Use of Microwave on trains

[pethadine82]

For travelers that have special dietary requirements such as gluten intolerance and have to have special meals which they may prepack would the guard allow them to microwave it?
Same thing with infants and their bottles / formulas.

The only reason why I ask is I will be travelling to Glasgow with virgin with someone that has a nutritional disorder and have specific dietary requirements.
They will be bringing food with them and their own cutlery but wondering if Virgin would have an issue. I cannot see why they would.
Many thanks

 

[185]

Ask the CSAs nicely and they should be fine.

If I remember right there's one in the shop and two in the back end kitchen.

 

[island]

Probably depends on the staff member. I can see this getting refused on 'elf n safety grounds.

 

[Lrd]

Wherever I have worked, we have always been told to say no to anyone requesting to use our microwaves. Mainly because they are normally at least twice as powerful as domestic microwaves and we don't want anyone burning themselves because they asked us to "put it on for about a minute" and then one or two of the "slower" staff members doing this and ruining the customers food, especially risky with baby food.

 

[Qwerty133]

Take a microwave with you and plug it in the sockets at your seat

 

[deltic1989]

When I worked for a popular fast food chain. We were told that we could warm baby food in the microwave but, as the previous poster said, to be aware that it is more powerful than a home microwave so do it by feel rather than the instructions.
(by "feel" I mean putting a coffee stirer in an placing it on the back of your hand not sticking your finger in it. just to clarify)

 

[Eng274]

When I worked for a popular fast food chain. We were told that we could warm baby food in the microwave but, as the previous poster said, to be aware that it is more powerful than a home microwave so do it by feel rather than the instructions.
(by "feel" I mean putting a coffee stirer in an placing it on the back of your hand not sticking your finger in it. just to clarify)

When I worked in a pub at a transport location, we were never advised to heat baby food/milk in the powerful microwaves, under any circumstances.

The alternative to using the microwave for pre-prepared milk bottles? Offer a tall vessel of scalding hot water from the tea boiler, for the customer to immerse the bottle. If this happened I always insisted that the hot water was kept at the bar, to minimise the accidental scald risk from the customer carrying it to their table. It is sort of backwards to refuse use of a microwave only to open up a different and more varied injury risk with boiling water.

The microwaves used on trains aren't the standard Tesco own brand £20 job, it'll have to conform to railway industry standards for EMC, vibration, fire performance etc, but I doubt it would be anything like the power of the industrial strength catering microwaves.

Also, do people test milk by squirting a bit onto their wrist any more?

 

[michael769]

I would suggest contacting Virgin and asking, they have one of the better customer services operations, and I suspect you would be better off knowing for sure in advance than relying on the goodwill of an individual member of staff.

There really is no reason for them to say no, any staff using the oven needs to be competent in its use and should be able to make the necessary adjustments to cope. Unfortunately the growing fear of our developing compensation culture is increasingly making companies and staff unwilling to accommodate perfectly reasonable requests, and that is all to often blamed on spurious health and safety grounds.

 

[jopsuk]

Of course, there's always a chance that it might not be working- I'd have a plan B.

 

[SteamPower]

Personally I wouldn't rely on them saying yes for reasons already stated. You would be gambling with luck and be better off taking food that doesn't rely on the use of a microwave before it can be eaten.

 

[pethadine82]

yes the host was very nice, she did warm the food up in the plastic container.
My friend was very pleased.

 

[route:oxford]

For travelers that have special dietary requirements such as gluten intolerance and have to have special meals which they may prepack would the guard allow them to microwave it?
Same thing with infants and their bottles / formulas.

The only reason why I ask is I will be travelling to Glasgow with virgin with someone that has a nutritional disorder and have specific dietary requirements.
They will be bringing food with them and their own cutlery but wondering if Virgin would have an issue. I cannot see why they would.
Many thanks

Just out of interest...

Which nutritional disorder requires food to be served hot rather than cold?

 

[snail]

Yes, in that situation I would opt for food that can be served cold.

 

[A-driver]

Whilst they may be more than happy to help, they may be a bit funny about it more because it sort of opens up a can of worms. I know this is due to a specific diet and so not a 'fussy eater' but if people find out they will heat up your own food it may end up with catering crews being bombarded with requests to heat up food for half the train!

Worth asking in advance though-they may be able to help more if you ask in advance.

 

[Be3G]

Not that it helps in the case of the original question posted, but I've heard (possibly even here) that when for some reason the Caledonian sleeper has been left bereft of food supplies, the staff have actually suggested to passengers that they pop to a nearby shop, pick themselves up a ready meal, and the staff will cook it in the train's microwave for them.

 

[wintonian]

Not that it helps in the case of the original question posted, but I've heard (possibly even here) that when for some reason the Caledonian sleeper has been left bereft of food supplies, the staff have actually suggested to passengers that they pop to a nearby shop, pick themselves up a ready meal, and the staff will cook it in the train's microwave for them.

Lest time I saw one it looked like a BR era thing, so likely only as powerful as the afore mention £20 Tesco one.

Here's one somewhere in Canada.

 

[jon0844]

I recommend buying this to heat your own stuff (bottles/jars obviously not packets etc):

Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature Travel Food Warmer
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002L3TEN8/ref=cm_sw_r_an_am_ap_am_gb?ie=UTF8

Many places won't let staff use microwaves to heat things, so will use hot water instead. With the above you can do it yourself (and if/when the water goes cold, ask for it to be refilled) and it works brilliantly.

And, yes, we always checked the temperature of milk on the back of the wrist!

 

[wintonian]

Or if they will let you have some hot water then you can try your hand at some Thermos cooking.

 

[Trog]

Lest time I saw one it looked like a BR era thing, so likely only as powerful as the afore mention £20 Tesco one.

Here's one somewhere in Canada.

Knowing BR and its attitude to technology that probably contains a cavity magnatron designed for a WW2 radar that one of the railway workshops made for the RAF, and will burn a swastica on your dinner if it detects oncoming German rolling stock. Used normally it will only heat things to luke warm, but if you leave the door open and over ride the cut out switch from the safety of the corridor connection with a broomstick will put out enough microwaves to warm the coach by making the floor hot.

 

[Butts]

Knowing BR and its attitude to technology that probably contains a cavity magnatron designed for a WW2 radar that one of the railway workshops made for the RAF, and will burn a swastica on your dinner if it detects oncoming German rolling stock. Used normally it will only heat things to luke warm, but if you leave the door open and over ride the cut out switch from the safety of the corridor connection with a broomstick will put out enough microwaves to warm the coach by making the floor hot.

Ho Ho......very good

In the absence of "German Rolling Stock" does it revert to burning a "BR Logo" (like the one on the oven door) on your pie or whatever !!

And does the device make you glow when consuming the food - not from the heat of the pie !!

 

[cjmillsnun]

Ahh the BR Microwave. That brings back memories of the Intercity cheeseburgers. Believe it or not I miss them. Not the best food in the world but reasonably cheap and would keep you going.

 

[wintonian]

Ahh the BR Microwave. That brings back memories of the Intercity cheeseburgers.

Now you mention it I think I may have had one once, at least I think that's what I'm remembering, or maybe it was an equine burger with some plastic yellow squares on it?

 

[michael769]

I'm pretty sure they use one of those thinga to heat the cl156s!

 

[DarloRich]

I recommend buying this to heat your own stuff (bottles/jars obviously not packets etc):

Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature Travel Food Warmer
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002L3TEN8/ref=cm_sw_r_an_am_ap_am_gb?ie=UTF8

Many places won't let staff use microwaves to heat things, so will use hot water instead. With the above you can do it yourself (and if/when the water goes cold, ask for it to be refilled) and it works brilliantly.

And, yes, we always checked the temperature of milk on the back of the wrist!

they are useful bits of kit when dealing with feeds for the little ones. +1 for the recommendation. or take a butty.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Here's one somewhere in Canada.

Canada?

Is that on the old Nightstar stock by any chance?

 

[wintonian]

Canada?

Is that on the old Nightstar stock by any chance?

That's what the caption on flicker said, so I presume so.

This one looks a bit British - taken on the same day by the same person.

 

[cjmillsnun]

That's what the caption on flicker said, so I presume so.

This one looks a bit British - taken on the same day by the same person.

Yep those are nightstar coaches.

 

[Blindtraveler]

as a point of interest, when on the 14:52 X Aberdeen EC train last week every catering announcement made a big thing of how due to health and safety they could not heat baby food etc and crew should not be asked to do so.

 

[michael769]

So basically EC are saying that their catering staff are not sufficiently well trained and competent in the safe use of the microwave, so as to be able to safely warm food in it.

Yeah very safe! I wonder what the HSE would make of that.

 

[jon0844]

You'll find very few places letting staff do it. It isn't down to incompetence, but rather a risk assessment that highlights the risk of overheating liquids and creating hot spots. It's worth noting that parents are advised not to use the microwave to heat milk at home, so shouldn't be asking others to do so!

Of course parents do at home (as do we) but accept the risk and usually check thoroughly. Thanks to the blame culture these days, if a parent didn't check something heated by someone else there would almost certainly be a claim.