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Staying Overnight

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pitdiver

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I know this might sound a silly question but do lodging turns still exist and if so on what services. Secondly what sort of accommodation is offered to the train staff. Do they stay in hotels like Premier Inn or something similar. In the past there were more lodging turns. What sort of accommodation was offered then.

I have an interest in social history.
 
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Matt Taylor

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We used to have lodging turns at Bournemouth for the XC buffet crews (when it was still Inter-City). It was usually working to Edinburgh, pass to Glasgow arriving around 1645 and then stay at the Central hotel overnight before working the 1230 home. It was a good hotel and we had a carvery every night! We used to do that a couple of times a week.
 

jonb

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I think Scotrail crews stay in the Euston Road Premier Inn when working the Southbound sleepers?
 

sonic2009

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I think Scotrail have got a contract with Ibis located near Euston, FGW sleeper crews will get accomadation.

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IanXC

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As I recall there are lodge turns for Newcastle East Coast crews in Inverness too.
 

Welshman

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Re your query about what used to be...

I gather from reading various books of Railway Memories, accommodation for crews away from home was a far cry from today's Ibis or Premier Inns!

Large centres had hostels run by the railway companies. Apparently, these were often near shunting yards or depots, and with no sound-proofing, a quiet night could not be guaranteed!

Washing and dining facilities were communal and sleeping facilities were in dormitories.

In other places where there were no hostels, lodging took place in private homes, situated near the railway.
 

34D

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Some Newcastle based EC drivers also lodge at Inverness.

HT may also lodge in London-not 100% sure.

Freightliner drivers also have lodging turns.
 

ChiefPlanner

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Thanks for the info. Do lodging turns exist on the continent.

Very much so , even on some suburban workings in Switzerland - S Bahn in Zurich .....(to pick up the first inbound train at a non train crew depot)

DB ICECrews working into Berlin Ost , lodge at the nearby IBIS hotel.
 

Greenback

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Large centres had hostels run by the railway companies. Apparently, these were often near shunting yards or depots, and with no sound-proofing, a quiet night could not be guaranteed!

Washing and dining facilities were communal and sleeping facilities were in dormitories.

In other places where there were no hostels, lodging took place in private homes, situated near the railway.

In the 1990's I discovered a place in Blackpool, near the old Central Station, that was once a railway hostel.
 

ex-railwayman

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I could expand the OP's question to also include Signalling, Telecommunications Workers, Network Rail and Rail Accident Investigators, who I know also get a lodging allowance if staff have to stay away from home during a shift/turn of duty/, etc, an old colleague of mine is given a set amount of money, £40 a night I think, and he books himself in to any hotel, or, guest house, of his choice, that he can find in the appropriate area, meals are charged and refunded separately, he can only claim for an overnight room, so, this practice for some is quite the norm in this country.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.
 
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tcm1106

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I could expand the OP's question to also include Signalling, Telecommunications Workers, Network Rail and Rail Accident Investigators, who I know also get a lodging allowance if staff have to stay away from home during a shift/turn of duty/, etc, an old colleague of mine is given a set amount of money, £40 a night I think, and he books himself in to any hotel, or, guest house, of his choice, that he can find in the appropriate area, meals are charged and refunded separately, he can only claim for an overnight room, so, this practice for some is quite the norm in this country.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

As Network Rail employees, we often use hotels if visiting offices that are too far to travel in the same day. Meal allowances etc are also part of that. I can think of several occassions where I have done this recently...

 

junglejames

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Edinburgh based crews have lodging turns in Aberdeen. Used to be the station hotel, but has now changed. Its going downhill apparently.
 

pitdiver

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Thanks to everybody for responding lots of very interesting information. To be honest I hadn't thought of anybody else apart from Traincrew having nights out. I was more interested in comparing the situation in the past to what it is like now.
Along similar line (pardon the pun) How would signalmen in remote locations get to there allocated boxes. Would they use services and get the drivers to stop at the box. Would the boxes be manned around the clock and what would the signallers do when not dealing with trains. As I say I am interested from a social history POV.
 

lincolnshire

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Immingham used to have a train crew lodgeing accomadation years ago on the depot.
There was also Railway hostels too, one was at Scunthorpe where staff moving into the area could live till they found accpmadation, there was others around too, I think Ilford had one as well.
As for signal people getting to work, like now you need your own transport be it walking, cycling or car as there is a lot of Cinderella Railway out there ( if you don,t get there before midnight they shut up and go home) so its early starts at remote locations and late finishes on the other shift and no public transport available.
Some areas are 24h working and some areas don,t get may trains and all they are there for is taking possessions etc for night working by the P.Way staff etc.
So in the quite early hours I think you will find the signal persons reading section Z of the rule book maybe.
Another thread for discussion on here is what do signalman do while at work in there boxes either years ago or now as seen some good examples over the years.
who wants to come up with some things seen be it now or in the past?
 

Welshman

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I seem to remember reading somewhere that on Saturday mornings, some country signalmen supplemented their income by giving the local populace a hair-cut!

And when a stationmaster made an unexpected visit on a Saturday morning, one enterprising bobbie offered a half-price job!
 

Garmoran

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I seem to remember reading somewhere that on Saturday mornings, some country signalmen supplemented their income by giving the local populace a hair-cut!

This was definitely true of the signalman in the Mallaig box in the early 1970s. He used to place a board across the arms of his armchair to raise small boys to a convenient height to have their hair cut. It also gave us a great view out of the window of the box.
 

Grantham

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I usually do four barracks jobs a fortnight (Australia)

Work a loaded coal train from Lithgow (west of Sydney) to Inner Harbour (south of Sydney). Go to a reasonably flash motel for the night or day, depending what times you're working, then work an empty home.

Minimum stay is eight hours, maximum is usually fifteen.

Good working when you have four kids. ;)
 

9K43

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With EWS on company Council Duties we lodged all over the place from Doncaster, Derby, Stoke and Chester. These hotels were of the 3 * vareity.
When there was a blockade on the S and C staff were put in hotels around the locations of the work sites.
When on these duties, I would want the same facilities as I had at my home.
On these nights out, EWS paid the food and acomodation charges.
 

jamesontheroad

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Sometimes it is unavoidable for railway employees to have to overnight, although it's interesting to note that a fundamental part of many low cost airlines has been eliminating the need for overnight stops. As you can imagine, overnight stops cost money for accommodation, but also for extra overnight premiums or pay, meals, etc. Whereas a few decades ago it was perfectly normal even for short haul airlines to overnight their crews all over the place, Ryanair, EasyJet* etc do not do this. Crews start and end their day in the home base, and will only ever overnight in the case of extreme disruption. The only notable exception in the UK is KLM, who have a large number of regional airports in the UK served by Dutch crew who bring the last flight in at night and take the first one out in the morning, which is vital for feeding their long haul network out of Amsterdam.

A rather intransigent contributor to the high cost base of many American "legacy" airlines is their continuing use of crews from all over the country to crew routes, even ones that would be short enough to crew from a single hub. A few years ago, for instance, I took a flight from Chicago to Edmonton that was crewed by employees from Cincinatti. They flew Cincinatti > Chicago > Edmonton / overnighted for twelve hours / then flew the return (even though both flights could be crewed more efficiently out of the airline's own base in Chicago). Likewise I recently discovered that both the flight crew and flight attendants on board US1549 (that went for a swim in the Hudson a few years ago) were all on lengthy multi-day legs away from home. That adds a pretty heavy daily cost to your operations.

* Perhaps with the exception of their newer and longer routes to Tel Aviv and Amman?
 

DownSouth

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Just about all freight operators in Australia doing anything other than short-haul coal need local crew rest facilities, the shortest intercity route being well over 700 kilometres long.

The trans-continental routes are the most remote railways in the world so they require it to be done in a purpose-converted coach that runs next in line behind the locomotives and (for SCT trains with in-line refuelling) the fuel tanks.
 

starrymarkb

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The only notable exception in the UK is KLM, who have a large number of regional airports in the UK served by Dutch crew who bring the last flight in at night and take the first one out in the morning, which is vital for feeding their long haul network out of Amsterdam.

* Perhaps with the exception of their newer and longer routes to Tel Aviv and Amman?

I believe KLM do have some UK bases with the crew living locally (legacy of Air UK/KLM:UK)

The Easyjet guys don't overnight in Tel Aviv or Sharm. They do it as a single out and back, but must have the day before and day after off to comply with regulations on flying hours.
 

jamesontheroad

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I believe KLM do have some UK bases with the crew living locally (legacy of Air UK/KLM:UK)

The Easyjet guys don't overnight in Tel Aviv or Sharm. They do it as a single out and back, but must have the day before and day after off to comply with regulations on flying hours.

KLM have bases at LBA, HUY and NWI I think; everything else is either served by those bases or nightstoppers. Thanks for the info about EasyJet; only been to Amman once and it was in significantly more comfort on BMI. :D
 

AlexS

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Another thread for discussion on here is what do signalman do while at work in there boxes either years ago or now as seen some good examples over the years.
who wants to come up with some things seen be it now or in the past?

Well, I've got 15:00 to 22:00 this evening in a box. Got a train out at 1900, won't see it back till 2145 ish. So I'll probably spend my time reading the paper, reading a book, doing some cleaning of the equipment, maybe having a chat on the 'bus phone to the chap in the next box, generally chilling out, either cooking dinner or having a takeaway delivered etc etc. Nothing too interesting I'm afraid!
 

jamesontheroad

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Well, I've got 15:00 to 22:00 this evening in a box. Got a train out at 1900, won't see it back till 2145 ish. So I'll probably spend my time reading the paper, reading a book, doing some cleaning of the equipment, maybe having a chat on the 'bus phone to the chap in the next box, generally chilling out, either cooking dinner or having a takeaway delivered etc etc. Nothing too interesting I'm afraid!

I'm sold! Where do I sign up? :D
 
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