Duties: best and worst, earliest and latest

Last duty at Upminster used to start 17:00 for 01:30 finish

Also at NOG some of their dead lates book on after 18:00 Mon-Fri and after 19:00 Sat.

Oh, so the Underground had it easier than the buses

Last driver/conductor duty at Edmonton garage on Saturdays in 1970 was book on 1915, meal relief 2330, book off 0300 Sunday- and this was an ordinary late shift not a night duty.

I'd say that there is more to a duty that just the starting and finishing times that determines if it is a horrible one or not.

For example, one of my allocated duties (I and three other drivers share three duties according to a rolling roster) is as follows:

Duty no 1965. Mon-Thur

Train 17/22 Gullmarsplan northbound 18:28 - to stabling in Vällingby depot 20:55.

10 minutes booking off time

Travel allowance Vällingby - Gullmarsplan 21:05 - 21:49

Train 19/37 Gullmarsplan northbound 23:05 to stabling in Högdalen depot 25:07 (that is, 01:07 am)

10 minutes booking off time.

22 minutes travel compensation time, since I start and finish in different locations.

Now, some poeple might not like this duty, since it finishes at 25:07, in a rather godforsaken area of Stockholm , too. And there is no meal relief on this duty -you only have a paid "pause" of 30 minutes, which can come into play if things go up the wall.

On the other hand, I consider this to be a very good duty. Not too much driving, and in the first part of the duty, you are running against the direction of the peak flow for quite a while, so you even escape the worst of the evening peak. And if you know when to hurry up, you can do both stablings before the timetabled time, giving you a nice long break and an early finish. The only finicky thing is your last trip southbound, since you pass the outlet from the Slakthuset engineer's depot just as the yellow diesel lemmings start pouring out, so you can be held up there for a while.

This duty is also a bit unusual in that it is a "compact" duty -you only drive two different traisn on your duty. The normal pattern is more on the lines of "drive for a while, have a short break, drive some more, have a meal relief, drive even more, have a short break, drive your last train and then go home", with the short breaks being on the order of 10-20 minutes and paid time.

Generally, the earliest of our driver duties on weekdays start at 04:30, and then finish around 11:50-12:00-ish. The latest weekday duties start at around 19:00-19:45 and finish around 26:00 (02:00 am). There are also a few overnight duties, which you have to have enormous amounts of seniority to bid for as a permanent job. They start at about 23:00 and finish at about 06:00 the day after.

Weekend duties are slightly different. The earliest ones begin at about 05:00, while there are several late night duties for the night trains that start at about 21:00 and finish at about 28:00 (04:00 am)

Some of the depot night staff are on a 7/7 schedule -they work 7 nights in a row with about nine hours per night, and are then off for seven days straight.

Having only been at Upminster for the last 10 years, I don't know about the duties before Company Plan, but some of the rough turns I can mention are as follows.
There used to be a late turn, approx 1530 start, bring 102 out of Upminster depot - straight to Ealing Broadway and back into Ealing Common depot. Had grub at Acton, then picked up Acton West - Ealing - Tower Hill - Wimbledon - High St Ken - Ealing - Upminster depot For an Upminster man to be going west THREE times after grub is rough!
Another rough turn was 546 duty some 5-6 years ago. Picked up Upm platform - Wimbledon - Tower Hill - Earl's Court for grub. But as you were due to get off at 1912, you would invariably be running late. Trouble was, you only got 47 minutes before you were picking up on the East to do - ECT - Upminster - Ealing - Upminster depot. As I once commented, the only good thing about that duty was that it was well balanced - loads of work on the first half - and loads more on the second half ;D ;D
As Igelkotten said, it is not just the start and finish times that make a bad duty. Sometimes you can get a short duty, but the way it is laid out can make it feel like a long duty. An example is where you book on about 1300, having had some lunch at home before going to work, then pick up at Upminster take the train to ECT, and have your meal relief. Since it is now only a couple of hours since you had lunch, you don't feel hungry. But then you pick up after the break, and have to do ECT - Wimbledon - Tower Hill - Wimbledon - Upminster. Halfway through that you are hungry again, but if you have anything to eat you won't be hungry when you get home for dinner

The only way that I can have a short duty is to start at one end of the city and finish on the other end. Every crew has to do at least 8 hours on the clock, but if you finish at another terminal, they either have to pay you the time it actually takes to return to the starting terminal (at time and a half) or deduct it from the 8 hour day at straight time.

Our best duty would be one particular trick on the B. On at 0547 at Coney Island, make up a train for B service, make a one-way trip to Bedford Park Blvd, lay the train up at Concourse Yard then clear at CCYD at 1210. On the clock for 6:23 and get paid 8:00. Piece of cake! Got quite a few shunting jobs that are pretty nice too.

Our worst duty? Geez, we've got a slew of those. You have the choice of doing either three round trips on the C, four on the E or J or five on the L (it's bad with a second partner, OPTO makes it even worse.) You can take your pick, either one will give you 6½ to 7 hours ACTUAL driving time. Couple that with the fact that jobs start at all hours of the day, so imagine doing five round trips on the L in OPTO service, driving for a total of 6½ hours, starting at 0128 hours and finishing at 1047 (actual duty). No thanks.

Just having a look at the Acton Town District duties. Obviuosly I don't work early shifts, but I think the best duty is 303 (mon-fri) which books on at 0447( ) and finishes at 1032. Not much driving on it either.
The worst 'early' turn is probably 312, which books on at 0516 and doesn't finish until 1346.

My favourite duty is 362, which books on at 1921 (so miss all of the peak traffic) and doesn't actually drive a train until 2121, which goes Earl's Court - Richmond - Upminster - Ealing - depot (last westbound service of the night). Books off ar 0130.

On a Saturday, there's an even better early duty, which books on at 0445 and is finished by 0917 (although the meal break is at the end so is paid until 0953!)

Acton Town District has lots of 'bitsa' duties, although they're not officially duties!

They're called management cover turns, to cover the first trips for drivers booking on at Acton when we're supposed to be booking on at Earl's Court (we're still in dispute about remote booking on/off).

Some of these management cover turns have five or six different trains to cover on them, most of which are just west-to-east (eg ECTW-Wimbledon-ECTE).

And very nice it's been too!! ;D ;D ;D
As i'm in the 'pool' roster at Acton, I only get these 'special' duties. Pool drivers mainly cover Monday to Friday (weekend engineering and less customers make weekdays a priority) - I can't actually remember the last Saturday or Sunday I worked **thinks hard** must have been sometime in January ;D ;D.
Because I can't get up in the mornings I tend to get the same couple of duties.

First one - Book on 1130 Acton. Books off 1945 Acton. I haven't had it for a while but I think it has Ect - Wim, Ect - Bkg and Ect - Edg Rd on it.

The second (and most weeks on the trot) - Book on 1730 Acton. Book off 0130 Acton.
Ect - Upm - Ect, meal relief, Ect - Upm then last Richmond from Upm depot to Ect.

The only downside to this is that I haven't driven a train to Richmond or Ealing for a while.

This time last year I entered the waiting list at No. 23.

My current position is.....................





No.23.

Hmmm - could be a while yet!! ;D ;D ;D

You'll have to encourage your colleagues to eat more Earl's Court canteen grub... That'll get rid of a few more! ;D

So, how many years of seniority do you need to be able to snag a permanent night position? Other duties?

Colin, I notice in TC40 they're advertising for drivers for Loughton depot now. Would this be any use to you? I know it would mean learning the Central, but it would be a bit closer to home for you!

Think about it Colin open air and a big Upminster depot with the chance of re-furb stock or sit in tunnels all day no thanks