On 22 Jan 2007 03:58:27 -0800, "Mizter T" wrote:

The rule changed in 1986 - it came in whilst I was a guard. It's
mentioned in my "Day in the Life" piece which is on various Internet
sites.


One such website is this one:
http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/grov_pk1.htm

I've just read it with great interest.

I was particularly amused by this bit:
"As soon as the last door closes, the senior railman gives me the right
away, I give a final quick check up and down the train and I give two
rings on the bell.
Unlike some drivers, who seem to go to sleep in their cabs, Fred starts
off immediately."

When time is of the essence it seems most bizarre that some drivers
might aren't on the ball!

We worked under far less time pressure than is the case nowadays.
(Minor) late running was accepted; early running, even by a few seconds,
wasn't.

May I, as a non-expert member of Joe Public, ask a few spectacularly
basic questions...

When you speak of "railmen", as in the above quote and elsewhere in the
piece, this appears to specifically relate to station staff?

Railman, Leading Railman and Senior Railman were official grades. In the
olden days, they would have been called Porters or Ticket Collectors.
The Railman grades were introduced to give flexibility - I don't know
when. Most station staff would be Leading Railmen. Senior Railman was
a fairly responsible job, and at the London Terminals, would be
responsible for dispatching trains.


I also found the use of the term "dummy" when referring to ground
signals a bizarre choice of word. As you can probably gather I don't
really know an awful lot about railway signalling, but calling any
signal a dummy signal suggests to my uneducated ears that it is a fake
signal and doesn't actually do anything! This obviously isn't the case
so I just wonder where the term came from?

I have no idea where it comes from - a "dummy" was officially called a
subsidiary signal. Even different parts of the railway had (and probably
still do have) their own local terms. But you learnt the local term in
training and it stuck. Things move slowly on the railways. Even in the
1980s on what was at that time the South Eastern Division of British
Rail, we talked about the "Eastern" lines and the "Chatham" lines, from
the South Eastern Railway and London, Chatham & Dover Railway, which
combined in 1899.

Lastly I was most amused to read the bit about the Americans getting
angry that you couldn't arrange to hold the Paddington train, on which
they had reserved seats, for them - it's just so ridiculous that I
needn't say anything more!

Stuff like that wasn't uncommon - and is quite possibly even worse
nowadays.

--
Bill Hayles
http://www.rossrail.com