Obviously as a Scottish Region guard I never worked a 4SUB, but with any busy train with slam-doors, even a DMU, stopping passengers getting on for long enough to get the train away could be very difficult. In early 1971, soon after decimalisation, I covered the porter's job at Lenzie station for a fortnight. On the early shift we had a booking clerk, so I didn't have to sell tickets, but even when the only thing I had to do was set up the train for the guard, it still wasn't easy at the busiest times. In the morning rush hour passengers would come over the footbridge in a constant stream. I would close the platform gate, but it had no lock on it, so very often passengers would just open it again. Yes it was easier at main stations where ticket collectors could keep the gates shut. I hated closing the platform gates in the face of passengers trying to board, especially as timekeeping was bad, so often we didn't know when the next train would actually come, but, if I had kept the train waiting till everybody who wanted to had got on, I'd have kept the train in the platform for over an hour, completely blocking the busy Edinburgh and Glasgow main line. That would probably have ended my railway career!
As a guard, I wouldn't close my door until the train had started to move, but then I'd close it quickly (as I didn't want to fall out). However I would then immediately open the droplight window in the door and continue to watch the platform until we were completely clear of it (or it was out of sight). If any emergency had arisen after I'd given the signal to start (whether by flag, lamp or bell/buzzer) I know I wouldn't have hesitated to apply the emergency brake; I didn't ever want to have a life on my conscience.
It's now over 40 years since I left the railway and a lot has changed. Much of it is for the better, but I'm not convinced it all is. Most of the trains on my local service now a worked by modern Class 385 EMUs. They have central locking so passengers cannot board after the doors have been closed. But there are still things I'm sure could be better. When I worked passenger trains it was always from a dedicated brake compartment with an in-swinging door that could be safely held open even after the train had started. Even with the door closed, and even with the very occasional ancient pre-nationalisation full brake, there was always a droplight window that I could open.
But with the 385s, the guard has no way to watch the platform after she's closed her door. And I don't know what sort of emergency brake she has either. (I hope she knows!) (I don't even know where the passenger emergency brake is on modern stock -- I suppose I should know! But I think it was easier when it alays was a chain painted red. It was always over the entrance doors. And it could always be reset by turning a "butterfly" at the end of the coach!) As for the driver, there's no way he can watch the platform before, or as he leaves -- the 385 cab doesn't have side windows. I thought cabs without side windows had been done away with in the 1930s!
Even 40+ years after leaving the railway, I still find myself "thinking railway". I still find myself involuntarily acknowledging an engine whistle by raising my hand above my head. On one recent occasion even when sitting in a carriage! And when I get off a train, I will often watch that the doors are safely closed before it departs. If I did spot something amiss, I would try to alert the guard, probably by raising both hands above my head in what was in my day the standard signal for a train to stop, in the absence of a red flag or lamp. (I hope that modern railway staff would still understand that.) But once the doors are closed, there's absolutely no way for me to alert the train crew, no matter how serious the emergency. The best I could do would be to walk (well maybe run) down the platform to the "Help Point", and try to get them to stop the train. By which time the train will be four or five miles away!
Surely it could be made safer! A droplight for the guard, and an openable side window for the driver surely aren't too much to ask. But they'll probably wait until a child falls between the train and the platform just after the doors have closed -- and neither the driver nor the guard can see what has happened.
I was primarily a freight guard, so passenger trains were always a bit of an exception for me. Getting an unfitted or partially fitted goods train, with no form of direct communication with the driver, to stop was another piece of fun entirely. You could try winding the van brake on and off, and you might succeed in attracting the driver's attention. But instead you might just succeed in breaking a coupling, leaving your brake van (with you in it) and the rear end of your train stranded in the middle of the section, hoping that the signalman in advance spots "Train passed without tail lamp", and takes appropriate action. I decided it was safer to follow a strategy that I'm dates well back into the 19th century -- get the signalmen and the signalling system to stop your train. I would write a message on a piece of paper -- quite likely the back page of an old Weekly Notice. I would then wrap the mesage round a piece of coal. As I approached the next signal box, I would give a series of short sharp blasts on my guard's whistle. Once I knew I had the signalman's attention, I would throw out the piece of coal, aiming it to land as near as possible to the signal box. I would then expect my train to be stopped at the next box (provided that that was what I had asked for in my message). I think I did this more than once, but I do remember throwing out such coal and paper message at Lochside (on a return working from Falkland Junction (Ayr) and then being stopped (as I expected) at Howwood, but I can't remember why I wanted my train stopped. No doubt I had a good reason at the time! I wonder what modern railway staff would make of such a method of communication.
