driving with the door open

[O L Leigh]

Yup. If it looks like rain you NEVER leave your bag on the cab floor of either a Cl315 or Cl317. Always put it up on the secondman's desk or tip-up seat.

O L Leigh

 

[91101]

On the GN inner suburban (fcc to moorgate) it is accepted commuter practice on wedged trains to use the rear and middle cabs. Note that the 313 and 315 were actually built for this to be a standing area and were officially used thus in the early days (I assume not leading cab), and I mean the large vestibule not the bit within that where the driver sits.

Anyway, I was once in there and needed to alight Highbury. Alighting involves manually opening the cab door which is pretty heavy. Anyway, I thought I'd get it partly open whilst still in the tunnel. The train did an emergency brake.

So yes, I'd say these doors are on the pilot light. Not sure about 455 though, as their vestibules were never built for passenger use.

Just to re-iterate what my colleauges have already said this is most certainly not accepted practise, and I have been at Drayton Park in the past few months when FCC and the BTP have done joint exercises to prevent this and have actually arrested people for it!

 

[Dieseldriver]

I'll try putting this link up again seeing as it got deleted for 'being off topic' even though the article is about a driver falling out of an open cab door...

http://news.sky.com/story/214841/tube-snip-banter-sees-driver-faint

 

[whoosh]

On the GN inner suburban (fcc to moorgate) it is accepted commuter practice on wedged trains to use the rear and middle cabs. Note that the 313 and 315 were actually built for this to be a standing area and were officially used thus in the early days (I assume not leading cab), and I mean the large vestibule not the bit within that where the driver sits.

Anyway, I was once in there and needed to alight Highbury. Alighting involves manually opening the cab door which is pretty heavy. Anyway, I thought I'd get it partly open whilst still in the tunnel. The train did an emergency brake.

So yes, I'd say these doors are on the pilot light. Not sure about 455 though, as their vestibules were never built for passenger use.

Whilst this isn't permitted now, I do remember travelling between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace in the early 1990's when this was permitted. The interior door between the cab vestibule area and the saloon was open, and the sliding exterior cab doors were switched into the same door operating circuit as the doors on the rest of the train - i.e. they opened and closed with the rest of the doors at the stations. This certainly applied for the intermediate cabs, and there was a sign saying the area must be vacated by passengers when it needed to be used by the guard. Whilst the trains were Driver Only Operated by then, I believe guards were still used for Drayton Park to Moorgate (that section went D.O.O. at a later date than the rest of the route). So perhaps the rear cabs were available to passengers North of that section?

I don't think this situation lasted very long - I thoroughly enjoyed being able to look into the locked intermediate driving cubicle, and being able to see how fast we were going by looking at the speedo, and being disappointed on a later occasion that the cab area was completely locked out of use. Either it didn't last very long, or the few journeys I took were during peak hours.

 

[DavyCrocket]

I'll try putting this link up again seeing as it got deleted for 'being off topic' even though the article is about a driver falling out of an open cab door...

http://news.sky.com/story/214841/tube-snip-banter-sees-driver-faint

I remember this happening and the Mayday call being recieved then resourcing station staff to platform level.

It is not unknown for LU train operators to drive with the cab door open, but it is now advised that it should be with the one furtherst open! There is an interlock but this is ordinarily cut out from the cab in use.

All cabs now have either air conditioning or air cooling now too.

 

[Kneedown]

Yup. If it looks like rain you NEVER leave your bag on the cab floor of either a Cl315 or Cl317. Always put it up on the secondman's desk or tip-up seat.

O L Leigh

Ditto that with all our units!

plus the leaking roofs when it rains

That too on our 158's, plus the added bonus surprise factor of the perspex striplight cover falling on your head when you least expect it!

As regards HST's, ours do now have a rudimentary air-con fitted, but it's not brilliant, and i personally prefer fresh, as opposed to recycled air when possible, and so when at low speed will sometimes drive with the cab door open, there being no opening windows. Above 50 or 60mph it'll be shut as it becomes harder to hear the AWS, Vigilance etc due to the wind and track noise.