Day 2 or should that be night 2

It's amazing the crap you talk about on nights.

Myself and my colleague were chatting around 5 am about the Circle line. And for no particular reason we got onto good service annoucements, when all of a sudden we were saying silly things like "there's a lovely service on the Circle line today" all this was said in a Cumbrian accent.

Mind you one of my colleague's colleagues, is just so happy that we impersonate him as well. Even to the point of putting out PA'S in an outrageous over the top voice.

Ah nights, you got to love them.

Well nights are here again.

Well I started another week of nights and guess what happened this time.

I walked in the door of my office to an ice cold room.

Yes my AC was working hooray.

And then midnight arrived and the AC Unit starts buzzing like a bugger, half an hour later and I'm putting a job out yet again on the AC Unit to get it fixed.

Trough out the night I'm switching the AC Unit off and on via the mains switch and finally 30 minutes before I finish the night.

The tech has been and fixed it.

So here's the run down of the problem (according to the tech)

whoever installed the Air conditioning unit screwed up.
They put the old pump the old AC back in and crushed the pipe work going into it.

Why is it always one person out of 100 who seems to know what they are doing.

I wonder what tonight will bring.

New Regulations.

Under new regulations, Metronet and I believe Tubelines are not allowed to put new AC condensers at platform level or in any public areas.
This is to reduce the heat that is being pumped into the tunnels and station areas,

You will still see AC Units around stations and at the moment there aren't plans to replace the old and existing units.

This is one of the reasons we have had so much trouble with getting a new one.

However whilst chatting with one of my managers I suggested the bastardization of an old unit at the station in a room that isn't used very often.

He agreed that would be a good solution, but as usual the powers above said NO.

I did OT yesterday.

I covered my colleagues station yesterday on OT, and guess what, there was an email from my managers and from the contracts department saying that the AC will be fixed by Friday night.


HOORAY

So I rang my station thinking, right I have nights from Tuesday I wonder if it was fixed. You guessed it NO.

So I'm on the phone again chasing the contracts team and I get this information.

1. They started the work on Friday night after the trains had gone.
2. They removed the old system.
3. They started to install the new system.
and finally 4. That had the wrong permit and had to stop work until they can get an exemption.

So no new AC unit yet.

only 11 hours left before I reach the sweat box. Oh joy!!!

Day 6 & 7

Well a quite shift was had by all. The air conditioning was still not working and life in general was just dandy.

The Friday night drink up was off, the phone calls between my self and managers about the AC was getting ridiculous. At least 13 calls in an 8 hour shift.

Then at 14:30 another temporary adiabatic AC unit arrives.

So now we have 2 of the same units both need to be repeatedly filled with water and ice.

NICE!!!

One Unders

I was reading the blog by the District Line Driver about one unders, when i remembered about some thing my sister told me.

She works as a pyshotherapist and she told me a little story of one of her patience who tried to throw them self under a train...

He was up in front of a reveiw board to see how he was doing, he told the doctors.

Itried to throw my self under a train,
I didn't do it properly.
It hurt to much.
So I wont be doing that again.

Now thats the proper way to look at life.

Day 5 of 7

Have guess what happened this morning.

That's right I arrived early for work, and walked into a sweatbox.
The night man had the AC Unit on full blast and as he was sitting beside it he got the full benefit of the cold air, however the rest of the room felt like a furnace.

The temperature gauge was off the scale and as the scale stops at 30 degrees C it was like walking into a cooker.

I considered putting wooden tongue and groove all around the walls and making myself a sauna but my manager said I couldn't.

Well the service went well all day and I had no complaints.

With all the fun we are having with our AC at the moment the man above decided that they would get us a new one.

1pm arrives and so does the new AC unit and its a water cooled one that needs ice cubes to keep it cool. Well imagine that trying to find ice cubes on the underground. There's something I never thought I would need.

I should be in bed

Well i'm still up watching Living TV's Most Haunted, and I must admit i'm enjoting this one.

I wonder what I will get at work tomorrow. hopefully not more of the same as todays service. what with a shutdown of the Met line for 4 hours and the AC unit knackered.

Drink up on friday

Check out my colleague blog The Station Logbook for details.

PS LUL Managers need not apply.

The AC saga continues.

Yesterday being the hottest day of the year so far and still no AC Unit working.

It was finally repaired today at 13:40 and with only just over an hour left of my shift I think oh joy.

It was working well when i left for home but god know what i'll come into tomorrow.

Day 4 0f 7 ... that sounds like Star Trek to me.

Well so far my week has gone like this
Day 1 Late
Day 2 Late
Day 3 Late
Day 4 you guessed it Late.

So here's how my day began, I feel asleep last night just after 00:00, whilst watching Most Haunted, next thing i know my alarm has gone off at 04:30 and its time to rise and shine.

I make my way to my local station and arrive with 10 minutes to spare only to find that my 10 minutes are now 30 minutes, as my first train is running 20 minutes late.

The train arrives at 06:10, not bad for an 05:29 departure. So the first train arrives and normally it's only 4 car unit that arrives (underground jargon for carriages) . Today a 12 car unit pulls into the platform and all the late passengers think YEAH. Only for the first 4 cars to open and the rest are all out of service.

So I'm left on the platform waiting for the second train. It arrives and we get on with loads of sits and i'm on my way to work.

Trying to get home ....

Well I left work at 14:00 to get a train home.

I reach my station to go home and get informed that because of over head power problems in the harlington (It turns out the problem was that whilst travelling towards Bedford a Thameslink train pulled down the cables and they smashed into the front of a high speed Midland Mainline train injuring the driver).

So it takes me 1 and a half hours to reach Luton, I'm then transferred to a Coach and promptly propelled to Bedford, where I have my car waiting for me to drive the 30 miles home.

In total it took me just over 3 hours to reach home.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4109394.stm

Day 3 and here comes the boredom

I really hate Sundays at work, they have to be the most boring shift going.

So my day starts off all wrong.

Firstly my Night turn colleague says to me "don't rush in as my train home is at 8:30". So I arrive for my train at 6:40 which gets me into London at 08:00. Hurray I thought I've made it on time and wander up to the platform only to be told you need to take a bus to the next station to get to London. I finally arrive at work at 8:40 (oh dear)

So next up I have to carry out Station to Station phone testing which happens every Sunday on earlies and read the Electric Meters. Followed by all the relevant paper work that goes with it.

At 11:00 the person who I work with and don't really like arrives. So I stay where I'm sat just to wind him up, as he complained to my colleague of the stationlogbook blog fame about me being in the chair. AWW.

The 11:00 man vanishes of to my colleagues station to give him a meal relief. So my colleague kindly buys me and MD'S and arrives at my station to have a chat.

After my colleague goes back to his own station the 11:00 man comes back to mine.

And I promptly leave and visit my colleague again.

Day 2 of earlies and the AC Unit

So day 2 comes along and I'm up at 5 again.

So I get to work and there's a temporary AC unit sitting slap bang in the middle of my office floor, and the night turn SS is mopping up.

The proper AC is busted and there have been a number of reports put out about it breaking down all the time. (6 on the last count).
So this temp unit is absolutely crap. It throws out more heat then cold. So I have the thing set to 16 degrees and I'm still melting.

The best thing that happened today was just as I was going home, when the fuse blew on the AC unit and I don't have to put up with the heat no more.

I even get a lie in tomorrow as I don't have to be up until 5:30 woohoo, now you see why I don't like earlies.

Day one of earlies

If there's one shift I really dislike, it's early turns.

It's an 07:30 start and I'm up at 05:00 to travel to work.

So I arrive almost late for work and promptly settle in for a boring shift, absolutely nothing happened until 13:55.

All of a sudden, one of my managers turn up out of the blue, typical I'm already to bugger off out the door home, early I might add, and he turns up, and I'm caught bang to rights.

So me being the honest SS I am admit, yes I'm just going to Tesco to get some shopping during my meal break.

Quick thinking what!!!, and did it work, did it bugger

Chatting with a colleague

Whilst chatting with my colleague of the station logbook fame, he told me of a bloggers drink up last week in Leicester Sq, as it's coming upto payday and we are both on earlies, we thought about going for a few beers and inviting a few other bloggers. Then we thought what if Tim O'Toole and Bob Kiley turn up for a couple of beers and ask us about our blogs.

My colleagues reply I wouldn't care as i'm in the pub.

Back to the front line again

Well i'm back at my station, and I was trying to stay awake for most of the day.

Sunday is the quietest day of the week, and nothing much happens, until 17:30 (and there's me thinking i was going home at 18:00).

So all of a sudden we get a call from one of my colleagues, Virgin Train Service from Euston has been suspended and all west coast Virgin Train are running from Paddington.

It's amazing how many people travel on the west coast as all of a sudden there's more passengers on the service then all day.

God know's what i'm waffling on about.

Any way have a little look at the national rail website if you want to find out if there are service problems.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/incidents/today.html

Training finished ... Boredom set in

Well i finshed my training and much fun was had.

I passed my test of rules with flying colours, 100%.

OK so it was a doddle every one passed and the instructor went through the answers with you before you left, to make sure you passed.

But apart from that the course wasn't to bad. I met some fellow SS from different parts of the network. It's amazing what the newer SS think about the job, me being the way i am, I just think, when can i go home please.

Annual Leave has finished, so back to work tommorow

Well as the title says... It back to work tomorrow, and i have to face ATOR (underground jargon for Annual Test Of Rules), which have to be sat every year (alledgedly).

Like any one who really knows there job well on the tube, ATOR is a bitch and i hate it. The only people on our job who like ATOR are the staff who swot for the test.

I like to call these people Text Book Supervisors, they know every thing about the rule book but don't know how to do it in the real world.

Back Home

I have just had one of my best leave periods in ages.

My first weekend was spent in Brussels, and i had a lovely time there, the rest of the holiday was spent over at my Girlfriends place, eating her out of house and home.

Last week flew by, what with trips to Peterborough. The village fete, Bank holiday markets, Skegness on Tuesday, Wednesday back to my on pad witrh the Girlfriend and her 2 kids, and to top it my first experience of CAMPING.

I had a great time, despite the foulest weather in norfolk for 10 years.
Setting up a tent in a thunder and lightning storm was a great laugh, then the saturday and today were lovely and bright.

But oh joy!!! it's the end of another leave. Only 2 more weeks of leave left.