All work and DELAYS

[Tom]

Since I liked heading of Scotty's little blog there I thought this one was more apt for my day.

I was on a training course today over at Hornsey Depot for driving in low rail adhesion conditions and was supposed to be there for 11am. Doesnt sound too bad does it and it should have been a cushty day finishing at 3pm.

Well, it didnt quite turn out like that, got to the Rayleigh station at 8am and after buying my ticket from Moorgate - Hornsey as my season covers the rest I found out there had been a fatality at Maryland and the overheads had come down at Rochford too to make matters worse so expect the next train to be about an hour to hour 1/2.

Forget that, jumped back in the car and ended up having to go to Willesden, all round the damn north circular in rush-hour Then get a train to highbury, then another to hornsey. Made it with about 30 seconds to spare

Despite that, did the course, 1st run on the simulator saw me flying into stations and straight out the other side ....that was actually supposed to happen...honest

Second run and all was good so back on the trains back to Willesden to get the car at 3pm

Sat in gridlock virtually all the way round to the M25, then again for the 7 miles of roadworks.

Eventually rolled in just now as im posting this...what a pain in the arris

[CARPCRUNCHER]

bloody public transport............lol........

feel for ya mate.

although your ploughed through the station comment didn't fill me with confidance.

you dont drive for C2C do ya as i use them for a segment of my journey home when i fly into london heathrow. lol.

[Tom]

Nah mate, I work for London Overground (used to be Silverlink)

Thing is it was all done on a driving simulator, I know the 'leaves on the line' or 'wrong kind of snow' does sound a bit rediculous but the bit most people dont realise is that each wheel only has a total contact area on the rail about eh size of a 5p piece. Even just a bit of light spitting rain after a hot spell can catch you unawares and the next thing you hear is Pshht-Phsst-Phsst as the wheelslide protection kicks in and that station is appearing rather quickly

Thank god i've not even come close to going through anywhere yet ... touch wood ... but when I was a learner had a really good instructor.