Major disruption out of London Kings Cross (28/5)

[Bald Rick]

I would never dare to argue with someone I considered to be more expert on a certain topic. I'm sure the person berating me on the concourse during disruption would never accept my advice about how to do their job, but yet I have to put up with it both at work and here online too.

I know exactly how you feel!

A few times I may have asked people being critical what their job is, and then laid into their line of work to see how they like it. One or two have refused to say, and I called them out for it.

 

[Jimini]

All I would say is that @Bald Rick and @O L Leigh , your posts are always informative and fascinating, and as a bloke in his 40s who has only ever been a passenger on a train, thanks for the insight you offer up on here. Very much appreciated.

 

[36270k]

The thing is this.... you and others are looking at this the way an account does.

I used to work in maintenance and the company brought an accountancy consultant in to appraise the company.

After seeing spare parts for machines (which all told probably ran into the hundreds of thousands of pounds) sitting in our maintenance stores, the company was told to scale back the number of spares and the money saved would make greater returns being in the companies bank account !!

We was advised to use "just in time" principles.
He also advised the company to use less suppliers (as the admin cost would be reduced).
The company carried out the recommendations.

All well and good ?? Not exactly. As we had a breakdown some time later.... (to a machine which we only had one of)..our supplier was called to supply a replacement part. He in turn rung his supplier, who in turn rung theirs, who rung theirs.. (you get the picture), until finally it got to the OEM (original equipment manufacture) who said " sure we can supply that, but it's on a 3 month lead time !!!

The moral of the story ?!
The most cost effective solution was to have the spare part sat in the stores (drinking tea as you put it).

Or if the company had had more than 1 machine we would of been fine (as production would of been reduced but not stopped completely).

Sometimes it is wise (and cheaper in the long run) to acctually have a strategic number of "tea drinkers".

Exactly what happened on BR in the 60's/70's
Locos would sit for weeks awaiting spares

 

[Dr Hoo]

Exactly what happened on BR in the 60's/70's
Locos would sit for weeks awaiting spares

In some cases because the original manufacturer had disappeared (partly because their final generation of products was so awful). Not just an accountancy issue.

And, because BR was heavily loss-making the concept of ‘better off with the cash in our account’ didn’t really apply. Just a desperate shortage of cash/ funds/ investment capital for anything.

 

[nlogax]

All I would say is that @Bald Rick and @O L Leigh , your posts are always informative and fascinating, and as a bloke in his 40s who has only ever been a passenger on a train, thanks for the insight you offer up on here. Very much appreciated.

+1. For those here not working in the rail business many of us are just keen to learn / understand and we appreciate the knowledge imparted.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

All I would say is that @Bald Rick and @O L Leigh , your posts are always informative and fascinating, and as a bloke in his 40s who has only ever been a passenger on a train, thanks for the insight you offer up on here. Very much appreciated.

Big tick here.
Professionals who take the time to explain the depths of the industry are like gold.
I also wonder where some of our earlier valued contributors have gone - not all to the great railway yard in the sky, I think.
It seems everyone is an expert on here!

 

[LAX54]

+1. For those here not working in the rail business many of us are just keen to learn / understand and we appreciate the knowledge imparted.

and of course many have to mind their p's and q's, otherwise they maybe called in to see the Manager.....been there, done that and have a couple of T shirts !

 

[exbrel]

The thing is this.... you and others are looking at this the way an account does.

I used to work in maintenance and the company brought an accountancy consultant in to appraise the company.

After seeing spare parts for machines (which all told probably ran into the hundreds of thousands of pounds) sitting in our maintenance stores, the company was told to scale back the number of spares and the money saved would make greater returns being in the companies bank account !!

We was advised to use "just in time" principles.
He also advised the company to use less suppliers (as the admin cost would be reduced).
The company carried out the recommendations.

All well and good ?? Not exactly. As we had a breakdown some time later.... (to a machine which we only had one of)..our supplier was called to supply a replacement part. He in turn rung his supplier, who in turn rung theirs, who rung theirs.. (you get the picture), until finally it got to the OEM (original equipment manufacture) who said " sure we can supply that, but it's on a 3 month lead time !!!

The moral of the story ?!
The most cost effective solution was to have the spare part sat in the stores (drinking tea as you put it).

Or if the company had had more than 1 machine we would of been fine (as production would of been reduced but not stopped completely).

Sometimes it is wise (and cheaper in the long run) to acctually have a strategic number of "tea drinkers".

hi,
regarding replacement parts, a good few years ago at Crewe there was a staff tea hut on one of the platforms, i was on nights and if i missed my train home i used to go in for 1 hour till my next train. It was generally full, and a few times crews were called out as reliefs, but (theres always a but,) it got closed and the relief crews were surplace to requirements, rumour was "we're not paying them to drink tea". Then trains started being cancelled, driver called in sick, no relief crew?
I worked for BREL and the wasteage would have broke a smaller firm, so they set up a area for reclaiming material commonly known as the "old mans corner",but it worked, and all the items off the loco's, we did all our own repairs.
Then fast forward a few years and the place i recently worked at went on a "bean count", small components- valves and cylinders, were repaired from kits in house, the big exspensive items we had a agreement with our supplier he would keep one on his shelf for us, so we had it back on the machine within 4hrs...

So if its done with proper thought ok, but "bull in a china shop" comes to mind for the usual way...

 

[Robertj21a]

All I would say is that @Bald Rick and @O L Leigh , your posts are always informative and fascinating, and as a bloke in his 40s who has only ever been a passenger on a train, thanks for the insight you offer up on here. Very much appreciated.

Likewise, 200%