BBC Documentary 'The Railways'

[LNW-GW Joint]

I felt sorry for the dedicated folk working at Craigentinny still having to deal with plastered excrement on the HSTs, as they don't have toilet retention.
I'm somewhat surprised this has not become a significant Health & Safety issue and become a driver for replacement/upgrade.
At least the much-maligned IEP will fix this problem.
It would be interesting to draw a map of the "clean" railway versus the "dirty" one.
I suppose the WCML and the network south of the Thames are the cleanest, by virtue of not running old trains.
Oh and the story of body parts jammed in the works after an "incident"...
Good work guys.

 

[455driver]

I felt sorry for the dedicated folk working at Craigentinny still having to deal with plastered excrement on the HSTs, as they don't have toilet retention.

At Waterloo platform 11 has had absorbent matting laid in the four foot for the HST diversions so they dont soil the formation.

They will need to do another platform though as there are occasions when the second HST arrives before the first one has left.

 

[marks87]

Did they really not know where the drunk guy went?

Dundee has automatic barriers, so chances are he jumped on another train.

 

[reb0118]

Dundee has automatic barriers, so chances are he jumped on another train.

Plenty of drunks manage to get through barriers ~ with or without tickets.

 

[yorksrob]

I felt sorry for the dedicated folk working at Craigentinny still having to deal with plastered excrement on the HSTs, as they don't have toilet retention.
I'm somewhat surprised this has not become a significant Health & Safety issue and become a driver for replacement/upgrade.
At least the much-maligned IEP will fix this problem.
It would be interesting to draw a map of the "clean" railway versus the "dirty" one.
I suppose the WCML and the network south of the Thames are the cleanest, by virtue of not running old trains.
Oh and the story of body parts jammed the works after an "incident"...
Good work guys.

Indeed. Not a pleasant part of the job. But I suppose there is a professional aspect that comes into play as is the case with plumbers and sewer engineers.

 

[class156]

The G&SWR is, or was, a diversionary route for the WCML - and Voyagers have been seen going down there in the past during engineering works

I wonder if pendos are cleared to be dragged down?

Pendolino's are cleared to go via Kilmarnock (obviously being dragged by a 57).

 

[455driver]

Pendolino's are cleared to go via Kilmarnock (obviously being dragged by a 57).

Or given a bit of a run at it!

 

[Butts]

With regard to TOC's the whole series has just about been a Promotional Feature for East Coast and Virgin with snippets of others tossed in for good measure

 

[RPM]

With regard to TOC's the whole series has just about been a Promotional Feature for East Coast and Virgin with snippets of others tossed in for good measure

With Virgin coming off rather better in my opinion - evidence of a slicker PR machine?

Pretty good PR for Network Rail too.

I hope the the series has served as an eye-opener for the non-railway staff viewing it. Talking to "normals" who watched it and reading Twitter comments, there seems to be general admiration for the level-headed professionalism of the front line staff and also some distaste for the way the "Great British Public" behave when they travel by train; especially how selfish and rude they can be when things don't go to plan. There have also been comments about the dedication of the various p-way staff and the extent of the unseen work that goes on behing the scenes to keep the railway running.

After an unpromising start (I really did fear a complete stitch-up after watching the first episode) I am left with a generally positive impression of the series. I think the railway industry gave quite a good account of itself.

 

[SS4]

With Virgin coming off rather better in my opinion - evidence of a slicker PR machine?

I thought East Coast came off better, especially in Scotland. To me they seemed genuine and at ease whereas Virgin's effort seemed forced as though they were playing up for the cameras. I suspect the latter received strict instruction not to say anything negative about the company and stress the positives (at a time when the WCML franchise was undecided)

Pretty good PR for Network Rail too.

Yeah, I'd agree with that

I hope the the series has served as an eye-opener for the non-railway staff viewing it. Talking to "normals" who watched it and reading Twitter comments, there seems to be general admiration for the level-headed professionalism of the front line staff and also some distaste for the way the "Great British Public" behave when they travel by train; especially how selfish and rude they can be when things don't go to plan. There have also been comments about the dedication of the various p-way staff and the extent of the unseen work that goes on behing the scenes to keep the railway running.

It's relatively easy to spot rude or unreasonable behaviour in others but not so easy to see it in yourself, especially if compounded by stress or other emotions. More likely is that they always had that distaste and those who were rude will always be so whether due to a sense of entitlement, weedy behaviour by management (rewarding poor behaviour in the name of customer service) and misinformation. That said if it gives an appreciation of what staff must face hopefully everyone will start being nicer.

After an unpromising start (I really did fear a complete stitch-up after watching the first episode) I am left with a generally positive impression of the series. I think the railway industry gave quite a good account of itself.

I agree, I was worried after the first episode that it'd be one-sided but thankfully it turned out to not be the case. If I had one gripe it would be that there weren't enough episodes . It gets praise from me for venturing out of the London commuter belt, something that it could easily have not done.

 

[trainophile]

Talking to "normals" who watched it and reading Twitter comments, there seems to be general admiration for the level-headed professionalism of the front line staff.....

.....the dedication of the various p-way staff and the extent of the unseen work that goes on behing the scenes to keep the railway running.

Count me and my other half in with that. We are "just" passengers, although also have an interest in all things railway related, and we learnt a huge amount from the series. I've always thought the sheer logistics of routing, staffing, allocating stock etc. must be incredibly complicated, but there were aspects such as keeping the lines clear of debris and coping with exceptionally challenging circumstances that were real eye-openers. 100% credit to every single person involved in the wonderful entity that is our rail network operation. It made me so mad when people were being selfish and petty just because they were unavoidably inconvenienced.

 

[Ferret]

I felt sorry for the dedicated folk working at Craigentinny still having to deal with plastered excrement on the HSTs, as they don't have toilet retention.

That's nothing mate - some ar##hole has shat all over the floor in one of my on-train toilets this afternoon. FFS, there's a perfectly useable toilet less than a foot away, but no, I'll just **** all over the floor instead. Unbelievable.

 

[Marklund]

That's nothing mate - some ar##hole has shat all over the floor in one of my on-train toilets this afternoon. FFS, there's a perfectly useable toilet less than a foot away, but no, I'll just **** all over the floor instead. Unbelievable.

Try getting that at 125mph, and you'll realise what you had wasn't so bad.
High time that all toilets had retention tanks.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Try getting that at 125mph, and you'll realise what you had wasn't so bad.
High time that all toilets had retention tanks.

Do Chiltern's 'revamped' Mk3s have tanks now? Presumably all new stock is required to have tanks now (if it has toilets at all!), but what is the newest stock on the network that still tips out onto the track?

 

[Crossover]

Do Chiltern's 'revamped' Mk3s have tanks now? Presumably all new stock is required to have tanks now (if it has toilets at all!), but what is the newest stock on the network that still tips out onto the track?

Don't quote me on this but I am sure I have heard of some Mk 3's being retrofitted with retention tanks - which ones I couldn't say

 

[Ferret]

Try getting that at 125mph, and you'll realise what you had wasn't so bad.
High time that all toilets had retention tanks.

LOL, I take your point sir! And agree completely. Then we just need to toilet train the degenerates in our society at large, and all will be ok with the world!

 

[michael769]

Plenty of drunks manage to get through barriers ~ with or without tickets.

Its not hard. I once got through by showing a photocard and Advance club membership card.

(It was an accident! When I put my ticket back in the wallet I put it under the advance card instead of over - I only realised when the conductor looked rather confused when I showed him the combo, but even he let it pass )
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With regard to TOC's the whole series has just about been a Promotional Feature for East Coast and Virgin with snippets of others tossed in for good measure

To be fair, Northern, FGW and Mersyrail all got a good crack of the whip. I suspect EC's extra time onscreen was down to a few TOCs such as Scotrail being unwilling to take the opportunity to be featured.

 

[RPM]

Do Chiltern's 'revamped' Mk3s have tanks now?

Chiltern's refurbished Mk3s have retention tanks. The toilets have also been relocated and reduced in number. The Chiltern blue & grey set still dumps on the track though.

 

[jon0844]

Personally, I'd rather be on a platform as a HST comes through dumping down on the track than when a Mk4 EC set goes by and sprays all over everyone - given it overflows from the top.

East Coast, just as NatEx before it, still don't empty the retention tanks often enough and so it's effectively as if they don't have them after a while.. and what a nice smell as the, erm, materials are mixed with whatever chemical they use.

 

[Aictos]

Was speaking to a mate of mine who drives the HSTs, I didn't realise just how right he was when he said how disgusting they are underneath!

 

[chrisdmadd]

Changing a brake pad or brake pipe is a fairly straight forward job but when its got an inch of soggy used toilet roll from the past months punters accumulated on it its an all together different task. The hoggers however only tend to gather the larger clumps of whatever has been flushed that day. The smell is wonderful.

 

[ryan125hst]

Chiltern's refurbished Mk3s have retention tanks. The toilets have also been relocated and reduced in number. The Chiltern blue & grey set still dumps on the track though.

How many toilets are there now per train? There isn't even one per carriage now is there?

 

[chrisdmadd]

How many toilets are there now per train? There isn't even one per carriage now is there?

I'd imagine they have reduced from 2 per coach to one. it would make life very difficult if some coaches had toilets and some didn't.

 

[RPM]

Don't quote me because I haven't examined them in detail, but I think alternate coaches have 2 and 0 toilets.

 

[455driver]

Personally, I'd rather be on a platform as a HST comes through dumping down on the track than when a Mk4 EC set goes by and sprays all over everyone - given it overflows from the top.

The good old "brown mist"!

 

[yorksrob]

Surely it must be possible to fit some sort of a down pipe to the tank overflow on MK4's to direct any spillage downwards. As far as CET's are concerned, the MK4 versions are far preferablr for the person using it than any other type.

 

[gimmea50anyday]

158's still dump onto the track whereas 159's have retention tanks. Think these are the newest trains to retain that traditional feature!

 

[455driver]

158's still dump onto the track whereas 159's have retention tanks. Think these are the newest trains to retain that traditional feature!

All SWT units have retention tanks, including the 158s.

When the 158s were transferred to SWT they had to pull a 159 apart to see what shape the tanks were and how they were fitted.

 

[pinguini]

LOL, I take your point sir! And agree completely. Then we just need to toilet train the degenerates in our society at large, and all will be ok with the world!

I took my first journey on a Cross-Country train yesterday. Couldn't get a seat and could barely stand in the vestibule as someone had thrown up all over the floor outside the toilets. You can imagine what my impressions of XC are...

 

[Jordeh]

I took my first journey on a Cross-Country train yesterday. Couldn't get a seat and could barely stand in the vestibule as someone had thrown up all over the floor outside the toilets. You can imagine what my impressions of XC are...

Well I guess they do have a great degree of control over the stock they were given and the choice of where customers throw up :roll: