Spare yesterday; no duties needed covering by the time I booked on but the Train Maintainers had a dud in LOU sidings so I was dispatched to move it down to WOO, round into HAI depot and then return with a replacement. Unfortunately by the time Wood Lane told us about the job there wasn’t enough time to do the trip and get back to LOU platform to catch the last LES train so they had to lay on a taxi to get me back again.

I took the dud to HAI, stuck it in the sheds, walked across to the far side of the depot and took the replacement back out. It was only when I changed ends at WOO that I discovered that not everyone had received the message that this train was going out and I still had a cleaner on board. The poor man had only realised that something was wrong when we went past GRH station. He called his supervisor and I left him waiting to be retrieved at WOO.

I’ve spotted a couple of the trainees trotting behind their IOps like obedient puppies just as I did so many years ago. When an IOp has a trainee they follow the roster rather than swapping shifts around, one reason I don’t like the idea of becoming one myself is it would mean doing earlies again. Another is that while it is pretty boring sitting driving a train I think I would find it even more tedious sitting and watching someone else do it. The minuscule increase in pay doesn’t seem much of an incentive either.

I listened in to one IOp quizzing their trainee on the procedure for the dreaded mainline burst and they made some easy mistakes which had they been on a train would have caused serious delays to the service but served as an example of why we spend months training TOps before letting them loose on their own.

But awwww, aren’t they cute when they’re new.

Further to my comments yesterday on RMT last month they confirmed their support for the Trades Union and Socialist Coalition, another rebranding of the no-hope loony left that can trace it’s roots back to Militant Tendency in the 80s. If they get enough votes to earn an Assembly Member then top of the list is RMT President Alex Gordon who has been leap-frogged over long-standing leftie lawyer Nick Wrack, former chairman of both Socialist Alliance and Respect, SWP member and associate of Gorgeous George Galloway.

So the next time someone mentions Ken’s links with Unkle Bob you can dismiss them as mere inventions of Tory scaremongers desperate for some mud to stick as Boris’s polices are proving to be rather less than inspiring. Vote Ken. Or Jenny with Ken second choice. Or ditto with Brian, even if he is a LibDem.