Freight Drivers

[Lawman]

Folks,
l know that during the night,there is a lot of maintance work that gets carried out on the network,thus keeping passenger service disruption to a minimum.

My question is regarding Freight.Is it common for a Freight Driver to turn up at his depot in the wee small hours unable to work their shift due to track work being carried out or no load to convey.Would they be able to return home or are they required to remain at there depot?

 

[Rugd1022]

Folks,
l know that during the night,there is a lot of maintance work that gets carried out on the network,thus keeping passenger service disruption to a minimum.

My question is regarding Freight.Is it common for a Freight Driver to turn up at his depot in the wee small hours unable to work their shift due to track work being carried out or no load to convey.Would they be able to return home or are they required to remain at there depot?

Engineering possessions are planned months in advance so freight movements are retimed or often as not rerouted accordingly. As an example, if there's a block on the Midland line south of Leicester, the stone trains we work from Bardon Quarries will be diverted to run via Syston, Manton and Kettering.

The chances of me turning up for a booked job and it being cancelled for a possession are slim these days

 

[Lawman]

Engineering possessions are planned months in advance so freight movements are retimed or often as not rerouted accordingly. As an example, if there's a block on the Midland line south of Leicester, the stone trains we work from Bardon Quarries will be diverted to run via Syston, Manton and Kettering.

The chances of me turning up for a booked job and it being cancelled for a possession are slim these days

Another wee quickie,are there times when you turn up to your depot to be told nothing booked to run,ie no Freight to transfer anywhere......can that happen and if so what happens then?

 

[9K43]

I have signed on at HM at 2300hrs to work stone train from HM spot dropping stone along the old L and Y to stable the train at Guide Bridge then LE and G back to HM.
The next day we signed on again at 2300hrs to travel LE and G back to Guide Bridge to pick up the train and spot drop stone on the Down L and y then back to HM with the ETY train.
If the train was caped then we would sit in the mess room for a couple of hours then be sent home.
With these long planned jobs, it was unusual for them to be cancelled.
We have been booked on on a good Friday to take a 8X train to skipton then leave it there.
This train contained a set of points which were out of gauge and had to travel to strict speeds throughout the journey.
I have in my time worked many midweek ballast trains dropping stone , rails , cabling for the S and T and Tunnel pointing trains from Standage right the way through to Leeds, and every tunnel on the Penistone Line from Springwood Jct all the way up to Denby Dale tunnel. Then RR at Penistone and back to HM.

 

[Tin Rocket]

Engineering possessions are planned months in advance so freight movements are retimed or often as not rerouted accordingly. As an example, if there's a block on the Midland line south of Leicester, the stone trains we work from Bardon Quarries will be diverted to run via Syston, Manton and Kettering.

The chances of me turning up for a booked job and it being cancelled for a possession are slim these days

aah over the alps,next time you see us track inspection on days give us ilkley moor-ba-tat on thee horn

 

[GB]

Another wee quickie,are there times when you turn up to your depot to be told nothing booked to run,ie no Freight to transfer anywhere......can that happen and if so what happens then?

Yes it can and does happen and could be for several reasons though its not common. Depending on circumstances and the company, you will either get a different job, booked "on call" or just book your hours and go home.

Very unusual to get a job cancelled for engineering works unless they are last minute emergency works but that doesn't happen often and even if it does, it can usually be worked around in some way or other.

 

[Lawman]

Yes it can and does happen and could be for several reasons though its not common. Depending on circumstances and the company, you will either get a different job, booked "on call" or just book your hours and go home.

Very unusual to get a job cancelled for engineering works unless they are last minute emergency works but that doesn't happen often and even if it does, it can usually be worked around in some way or other.

thanks for that GB,One other thing l hope you could answer,l would imagine a typical shift could last anything between 8 to 10/12 hours.For talkings sake,a driver booked run is a small route say 4 hours for example,that all the company have rostered,Can the driver get a 'job and finish'.Regarding the hours owed,l wouldn't imagine he would loose any pay.

 

[The Planner]

They can also turn up and try and run through a block when we havent re-routed them. Thats always a good one for the delay minutes.

 

[Hydro]

They can also turn up and try and run through a block when we havent re-routed them. Thats always a good one for the delay minutes.

If you're yellow fleet and on a VSTP schedule due to recover lost recording, you get the block lifted ASAP

 

[Rugd1022]

aah over the alps,next time you see us track inspection on days give us ilkley moor-ba-tat on thee horn

Aye will do! I'll be bringing one up from Neasden tomorrow morning, bound for Croft on the Wigston - Nuneaton line