Its been quite a while since I was a guard!This info is out of date,
Thats my excuse and I am sticking to it!
Forgot about the signal (and "S" mark) being moved.during last summer the starter signal at Fareham was moved a couple of yards so that on a 12 car set the front 8 can be opened as normal. Hilsea remains a peculiarity in that it 8 coaches that can be opened on an 8 car set but only 4 if it's a 12 car set-on both up and down lines.
It is a horrendous system, when working a 12 car set from Portsmouth to London via Eastleigh you can have up to 9 consecutive SDO stops with the following coach lengths: 8-4-8-4-8-4-8-8-4 so that's a lot of running up and down the train.![]()
Look on it as a bit of excercise, some of the guards are getting as fat as us drivers!