Day Two,
Started at 9:00AM today, we planned to go to York IECC so went across the motorway to Leeds station, we first went to look at the Network Rail yard at whitehall, and watched some tampers move around. We went upto the offices and I spoke with the M.O.M on duty, Jamie. Jamie asked what we had been doing and asked if I was a spotter to which I said no! he seemed very nice and Anthony got me some videos to watch at home. Anthony then went to collect the LOM's car keys and we went off to York IECC, after a long wait at the gate outside the IECC, a signaller came out and let us in. My first impressions were that it was a big, office situation. As we went around and watched the signallers do their thing, I noticed it's alot more laid back than I expect, and everyone is good friends with eachother. I was seated with the supervisor for Leeds signalling, and he talked me through isolation and reminders, even showing me what it looked like on empty lines, he talked me through the telephone, and everything a signaller needs. We then moved on to 'the emergency' boards which are a track diagram of York/Leeds and train describers are magnets, this is only to be used when power has been lost.
We then left the IECC centre and went through to 'Control' the hub of all northern rail operations, I saw representatives from each TOC (GNER, Northern, TPExpress) and it was busting at the seams with activity, this is the location where incidents are reported and relevant staff sent out to address the situation, I was introduced to a controller who travelled 100 miles each day to get to work, simply because he loved his job! after a quick look round it was clear the people and managers were extremely busy with youths stealing copper wire from the trackside.
Again, we went across the motorway to a yard named Healey Mills, and is a EWS sign on point, which holds numerous old loco's and wagons, we went across to the yard, and looked at the old loco's and I got into the cab of a class 56 EWS and a class 37, also EWS. After seeing this we quickly photographed the two EWS 66's stood at the maintenance centre, then we visited Healey Mills PSB and had a look at what they did, I took pictures of the PSB and we quickly went to see the Healey Mills LOM and got some documents for Leeds.
Back over to Leeds we dropped the documents off, found out what we would be doing tomorrow, Anthony picked up some DVD's and also showed me the old Leeds signalling training centre, signallers would practise on a model railway!
After long queues on the motorway, I finally arrived home.
Wednesday, 9 May 2007
Tuesday, 8 May 2007
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!
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!
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