident, but of course we still needed to go back to Ealing, and then to White City for our meal relief! We left Newbury Park some 5 minutes late, and again, all was well until we got to Liverpool Street. By this time it was 1700, but the signalman came out of the signal cabin on the platform to tell me that we were going to be held there for 5 minutes – due to the fact that there was one more train, right behind us, and that one was the last one to have left Leytonstone, some 15 minutes running time away!!
Well, to make matters worse, on this particular night, West Ham were playing at QPR, and there were a few fans on my train making there way to the game. Given that it was now the peak hour (the peak hours were more clearly defined years ago than they are now!!) it was very slow going through the centre of town. Station announcements were being made to tell passengers to get on my train, even if they were going to West Ruislip destinations – but even those going one or two stops were struggling to board!!
After dropping the West Ham fans off at SB, we finally arrived at White City, heading westbound to Ealing, some 30 minutes late, at the time when we should have been arriving there on the eastbound!
We continued to Ealing, but on the way I noticed that there were a lot of trains trying to go eastbound, and not moving very much! So on arrival at Ealing, I suggested to my driver that we talk to the line controller, and ask him to let us know when we to leave so that we can at least reach the platform at West Acton. Bearing in mind that there were no train radios in those days, this had to be done using the ‘railway automatic telephone system’, (which to this day is known at the Auto phone system)
We stayed at Ealing Broadway for about 30 mins in the end, when we finally got the all clear to proceed – however it was only as far as West Acton! At the time we left Ealing, the QPR v West Ham match was just due to kick off. When we finally arrived at White City, where we had been due to get off for our meal relief, we were some 3 hours late! It had taken over two hours to get from Ealing Broadway to White City, which should have taken 11 minutes! The train alongside us had fared even worse – they had taken 3 hours to get from Northolt, 13 minutes away!
Well, having arrived at White City, we were now supposed to be on our meal relief, albeit some 3 hours late, but we were told that there was no relief for the train. We suggested putting it in the depot, but were told that the depot was filled about an hour or so earlier, and we couldn’t put it in the siding as that was needed to reverse trains, and therefore we would have to take it through to Leytonstone! Reluctantly we accepted this, and proceeded eastbound, (not very happy!!) On arrival at Shepherds Bush, what was awaiting us? Only the West Ham fans on their way home from the match with QPR!!! I worked out that, not only had my train taken the fans to the match, but we had left Ealing as the match had kicked off, got to North Acton at half-time, got to White City at full-time, and were now taking the fans home again!!
On arrival at Leytonstone there was a crew waiting to take the train to Hainault, but since they would then have had to go back to Leytonstone ‘on the cushions’, ie as passengers, and since I had to go to Hainault to go home, I agreed to work the train through to Hainault myself. By the time I got to Hainault I had been working that same train for almost 8 hours, without a break!
