Guards

Maybe a characteristic of the Vic line’s ATO system? I don’t think it’s actually possible on the other ATO lines because I’ve certainly never encountered it.

How urgent is your journey if those few seconds matter‽
A second or two at every station soon matters.
Just 1.5 seconds is over a minute on an Ealing to Upminster trip, which affects timetabling and potentially the service capability.
Or maybe 10-15 seconds on an average passenger journey. Surely that is worth the trouble?

Not necessarily just an impression if Piers Connor, writing in "The London Underground Electric Train", is to be believed (and of course he is )

 
That, however, was C stock, what will happen with S stock and ATO and the possibility of the doors opening themselves too(!) I can't really say.

I think if it's the difference between making a connection and not then it is quite important and for those of us who get to work by taking the first train, there isn't necessarily that option of getting out of bed 5, 10, 15 minutes earlier and getting the one before.

Also, psychologically, it might be silly but there's nothing more frustrating than watching the doors of the train you were hoping to change onto close before your eyes as you make your way across a platform for a cross-platform interchange, or even as you wait for your train to finally get on with the important business of stopping and opening its doors for you

Also, if you are coming home after a long day at work and you just miss a train you were hoping to change onto, it might not matter if the next train will be along in just a few minutes, but if it means I get to Woodford just after the Hainault train has left (possibly sitting outside Woodford waiting for it to leave) instead of just before it, that can be a little bit disheartening, it means I will get home twenty minutes later than I otherwise would have, which means I will end up in bed twenty minutes later, which makes getting that first train the following morning just that little bit harder.

I know it's not walking five miles every morning to fetch clean water or landing on the beeches at Dunkirk, but a few seconds while the train decides that yes it is absolutely safe to open those doors can cost me twenty minutes of quality time with the person I love and I don't feel too bad about getting frustrated by that

I've checked and 'notch-up' is not in the terminology list.

Sounds intriguing, though.

Assuming he's not going to actually move the train, the only think I can think of is momentarily applying power against the brakes, which seems hard to believe.

Or is it a signalling term?

In fact the only thing a lack of doors closed circuit prevented was the guard sending the bell signal to start.

Notching up was also used to free a sticky door.

NDM Non-Driving Motor cars were not fitted with Guards equipment, it was the DM Driving Motor cars, at the opposite end to the driver.

No it was the rear car.

That’s correct. The seventh car was the SNDM so the the guard would be in the platform.

I remember this quite vividly. As a kid coming back from my grans in Shephers Bush, when we changed at TCR for the Northern Line to Stockwell, the trains were heaving with soldiers and sailors. At Waterloo it took longer for them to all pile out and the motorman would 'notch up'The first time I witnessed it I thought the train was leaving with all the doors open! Often saw the guard use the 'speakerphone' to advise the motorman of the delay.

Well, in my case, it's noting to do with 'old school' because I'm not a train driver. Although when my love of the underground started I'm sure notching up was still a thing.

Presumably in the good old days, interlocking wasn't a thing and you just had to rely on the motorman to not drive away before being given the starting signal.

'Notching-up' is the (electric) tramway term for accelerating the car, for obvious reasons.
('Gripping' is the cable equivalent. This is NOT the same as 'taking rope')

There is an amount of discussion above about how the guard signals to the driver that the train is ready to depart.

I was wondering today, as the train arrived in the station, stopped, then shuffled forward before the doors opened, how would the guard know when the train stops that the driver will not make a further movement, and they may open the doors?