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Drivers at my depot always refer to them as Dogboxes. I much prefer them to say a 156 in terms of space. Strangely enough the small cab is more comfortable than the big end! Seem to be regional variations as have heard both the “skateboard” and “scud” terms used in different regions.

As drivers we are expected to drive to the linespeed during fog where possible. This is why there are no train delays. We have route knowledge to enable us to drive knowing where we are and where the signals will be, although its not always easy. Some of the routes I drive where we still...

I find it a very enjoyable job, although our depot does have a wide variety of routes which makes it more interesting. No day is ever the same. :D

For all those who moan continually about drivers pay, please do not forget that like any job you can apply for the job yourselves. We are well paid for what we do, but having just got to the stage of passing out after just under a years driver training it is not something that can be learned in...

One thing that really annoys me about the TOC I work for is the way they answer comments on twitter. I often have a look to see what's going on and quite often people will say something like "I f*****g hate the s**t that is your train service" kind of thing and our control will say "I'm sorry...

Don't forget that a passenger that has to stand up when there are seats available also will have to make sure they are standing against the guards door key switch,or crammed against the door control panel. When asked politely to move they won't as they will be unable to hear due to enormous...

EMTs response to this is that they are doing errrrm . . . . Nothing.

We have had an internal email about this coming Sunday from our great leaders. It says that due to staff shortages a revised timetable is operating. A lot of the Northgates are replaced by busses again.

Nothing to do with the trains at all but didnt people have enormous glasses in the late 1990s!

Maybe we could arrange those as well :D Just another thing about the whole "fare dodgers". A few weeks back a person who is a known dodger gets one one of my colleagues trains. She won't pay for a ticket so he phones the station to see if there are any BTP about. Luckily there are and she is...

We cannot delay trains for dealing with fare dodgers, much we may want to. The delay would be put down to "train crew" and we would end up with a "please explain" from management. The management love "unpaid fares notices" and like you to do these if there is no other way of getting people to...

Yes that's true ! :D

Most of our diagrams out of Lincoln involve a 153 at some point!

This is a similar dance to the "which pocket is the railcard in" dance.:D

The biggest farce at the moment in my part of Lincolnshire is the decision to make the 1723 Lincoln to Grimsby a single dogbox rather than a 156. EMT tells us this is all to do with HLOS and the re allocation of stock since they got the 156s from northern. Making the diagram of the unit working...

If passengers need to ask me something and don't ask me when I do tickets, they normally knock on the back cab door. However, as we mostly work on dogboxes round here it's not difficult for passengers to work out where the back cab is really. We do sometimes get passengers knocking on the back...

They were introduced on the Ivanhoe lines stations of Barrow on Soar, Sileby and Syston near Leicester about 2 years ago. There is also one at Attenborough. I had to deal with loads of the things last night as people were boarding my train going for a night in Leicester clutching little...

I have a friend who is pally with one of the staff at 102 new st, and her other half has applied as well. She told me according to the bloke at head office that people will hear early next week, Monday or Tuesday. Good luck!

Subaru Impreza WRX as my everyday car. . . Best not to think about the cost of the petrol and road tax it though!

I am fascinated by this and I am a "lurker" on 28 days later and Derelict Places. I have had a fascination with this sort of stuff since I was a kid, inspired by disused railways and stations. However I see myself as a bit of an observer rather than 'doing it'. I'd like to have a go at it but...