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CrossCountry train staff resolving tree obstruction

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Ash Bridge

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I would hope that a certain poster on the CrossCountry Services Reductions thread reads this!
 

Deafdoggie

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Is a saw a standard piece of equipment or did the driver just happen to have one in his bag?
 

LowLevel

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Is a saw a standard piece of equipment or did the driver just happen to have one in his bag?
Standard on board equipment.

I have attempted to chop up a tree with one before but had to wait for Man With Chainsaw :lol:
 

mrcheek

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I assume they have saws on board all trains with catering, in order to cut the sandwiches.

Well that might have been a decent joke back in the 1980s
 

Fyldeboy

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Although I give a huge thumbs up to the driver, I wonder . . .

If the falling tree had damaged the track (minor crack in rail maybe?), and the train passed over it - could that be a derailment and would the driver be held responsible?
 

O L Leigh

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Although I give a huge thumbs up to the driver, I wonder . . .

If the falling tree had damaged the track (minor crack in rail maybe?), and the train passed over it - could that be a derailment and would the driver be held responsible?

If the tree was capable of having been cleared by onboard staff using the equipment on the train it wouldn't likely have been all that big.

But to answer the question, I would say no. The driver would not be considered expert on infrastructure matters and would likely only be relied on to advise if there were any obvious rail defects. Having reported the location to the signaller it would then be a matter for Nitwit Rail.
 
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Horizon22

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If the tree / branches are small enough many crew will attempt to remove the debris - after all they don’t want to be delayed either!

Most stock has a small saw on board for this purpose - often times though the vegetation is too large to be shifted by the crew alone and the MOM & P-way or a dedicated chainsaw gang will need to turn up which could take time if they’re at another incident.
 

Llanigraham

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I do wonder since three crew members are mentioned whether they were carrying a P'way ganger or even a MOM with them, just in case. I've known that to happen in other routes
 

JamesT

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I do wonder since three crew members are mentioned whether they were carrying a P'way ganger or even a MOM with them, just in case. I've known that to happen in other routes

Driver, Guard, First Class Host?
 

357

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Standard on board equipment.
Not at my TOC! My first place had an axe, nothing similar at any TOC that I've worked at since.

We have a large emergency equipment cupboard with just a handful of items in it, some of them nobody can think of a use for!
 

dk1

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Although I give a huge thumbs up to the driver, I wonder . . .

If the falling tree had damaged the track (minor crack in rail maybe?), and the train passed over it - could that be a derailment and would the driver be held responsible?
It would’ve been quite tiny.
 

voyagerdude220

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XC don't need two TMs to operate a double set.
I'm intrigued why during my regular journeys (before Covid) I always noted when I was on a Cross Country double Voyager, it was announced that we had two Train Managers if not needed.

I've previously been on Avanti 2x221 services with just the one Train Manager quite frequently.
 

dk1

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I'm intrigued why during my regular journeys (before Covid) I always noted when I was on a Cross Country double Voyager, it was announced that we had two Train Managers if not needed.

I've previously been on Avanti 2x221 services with just the one Train Manager quite frequently.
Perhaps they book a train manager on both for customer service/revenue protection but should there be late notice sickness or disruption the train can still run. Seems an effective back up to me.
 

Towers

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I'm intrigued why during my regular journeys (before Covid) I always noted when I was on a Cross Country double Voyager, it was announced that we had two Train Managers if not needed.

I've previously been on Avanti 2x221 services with just the one Train Manager quite frequently.
I believe it is along the lines of there being an agreement to staff both portions with a TM wherever possible, but there is a get-out clause of being able to use one of the catering staff if push comes to shove. I've no idea about when or how a TM would be substituted with a catering bod or what the union agreements are concerning it all. Presumably this was all put in place years back when running double Voyagers wasn't the daily exercise that it is currently.

A similar arrangement existed on FGW when they used to operate double 180s, which led to discussions regarding the same when the IETs were introduced.
 

221129

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Sounds like it’s an agreement with trade unions for that particular franchise then.
It's good practice anyway. As if one of them is unavailable for whatever reason you can still run the service. Or you can pinch them to cover something else if desperate.
 

Horizon22

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A similar arrangement existed on FGW when they used to operate double 180s, which led to discussions regarding the same when the IETs were introduced.

It’s the same now with 10-car IETs, the vast majority of catering staff are now trained additionally to be the “competent person” in a lead set. Otherwise the rear coaches have to be locked out of use - which is very rare. A very select number of services have 2 TMs (normally late night services known to be a bit of an issue).

This seems to be a XC only requirement.
 

dk1

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It's good practice anyway. As if one of them is unavailable for whatever reason you can still run the service. Or you can pinch them to cover something else if desperate.
Very much so and also a fabulous agreement for the guards that means even if the service ever got reduced to hourly & doubled up, the same number have to be rostered.
 

Horizon22

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Very much so and also a fabulous agreement for the guards that means even if the service ever got reduced to hourly & doubled up, the same number have to be rostered.

Is this the main reason though - they’ve doubled up the services so they’ve kept essentially the same number of TMs as before?
 

221129

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Very much so and also a fabulous agreement for the guards that means even if the service ever got reduced to hourly & doubled up, the same number have to be rostered.
Which is what they have done since May 2020.
 

O L Leigh

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Very much so and also a fabulous agreement for the guards that means even if the service ever got reduced to hourly & doubled up, the same number have to be rostered.

It’s also a godsend in emergency situations such as happened on Saturday on the Kenilworth branch.
 

Ashley Hill

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The saws provided are really only capable of dealing with ambitious saplings and the axe only good for kindling. I tried sawing a large branch through once to the amusement of my driver. I was still at it when the PW arrived who despatched it in seconds with a chainsaw.
 

Efini92

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The saws provided are really only capable of dealing with ambitious saplings and the axe only good for kindling. I tried sawing a large branch through once to the amusement of my driver. I was still at it when the PW arrived who despatched it in seconds with a chainsaw.
The axes on 319’s are great. I chop all my wood with it
 
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