Exam IV

This blog post has been slightly delayed. It is actually Thursday's post, but it was held up while I was looking for a suitable image.

Today was the day of my fourth (apart from the oral) and final exam. I went to bed reasonably early and tried to get a good night's sleep but that didn't really happen and the very fact that I got out of bed at 07:00 this morning is, I think, deserving of congratulations :P One way or another I got myself to ROV in pretty good time, although when I arrived the next one through was to WOO unfortunately. I took this, but it meant changing onto a busy train and I didn't get any much needed rest! :( The train I changed onto was a WER service and it took me to LIS without incident. I just missed a relatively quiet looking Met line train (all stations Uxbridge) and had to join a busy H&C line train to Hammersmith. That took me to King's X again without incident.

There I sat the exam. This time, there were a lot of subsidiary questions and, actually, the translations themselves weren't so bad. I mean, they were bad, but they were quite short and I kind of got the feeling that if I'd done any work, I'd've been able to do a fairly good job of this exam. I hadn't done any work though. I had to leave half of the translations - didn't even try (actually, I  managed one line for question 4). For one of the translation questions I used the same technique as before, but got far less down in terms of actual translation. One of the translations, though, I was able to have a decent crack at, because I could remember a lot of it from my essay. I also had a go at the essay questions and the subsidiary questions. I really doubt I did a particularly good job of anything that I did, but I was surprised by how much stuff I was able to get down. Before the exam, I'd pretty much written this course off. I believe I need 32.5% on this exam to pass the course and I'm still pretty pessimistic - but not nearly as much as I was before I saw the paper. Maybe, just maybe, I won't fail any units. Maybe I'll fail three. Even if I have passed all of my units there are gonna be some uninspiring grades in there, but I may just about come away with a half-decent degree. I may very well come away with nothing or something supremely shit. But, I'm slightly less sure it'll be the latter than I was, which is nice.

After the exam, I got the chance to talk to an old friend who happened to be in the same exam room, which was nice. We walked back to King's X, where I had a bit of "business" to attend to, shall we say. I wanted to get back on a C stock train. I won't bore you by repeating myself and explaining all about C stock withdrawals and the S stock roll out. Suffice it to say that one C seems to've gone today and the word on the street is that we're looking at no more timetabled C stock workings very soon, possibly as early as 03/06. It may be a lot later, it may be earlier, but I decided today was my best chance to have a last ride on a C stock on the Wimbleware.

So I hopped aboard an H&C line train to Hammersmith and soon arrived at Edgware Rd. I noticed a very shiny looking S stock in the siding (26 road). It looked brand new. As far as the Cs are concerned, I was expecting there to be at least two - there were actually three - so my chances of getting one without a huge wait were not bad. Happily, within a few minutes a Wimbledon train did arrive and it was a C. I watched it into the platform, had a little look round the signalling and then jumped aboard.

It was nice heading past the sights again, for one last time, on a C stock. Gosh I keep forgetting how they feel - they're not the slickest of machines, nor the quietest. I like them, though. I do. I surprise myself, but I do. We had a bit of a wait at High St. for a Circle line train. I had a bit of a look around, watched the stick clear and hopped back on for the ride down, past the triangle sidings, through Earl's Court and once more along the Wimbledon road. I noticed some work going on in one of the sidings at Parsons Green, but that was about all of note.

I actually took a different C out of Wimbledon and this one had a slightly dodgy digital voice announcer. She was silent at Southfields and then made the announcement for Southfields at East Putney. She was silent at another station, too, although I can't remember which - maybe West Brompton?

Before long we were at Paddington and were then held short of Praed Street Junction due to blocking back (queueing, basically) which was caused/aggravated by a train with door problems at Edgware Rd. After a fairly substantial wait, we made it into Edgware Rd where I had a bit of a surprise - an S7 up as a District line train to Wimbledon was standing at platform 4.

Now, recall the track layout at Edgware Rd:

A diagram showing the track layout at Edgware Road. Some of you may remember this diagram from a previous post

As you can see, there is no way of reaching platform 4 from the eastbound District line (which will arrive from Paddington (Praed Street)). The main way in to platform 4 is from Baker Street (specifically platform 6 at Baker St). It's possible - although I don't know and I think it's unlikely - but it's possible that a shunt move could be carried out from platform 3, heading along the westbound track to Baker Street and then shunting into platform 4 but it strikes me as very unlikely that such a move would be signalled. No, the only other way in to platform 4 is to head westbound towards Praed St. Junction, stop at a limit of shunt sign (I can only assume there is one) and shunt back wrong road into platform 4. This can presumably be done, in theory, form platforms 2 and 3, but it seems very unlikely that there would be any call for such a move when you can go westbound from there anyway, that's merely a theoretical option. No, in reality, I'm almost certain this train will've come from the siding and the train I'd seen there earlier was no longer in the siding so I'm pretty sure that's what happened. Still makes a nice change to see a District line train in platform 4. Very unusual.

Another option is that an H&C or Circle line S7 was reformed into a District line train. Obviously this would require a change of driver, as H&C and Circle line T/Ops are not road trained on the Wimbledon road, but it's a fairly trivial process to reform a former H&C/Circle line train into a District one otherwise. It just requires a change of train number and a change of destination. Really no more complicated than reforming an Ealing train into a Wimbledon one!

Anyway, when I finally made it into Edgware Rd I changed onto a Circle line train which took me to LIS, where I boarded an EPP train. Behind that there was a HAI via NEP and then a LOU. The journey home was uneventful as far as WOO, although it's very noisy on the east between STR and LEY in the tunnel. Gosh. I suspect this might be the result of some rail grinding that's been carried out in the area although I shouldn't speculate. Maybe it was actually completely local to our train, but whatever the case, it was very squeaky.

At WOO, I noticed signs of trouble. The LOU I had seen earlier had been replaced by a 'special' (which means it's out of service) which was 'held'. It turned out, according to the staff member on the platform, that it had gone defective at LES eastbound. It had been taken out of service for one reason or another and seemed to have caused some minor blocking back. Certainly it sounded like there'd been a platforms and hold call and I overheard on the radio Wood Lane giving the all clear for trains which had been held WHC - LEY on the east.

Happily none of this affected me and my HAI came out of 21 rd right on time and took me home. I stayed at ROV to watch the 'special' go past on its way to HAI depot. It was in Coded but was travelling at full line speed. There didn't seem to be anything visibly broken so I'm presuming it was something under the skin that went wrong.

And so, with that, I take the chance to say goodbye to the Cs on the Wimbledon-Edgware Road branch of the District line:

A C stock train operating a District line service (Wimbledon - Edgware Road), seen here at Wimbledon. (Image courtesy Chris McKenna (via Wikipedia))

And carry on son to the S7s:

An S7 stock train operating a District line service (Wimbledon - Edgware Road), also seen at Wimbledon. (This excellent image is courtesy of "Flickr" user Uzair Siddiqi and the original (which I have not altered) may be viewed here. The license applying to the use of this image may be viewed here.

I'm also gonna take the opportunity to do what I should have done before and say a goodbye to Cs operating to Kensington (Olympia):

A C stock train operating a District line service (from Kensington (Olympia)), seen here at Kensington (Olympia). This image is reproduced here by kind permission of the copyright holder - "Flickr" user "Black Trenchcoat". © All rights reserved by "Black Trenchcoat." "Black Trenchcoat" is not affiliated in any way with this blog and has played no part in the production of this post. Their kind permission to use this image does not imply any endorsement of the content of this blog. The original image has been modified slightly by its owner to remove graffiti. It is available here. Any requests to re-use this image must be addressed to "Black Trenchcoat"

Of course, these days the Olympia service is still largely operated by D stock:

A D stock train operating a District line service (from Kensington (Olympia)), seen here at Kensington (Olympia). (Image courtesy "Sunil060902" (via Wikipedia))

But, of course, the S7s are taking over there as well:

An S7 stock train operating a District line service (from Kensington (Olympia)), seen here at Kensington (Olympia). (Image courtesy "Spsmiler" (via Wikipedia))

And that's pretty much farewell to the C stock from me. I've made sure to have a last ride on it to all of the stations shown on the in-car maps. It's been nice, the C stock have couriered me to all kinds of important and enjoyable events and places.

It was my intention, while we're doing goodbyes, to leave it there. I think I am going to be forced to put this blog on ice for a while. It's time for me to move on in the world and I don't know what I'm gonna be doing or where I'm gonna be doing it. I have applied to Network Rail for a position as a signaller (in Kent), which'd be nice, but I hope I won't be doing that forever, as I still hold on to romantic, quixotic ideals of making the world a better place and all that jazz, but I'll see. If I get that, I probably won't be in London for much longer, but who knows. I'm sure I'll take many more tube journeys in the weeks to come, but I don't think I can afford to devote the time to writing them up at the moment, but this may not be the end, it may be but a hiatus. Sadly I can make no promises, only a 'we'll see.'

However, I went out on the railway again today and I can't resist giving you an account before I 'shut down the cab', as it were. Just whilst I'm at it, I thought I might as well, y'know. This will be the last post for now though.

So today was slightly messy as far as organisation was concerned. I won't go into the details, but I had a half-planned meeting with a friend I was hoping to go to. Unfortunately, she never got one of my texts and by the time I arrived at street level and could get a signal, she'd already gone home. But no matter, I managed to make the trip worthwhile by picking up a new phone (nice and cheap - good value) to go with the new life and career prospects and need to be 'connected.'

So, anyway, I arrived - perhaps a little optimistically - at ROV with just a couple of minutes to wait for the WOO train. All proceeded normally and we soon arrived on the platform at WOO. Here I got my first sign of something a little unusual when I saw that the next train through was a 'special' - read: out of service. I then saw the stick clear for the WOO train I'd just left with the route set for the mainline. This made it almost certain that the 'special' was bound for the sidings. It duly arrived in Coded, headed up 21 rd, reversed and stabled in the sidings (on 22 rd, specifically).

Almost immediately a WER train arrived and Auto fluffed the stop. It was coming in very slowly - because of the train on the mainline I suspect - and managed to stop short in the dry! Poor show. Had to be brought the rest of the way in by the T/Op. Anyway that took me all the way to HOL.

At HOL, after it became clear the meeting wasn't happening I went for a walk, looking for an open phone shop and - a bus ride later - eventually found one by TCR station. Now with a new phone I decided it was best just to go home and took an EPP train from TCR. This got me back to WOO just fine - much less squeaky STR - LEY on the east today. At WOO I noticed there were now four or five trains in the sidings! There was also a huge wait for the HAI - must've been 25 minutes, if not more. I also noticed  a train bound for LES arrive on the west. The word is that the train I saw heading onto 22 rd was short-tripped due to a lack of available drivers - nobody to relieve the T/Op at LES. This lack of staff was likely behind some of the other things I've mentioned, too.

Eventually it was time for the HAI to leave 21 rd but this was a sick train. The time came but there was no movement. Before long, the destination indicators were displaying it as "held". A WER arrived on the westbound and had to wait for it. Still no movement from the HAI. Finally it did arrive on the eastbound platform in Coded. (Trains almost always leave the sidings in Coded, it's standard procedure, but I thought it might have had to limp out in RM as I once saw one do). All seemed well. Everyone boarded, the doors closed. No movement. Doors open. Bit of a wait. Doors close. Still no movement. Eventually we pull away and arrive at ROV. I stayed to watch to see if it would get away from ROV alright. The doors closed. No movement. After a long wait it did get going. This was not a happy train, I wonder if it was taken out of service - perhaps at HAI.

And that will have to be that. Take care folks.

A wet lunch

Today, I'd arranged to meet a friend so I got up nice and early, giving myself plenty of time to sort out the cat litter and so on. After getting through all the morning chores I had to do, I left the house into some rather unpleasant rain. The weather's been horrible all day actually. Anyway, after battling through the wet and the rain I arrived at ROV to find that my luck was improving and that there were only 2 minutes to go until the WOO arrived. By the time I'd touched in and made my way over the bridge it was fast approaching and I virtually walked straight onto it. That took me to WOO where I had an 11 minute wait for the WER. I like to think I didn't waste it, though - I had a good look at the signalling while I was there, trying to find out more about how the sidings are signalled.

Eventually the train arrived and took me along the rain-sodden eastern end of the Central line to LES (in Coded, I believe), where we were routed into platform 1. Hardly worth mentioning it happens so often these days. From there (after a change of T/Op, I think), we were taken to LIS with little real fuss. Some slightly obnoxious teenagers shared my carriage for much of the ride, but oh well.

The Met was suffering from severe delays Aldgate - Wembley Park (I think it was Wembley Park) due to a signal failure at Baker St. Minor delays rest of the line. This didn't really affect me, though, and I boarded a Circle line train to Hammersmith after only a small wait. I'd expected to see at least one Met line train in the Moorgate bay roads, but there wasn't one there when I went through. I noticed at Farringdon, though, that the one which had just left on the east was Moorgate bound. Before I got to Farringdon, though, I had a novel experience at Barbican westbound.

As we were approaching the brakes come on pretty hard. I thought maybe the draw up signal at Barbican (A2320, for anyone who's interested) was at danger and we were slowing for it. I thought maybe the T/Op had overcooked it a bit and needed to get stopped sharply, but no, it was nothing like that. I discovered the true cause when the T/Op came over the PA:

"Ladies and gentlemen I am aware that the passenger alarm has been activated, I'm going to get the train into the platform and then I'll come back and see what's wrong."

Or words very much to that effect, I can't recall precisely what he said, but it was that or close to that. Now, when the alarm is activated on the S stock I do believe it applies the brakes automatically, not just when leaving a station (although it may only do this if some part of the train is in the station, I don't know, but I doubt it) and this can be cancelled by the T/Op with the press of a button if needed. That would certainly explain the heavy braking. When we did make it into Barbican westbound the T/Op made his way back down the platform. I decided to walk along the train to see what I could overhear (although I was cautious not to get involved in any crowding round or anything else unhelpful - I resolved to watch at a distance). All I heard, though, was someone saying thank you and we were on our way soon enough. I've never been on a train where a handle's been pulled. I've been on plenty of trains delayed by a handle down, but that's the first time I've actually been on the incident train (as it were) itself.

After that we made King's X without any further delay and I was dismayed to find that the rain hadn't eased off, as I'd hoped, but had become torrential. Nasty, nasty walk to the campus, where I arrived soaked. Ah well, it was worth it, I had a lovely lunchtime, during which we migrated to Russell Sq in mercifully dry weather. Well the rain had temporarily stopped falling at any rate. London was obviously nevertheless soaked.

From Russell Sq I walked to Euston Sq station and boarded a Barking train that took me down to LIS. Changed for a Central line train to LOU which took me all the way to WOO. As we were approaching LES on the east I saw a freight train heading over the bridge on the GOBLIN. Made a very nice change - haven't seen that before. Occasionally I see a London Overground train on there and I always mean to mention it, but usually forget. This was something new, though. After around 10 minutes of waiting at WOO I boarded the HAI and it took me to ROV on its way to EAB. The rain started to come back as I headed home :(

Exam III

"Readings in Sanskrit Systematic Thought" - now there's an enticing name for a course, don't you think? My oh my what a disaster. I started at the back and did the essay question first. You had to choose two questions from 5 possibilities and write a very brief essay in response. That actually went alright. I'm sure mine weren't the best essays ever written on the subject (not, of course, by a long, long way) but, y'know, I muddled through.

Oh and then came the three passages to translate. What a mess. I was very tired and not at all interested. Spent more time daydreaming. In between the daydreaming I muddled together some haphazard mess for question 1. Instead of actually writing out a proper translation, I showed my working, noting down everything I knew about each word in turn - since I didn't know enough to manage a good translation. At the end of each sentence I tried to cobble it together into some sort of translation, using what I'd managed to tease out of my brain (I couldn't have done this without writing it all out on the paper and having a proper think) and some vague memories of essays and lectures.

I asked myself whether I couldn't have just sat and thought really hard and maybe I could have just produced a translation and moved on to the next question, but I really needed my notes and frankly I needed all the marks I could get, it was damage limitation, I was trying to pick them up anywhere and everywhere. A bare translation wouldn't have been worth much, because there were a lot of words I don't know and far too much guesswork. So I tried a different angle - demonstrate some knowledge at least, get some stuff down, show what you do know and sod trying to make sense of the stuff. I took a lot of punts, but that was okay, because I'd at least shown what I was getting at, rather than just producing a totally wrong, off the wall translation.

And then I essentially ran out of steam and time. I jotted down a few of the words in the next question and what they were - you know, grammatical form, that sort of thing. There were also a couple of sub-questions specifically on grammatical stuff that I had a crack at. And that was all I could manage - essentially 50% of the exam, which sounds disastrous but I worked out I probably needed to score 20% to get the passing grade I need, so you know what - there's an outside chance that I might just about, somehow, scrape an honours degree out of this whole thing.

One thing you should know about me is that I like to have a little bit of fun in exams where I can - if you're gonna go down, you might as well go down in style - chuck in a few turns, y'know, maybe a pike. The last two years I've worked hard, wanting to do well, and I was just fed up in Hindi this year. But I used to be magnificent - I once got disqualified from an RE AS for "inappropriate content" and I was a master at competitions of trying to get unusual words into the exam or - my personal favourite - as many mentions of "x" as possible. A nice one I once did was 10 mentions of Jesus in an RE examination on the Old Testament :P (Easier than you'd think). So today - as a bit of a tribute to the glory days - I simply wrote under question 3:

"You're asking a bit much aren't you old son?"

 So anyway, enough of that: the journey.

It was a tired, lethargic, unenthusiastic start to the day, but I eventually dragged myself to ROV, where I caught a WER through train. Nothing much happened until BEG on the west, where we pulled up about 2 cars short. Even as we were stopping - before we'd even come to a halt - our T/Op, good with his announcements, was on the PA:

"Ladies and gentlemen, please stand away from the doors when the train is moving. Don't lean on the doors as this will cause a safety device to operate and the train will stop. Once again, this train is ready to depart stand away from the doors."

So basically an interlock loss had caused a brake application, which the T/Op had obviously noticed. He admonished the errant passengers while we were slowing down, then warned them not to lean on the doors before bringing us the rest of the way in.

Before we moved off from the station he gave a similar message, warning us that leaning on the doors will cause a safety device to operate and the train will become stalled in the tunnel or when entering  stations.

That was all, although I noticed it was a very squeaky, ride, our train was squealing very noticeably - much more so than usual - and it wasn't the only one. I wondered if there were some low adhesion areas, maybe the rails were a little greasy? This persisted for most of the journey, as well as in the tunnels. Well, whatever it was, it wasn't a big deal, I just noticed it was more pronounced than usual.

I changed at LIS for an all stations Watford and took that to Euston Sq., passing an H&C S7 in Moorgate bay platform 4.

The journey home was pretty straightforward. I decided to go to Foyles on Charing Cross Road to buy a couple of books. On my way a passed a sticker attached to a lamppost proclaiming "luxury communism," in my head:

"Redistribution of wealth. Common ownership of the means of production. Rigid enforcement and an iron fist rule. This is not just communism. This is M & S communism."

Marx and Sparks! :P (I am sorry. Let's move on.)

As a result I boarded a very toasty EPP train at TCR and took that to LES where I changed for the WOO via HAI. I noticed that the tunnel lights were still on between LIS and BEG on the eastbound, which is very uncomfortable. The lights must be on around the crossover, but there's a long section from not far outside LIS to all the way to BEG where the lights have been left on unusually and it's very unrestful on the eyes!

The considerable warmth in the pipe was easily made up for by gorgeous views on the HAI loop. Passing HAI depot I noticed a train shunting, ready to enter service and I also noticed some work being done, or inspection being carried out, on the points motor (I think that's what it's called - the thing that moves the points :P) of one of the sets of points in the depot.

And that was that. Would probably have been a very nice journey if I hadn't been so wrecked, but it was enjoyable all the same :)

Nothing special

When I decided to start this little blog I said to myself that I would try to keep a log of all interesting journeys, noting down anything that happened and, along the way, also including explanations and additional information and observations about the London Underground. At some point very early on my remit changed just slightly. I felt that it'd be worth trying to log every journey I made and so far I've stuck to that - this hasn't been a problem as there's usually been something to mention.

Today a bit more work was done on the kitchen - a new floor was put in. I used the excuse to go to the cinema and decided to watch Godzilla, after being reasonably enticed by the trailers. It looked fun, it looked exciting - not exactly art, but good viewing. Actually the title of this blog doesn't refer to that at all, it refers to my journey (that being the raison d'être of this blog) - the movie was fine. Exactly what you'd expect really. Hardly great cinema, but a good enough use of a couple of hours. The 3½ stars it gets on the Odeon website is pretty accurate, I think.

So, to get there, I had to go to SOW. This meant going from ROV to WOO and then from WOO to SOW. I didn't know when it was on, so I checked online at about 14:20 and saw there was a showing at 15:00. I thought I had plenty of time, but when I got to ROV at about 14:26 there were 16 mins until the WOO, which meant cutting it a bit fine. The WOO was a little late in leaving and I had a little wait at WOO, of course, for the WER. I did make SOW but didn't arrive at the cinema until about 15:05. This was good enough though :)

More of the same on the way back. It was a very brief, but very nice journey. The platform at SOW is very pleasant and I only had a minute or two to wait at WOO for the HAI which took me home in Coded on a lovely Sunday afternoon.

C is for Censington (Olympia)

No wait, that's not right is it? :P

As I'm sure many of you will remember, the days of the C stock are numbered. A minor collision between two S7s in passenger service on the Wimbleware branch did - I believe - interrupt very slightly the smooth roll-out of S7s. You can read more about the "collision" - really more of a minor scuff to be honest - here. The two trains scraped alongside each other as they rounded a bend between East Putney and Southfields, owing to movement of the track. I, personally, am inclined to agree with the RMT that regular track inspection is important and that TfL cuts are for the worse, but the incident was very minor and nobody was harmed. The trains themselves probably did require some maintenance though and immediately afterwards various diversions were put in place. A normal service on the Wimbleware, with the right 4 C's, 4 S's balance (N.B.: the problems on the branch, which were really track-based, were not S stock specific and C's were also diverted - all were sent to Richmond one morning, which would have been nice to see; not sure about the Ds, but I think the whole Wimbledon road was a bit of a problem child for a short time), was not restored for a little while I believe. I think all is pretty much back to normal now, though.

Anyway, this weekend there is no District line between South Ken and Aldgate East and between Earl's Court and Wimbledon. This meant a 4 tph (trains per hour) Edgware Road - Kensington (Olympia) service, operated by 2 C's and 2 S's. This was an opportunity not to be missed. Although I believe some C's do visit Olympia very early in the morning, coming out of Lillie Bridge depot (and one or two may even depart in service, although I think many don't, but I'm not that au fait with the District line's early morning timetable, unfortunately), it's not a common occurrence really. Presumably something similar happens late at night, too, I'm not sure. Whatever the case, it's a relative rarity to be on a C to/from Olympia. I myself have never been to Olympia on a C and I remember thinking rather ruefully that it was a shame that I would probably not get to do so. This was particularly a shame since Olympia is a destination the C's can visit normally - unlike Richmond which is more exceptional - and it is shown on the in-car maps (again, unlike Richmond for instance). Having taken the opportunity to see the Circle and H&C on a C for one last time (and fully intending to do the same on the Wimbleware when the time comes) I had to take today's excellent opportunity.

So I headed off to ROV - which was looking delightfully pretty as ever - and had a fairly substantial 16 minute wait for the WOO. At WOO I happened to notice one in the siding and one in the bay. The train I'd just arrived on was to be reversed back to HAI off platform 2 and the next westbound was to depart from the bay road. Naturally I headed onto it and effected a more seamless, smoother change than usual. It was a nice little trip down to LES, where we were routed into platform 1. As we headed along the loop and down to LEY, I happened to glance over my shoulder and see that the signal controlling access to platforms 3 & 2 from the eastbound track was showing white, with route indicator pointing to the right. This means that the next train to arrive at LES from LEY would be routed into platform 2 - where, presumably, it would terminate. (Not that it couldn't go onto the EPP road from there, of course, but that would be odd). That, presumably, explained why we were sent into platform 1. A fairly odd time on the east end of the Central line all round, then. I didn't notice any problems - any delays - which might explain this, though.

After LES, however, all went smoothly and I simply enjoyed a straightforward, slightly warm trip into NHG, where, happily, the next train due on the sub-surface lines was a District line train to Olympia and, as luck would have it, it was a C. So I hopped aboard and noted that the bay roads at High Street (Kensington) were being used for reversing trains from Ealing and Richmond (no surprises) as I went by. Then it was into Earl's Court and off to Olympia. As we pulled out, I watched the Wimbledon road branch off and noted the beginning of the possession. Then we took a right at West Kensington East Junction and headed up to Olympia, passing the depot roads to/from Lillie Bridge depot and the point where one of them merges with our line.

At Olympia I stood around and admired the station for a bit, enjoying watching the London Overground and Southern trains which serve the station on the West London Line. I noticed that there were some other enthusiasts chatting excitedly with the T/Op. I did wander over but didn't get involved - bit of social angst, y'know? I had intended to head back to NHG and find a café or something there and do some reading. But I thought - oh, what the hell, why no carry on to Edgware Road? So I did and found a nice little Costa there, where I read a reasonable amount of a chapter of a very, very good book called "White Teeth."

But this is not a literature review, it is a journey review. I left the café when I was finished reading, headed back to the lovely Edgware Road and was lucky enough to catch an H&C train which took me very smoothly on to LIS, in some very nice sunshine. I changed onto a very warm and busy HAI via NEP train, which I took to LES. There I obviously changed for the EPP and arrived at WOO with another reasonable wait for a train that'd serve ROV. I could swear a LOU which I hadn't seen any mention of at LIS, MIE or LES materialised very quickly. Maybe it was reversed at LES, maybe a HAI via NEP was diverted, who knows? Maybe I just wasn't paying attention :P In fact, I did stop paying attention, really, and did a bit more reading until the WOO arrived. Nice day in the end :)

Oh Hindi how I hate thee

*Yawn* I am very tired after an early start. I had my second exam this morning, you see - Hindi 1. Ouch. Not good, really, there was a lot I didn't understand, a lot I didn't know, a lot of guesswork and a lot of reading for gist. It was, yes, a nice challenge but bullshitting in Hindi is much much harder for me than bullshitting in English and I got stuck and fed up quite quickly. To be honest, it was quite boring on the whole really. I've never walked out of an exam early before - but I did today. I didn't even bother to have a silly, pathetic joke or write any funny words, I just got out of there. Not very early, I might add, I was there for over 2 and a half hours, but a reasonable amount of that was daydreaming.

So, anyway, I made sure I got up nice and early which, just like on Thursday, turned out to be a pretty good call. Having got up early I made rather a meal of getting out of the house - I was tired and spent a lot of time in the shower. Eventually I did get out of the house and arrived on a platform where it was slightly mizzly. I didn't have a very long wait for the WER through train which arrived in Coded. She was good, too, very nice stops, although nicer at platforms, I would say, than before blocks with a maximum safe speed of 0, i.e. blocks transmitting a stop code. Or, to put it another way, she stopped a little more gently at platforms than at red signals and block marker boards, but hey. Also, whoever was on the front of my Uxbridge this morning was superb - I've never known an S stock to be driven that well.

Anyway the WER was presumably fresh out of the depot and it took me round through WOO - where there was a train in the sidings - and on to SNA. Here we got a platforms and hold call due to a faulty train a BEG westbound. Well, better there than LEY I suppose and the wait was not too long so I'm guessing they got it going one way or another. On the subject of the one that went defective at LEY, Aslef shrugged has confirmed that it did reverse at BEG and head back east to the depot.

Anyway, sadly, today's faulty train did still have an impact on our journey. The whole westbound road was very congested. We were cleared out of platform 2, but only as far as LES 5752 (the signal in front of the bridge carrying GOBLIN), where we were held for the train from platform 1. It was stationary as we drew alongside it but pulled away just as we were coming to a halt. Before long we also had a clear signal but were held for a second time just outside LEY on the west. 3 times we came to a stop between STR and MIE and I stopped counting properly after that, but I'm pretty sure we stopped at least once between MIE and BEG and at least twice on the approach to LIS.

Hey, it's just congestion, like any other congestion. Not much you can do really when the faulty train's already on its way. You could turn a few short, but with the headways, you'd only delay the service even more. If you start tipping out trains and putting them up sidings not only do you reduce the number of trains and start having everything in the wrong place, but it also delays trains behind while you do it. A few might have been terminated at more convenient locations - WHC, LOU and NOA spring to mind and maybe a train or two was cancelled out of the depot or put away. I have no idea, but I doubt they bothered with any of that. No, all you can really do is try and recover the service, regulate the service, maybe turn one or two slightly earlier or shorten a couple of trips (turn a NOR into a NOA or make a few WERs into EABs). Anyway, not a big deal, not a big deal at all, even on exam day. I was still early. It was just a longer journey in than usual.

Eventually I did make LIS where I changed for the all stations Uxbridge I mentioned before. Did anything happen between LIS and Euston Sq? I don't think so. Some lines have all the luck :P

I wrote that while waiting for the time of my oral exam later in the afternoon (16:00). Oh wow did TUT crash and burn. Normally I'm quite good at conjuring up bullshit under pressure, but in Hindi? Well, apparently not, I was clueless. My reading aloud was pretty decent, I think, and I managed to get through the questions on the paragraph I had just read (we were given it fifteen minutes before the start of the exam). Well, certainly half of them went pretty well and I think I got through the rest alright.

After that I was reduced primarily to mumbling as my brain tried to comprehend what was being said, then come up with an answer it actually had the words for. TUT's brain was suffering from severe delays and at times had to be part suspended. I was asked to keep my sentence structures up - trouble is I didn't have any words to arrange into a sentence, otherwise I might have managed to! :P I mean the pressure scrubs off some of your ability to recall words, especially when a large percentage of your mind is given over to other tasks like understanding the question, trying to come up with any kind of answer at all - regardless of language - and thinking about grammar. Also, obviously, there's a small monitoring section tasked with telling you just how badly you're doing :P

Ooooh - big failure. When the long fifteen minutes were finally up (as I say, usually I quite like this sort of thing - I was rather looking forward to it - I guess my Hindi is just really poor - I really do know nothing :P) I related:

"It's really nerve-wracking! You just forget everything, it all goes! As if you knew it in the first place..."

One of them gave me a knowing smile at that point. I knew it went badly. He did too :P

I therefore left in a very good mood - nothing like well and truly fucking something up to get the excitement going! I made my way back to Euston Square and boarded a Met train to Aldgate. We passed an H&C line train to Hammersmith in Moorgate platform 3. Doors were a bit slow in opening for some reason, but we made LIS without much fuss.

Once there, I changed for an EPP train. I have a vague feeling some small thing of note may have occurred but my brain has turned to mush so I can't really tell you. Very warm, I changed at WOO and had a pretty substantial wait for the HAI which took me home, where I arrived about five hours ago. It's taken me a long time to really see my way to doing anything at all :P

Fun? You can have any amount of it

So it was exam day today - my first of the season. Phonetics. Now phonetics, for those who are interested, is a subject I like - broadly speaking. I've spent quite a lot of time learning different scripts and that taught me a lot of phonetics and I do find it quite interesting and it's useful for my hobby. The subject I get. The lectures were fine. The lectures, though, finished more than 15 weeks ago. In fact, you know what, they finished on the 13/12, so that makes 21 doesn't it? The number 15 comes from somewhere but I now realise it's quite an understatement!  But more than that, it's not a subject I'm very good at writing essays about and I tell you my revision has been, well, scanty - I think is the word. Still today's exam was alright - I very much enjoyed it and I wrote plenty and I think I said some good things. The trouble is I don't think I nailed a lot of the specifics and I do find it very hard to know what to say so who knows how it went.

Anyway, in order to sit the exam I had to get to the exam. I woke up nice and early - four and a half hours before the exam, to be precise. I got myself ready and I checked the TfL website, which informed me that the service was part suspended with no service LES - LIS on the westbound road due to a faulty train at LEY...Well you can imagine that this was not what I was hoping for! :P I still had plenty of time, though, so I wasn't too worried and I knew I could make alternative arrangements if necessary. I was still running very early but I resolved to get myself out of the house, y'know, promptly, shall we say. By the time I left, through running had been re-established and we were up to severe delays on the entire line.

Blogger Auxsetreq sheds light on what happened and also gives a very interesting discussion about the current timetable, which I've said a little bit about here myself. Anyway, apparently a train went defective at LEY westbound and could only be moved in restricted manual (RM), which means an absolute maximum speed of 18 kph and the motors cut out at 16. Now, at LEY westbound you can't reverse the train until you reach BEG which I reckon is about 6.5 km away. Worse still, I don't think it would have been reversed there, because you'd then have to have it limp all the way back to LEY and then on all the way up to HAI depot. I personally think the best option would've been to stable it in one of the sidings at LIS (a further 2.27 km away) and leave it there until a more opportune moment towards the end of the day arrived to get it back to the depot. But I obviously have no idea what happened. It's quite possible it was reversed at BEG, but the fact that the service was suspended westbound only for a while, but at no point was it suspended eastbound (I believe) makes me suspect it wasn't.

So I headed off to ROV - in the rain as well - and I arrived at about the same time as the WOO. So I hurried onto it, not wanting to get left behind on exam day, and got to WOO no problem. The train was tipped out and the rain started to fall thick and fast. Before long the next westbound arrived - for WER I think. We actually got to SOW no problem. Here's where the fun began.

We had a fairly long wait at SOW by usual standards, before moving up as far as SNA A7002, a block marker board not far outside of SNA westbound. We then moved up into SNA westbound where we had a very brief wait indeed. We remained there for a little while, even after the starter cleared. Perhaps Wood Lane had added a bit of time to the countdown in the cab, which can be done to hold trains and regulate the service. Well, maybe, but I obviously have no way of knowing.

Unsurprisingly we were then held again at LES 5760, the signal controlling access to both westbound platforms at LES from SNA. We were then routed into platform 1, unusually, where we had a brief-ish wait. Interestingly we were then cleared out of platform 1 over the crossover, instead of heading along the loop as usual and merging with the track from platform 2 much further up, beyond where GOBLIN (Gospel Oak - Barking Line) crosses overhead. For more details, see Variety is the spice of life. We then had a brief wait at LES 5752 which is the next actual signal past the starter, fixed to a gantry just in front of the bridge that carries GOBLIN. It controls the point where the track from platform 1 merges with the track from platform 2.

After an arduous journey to LES (the first major milestone) things did improve, apart from a long wait at MIE, where I saw the District line's S7 heading for Olympia. I was so tempted to get on it, but - y'know - exam and all that. I only ever see the rotter when I have somewhere I'm heading, never when I'm just on my way home or fancy a trip! :P

Still, we actually made LIS in fairly decent time and I changed for an S7+1 for all stations to Uxbridge. I took that train to King's X and can't honestly recall noticing anything exciting. Damp walk to the exam venue, where I arrived with still a good hour or hour and a half to go.

After my exam I met a friend I hadn't seen for a while and actually had a really lovely afternoon. As I say I enjoyed the exam too (I do enjoy exams, I'm just an oddball really) and the journey in was fun - bit of spice. More fun was in store when I arrived at Russell Square station, which was nearest to where I'd spent the afternoon with my friend. I noticed there were severe delays once again on my poor Central line - this time owing to a signal failure at BEG. Now really I should've tried to find an alternative route to changing onto the Central at HOL - at least for part of my journey. However, for reasons I won't get into I'd said I'd time the trip to STR and I was quite apt to get on the Central line really. I am TUT and I do like a good delay or two - as I say, it adds a bit of interest, a bit of spice. So I took a Heathrow Terminals 4 & 1,2,3 train to HOL and changed onto a mobbed platform.

When I finally managed to manoeuvre myself onto the platform (getting increasingly tempted to turn back and head up to King's X as I did so) I noticed that the next train was for LIS and really wanted to get on it. Happily, I was able to make it on without too much problem, but it became very full. Oh, it is indeed a brave decision to short-trip a train at LIS eastbound, oh yes. We arrived on the eastbound platform - already very busy - and were tipped out. Thinking TUT waited until everyone else had got off so that he would be at the front (bit cheeky). I did feel sorry for the poor member of station staff who had to squeeze along the platform closing up all the doors. Sadly, I couldn't see a lot, but eventually the train was ready to depart and it blew up (blew the whistle) and then actually waited a little while before making its way into the siding. Crawled it did, as well, and the way power was applied was a little unusual, but I enjoyed seeing the back of the train turn right and disappear into the sidings.

Before long, the further delayed HAI via NEP arrived. Well, it said NEP on the boards, but the T/Op had it up as a HAI. Everyone piled on and it was all rather warm and cramped, but I don't mind, y'know. You can't see much out of the windows, which is a shame, but as I say it adds spice and I always enjoy tube travel and, I dunno, there's something I quite like about just trying to get somewhere soon. I'm glad it's not like that every day, but it's alright from time to time.

At BEG eastbound the crowdedness had its effect. The doors close and we move off. Interlock loss. Stop. Wait. Try again. Interlock loss. Stop.

"Ladies and gentlemen once again please don't lean on the side doors it does interrupt the journey and of course it can be really dangerous."

Try again. We're away!

At STR the T/Op came over with another interesting announcement:

"This train is for HAI via NEP, the information boards are wrong. This is a HAI via NEP train. Any passengers left on the platform please check the front of the next train."

This was a message he repeated at LES. Usually the boards are quite reliable because they're linked to the signalling and the T/Op's always the last to know. I remember a post by District Dave which brought a smile to my face:

"However I've just left Bromley-by-Bow when the radio calls my set number. 'Where are you driver?' I duly tell him and he responds 'reverse Plaistow'. Nothing like plenty of notice!"

 However, we've been having some problems with them recently. Aslef shrugged recalls fun and games with the indicator boards showing his eastbound train as a WHC at NHG...

Anyway, I changed at LES - when we got there. We had a long wait just outside LEY and then another short wait just as we were approaching LES. Hardly surprising. I changed onto the EPP of course and took that as far as WOO, where the indicator boards were displaying all sorts! :P I noticed at least three trains in the sidings and one in the bay road which left for WHC not long after I arrived. I guess a few trains probably ended up being put away in LOU sidings, too, there was very little on the west. Not that there was much on the east either. A very lightly loaded LOU came through before a pretty full EPP. There may have been another EPP in there was well. The WOO via HAI arrived on the inner rail after a fair while as well and after a brief spell in 21 road eventually arrived to take my tired self home to ROV.

Lots of fun today

Lots of fun. But first, something I forgot to mention yesterday - a curious announcement:

"Passengers are reminded that the door controls do not function on these trains."

Now, as we know, that's not strictly true. Still, I wonder what prompted that?

Anyway, today. I decided to again meet some friends to do some revision for Thursday's phonetics exam and arrived at ROV at nearly 10:55. I think the WOO was actually slightly late because when I arrived the HAI was pulling in, but the WOO was still six minutes away. Also the next WOO was only 14 minutes away and I've just checked journey planner and the train is definitely due at 10:55 (although I was aiming for 10:54 as xx:54 is what I'm used to, but it doesn't matter).

Still, it was no big deal and we headed off to WOO. There the train terminated and I got off and bought a drink. Not everyone did, though. I sighed as I noticed two women in their own little world get ushered off the train and then I headed off down the platform observing the usual procedure of closing up the train using the porter buttons. The T/Op headed back to his cab. Nothing. More nothing. I saw the member of staff walking down the platform towards the cab. 'What's going on?' I wondered. The member of staff called out that on one of the cars, one set of doors hadn't closed when he'd operated the buttons as normal. He requested the T/Op to try from his end. The T/Op tried, I assume using the controls on the panel which is next to the J door (door into the carriage from the cab). I saw the set of doors close, I assume he got a doors closed visual and he pulled away into the siding. The NOR train then arrived very quickly, as it had obviously been waiting, and I headed off to SOW.

At SOW I noticed something a little bit unusual on the eastbound platform - a train shown four minutes away which was for WOO. Now I have never been on a train to WOO via SNA. The opportunity to have a ride was irresistible, but at SOW you can't cross the bridge to the other platform without touching out and touching back in again. Very silly if you ask me, but then we know Oyster has its limitations. I'm not saying we should all go back to paper tickets, I just don't think Oyster is anywhere near good enough to obsolete them and yet...

So, anyway, I stayed on to SNA and hurried across to the eastbound platform. God SNA's beautiful, I mean it really is. I've never waited for a train there, only ever passed through it. Go. It's lovely.

Soon enough my train arrived and I headed back the way I had come, turned right where never have I turned right before, went up 21 road and terminated in the bay platform. Makes a nice change; good view of the sidings on the way in too, if you like that sort of thing. I saw on the display that it was going back to NOR in 4 minutes. I had wondered whether it'd stable in the sidings, but nope, it was due back out. Our T/Op got off at LES, so I can only guess that she was running late, or the train was. So, I stayed on the train and took it back.

We were routed into platform 1 at LES, just to add a small something extra to the day's fun and games :P and then headed off to LIS. At STR the doors closed, then nothing. Bit of nothing, a bit more nothing and then movement. Not the first time, of course, these things happen. We had a bit of trouble getting movement on the eastbound on the trip home as well. I always wonder what's going on when this happens, but it's rarely any real problem.

At LIS I changed for a Circle line train to Hammersmith. We passed an S7 which was out of service in Moorgate platform 4 but that's about all the fun I had on the trip in. I arrived at Euston Sq and at university only about 5 minutes later than I had intended.

The trip back began on a fairly busy Hammersmith & City line train, which took me to LIS without much ado. I changed at LIS and boarded a NEP train, which I took to LES. Beyond the slow start at STR nothing much happened and I merely sat back and enjoyed a pleasant (although very mildly warm) trip. The next train through LES on the east was an EPP, which arrived in Coded. That took me to WOO, I believe in Coded. The stop at SNA was very nice. Happily the HAI was due out of 21 road in just 2 minutes when I arrived at WOO. That's what it said on the boards when I arrived and then they stopped working, telling us only that the platform was for eastbound Central line trains. Still, no matter, the HAI did arrive nice and quickly and that took me home. Lovely :)

Aldgate East reverser

Today I went into London to meet a friend. I got a little bit caught out because I forgot that it is a bank holiday Monday and I nearly missed the WOO train. Happily, however, I didn't in fact miss it and I was able to change onto a WHC train at WOO. All trains were, of course, running to WHC due to the engineering work taking place since it is, as I now know, a bank holiday.

In the end the general bank-holiday-ness was no real problem of course and it was really a glorious trip in - very nice day to be out and about, quite quiet and plenty of driving in Coded too. I changed at LIS for a Hammersmith & City line train to Hammersmith and that took me to Euston Sq. on what was an extremely uneventful trip. It was just nice, it was nice to be on the tube today, lovely weather.

It was a nice afternoon, too, and I headed back in a good mood. The Met was having a few problems, I think caused by a signal failure at Finchley Road and I passed an out of service train in Moorgate platform 3 which I assume was evidence of this. The problems didn't really have any affect on my Hammersmith & City line train. We were, admittedly, held very briefly outside Farringdon at the signal which I think is OH47^A, but that was nothing really. I took the H&C train to Aldgate East - some of you may remember that I mentioned in my post about reversing at Gloucester Road that I passed up the opportunity to sample reversing facilities at Aldgate East as well. Well, here was a second chance and I couldn't resist it. So I waited for a District line train and, when it arrived, tried my best to help out some people who were clearly a little confused (poor things clearly didn't have much English and were trying to get to Tower Hill. I'd actually forgotten that there were no trains going there at all, but I did let them know the District wouldn't take them there and I hope they found their way. I don't think my gestures and explanations aided the cause very much, but hopefully they asked the staff member I pointed out, who could give them directions, or point out a bus). I then wandered up to the Whitechapel end of the platform, watched the wrong-road starter clear and hopped aboard for a novel trip to MIE, where I just missed one. Happily the next train through was for WOO via HAI. Lovely journey round the loop in Coded and I got to watch one shunting around the depot too.