South Western Railway questions

[gchq]

If your character is travelling from Barnes then warn them not to go too far along the platform because they may have to make a last minute dash up the stairs to another platform when SWR announce a platform alteration just as the train is approaching the station!!!

I guess some things have not changed since the days of British Rail and 'the wrong kind of snow'

 

[thedbdiboy]

If your last experience of UK train travel was around 1969, then alongside the technical information here its probably worth giving some insights into the look, sound and feel of train travel in 2021 comopared to then. Gone is the slamming of doors, clickety-clack of wheels on jointed track, shouted commands, and quite a lot of the grime too! Modern suburban travel involves lots of recorded announcements, bleeps and alarms. Carriages are bright and open plan, so don't plot around compartments! Every station stop is announced, using pre-recorded voices which are quite poetic in the repetitiveness and the 'professional' voices used - of course these infuriate some. These are interspersed with constant invocations to take your belongings with you when leaving the trains and security warnings which for the past couple of years sign off with the phrase 'see it - say it - sorted' - again, grounds for immense irritation in some.
Unless you're going to get bogged down in the detail, the differences in a 450, a 458, a 707 or whatever don't matter to this impression. What they all have in common is the high pitched whirr and whine of the AC traction motors and braking, a completely different ambience to the much more traditional sound of DC traction which has now almost been completely superceded (and is not used on any of the lines you plan to feature).

 

[Lockwood]

And I suppose setting it in the modern era, as well as removing the sounds of shouted commands, doors slamming and pea whistles, and adding in hustle alarms, door opening chimes, and the automated service announcements, you have to have your character Cound the number of times they hear "if you see something that doesn't look right, speak to staff or text the British Transport Police on 61016....“

 

[gchq]

If your last experience of UK train travel was around 1969, then alongside the technical information here its probably worth giving some insights into the look, sound and feel of train travel in 2021 comopared to then. Gone is the slamming of doors, clickety-clack of wheels on jointed track, shouted commands, and quite a lot of the grime too! Modern suburban travel involves lots of recorded announcements, bleeps and alarms. Carriages are bright and open plan, so don't plot around compartments! Every station stop is announced, using pre-recorded voices which are quite poetic in the repetitiveness and the 'professional' voices used - of course these infuriate some. These are interspersed with constant invocations to take your belongings with you when leaving the trains and security warnings which for the past couple of years sign off with the phrase 'see it - say it - sorted' - again, grounds for immense irritation in some.
Unless you're going to get bogged down in the detail, the differences in a 450, a 458, a 707 or whatever don't matter to this impression. What they all have in common is the high pitched whirr and whine of the AC traction motors and braking, a completely different ambience to the much more traditional sound of DC traction which has now almost been completely superceded (and is not used on any of the lines you plan to feature).

Thank you. From one of the video links posted I was able to glean a lot of information about the sights and sounds. There is now a distinct jet turbo like high pitched sound instead of the bass diesel noise I remember

Back in the day stale cigarette smoke was a feature of rail travel, not to mention the British Rail cheese and tomato sandwiches that were so soggy they were curiously good

I also gather that the jolt of the couplings is now also a thing of the past. I am trying to incorporate some of the character's memories as well.

The only thing lacking in the description now relates to any smells that the commuter encounters. I have heard about stale body odour in the summer and 'wet dog' in the winter.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 Dec 2020 ==

And I suppose setting it in the modern era, as well as removing the sounds of shouted commands, doors slamming and pea whistles, and adding in hustle alarms, door opening chimes, and the automated service announcements, you have to have your character Cound the number of times they hear "if you see something that doesn't look right, speak to staff or text the British Transport Police on 61016....“

That, I imagine, would get old very quickly.

I've just noticed - it's not far off 16:00 over there and that accident that happens every year, called Christmas, is almost upon us. Happy Christmas

 

[BayPaul]

Something else not mentionned so far that is very different to your 1969 experience is ticketing. It is very unlikely your character would visit a ticket office (there in fact isn't a ticket office at Barnes, although there are ticket machines on Platform 1, which is the most likely platform he would use) or hold a paper ticket - instead he or she would probably just tap his/her contactless card (or an oyster card, or apple / google pay) on the yellow reader when entering Barnes station, making yet another beep, and then have to use the card to tap out at the gates at West Brompton - these gates are half-height single person folding ones, designed for very high throughput of passengers - any tourist who mucks up the tapping of their card will incur the wrath of the commuters around them in the form of a tut - some things haven't changed since 1969.

One feature that is very distinctive on SWR trains is that the guard opens one door first, checks that all is well, then allows operation of all of the other doors. This creates an unusual 5-10 second gap between the train stopping and the doors opening which isn't the case on most other suburban trains, and often results in a few extra stabs to the button for those who aren't used to it.

 

[Mrwerdna1]

The only thing lacking in the description now relates to any smells that the commuter encounters. I have heard about stale body odour in the summer and 'wet dog' in the winter.

Well, smell is somewhat difficult to describe as I suppose it's a particularly subjective thing. However, generally speaking, I'd say most trains these days lack a specific smell, except when they're brand new, where they sometimes have a slight "new car" smell. That lack of any particular smell is then filled in by other things depending on the situation.

For instance, in the evening hours of Friday and Saturday (and in the worst case well into Sunday/Monday mornings) the smell of spilt beer or sick might be quite dominant. During the week, it's also not that uncommon for trains to smell of various fast food take-aways (curry, kebab or Chinese noodles).

Then there's, as you say, the smell of body odour (particularly in summer rush hours), deodorants and perfume (if people are standing closely together) etc.

Lastly, there's also that slightly clinical stinging smell of cleaning detergents in the early hours of the morning (or sometimes in the late evening), if the train has just recently been cleaned.



On a side-note: as was also stated above, a curious but common feature of commuting these days is even minutes ahead of arrival everyone getting up and nervously, though silently shuffling towards the doors in the hope of making a quick and efficient escape, only for the train then to take a while to come to a standstill and there to be a few seconds where the train has actually stopped but the doors haven't been unlocked yet. This will not stop some commuters from frantically pressing the "open door" button, to no effect, then finally the characteristic "doors unlocked" chime will metaphorically set commuters free, the doors will open and the heard of commuters will be released from the train like a swarm of bees. Despite all the nervousness and hectic movements, the commuters themselves don't tend to make much noise inside the train, neither does the train itself most of the time, especially when coming to a standstill. So, the various chimes and automatic announcements will probably be the loudest sounds inside the train, accompanied by the soft (and relatively quiet) whirr of the AC traction motors, only then to be contrasted with the usually much louder environment of the station, once the doors have opened and people step onto the platform.

Note that the delay between the train coming to a standstill and the doors opening is the case on almost all of London's suburban commuter services, where the doors are still electronically unlocked and locked/closed by guards, who have to step out onto the platform first (hence the delay), but passengers still have to press a button for their respective door to open.

On London Underground trains, doors tend to open rather swiftly (with very little delay) and all are opened and closed at the same time, again electronically, by the driver. Other than that, the hectic "build up" in front of the doors is exactly the same in either case.

Lastly, it's worth mentioning the fact that most commuters in rush hour these days will either be staring at their smartphone (wether sitting, standing or walking) or listening to music on headphones / earphones or quite commonly both.

 

[DelW]

Note that the delay between the train coming to a standstill and the doors opening is the case on almost all of London's suburban commuter services, where the doors are still electronically unlocked and locked/closed by guards, who have to step out onto the platform first (hence the delay), but passengers still have to press a button for their respective door to open.

I believe that SWR is actually the only London commuter TOC to retain guards, all others are DOO so it's the driver that releases the door buttons. However there are probably still specific checks that the driver has to make before doing so.

 

[Mrwerdna1]

I believe that SWR is actually the only London commuter TOC to retain guards, all others are DOO so it's the driver that releases the door buttons. However there are probably still specific checks that the driver has to make before doing so.

Ah... seems I haven't been paying attention in the last few years (I do remember the Southern strikes a few years back though), then again when traveling into or out of London I use almost exclusively SWR trains or occasionally intercity services. The scenario I described above actually perfectly matches my experiences of pulling into Waterloo during rush-hour. I reckon just 5-10 years ago things were fairly different, no? Seems to me several services will have gone over to DOO just in recent years. Either way, the delay between the train stopping and doors opening seems to remain on most services, even with the doors now being released and closed by the drivers.

 

[DelW]

Ah... seems I haven't been paying attention in the last few years (I do remember the Southern strikes a few years back though), then again when traveling into or out of London I use almost exclusively SWR trains or occasionally intercity services. The scenario I described above actually perfectly matches my experiences of pulling into Waterloo during rush-hour. I reckon just 5-10 years ago things were fairly different, no? Seems to me several services will have gone over to DOO just in recent years. Either way, the delay between the train stopping and doors opening seems to remain on most services, even with the doors now being released and closed by the drivers.

I'm not really well placed to comment, as I mainly use SWR too. I don't think the opening delay on Desiros has changed significantly since they were introduced in around 2005 (replacing slammers with negative delay!). The 455s seem to me to be quicker to open than Desiros, though I think that's probably due to a faster mechanism rather than quicker release.
There are some SWR guards who post on here who might be able to give more definitive answers.

 

[TEW]

I'm not really well placed to comment, as I mainly use SWR too. I don't think the opening delay on Desiros has changed significantly since they were introduced in around 2005 (replacing slammers with negative delay!). The 455s seem to me to be quicker to open than Desiros, though I think that's probably due to a faster mechanism rather than quicker release.
There are some SWR guards who post on here who might be able to give more definitive answers.

Guards are able to release the doors without checking the train is correctly accommodated provided they are happy it is. That changed probably around 10 years ago. You'll probably find that guards are more happy to open the doors immediately on 455 services because they are more often worked from the same location so guards are more likely to be sure the train is correctly accommodated without actually checking.