Inspector Sands at Man Picc

[ASharpe]

I often work near the Billingham chemical works, I was a little concerned when I first heard the alarm test there.

 

[scotsman]

I hear the odd siren from the docks drifting over the breeze in the middle of the night. Bit disconcerting.

For those interested, in Wetherspoons 'Mr Jet' is a fire and 'Inspector Gadget' is a suspicious package. Never once heard them used outside of training.

 

[theshillito]

Not sure about anyone else, but I'm finding this information fascinating! Kinda tempted to report to the desk at Piccadilly after hearing an announcement and say "Hello, I'm Inspector Sands. You called?"

 

[talldave]

Inspector Sands was being continuously paged this morning at London Victoria. I hurried down into the underground station before anything more major kicked off!

 

[GatwickDepress]

I often work near the Billingham chemical works, I was a little concerned when I first heard the alarm test there.

I had a holiday in a caravan site opposite an oil refinery. The plant alarms made great alarm clocks.

 

[73001]

In a previous role in the emergency services, at major events we used to use Richard Rodriguez to alert staff that something was going on. Considering that one of them was a massive sporting event, I always wondered if there ever was a Richard Rodriguez there and we asked him to go to where the 'danger' was, if he'd be slightly annoyed!

 

[kevconnor]

In a previous role in the emergency services, at major events we used to use Richard Rodriguez to alert staff that something was going on. Considering that one of them was a massive sporting event, I always wondered if there ever was a Richard Rodriguez there and we asked him to go to where the 'danger' was, if he'd be slightly annoyed!

It's quite common now with emergency management not to do that and to make the announcement so that it may seem like the it could be anything. The reference I made earlier to Mr Big was changed whilst I worked at said shop to something more banal, from memory it was something like would the duty manager please report to customer services. That being a false job title but was code for staff to be alert to what ever might be happening and for those who needed to act (eg management and/or security) to do as they needed to do.

 

[edwin_m]

Using a generic job title seems far more sensible - I worked briefly in a department store in the 80s and the message was generic then, and the risk of using what might be a real name is worrying. At least anyone called Sands who joins any sort of official body should find out about this before they get promoted to Inspector.

 

[PHILIPE]

Is this repeated in Welsh?

Yes. The Welsh came first and because the Superintendent did not understand Welsh, the place had burned down by the time he heard the English version. Joke, of course, in view of recent posts on bilingual announcements.

 

[Lockwood]

I know of a place which used car registrations. The three letters were combinations that were not valid for a registration, or so they thought. "Would the owner of a red Golf, C 132 DXY report to reception" and DXY would have a special meaning.

They stopped doing this when they saw a car in the car park with one of the codewords on.

 

[Starmill]

When an Inspector Sands announcement is triggered, does it silence other announcements?

I believe it does, yes.

 

[91103eastcoast]

I believe it does, yes.

Thanks

 

[Busaholic]

When a mass outbreak of food poisoning occurs on a station there's a call-out for Colonel Sanders.

 

[causton]

I know of a place which used car registrations. The three letters were combinations that were not valid for a registration, or so they thought. "Would the owner of a red Golf, C 132 DXY report to reception" and DXY would have a special meaning.

They stopped doing this when they saw a car in the car park with one of the codewords on.

In the shopping centre that I work in I did see that the announcement for security threats is for a "Ford Sierra with reg BS1 ABC (for a Bomb Scare) etc" to report to the information desk, showing how old the documentation is!

I also use code words in the store, but as they relate to shoplifters they probably won't be best to publish

 

[ralphchadkirk]

I also use code words in the store, but as they relate to shoplifters they probably won't be best to publish

So posting the bomb scare code word is fine, but the shoplifter one isn't?

 

[headshot119]

One shop I worked in used the subtle - "Would Robin B-stard, please report to aisle X"

 

[185143]

The system at Piccadilly is tested every Monday between 11-12

That would explain why I heard it sat on the 11:17 Chester on Christmas eve then!

 

[najaB]

Does anyone happen to know why Inspector Sands was being paged for about 15 minutes yesterday at Edinburgh Waverley? Would have been around 17:30 or so - my train left while he was still being summoned to the NR reception desk.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Thursday afternoon is often system test day
at EDB, However the pre announcement that should go before it is pre recorded and so quiet that its hardly audible.

 

[najaB]

Thursday afternoon is often system test day
at EDB, However the pre announcement that should go before it is pre recorded and so quiet that its hardly audible.

I would have thought a test would be a couple of repetitions - this went on for a good 10+ minutes. Maybe they were doing audibility tests in different parts of the station.

 

[QueensCurve]

11.10 am and on the tannoy comes a repeated request "Will Inspector Sands please go to the main office".

However nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary - no fights, no smoke, not even an angry baby.

What sort of things can require the attention of 'Inspector Sands' that may not be immediately obvious to the general public?

And if anyone knows the cause of today's alert, I'd be intrigued!

There used to be an anouncement at Crewe: "A member of Mr Bignall's Staff to...".

I believe this was code for a member of BTP to attend. Please correct me if anyone knows differently.

 

[CockneySparrow]

So is Inspector Sands only summoned at stations, or do depots / trains with onboard staff etc also play the message?

It's quite clever really, avoiding the public panicking due to a fire alarm.

Used to work in a night club and that was used there although it was Mr Sands rather than inspector, so guess its used in may places

 

[alexl92]

I've heard it in Leeds on an evening, going for a good ten minutes on one occasion. Really really loud and irritating.

 

[mbreckers]

I've heard it in Leeds on an evening, going for a good ten minutes on one occasion. Really really loud and irritating.

Surely loud and irritating is a good thing, got your attention didnt it