Dreary me, back to work!

[Orkney 90]

I return to work tomorrow after annual leave since 6th December last year. And what is it that I do for a living, I hear you ask?

I drive trains. Intercity passenger trains to be exact. So looking forward to tomorrow. Yeah me. NOT... I have been moping around all day hoping that today would never end. Driving my dear wife nuts... But here I am preparing myself for the big return tomorrow.

Just thought I should share...

I need a holiday...

[Ausfree]

I guess you could retire!!!!:wasntme::angel:

[Orkney 90]

I wish.... but I drive a Defender, so funds are forever required.

On the bright side, I survived my first day back. I remember this exact feeling when I was a child and it was the first day back to school after the holidays. And just like back then, I am so looking forward to my next holidays!

[Scouse]

I drive trains. Intercity passenger trains to be exact. I hope you're one of the friendly drivers who gives my sons a wave when we watch the trains go by on the Douglas Park platforms :).

[Orkney 90]

Hi Scouse, you probably wouldn't think so from my original post but yes I always wave to the kids. Sometimes a short toot of the horn. (Except for the ones spitting or throwing objects at me from overhead bridges!) However, I don't go down your way as I only drive the electric V Sets and Oscars, so bounded by Lithgow, Port Kembla and Kiama, and Newcastle...now Hamilton.

[p38arover]

Curses! Why didn't I know this when I was a signaller at Springwood and Katoomba. I'd have loved to have blocked you all the way! :twisted:

Me on the levers a few years back (very rare pic of me in long pants):

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2015/01/150.jpg

[Orkney 90]

Hi Ron. Don't worry, your spirit lives on within the Railway. I was blocked all the way down the hill running empty cars Mt Vic to Flemo by three (yes, three!) goods trains. I ended up 35 minutes late into Flemo. And who did the wonderful signallers blame? Train Control, naturally. And just to think I could have run around all three of them, one at Katoomba, one at Lawson and the last at Valley Heights. But did I? Lousy signallers. And train control. Kidding. Not about train control...

[Tombie]

I must be sick... I actually look forward to going back to my job after a break.

[p38arover]

Hi Ron. Don't worry, your spirit lives on within the Railway. I was blocked all the way down the hill running empty cars Mt Vic to Flemo by three (yes, three!) goods trains. I ended up 35 minutes late into Flemo. And who did the wonderful signallers blame? Train Control, naturally. And just to think I could have run around all three of them, one at Katoomba, one at Lawson and the last at Valley Heights. But did I? Lousy signallers. And train control. Kidding. Not about train control...

A sign at Katoomba reads "Signallers tell drivers where to go".

My last 4 years were at Springwood. That turnback at Lawson is still not in service and it's been there about 4 years now.

I often had "discussions" with TC about running trains. I liked to give freight drivers as much info as possible about possible delays so they could adjust running speeds to avoid having to stop. Not all drivers took any notice.

[Scouse]

.......I always wave to the kids. ......Except for the ones spitting or throwing objects at me from overhead bridges! We did some trainspotting on the pedestrian overpass at Ingleburn station over the holidays & I was surprised to see one suburban driver give us a wave. I didn't think he'd notice us up there but I guess he was on the lookout for 'not so nice' people on the bridge.


http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=89913&d=1422442596

[p38arover]

I guess he was on the lookout for 'not so nice' people on the bridge.

And he did see you! :angel:

[Orkney 90]

I must be sick... I actually look forward to going back to my job after a break.

That's probably because you don't drive trains where grumpy old signallers and wako train controllers make your day an absolute pleasure.

I love my job...when I have rostered days off.

[p38arover]

Oi! I wasn't grumpy! Well, not when working with drivers. I liked to make their job as easy as possible.

I don't miss the job now that I've retired. The people, yes, the job, no.

RailCorp made it harder and harder to like. Management were a problem. Who wants their boss turning up at work at 5:30am to sit with them?

I remember one Regional Network Ops Manager saying to me "What would you know!?" when I made a suggestion about something that related to the field I'd spent 37 years working in before I joined the railways. He was an ex-fettler.

[drivesafe]

RailCorp made it harder and harder to like. Management were a problem.

This is the problem with the job now.

In my days on the job, most people were like you Ron, trying to help when there was a stuffup.

Today it is a case of ?I didn't cause it so why should I try to fix it?

And this is the mentality that management has introduced.

When drivers have to worry about approaching a platform 5 ?Ks? over the speed limit because some retard, who couldn't get a job in the private sector, has a job pointing a speed camera at someone who knows his ( or her ) job's safety limits far better than some reject could ever know.

I and I suspect you too Ron, are so happy to be away from such incompetence and stupidity.

[drivesafe]

I return to work tomorrow after annual leave since 6th December last year. And what is it that I do for a living, I hear you ask?

I drive trains. Intercity passenger trains to be exact. So looking forward to tomorrow. Yeah me. NOT... I have been moping around all day hoping that today would never end. Driving my dear wife nuts... But here I am preparing myself for the big return tomorrow.

Just thought I should share...

I need a holiday...

Hi Orkney and thats a real shame how the job has now degenerated into such a dislike occupation.

When I worked in ETR I could not get enough driving time and regularly worked days off, usually doing foreign jobs in other depots, just to do something different.

[p38arover]

I didn't mind RBT and drug testing, I knew I wasn't going to get pinged but it certainly got a few blokes - and rightly so.

When I worked St Marys Signal Box, I used to see the blokes with the speed camera checking the Down trains. Train radio is a useful thing..... :D

I couldn't see the end of the platform on the Up.

Orkney, did the railway ever act on my suggestion to put signs on the bridges so drivers knew which one they were going under - as is done for bridges on the car drivers? RailCorp said they liked the idea and were going to implement it.

[Orkney 90]

Hi Ron. I remember the times when we used to get a call on the train radio about the speed gunners. One time when I was warned by the signaller (I can't for the life of me remember the location now...) I slowed my train down to 10km/h for the approach to that platform. I let the guard know what I was doing and why, and from beginning to end it took me about three minutes to go through that platform. I gave the speed gunner a big cheesy smile and wave, and he just shook his head at me. Still had the damn gun pointed at my train though...

Funny thing was that I wasn't even tabled to stop at that station.

Yes, there are quite a few overhead bridges with signs on them letting us know which one they are, but most of the signs have been overlaid with so much graffiti and brown-out paint that they are totally useless anyway.

[Orkney 90]

Hi Drivesafe. It is a totally different job now. Management have killed off what little morale and enthusiasm there was for the job. These days if you overshoot a platform by one door leaf, you're off the road with a Level 5 investigation. God forbid if you have a fail-to-stop.

And yes it really is true that there was a new Shift Manager who came from outside that had a go at a driver for not showing initiative and "going around" a defective train ahead of him. I try and work as many backshifts as I can just to avoid these idiots. Which is why I still don't have my new uniform. I may be the last man standing in the old Lazy 7's.

I still remember the time when some of the bosses would sit down and have a drink with us. Now, I just turn up, do what I have to do to the best of my ability and get the hell out of there. Very little socialising goes on now, even for a fairly close-knit depot like Eveleigh.

[drivesafe]

I can recall two over shots when I first started in the ETR.

One morning during the last few weeks of the ETR school, a number of the drivers were in the lecture room when the instructing loco inspector came in and got stuck into one of the drivers, in a sarcastic way.

During the last few weeks of the ETR school, inspectors travel with NEW drivers while they learn how to handle electric suburban trains.

The afternoon before, this inspector was travelling with the NEW driver when they entered Town Hall station.

Initially, the new driver was slowing the train down correctly.

But about half way down the platform, apparently a young woman's dress blew up to her shoulders and see made no attempt to push it down.

By the time the inspector and the new driver regained their composure, they managed to stop the train two car lengths into the tunnel.

The reason the inspector was displeased was that as he was supposed to be instructing the NEW driver, the inspector had the ware the inquiry.

Then while I was in the school, one of the inspectors told us we were lucky to be learning to drive the suburban trains into Cronulla platform during winter.

I think we all took it he meant because we could get some experience of driving down the steep grade coming into Cronulla on wet rails and still stopping at the right place.

Cronulla is not only a dead-end platform but it is 2 train lengths long and they often store trains at the far end of the platform.

Not on your life.

The first summer run into Cronulla taught me what he was on about.

In the middle of a sunny Saturday afternoon, I almost ran into the back of a parked set at the end of the platform.

The reason I nearly stuffed up was that I was so busy PERVING at all the topples your ladies, sun baking on the seats, I didn't brake soon enough.

[Orkney 90]

Hi Drivesafe,

I haven't been down the Cronulla Branch for about 7 years or so. But I remember there was a signal under the awning half way down the long platform at Cronulla. Hope you didn't have a SPAD there, as apparently it was a multi-SPAD signal.

On the other hand, I like the 30km/h board just before the platform at North Sydney, because that is another location where eyes sideways can induce an overshoot. The slow speed into the platform helps to reduce this possibility...