This morning I was meant to start by getting a train out of the yard at HAI, I got the “road number” from the DMT on the desk and jumped on a train. When I walked into the yard I found my train had a “target” on it which basically tells us that someone is working on this train and not to touch it under any circumstances. I checked with the DDM who happily told me that he’d phoned the DMT shortly after I’d left to say that the train was unavailable so I trudged back out of the yard in the snow and rode the cushions back to LES. They’re going to reform a train due to go out of service in about an hour and I’ll make that into my train.

On the subject of broken down trains there’s one currently stuck in the siding at DEB which we are informed is in such a bad way that it will be staying there for a few days. I went past it yesterday; completely dead except for a single red light on either end, effectively 150 tons of scrap metal. Considering that recently we’ve had ne’er-do-wells sneaking onto the track at night and stealing signal cabling I wouldn’t be surprised if the local tea-leaves eyeball it and start taking it away in stages.

After Strike day we had snow day. All the trains were running late and every time I reached the end of the line I had just enough time to change ends before the signal cleared again. After my meal break there was a further delay while the PWay sorted out a track problem between HOP and NHG which left me stood waiting for my train on the EB platforms at WHC with a train either side.

Being a helpful sort I suggested that it would be nice if we shifted the passengers from the train due out second onto the one out first, the TOp made a PA and the passengers duly trooped over to the train on the opposite platform. Predictably Wood Lane then switched the order and we had to herd them back across the platform. So much for being “pro active”.

Monday was strike day, I’d been monitoring the Central Line at home while I got ready for work and when I left we were running EPP and HAI into HOL on the east end of the line and WHC to EAB and WER on the west. By the time I’d got in, booked on and been handed a job someone had decided to run LES to WHC. I have absolutely no idea of the logic behind this decision, I am but a mere TOp and have no insight into the workings of the higher minds that run the Tube.

Half the stations were closed and nothing was open between BOS and WHC. This doesn’t mean that there were no staff there rather that there were insufficient numbers to meet the legal minimum staffing level. If any of these properly “under ground” stations had been totally unmanned then we would have had to tip the passengers out at the last open station and run through empty. Fire Regs.

The other minor problem was that Auto can only handle one station closed at a time, if there are two consecutive stations closed it goes through the first one but stops at the second so we had to drive the trains manually. So much for us Central Line drivers being nothing more than “door openers”, yah boo sucks GLA Tories!

Anyway after I’d done my first WB trip to WHC NHG reopened. Unfortunately I was changing ends so I didn’t hear the radio message from Wood Lane informing us of this so when the signal cleared I cheerfully announced that the train wouldn’t be stopping till BOS. When I pulled into NHG and saw passengers on the platform I had to call Wood Lane to ask if the station was really open. During a previous strike a Jubilee Line TOp opened up the doors at Canada Water when it was closed and the poor punters were stuck in there for 40 minutes. Whoops.

Balloon animals on the Tube. Are they deer or dogs? No idea but when I changed ends at WER today there was a whole car full of them. I love this city.

My profuse apologies for not writing but things have been rather fraught in my personal life. Today, Saturday, is my last working day for two weeks so there will be nothing to report until the end of the month. Hopefully I will come back refreshed and in the right frame of mind to delight you with further tales of everyday life on the Central Line.

Tuesday was good for observing the Platform Train Interface, simply where train meets platform. This is where the overwhelming majority of injuries sustained on the Underground occur so you’d think people would take extra care when getting on and off. You’d be wrong.

First incident, TCR WB, a group of teenagers boarding the train, one at the back totally engrossed in their mobile/ipod/whatever, goes to get on the train, his foot finds the gap between train and platform, he half trips and then scuttles on board. Obviously not good at multi tasking.

Second incident, later that evening, HOL WB, woman with small child hurrying to get on the train, child struggling to keep up, as she gets on the child stumbles and is only kept from falling down the gap because she’s holding on to it’s hand. Lifts it up like a bag of shopping and whisks it into the carriage. Our future generations are safe with granny.

Other than that not much to report other than the usual ATO/ATP failures, was a little late because I got held at WOO while two trains went over the points in front of me and because of the strike the last WB train left LES at 22:02, about two hours early. Tomorrow will be fun.

After a busy start to the week Wednesday passed without incident, Thursday I was spare and there was nothing for me to do other than sit and wait for something to go wring; it didn’t. Friday I was handed a job the moment I booked on, riding to WHC, picking up a train there, taking it through to EPP and into the sidings at WOO. London was heaving for Halloween, the platforms packed with people in costume and when we got to WHC the train waiting on the EB platform.

Just the one sleeper at EPP, a suit, who was already awake by the time I got to him and asked if we were going back to BUH. The DMT had booked a taxi to take me back to LES and it turned up about fifteen minutes after I’d stabled the train but after a while I noticed that it was taking a rather strange route. It seems that rather than going straight to LES we were picking up a H&C or District driver at Barking. Well I was getting paid so I didn’t complain.

Saturday was reasonably dull, I was on the last EAB, stabling at WHC for the night, with an extra hour as the clocks went back. As I changed ends at EAB I saw someone in the one of the cars asleep and stepped inside to wake them. I was greeted by a very friendly and utterly gorgeous Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy and I will admit that I delayed waking her owner for a minute of two while I fussed her. This job does have it’s good moments.