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The human side of the railway...


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One from a possession at Bedford today.

 

Correctly cleaning ballast/spoil from the deepest recesses of the wagons before the train departs.

I failed to recognise him until someone started yelling 'Mark' and I then realised who it was. We had not seen each other since March 2009 so it was a pleasant surprise to see him on a cold Sunday morning.

I wonder if Nidge can recall who he is? He is employed by the red team and used to work not far from Bedford and Rugby FLHH drivers worked into his former location on a ballast job on weekdays for several years.

 

Mark

 

post-330-0-87789600-1361135635.jpg

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Nige,

    yes thats him! always confuse his name. Also got a picture of 'Cobbler' Of this parish too!

 

Cheers

 

DSJ

 

You can always tell when Paul's been on a loco, both cabs are full of McDonald's wrappers and empty tomato ketchup bottles... ;-)

 

Would love to see the pics...

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White hair as a result of shock was not as unusual as some might think. Bob Bowden (who would have been a supervisor in Old Oak panel for some of the time when you were in the vicinity) was the Signalman at Hungerford the night a stone train took away most of the 'box and left him clinging to the back wall until someone arrived with a ladder. His hair went from jet black to snow white overnight within a few days of the incident and took years to get back its original colour - and then it almost immediately started to naturally go grey.

 

 

 

Bit of a bump with this one Mike but reading it again just now reminded me that 'ace lensman and Berks & Hants Bobbie' David Canning covered this incident in his book on the B&H, IIRC he was on the relief that week and got the call to go an assist. if you haven't got any of his books they're well worth checking out by the way.

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What do the radars activate please?

 

They detect obstacles on the crossing - vehicles, people etc. and therefore won't allow the barriers to lower, unfortunately they don't work too well when covered in mud.

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They detect obstacles on the crossing - vehicles, people etc. and therefore won't allow the barriers to lower, unfortunately they don't work too well when covered in mud.

They are very good at detecting snow on the crossing, though.

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They detect obstacles on the crossing - vehicles, people etc. and therefore won't allow the barriers to lower, unfortunately they don't work too well when covered in mud.

Which is a concern given from what I can tell they will be used at all full barrier crossing refurbishments as a way of allowing staff to monitor more crossings than presciently allowed (currently 4 or 5 I think). OK they may be fail safe etc but if you have to send the maintenance teams out to clean them several times during the day disruption is bound to occur.

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They detect obstacles on the crossing - vehicles, people etc. and therefore won't allow the barriers to lower, unfortunately they don't work too well when covered in mud.

 

I'm curious about this, if it is an example of an Obstruction Detection System (ODS). If the train is close enough to trigger the crossing I would imagine that the train is going through the crossing, regardless of whether the barriers can be lowered and what may be sitting on the crossing in its path.

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I'm curious about this, if it is an example of an Obstruction Detection System (ODS). If the train is close enough to trigger the crossing I would imagine that the train is going through the crossing, regardless of whether the barriers can be lowered and what may be sitting on the crossing in its path.

I'm not sure, looking at the picture, that this is an AHB. It looks more like a controlled barrier. I think the signaller has to press a "crossing clear" button for protecting signals to clear?

Edited by Oldddudders
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I'm curious about this, if it is an example of an Obstruction Detection System (ODS). If the train is close enough to trigger the crossing I would imagine that the train is going through the crossing, regardless of whether the barriers can be lowered and what may be sitting on the crossing in its path.

ODS systems are only installed at CCTV monitored crossings and are therefore interlocked with the signalling system and are used to lower the barriers when a train is approaching in such time that the driver should receive green aspects. The crossing however remains a manually operated one because while the ODS system triggers the crossing sequence and the lowering of the barriers, the protecting signals will remain at red until the controlling signaler has observed the crossing to be clear by CCTV and pressed the "crossing clear button". Furthermore I would imagine (not having any on our patch yet) that if the ODS showed there to be an obstruction pressing the "crossing clear" button would have no effect. Furthermore I believe the signaller retains the usual crossing controls so can allays override the ODS system (in terms of barrier operation that is).

 

There are two main reasons for their introduction, firstly if the signaler doesn't have to put the barriers down themselves it means they can monitor more crossings. Secondly it also guards against situations where the signaler 'looks but does not see' and mistakenly traps pedestrians between the barriers but presses the crossing clear button. The big disadvantage (as recounted in another thread) is if the ODS becomes dirty it will continually think that there is something on the crossing and will not only prevent the barriers lowering, but it also should prevent the "crossing clear" being given and thus hold the protecting signals at red.

Edited by phil-b259
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Thank you both for your responses.

 

The rail network that I am most familiar with is trialling ODS for unprotected crossings and I was wondering how it would work. Presumably there are different implementations of ODS as some of what you both say wouldn't work against what I know of the system and how it is used.

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Here is another one from me, and a question about it if I may.

 

While researching family history looking through old photos I came upon this picture.

It was in an envelope stamped with:-

 

'The Railway Executive Southern Region'

Gorse (?)  6 Jan 1949

Staff Training College

 

It was sent through the internal railway post to my grandad

William Redwood

Signalman

W D S O

Exeter

 

post-7081-0-79535900-1361882275_thumb.jpg

Edit - Now believed to be taken on the grounds of Gorse Hill, Southern Region Staff Training College, near Woking.

My grandad is 6th from left back row wearing a dark suit,

 

the back of the picture is printed

British Railways , Southern Region, Advertising Department, Waterloo.  14.12.48 Ref 2349/48

 

 

cheers 

Edited by Rivercider
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Woking comes to mind. ISTR the Southern Railway had established a staff college there. This became the venue, inter alia, I think, for the BR Senior Managers' course, although by the 1980s this had been moved to an external college in Hertfordshire.

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