Re: Email to John Laws regarding comments this morning

["Dave Proctor" <daproc@sd5.mailbank.com>]

facetious@my-deja.com wrote in message <8381ei$s6r$1@nnrp1.deja.com>...

>It wasn't all their fault.  The signalbox is Rail Access (Network
>Control).  The signaller made a mistake.  She pressed the wrong button.
> It isn't a word processor.  You can't just press backspace and hope
>noone noticed.  How many keys do you press on your computer before you
>make a mistake and have to backspace?

Agreed - although there would have been a timeout procedure in place,
whereby the train could have stopped, the signals reset, then after a
certian period (120 seconds, IIRC) the signals could have been set
appropriately.

>> I suspected
>> something was wrong when the train started going up the Seven Hills
>> flyover - this should surely have been an extremely rare movement for
>> an
>> Interurban - why didn't the driver query the signal?  It then should
>> have
>> been further obvious to an experienced Interurban driver that
>> something must
>> be wrong if the signal also indicates he is to proceed up the Richmond
>> branch - again why didn't he query it?
>
>How do you know he didn't query the signal?  Were you actually in the
>drivers cabin, or were you scanning all the radio frequencies?

Possibly because the train may or may not have stopped. It is not that far
from the point of no return to the platform. If the driver was to query the
signal indications, with any hope of recovering his normal journey, he would
have had to stop the train at an appropriate location, to receive advice
from the signal box.

>  I hear
>the driver did query the signal and was told to keep coming.

I have heard that too, from a friend who works at the box. Although the
information that I have is that the driver pulled up and queried too late to
divert him to the new platofrm 3, which would have enabled him to continue
west with a minimal amount of fuss.

> As the
>driver had probably never been to Blacktown since the resignalling, he
>didn't know where the tracks went, or what the signaller could do.

I find this one hard to believe. I know of guards who have refused to work
trains over the Harris Park - Merrylands Y-link because they do not know the
road. I know of guards and drivers who have refused to work trains into
Sydney Yard because they do not know the road.

This driver obviously knew the road. As soon as he saw the double yellows at
the end of Seven Hills platform, he knew where he was going.

He *may* have thought he was being directed to the new Platform 3 at
Blacktown, but he still should have checked.

I have seen drivers check when they are headed to the City and they get two
yellows at the city end of Harris Park (they were being routed via the down
line to Granville). - Anything out of the ordinary, they normally check,.

>suppose the driver could have unfolded the map (which is 1130mm X
>890mm), but then he wouldn't have been able to see out the window.

An interesting pic in te latest LIAR (oops, I mean RAIL) of a Virgin Trains
driver reading a newspaper while his train was at speed. It is remarkably
clear if the train was indeed at speed - anyone seen it?

Dave