"Full and standing"

[34D]

I was thinking more in general terms, on FGW I once had someone demanding to know why the driver of the 125 couldn't be pulled to work a 158 who'se driver was missing.

Surely most FGW HST drivers will have risen through the links, ie those who've been trained by either B.R. or the integrated GW franchise, leaving just those who were recruited by the first incarnation, with green powercars?

 

[BestWestern]

Surely most FGW HST drivers will have risen through the links, ie those who've been trained by either B.R. or the integrated GW franchise, leaving just those who were recruited by the first incarnation, with green powercars?

It varies widely. As I understand it, new entrants are allocated to whichever arm of the operation and whichever of their depots requires them, and obviously learn traction accordingly. There are, I believe, some 'mixed traction' Drivers, but not very many. It's perfectly possible that 99% of the time an HST Driver would not be passed out on Sprinter stock, and vice versa.

 

[Flamingo]

Wot he said

 

[kieron]

That would certainly be an improvement rather than the North Wales/Shrewsbury using platform 4. Problem is if it's a double voyager, it needs all of platform 3!

A 10-car Super Voyager has 4 23.85m cars and 6 22.82m ones, for 232.32m in total. A 4-car 158 has 4 23.21m cars, 92.84m in total. Platform 3 is 375m long, so there's plenty of room. I don't know if the drivers would know where to stop a 10-car train on platform 3a, though.