18-04-2012 an update...

Good afternoon

Just a bit of an update, nothing really new has happened to me as of late, but I thought an update would be an idea just to show that I am still alive and well!

Since my last update when I was driving a diesel down to Exeter I have spent a few days on class 455 suburban stock and have seen visits to both Chessington South, and I also had a go from Waterloo to Guildford via Epsom and actually drove past the house of Jimmy White the snooker player!!
I must admit that I had a comfortable feeling driving one of these trains. They are so simple and are very good for braking, it was also nice not to have any modern technology on this units like a train management system, it felt like the train was much more "mechanical". It's a shame that I won't be driving these at Fratton!

Since the 455's I have started on 458 "Juniper" class trains. These are mostly found on the Reading line and when I drove one on the slow speed days I must admit I didn't really like them. However, since driving one empty yesterday and driving a very busy 0724 from Reading to Waterloo this morning I now have a new respect for them. Their braking is absolutely amazing. the brake control is fully adjustable and goes from Low to High. When driving normally, to brake the train you put it to Low which is the trains lightest braking setting and the deceleration is amazing. You very rarely move the controller past "Low" and I can only imagine just how good the brakes are if you put it into High!!

On another note, I had my first train fault today on the above service. I pulled into Richmond and after the doors released and alarm sounded on the cab. Consulting the TMS (Train Management System) it told me that the Call for Aid button had been pressed in coach 6. After contacting the guard to let him know what was happening I contacted the signaller to tell him of the delay. While I was waiting I saw that the Call for Aid was sorted and that I could continue. However, it immediately came on again and we got no response when we attempted to speak to it. The guard could not reset it and neither could we, so being very wary of the fact that my train was 5 minutes late already, was absolutely packed and there were trains starting to stack up behind me, we contacted fleet control at Waterloo to see if they could help us. It turned out they couldn't but they did give us permission to continue and allow us to be met at Waterloo by a fitter (which is good as I didn't really want to turf everyone out at Richmond!!)
After speaking to the signaller again, we continued on and eventually arrived at Waterloo 7 late. My old habit as a guard kept making me want to reach for the handset and make a PA announcement but then it occurred to me that I had a guard of my own to do that for me!!
Other than that, an uneventful day. Heavy rain has made driving a little challenging today and it is set to be the same tomorrow. Back to Reading again tomorrow which means getting up at 0400! Might as well go to bed now!!