Help a newbie out...

[dickdarlington]

Afternoon all

As you'll see from the post count, I am very new to the board. In fact, I am very new to railway enthusiasm. Actually that's not true. I've had 20 years on sabatical. And after moving into a house that backs onto the ECML, I'm becoming somewhat hooked once more.

However, and forgive my naivity, there are so many different acronyms and slangspressions going on here that I find myself completely lost.

Would you guys be able to make this into a definitions guide please.

To start.

What is bashing?
And skip bashing?
What is an ALR?

Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

[First class]

Hi AFAIK:

bashing - basically travelling a lot on certain routes/trains
skip basing - as above, but on Class 67 locos.
ALR - is an All Line Rover allowing unlimited rail travel for 1 or 2 weeks and is costly.

 

[telstarbox]

Kettle = steam train
Under the wires = diesel train running on an overhead electrified route

 

[MCR247]

Google: 'The online railway dictionary.' That may help you

 

[The Planner]

ERTMS = A way of infringing Welsh peoples human rights apparently.

 

[GB]

^^^^

 

[The Barlow Boy]

Defensive driving - a way of making the train run late encouraged by Managers who usually have no or very limited knowledge of train driving.

 

[TDK]

Defensive driving - a way of making the train run late encouraged by Managers who usually have no or very limited knowledge of train driving.

No quite true - Defensive driving = ensuring you keep your job

 

[The Barlow Boy]

No quite true - Defensive driving = ensuring you keep your job

It still makes trains late though.

 

[Matt Taylor]

Not since SWT started the trend of recasting an entire TOC timetable to take account of defensive driving techniques.

 

[The Planner]

FGW are the worst for it.

 

[mumrar]

Defensive driving - a way of making the train run late encouraged by Managers who usually have no or very limited knowledge of train driving.

Talking balls - a way of making it seem like you're very knowledgable about something you don't actually know the reasoning behind.

 

[deltic1989]

^^^^ lmao

 

[TheWalrus]

FGW are the worst for it.

Is that for adding on extra minutes?

 

[The Planner]

No, their defensive driving technique. They are probably the most defensive of all the TOCs Ive experienced.

 

[TDK]

It still makes trains late though.

Put it this way, a train may be 5 minutes late due to defensive driving but without it it could be 30 minutes for a station over run or even cancelled on site for a SPAD, unless you know exactly what defensive driving is and why it is encouraged maybe it's best to leave to comments up to people that do know!

 

[E&W Lucas]

Put it this way, a train may be 5 minutes late due to defensive driving but without it it could be 30 minutes for a station over run or even cancelled on site for a SPAD, unless you know exactly what defensive driving is and why it is encouraged maybe it's best to leave to comments up to people that do know!

Well said!

Driver's job - safety, punctuality, economy - strictly in that order.

 

[telstarbox]

On a similar note to the OP, could someone tell me in beginner's terms what TOPS, TRUST and Avantix are?

 

[deltic1989]

I know that TOPS is a computer data base, that holds the records of every peice of all the Locos and Rolling stock on the network.

 

[ainsworth74]

On a similar note to the OP, could someone tell me in beginner's terms what TOPS, TRUST and Avantix are?

TOPS = Total Operations Processing System, which is basically a record of every locomotive, unit and piece of rolling stock on the network. Find a bit more here.

TRUST = A staff only system which allows real time tracking of a trains progress on its journey. It also shows some future trains and how past trains actually ran.

Avantix is the machine that you see guards carrying around with which they issue tickets. More here.

(If any of the above is wrong please jump in and correct me!)

 

[Dolive22]

I think TOPS might stand for Total Operations Planning System and that Avantix refers not only to the Avantix Mobile ticket machines but also Avantix Traveller which is a computer system dealing with ticketing. There is also the Avantix B8070 ticket machine but the last of those was withdrawn almost 2 years ago. However, despite your invitation there is a reason it says Chief Executive under your name (966 of them as I type) so I could be wrong, especially about TOPS.

 

[Fred26]

What's defensive driving?

 

[Eric]

What's defensive driving?

A train doing 60mph when the line speed is 75mph

 

[ANorthernGuard]

Defensive Driving = being able to stop the train when needed to do so safely in areas (for e.g) Exceptional Railhead condition areas where wheel slip n slide are a problem

Normal Driving = Hope we stop!

 

[The Planner]

What's defensive driving?

Not getting above notch 2 in an FGW HST....

 

[12CSVT]

Not getting above notch 2 in an FGW HST....

With station over-runs occuring in numerous parts of the country in the past week due to the autumn leaf-fall, I don't think we should be too critical about defensive driving. A late running train is better than a SPAD or even worse a collision.