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It's not quite in the same league in terms of mileage, but the first 313 out of Littlehampton to Portsmouth in the morning clocks up 344 miles in a day. But in doing so it makes 129 station stops, without any regenerative or rheostatic braking, and (signals permitting) you reach at least 50mph...

Sockets that have been provided for public use must not result in disgruntled passengers sueing the TOC because the train destroyed their expensive device. Therefore they will be fed from an expensive power supply that will provide a reasonably clean 230V sine wave output near 50Hz with an...

There are derailers at Littlehampton depot on all three shed roads (but not on the sidings roads parallel to the shed roads). The yard is very nearly flat (as those who have been gapped have found out, releasing your brakes doesn't let you roll either forward or backward onto the juice). Whether...

Braking technique varies bienially with us. In spring/summer most drivers do step 1(of 3) all the way in if they can. Step 2 and coasting are for error correction, step 3 only if you have cocked up. In autumn/winter for leaf fall and ice we are required to start each brake application with a...

313s on Southern still have some (or maybe all) of the equipment required to do rheostatic braking. My understanding is that the heat generated in the resistors was once used to heat the saloon. However as drivers we are required to keep the circuit breaker on the cab back wall off, and rumours...

Keep applying. Again and again. Consider the things a TOC/FOC are looking for. They want someone who (1) will be able to do the job, and (2) will stick with the job. You have alluded to a safety critical background (police). That says you can follow rules, are trainable, are prepared to take...

Got to my first station stop and spotted that the Customer Information System was saying "Terminates here" instead of my expected destination. My first thought was "Oh sh!t, how have I f*cked up?", but it turned out a signal failure meant I could go no further. We kicked everyone off and then...

I'm sure someone with more S&T knowledge than me will come along soon to correct me, but I think I may be able to explain why this happens... In the AWS ramp on the track there is a permenent magnet facing "up" followed by a coil acting as an electromagnet that when energised faces "down". (I...

Certainly on 313s and 377s, and probably on various other classes, there is a natural vacuum in the cab relative to the saloon. I guess this happens as the bow wave of air is pushed aside by the train leaving a slight vacuum at the sides of the train around the driver's side window. The driver's...

Littlehampton has room to berth up to 76 carriages in the depot (another 38 in the station itself), although only about 75% of that space is used. There are 1.5 exits from the depot to the station, both southbound into the (terminus) station, where stock has to change direction to reach the...

@Flange Squeal What fantastic variety! Which depot? Where can I join the queue to get in? And how long is the waiting list? Back to the original question, for me my least favourite drive is the one I have done several times over the last few days, and my favourite is doing something out of the...

313s cannot do Soton now because the conductors lost their route knowledge aeons ago. On the West coast from Havant you must turn left at Farlington Junction with the clockwork trains.

That would seem like a good idea, but it does affect the timings. Failure to stop at a red is considered a much worse cockup that failure to stop at the right place on a platform. As such, my train operating company's Professional Driver Policy requires me to slow to 30mph at 300m from a red...

I suspect that any attempt to distinguish between the very variable and noisy resistance of an arc and the quite variable and noisy resistance of normal EMU operation would fail as soon as ice forms on the conductor rail. Certainly at any speed over about 10mph in a 313 on ice it can sound like...

I suspect that semaphore will out-live coloured lights. Why? Because of maintainability. If a mechanical interlocking breaks, it is simple enough that any mechanical engineer can fix it. And being ancient it is unencumbered by patents. If an ETCS system is installed now, and the hardware is...

The humble gronk must get a mention. Ignoring the LMS 7069 series from 1936 which didn't have jackshaft drive and considering the LMS 7080 series of 1939 to be the first true gronks, wasn't the design essentially unchanged right up to the end of class 08/09 production in 1962? I make that 23 years.

There are three ways that I use, knowing what a 4/8/12 car train looks like on the other line of a double track, imagining what a train would look like on the other line of the double track, and mental arithmetic. For PSRs on a reasonably busy double track, one day you will approach the PSR at...

Well, I can report back that on both 313s and 377s I prefer having the weight of both feet on the pedal at the same time. When learning to drive on 313s I accidentally verified that there is no grace period if you relax pressure on the DSD pedal and the power handle DSD switch is also up. We...

I drive 313s and 377s. Both have pedals which fit two feet nicely. The weight of both legs together is enough to hold the pedal down, not sure one leg's weight would be enough over rough riding track. You've tweeked my curiosity. I might try driving with one foot off the pedal over to the side...

Thanks all for your replies. There is an interesting amount of disagreement! I'd forgotten that the haulage was contracted out to FOCs, at least on the Caledonian, so links can be forgotten. It does sound though as if the pool of suitably qualified drivers must be fairly small, and I wonder if...