Recent content by DaveTM

For electric units in 750V DC land, there is a limit to the power that one train can consume; see the attached picture of the Sectional Appendix. Anything normally capable of drawing more power than the infrastructure can give will have to have some of its motors isolated to stay within the...

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 full of CDROMs!

Speaking as a driver who signs through Portslade, I can directly contradict something said above. We regularly approach the station in the down direction with the barriers still up. In fact, it is rare to have anything other than single yellow on the signal in rear of the station, and it is...

In a perfect (UK, 3rd rail) world where all metals are perfect conductors with zero resistance, the conductor rail would be at about 750V and the running rails would be at 0V (both relative to the soil nearby). The train would see exactly 750V. This is not reality; see below. However, in the...

(At least at my TOC, but probably at all TOCs) it is not within a driver's power to choose to skip a station. However, a driver may be issued with a not-to-stop order on the authority of Control either directly by radio or by paper via station staff. In times of disruption, certain stations are...

There are two types of driver: those who occasionally have to go to the resource manager and ask for another spare key, and those like me that pick them up from time to time and now have more keys than years of service...

Uniforms are one of those economies of scale I hope we realise when Great British Railways begins to bite. I mean, why on earth do we currently have 30 different TOCs employing 30 different uniform design and procurement teams to provide 30 different CoRpOrAtElY BrAnDeD uniforms? I also really...

I suspect it will be like with signalling infrastructure where semaphores are outliving at least two generations of what was supposed to replace them. If it can be repaired by someone with little more than a blacksmith's skills, it will last forever, being repaired like Trigger's broom. If it...

There are two dangerous words in "...quick risk assessment by management", "quick" and "management". "Quick" No considered risk assessment is quick. You need to have documented how and why a decision was made, who was party to that decision, and why they are considered competent to make or...

Examples I've had: PA system failed in middle carriage of 3 car unit. We can't keep passengers in the middle coach becase we can't communicate with them in an emergency. We can't just lock the middle carriage out because if a fire breaks out in an end coach we can't evacuate into the middle...

In *theory*, the rulebook is black and white and covers every case. If you c*ck up, the union will not be any help. If you just turn up every day and do your job properly you will never be under threat of being sacked. All in theory is good and rosy. But... In *practice*, every day we are...

Yes, they are designed with carefully shaped reflectors to direct the light in a generally forward and slightly downward direction so that it is visible to track workers etc without being blinding to oncoming drivers and without wasting light into the sky That all works nicely until the first...

@Seejaywalker has covered most of this above nicely, but there are a couple of things I'd add. One is that it is a bit difficult for those of us in railway jobs to say whether or not our own job would suit based on the limited information you have given. I understand it might not be possible to...

Early starts and late finishes are not a good reason for rostering nights. A driver who books on very early is available during the morning rush and is working when later early starts are having breaks. A late finisher starts in time for the evening rush and is working when earlier later starts...

Bear in mind that a coal fired power station is rather like a steam engine in that you don't just put the key in and turn it on. The time taken to get the boilers from cold to working temperature and pressure without damaging them is not measured in minutes, it is hours or even days. There are...