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Jim’s “out and about with GBRf” thread


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12 hours ago, big jim said:

and then a couple of jobs combined Monday, one where I can wave at Newbryford as I pass his house and the 2nd half has him wishing he was in work on Monday

So you sign Blackburn - Hellifield so do you also sign the S&C?

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8 minutes ago, big jim said:

The Monday job job I have is conducting the GBRf 50s between hellifield to Appleby which should be fun, hopefully it will be a nice sunny day

Over 30 years since I rode one on the mainline, have fun...

 

Do you recognise this driver? Calvert Thursday with 66717, as it has been for a while..

 

IMG_1630.JPG.ae5422ad196dcbbda6f1d1b296147569.JPG

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No, don’t recognise him, don’t tend to see or mingle with many ‘southern’ drivers 

 

i wouldnt mind a trip to calvert as I’ve not been there for a while and it’s due to have big changes happen soon in relation to HS2 and east west, from what I can make out the token hut will move from north of Aylesbury to Quainton road and the line north of there will effectively become one long siding with the ground frames at Calvert becoming hand points

Edited by big jim
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Cracking shots and account of the day Jim, gutted I went to Grimsby (for my sins...) instead, would’ve loved to have seen it. It’s not often you get to 'phot a pair of Hoovers, let alone drive a pair!

 

Jack.

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Really liked these pics Jim - nice touch having a stop on Ribblehead viaduct.  And gave you a great opportunity for some very unusual and interesting images. 

 

Not a bad way to spend a day of your leave.

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can I ask a general question about traveling at the beginning and end of the day.

It must be usual to start and finish 'work' (driving trains) at different places. 

How (in general) do you decide where to park the car so you can get 'home'

sensibly at the end of the shift. (I know you were on leave this time).

I assume you have a pass that allows you to travel on trains as work

to move around.

How much of this 'extra time' counts as 'work' (i.e. paid).

Do you have a 'base' where you 'report' for work (e.g. crewe)

and you are paid from there - or do you travel in your own time.

 

No personal details wanted - just the flavour of how it works

for a freight sector driver.

 

Thanks for any info

regards

mike j

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It’s quite unusual to work 2 different trains in one job, yesterday was 2 turns cobbled together as neither were covered and they could easily be amalgamated

 

jobs that start away from my Home Depot (hams hall) normally get a hire car sent to my house or you are shown as going passenger to the start location (the diagram will show to travel from hams hall but a lot of the time I can do it from crewe, if I can get home of course!) 

 

I tend to do a lot of out of area jobs because of my route card,  diagrammed jobs can have hire cars which you have to pick up from hams hall/bescot at either the start or end of a job but hey will amend it to my home address if it makes things simpler (ie we have a booked job that starts in Toton so I get the car delivered to home to save driving 60 miles south to hams hall then 40 miles back north to Toton!), you may also have a relieving driver bring you a car at a terminal if you work a train in and he is working one out which you take home 

 

I have a freight duty pass for when I’m on duty to travel pass if it says so on my diagram 

 

i have to travel to work in on my own time if a job starts in hams hall which I don’t get paid for 

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thank you for the above reply/info

 

can I ask further questions - again no personal details but 'as it affects a freight sector driver'

 

Firstly 'late running trains'

 

you are (I assume) restricted in the hours you can work - fine with that

but how does it work out in practice.

How much flexibility is there to say ' I'm OK with that' or is it a strict 'cut off'

Do 'roster people' build some allowance in.

Is there a lot of use of mobile phones to reorganise on the fly?

 

Secondly 'runs as required' trains.

Again a problem more for the roster people but

actually how far in advance is it known if a train will run

Using 'the concretes' to clitheroe as an example, there are a lot of trains

in the wtt only a subset of which  actually run but 

I suspect the pattern is fairly set and only occasionally changed.

However from a drivers viewpoint does your roster get

regularly changed at short notice or is it fairly stable once set

I get the impression you know about a week in advance?

I can imagine you get phone calls along the lines

'hi - we have a problem - can you...'

 

I imagine  good roster people can make or break a drivers life - no need to comment!! 

 

As an outsider looking in - how it really works is interesting

to me (and others, I suspect)

so anything you can tell us will be welcome

 

regards

and thanks

mike james

 

 

 

 

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Nice bit of Pennine sky on the first Ribblehead shot. Brought back memories of my first visit on a school trip in 1960. We walked from Stainforth to Ingleton via Ingleborough then the following day climbed over Whernside where we sat overlooking the viaduct to eat our sandwiches. Lots of steam struggling uphill in a westerly gale and horizontal rain showers. 

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Mike:

 

if a train runs late its normally “tough luck” and you have to stick with it as on the freight side thee doesn’t tend to be a pool of drivers sat round in depots spare ready to jump if it does go wrong, it’s the same with almost freight companies not just gb, passenger never seems so bad as they always had spare turns

 

if the job goes really wrong and you can then it’s possible to get the train parked up in a siding somewhere and leave it securely and get a taxi home, of course if your not feeling up to it (ie tired) then you can refuse to work a train any further or be put in for a short break 

 

if a job is cancelled last minute then you can revert to spare where you just stay home with your phone on and hope you don’t get a call to come in, if it’s cancelled a few days in advance then you could be asked to move to another turn that is known needs covering but you should get 24 hours notice, a lot of the time if it happens to me I look at the vacancy sheet to see what I may cop for and put it to rosters to put me on it so at least I have an idea what I’m doing so can plan my day 

 

We get or roster on a Thursday afternoon then the diagrams come on a Friday evening, quite why I don’t know as if you spot an error on the diagram it’s too late for rosters to amend so it’s left to control to sort out, an error may be something like a job may have traction you don’t sign or, as I’ve just had for next weeks job (I’ve had early diagrams sent as it’s a special turn) I’m shown as working from Wembley Central to craven arms and I don’t sign south of rugby on the wcml so that needs amending and covering between Wembley and rugby 

Edited by big jim
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I like the spare bit staying at home and hoping the phone doesn't ring. 

I could always conduct you to Northampton, But there are rumours we maybe learning Euston ready for the next timetable change in May next year I'm so looking forward to the 30 days road learning for that. 

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Just one from last night, still on A/L but I’d phoned up and queried something on one of my jobs for next week and was asked if I could work hat night, first I said no but then it didn’t stop raining all morning and I was getting bored sat in the caravan and club house, I was coming home today anyway so I thought, why not, a bit of extra overtime for me

 

worked the Dagenham cars from crewe to rugby with 66730 

33E34EBF-02D3-4344-BF5D-B83B22C148C2.jpg

 

day off today then properly back to it tomorrow, got a doncaster to Toton on Sunday then a week working out of craven arms with a rail milling machine, annoyingly the machine is working between shotton and Buckley every night so I have to do 120 mile round trip ‘transit’ from craven arms every night to site then stay in a hotel in shrewsbury despite me trying my best to get it stabled nearer to site, it can’t go in coleham but could have gone in wrexham, gobowen, coton hill or dee marsh without issue

 

 

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