8/5/2007

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE NOTE THIS BLOG WAS NOT PUBLISHED ON BEHALF OF NETWORK RAIL, ANY COMMENTS OR EVENTS IN THIS BLOG ARE NOT THE RESPONSIBILITY OF NETWORK RAIL

Day One,
I got in the car and was asked where I would like to go first, of course I chose my local box, Elland!

So we take a drive up to Elland, and Anthony knew I knew a lot about signal boxes, so we park up, open the gate and go knock on the door. The signalman for that day had a trainee with him, we had come just at the end of the morning peak, and we let him signal two trains through before we spoke. Anthony ran me through the block bells and the general procedure for accepting and giving a train. Anthony then spoke to the signallers for half an hour while I took a look around the lever operated box. We then decided it was time to leave, where next? the next signal box on the route! Greetland Junction (or Greetland no.1) we met a nice signaller who told me all about the old shunting movements by class 37's into the Oil Reception sidings, certainly nothing that would be performed today! He also told me about 'box lads' boys who wanted to get into the railway and would voluntarily help out at busy signal boxes.

We leave Greetland Junction and go to Anthony's house and have a cup of tea, and have a look through his old railway pictures, from when he worked at Milner Royd. We then leave to go take a look at Milner Royd as it is now, we meet the signaller on duty who soon booked off as we arrived, to be replaced by a jolly chap who asked me all about what I had done. Then it was down to business! not ten minutes had passed when the Location Operations Manager (LOM) arrived and the said signaller had to take an exam which he should do every three months, Anthony offered to control the box for 2 hours until 3PM, to which the LOM thanked him and off they went! We had things running smoothly through the junction. Anthony showed me what he was doing as he offered the train to Hebden Bridge, and accepted trains from Halifax, amazing watching it all work. He then introduced me to TRUST which reports train location, expected time and headcode number, we were due a freight in 10 minutes, which conflicted with a passenger service coming from Halifax. Anthony gave the freight (66108) priority, and after a little toot ( a thank you for a clear run) from the EWS driver we were back under way. I stood out on the staircase and almost every train driver waved at me, and I waved back. No sooner had I thought we started it was 3PM, and my day was over!

I returned home and made myself some dinner, an excellent action packed day!