IMPORTANT: Safety Rules for Rail Enthusiasts

[Aureol]

Following the successful introduction of the rules for railway enthusiasts visiting UK stations, Network Rail/ATOC/BTP have now introduced a set of rules for ordinary members of the travelling public which it is hoped will help them to enjoy their journey. These can be viewed at:

http://rboyd.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/guidelines-for-passengers.doc

 

[me123]

 

[Mojo]

Very good

 

[nath9425]

Fantastic!

 

[Nym]

Few problems:

Any public service staff will never cut short their teabreaks, Most of VT's delays have been because of the nice coffee shops in Camden

I've worn very provocative things before, and theres usualy only the odd dispatcher, conductor or driver interested

I won't go into the reasons for not videoing or photoing locos when the doors are open...

 

[TheSlash]

I phoned that number and asked for Gene Hunt. He answered and then told me to **** off and stop wasting his time

 

[P156KWJ]

'providing they are not for personal use'

 

[Metroland]

Well it won't be long before they ban passengers altogether, citing they get in the way of railway operations..

 

[Nym]

thats a bit like hospitals, they'd run a lot smoother without the patients!

 

[Tom B]

I'm reminded of Basil Fawlty...

"You lot come poncing in here expected to be hand waited on hand and foot and I'm trying to run a hotel!"

 

[AlexS]

Yes - a valuable point!

The formerly accepted point of the network being for the trains and the trains being for the passengers, rather than the passengers being merely an annoyance and odd cash cow, seems to have been forgotten!

 

[O L Leigh]

Well, just bear that in mind the next time that your train is delayed or fails because of "passenger action".

one TN

 

[Respite]

Yes - a valuable point!

The formerly accepted point of the network being for the trains and the trains being for the passengers, rather than the passengers being merely an annoyance and odd cash cow, seems to have been forgotten!

Don't forget that we don't only shift passengers, we have these things called freight trains!

Oh & passengers should realise that sprinters & 175's do not have doors that open automatically. Staring gormlessly at them will not cause them to open, but pressing that nice little glowing button might (Then of course you have the ones who press the button as I'm actually still moving:? ). Of course you can all follow each other like sheep & use the one door on the whole train that someone has managed to figure out how it works creating a line of people delaying the train.

Actually it is a valid point about fit women in short skirts distracting drivers though8)

 

[Mojo]

(Then of course you have the ones who press the button as I'm actually still moving:? )

Heh, I do that quite often (from both the inside and out) as on lots of stock if you press the button and hold it the door will open as soon as the doors are released by the driver/conductor.

Of course in this country a very small number of train staff open the doors whilst the train is still moving (at very slow speeds) which can help reduce dwell times as people can get on & off the train whilst it is still moving, or in most cases as soon as the doors are opened fully (it seems to me most British rolling stock has very slow doors). When I was in Berlin, most of the U-bahn, S-bahn and regional trains opened their doors at speeds under 15kph and at stations with downward gradients started to roll forwards when doors were closing and lots of trains hardly spent any time at stations at all. Of course lots of trains were DOO so there was none of this checking all doors are closed lark which still a small number of staff do on my local trains which can easily take up 20 seconds of time at a station, and that's even after the pax have got on.

Now I'm not criticising staff, I am assuming it's official railway policy and probably exists for safety reasons in Great Britain, but I wish we could impliment that policy on many of our urban railway systems.

 

[Tom B]

The problem is, some trains you need to press the button, others you don't - for an average punter, they may not know. (Look at how many people push the buttons on 92/95/96ts).

 

[Nym]

Actually it is a valid point about fit women in short skirts distracting drivers though8)

what about boys in tight leather trousers (over 16s of course)? I can distract some of them quite well

 

[O L Leigh]

The problem is, some trains you need to press the button, others you don't - for an average punter, they may not know. (Look at how many people push the buttons on 92/95/96ts).

How long have the Cl317's been on the WA lines? How many times every day do I have to shout down the platform to get the punters to "Press and Hold" the darn buttons?

Grrr.

one TN

 

[AlexS]

Actually it is a valid point about fit women in short skirts distracting drivers though8)

There is a (as was) central guard on the Shrewsbury line who back in the day, used to work the same morning train that was fast from Wolverhampton to Telford from Walsall, i used this every so often, and every single time we passed Shifnal i noticed him disappear into the cab and stick his head out of the window.

I eventually asked him why he did this (chatted to him before about the footie and all that, him being a Liverpool fan), and it turns out there was a fit bird who was always standing there waiting for the stopper who liked to wear a very low cut top, and he couldn't help admiring the view every now and then!

 

[O L Leigh]

On this topic, the viaduct between Hackney Downs and Bethnal Green does provide a good vantage point from which to peer into various flats along the lineside. Some of my colleagues have identified a particular window through which they have seen a young lady with an exhibitionist streak performing s3x acts on her various beaus. My tally is somewhat less impressive, though I have seen one naked person of each gender (one experience was less enjoyable than the other).

It also takes me back to my traction training at Hornsey in the height of summer. The three depot roads closest to the 'Up' platform were A, B and C roads. However, because of the sight lines from the ballast onto the platform, our instructor had discovered that it was possible to see up young ladies' skirts if they happened to sit on a particular bench. Therefore, Bravo Road soon became referred to as Beaver Road.

The old letch. Me? Pure as the driven snow.

one TN

 

[Respite]

There is a (as was) central guard on the Shrewsbury line who back in the day.....

That sounds like my old work mate Russ?

 

[AlexS]

Youngish scouser lad?

 

[Respite]

Of course in this country a very small number of train staff open the doors whilst the train is still moving (at very slow speeds).....

Not on my bloody trains they don't! I think you will find that on everything I drive an open door breaks trainwire 4 (the major electric circuit that runs a complete circuit around the unit). Trainwire 4 interupted = full emergency brake application. The only way to bypass that would be to break the seal on the traction interlock(TIS) MCB, or use the emergancy Bypass switch (EBS) but most of time you have to TIS then as well.Of course having done that the unit has to come out of service at the first available location. I thought this system was standard across all current DMU/EMU's ????

The idea of opening a door on a moving train these days seems very unlikely given the moronic "If there's blame theres a claim" mentality that we have to endure. Oh & I don't think there's any rolling stock in the midlands/wales/borders that have auto opening doors( I may be wrong) , these people who wait at a closed door catch the same train within this zone everyday & yet never figure it out. Mind you we always say that most passengers remove there brain at the station entrance, the dumb qustions people ask is unbelievable. Real ones I have heard, "Why didnt the driver swerve around the obstruction", "I know you are going to birmingham from shrewsbury but can you take us to wilmslow first?", "can you wait 10 minutes for my mate, she will be here in ten minutes......please <flash cleavage>" + loads more really dumb stuff, perhaps I should write a book on the subject. Still everynow & then you get talking to a passenger that understands what we do & that makes up for a lot of the idiots.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Youngish scouser lad?

Naw, he was a salop lad, just loved the pool for football. Was a central guard a while back & liked to perv a bit!

 

[AlexS]

The railway line from Lboro Central to Quorn runs past on an embankment some gardens, where interesting displays can be seen in sunny weather...

As far as opening train doors goes, I think you'd have to be nuts to do it at a staffed station since I imagine the supervisor would report you in a flash, but on HSTs, Mk2s, Mk3s loco hauled etc I don't believe there's an interlock between the doors and the traction controller so you can move with the doors open.

As for the CT guard, it might well be him - believe he still works for London Midland and can usually be seen on earlies still!

 

[Respite]

Alex S, look down & to the left on oxley viaduct towards wolves in the summertime...........worth straining your neck as there's (well last year) two youngish women who sunbathe in the nip in a garden right below the viaduct almost all day..........AWS horn.....wha what the hell was that....huh....where am I !

 

[O L Leigh]

You can release the doors on some stock without getting an emergency brake application (although you would break the traction interlock circuit), but you'd be mental to actually hit the door buttons before you've stopped. If a punter was injured as a result of doing so you could very quickly be saying "cheerio" to your job.

one TN

 

[Respite]

Which units are they One TN, EMU stuff???

 

[O L Leigh]

Not saying. It's bad enough getting my doors pulled and various important items of train equipment casually tossed out (fire extinguishers, seats, other punters) without advertising the fact.

one TN

 

[Respite]

Thats a valid point, I was just amazed that you had units that you could do that on. :?

 

[Aureol]

I was once Stewarding a door on a charter from Scarborough to Derby and when we pulled into York some nice bird came and asked if it was the train to Hull hock: (Now, bare in mind this is a steam charter with a rake of Mk1s).
I told her it's going to Derby with the next stop being Sheffield if she wanted to come for a ride. She didn't seem interested

 

[Mojo]

I've had it on a 143 before, the train was rolling at less than 5kph I'd guess (so very slow) and the guard opened the doors - he said something like there was an interlock which releases at a slow speed which stops the emergency brake but he wasn't sure.

In the UK though I've mostly seen the practice on Light Rail systems and the LU, but I think it's only possible on certain stocks which I don't believe includes 95 & 96 stock. By the way, I'm not talking about opening doors at high speed, just at slow speeds where it's safe to disembark at whilst the train is still moving - I'd say the number of people who would be able to get on or off (assuming the door was only wide enough for 1 person) would be about 1 or possibly 2.