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.
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