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Experience plays a big part, after a while you can spot the dodgy ones by their body language & mannerisms. Local knowledge also helps. So does recognising the regulars who always try it on.

On the WC Mainline in the period when they were doing a lot of the upgade work & they had to switch the overhead power off on a Saturday night & Sunday morning, Silverlink Trains as it was at the time used to borrow 150/1s off of Central Trains & ran them in multiple to maintain the late night...

On the Class 153s we use if the driver needs to get out of the train he calls the guard to the front of the train & he stands by the door to stop people from falling out. Hope this Helps.

LM have the fast Crewe/Birmingham (Leaves at xx40 ish) throughout the day. This Service only calls at WFJ then MKC. This service is not much slower that the Virgin Service.

One of the biggest problems appears to be lack of high speed running. They tiddley bump along the Marston Vale Line barely getting much over 40 mph between stations, with the exeption of a few areas where they might get to 50-55mph. This seems to be causing problems with oil & coolant...

The fact that you are Ex-railway makes it a little different. However it is not normally allowed. Having said that whilst working a 321 out of london, I did once allow a Heavly Pregant lady into my air conditioned cab once on a very hot day. The train was packed & nobody was letting her sit...

I was awarded £50 compo once for an assault where my nose was broken. I think I got about a £1 a week for a few months before he decided he could not afford to pay it anymore & I got bugger all.

Even if you do have barriers at both stations you are travelling between, a barrier can not discover split ticket fraud or where 1st has been used by a STD ticket holder, both these can only be caught by on train checks. I have personally caught one split ticket fraudster & i know of quite a...

150's into Euston was a regular occurance on Saturdays nights throughout the WC upgrade as they would shut the power off to do the engineering work, & diesels were the only option.

I bought mine from eBay. 142 Glazing 142 Body Shell Seating Class 158 bodyshell are I think only avaiable from Bachmann. Hope this helps.

On the London Midland 350's we have no choice about the middle cabs. When they converted what was the guards office by 1st class to a catering office (None of which have never been used with a trolley in place.) The only place we can go if the train is very busy is one of the non driving cabs.

Pumbaa you have obviously never been on any of the trains I work, unless the train is so full that I physically can't get out of the cab, I'm always in the train doing ticket checks or customer service. As a grade I feel that guards have an essential safety role to play. I do get cheesed off...

It is not right to generalise & say that all the guards at a particular depot never do their job. So by saying that they do causes offence to the Guards that do the job properly. You also have to take into account that from Rugby southwards the trains are generally quite busy, just because you...

As a Bletchley guard I find this offensive. I check tickets on every train I work & am never sat in the cab reading a paper. You have generalised on a massive scale, there are a minority of guards who do stay in the cab for the entire journey, but on the whole the guards do the job they are...

Silverlink ran some rather unusual combo's over the period of their franchise. When they had WCML Engineering Works when the wires were switched off I can remember working a 4 car 117 DMU from Bletchley to Euston in place of 321's. I have worked Fragonset 31's on the Bedford Branch with MK1 &...

No, we don't sign 150/2's, we would have to have the conversion course, as they have some differences from 150/1's. Stock go's back once a week, BLY crew takes it as far a COV, then a BHM driver takes it from there to Tyseley.

It had to, otherwise LM would have been fined for short forms etc.

The branch line between Coventry & Nuneaton is a regular target for cable theft. The south end of the WCML has had cable thefts as well. It's annoying that if they get caught they get a slap on the wrist & told not to do it again. The same people who steal the cable are also the ones...

They probably do, but I assume that when you have a full train to do a ticket check on you might not have time to be able to make a phone call (as it would probabley take a while to confirm) & then there is the unreliability of mobile phones on the train due to infrastucture blocking the signal.

LM have had another 350 repainted by so called "Graffiti Artists", I use the word loosely as too me all they are is Vandals who should be strung up. This is the 4th unit in 7 days that have been hit. This one was done in Coventry Yard.