My day always begins the night before. I check what time I'm required and head off home. I have to balance home life with work life and as a Driver I have to make sure I am well rested and free of any drugs or alcohol. I set my alarm for 0330 and go to bed.
The alarm goes off and I wash, dress, eat brekkie and head to work. I'm restricted to how far I live from my depot and my typical journey is around half hour. I book on, in full uniform, and grab my diagram for the day. Its got 319 and 465 work on it and due to my 12 weeks of rules, 2 weeks of traction and 225 hours of manual handling I am well trained and competent in what services I will be driving that day.
I check the stock sheet and head to the Sidings to prepare my unit for service. Brake tests, and the required unit checks all done I contact the Signaller and give him nod that I'm ready.
Into the platform, change ends, set the cab up and take my 0500 service to London. Its nice and dark out there and the weather is misty and wet. I carry out my required running brake test and slide uncontrollably. I pull the unit back to my control and aim to stop on a set of DOO monitors that are about a metre from the edge of the platform and thanks to the training I hit them perfectly. Remembering all the policy and procedures in place I dispatch my train for the passengers. 1 stop down, 18 to go. An hour later I roll into London +4 late. Passengers are upset and someone makes a snide comment as he passes me. The service made PPM so I'm happy. Change ends again and repeat for the next 4 hours.
10am rolls around and I get a break. A quick 30 minutes to go for a pee, an expensive coffee from Costa, expensive sandwich from Pret, and overpriced sweets from Smiths. Not a problem, £50k pa
Time up and I head to my next service. ECS to a depot and birth the unit for the afternoon. A quick walk up the local walking route and relieve another Driver for her PNB and I'm back towards London. There is still a little congestion and I'm hitting restrictive aspects for the next 10 minutes. The rain is really going some now and visibility is down. 20mph towards the Red and SG when I get there. Passengers need an announcement and I spew out my usual congestion one (I can see trains stacked up) Arrive +12 and I'm already due out. A Passenger asks me why I said it was congestion when it was a broken down train. I thank him for the message and change ends and set my cab up once again. Quick delay announcement to the passengers, "apologies this is due to a broken down train...."
I head out on the next service and try and pull a little time back. The Signaller is on the same page as me and he puts me across on the fast. Remembering my few months of route learning its 40mph across the junction and I need position 4. Yep that's what I've got. Sent back across to the slow lines and I eventually trundle into my home depot. It's Bill relieving me and I tell him about the broken down train, my unit length, and how the track conditions are going. 10 minute walk to the depot in the rain
I'm booked off but I've got delay reports to fill in so I'm hanging about for about 20 minutes in my own time. The DM wants a quick work about my latest download and I'm delayed on my way home further. I grab a butchers at my turn tomorrow and note I'm back in 0500 tomorrow. A quick check of the notice cases and head home.