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#London to #Paris – Leaving the Station in a #Eurostar
OK. I have prepared the train and done its checks, in line with the #Driving Manual instructions. I have set my walky-talky to the required channel, to be able to communicate with the train manager.
OK. I have prepared the train and done its checks, in line with the #Driving Manual instructions. I have set my walky-talky to the required channel, to be able to communicate with the train manager.
I have prepared and sent my Twitter Tweet that I usually make if I have time left after my duties. I’m comfortable, and have placed the #train documents I favour, in their respective locations for my possible use, if needed en route.
These days, I’ve used the company provided wipes to prepare all the controls and buttons etc, that I think I’m going to need to touch at some point in the journey.
I check the train’s ASC is set (a kind of cruise control/speed limiter).
I check the train’s ASC is set (a kind of cruise control/speed limiter).
I make sure the brake lever is in the appropriate position (if left in certain positions, it will clash with the ASC and lead to unexpected results!). I verify the train is in mid-gear (not Forwards or Reverse) and the Parking Brake is set.
It's now about 3 minutes before departure time. On the walky-talky, I would expect to hear soon, the train manager announce that they are closing the doors. Once I hear that, I’m on high alert for the following actions. I monitor that the doors close on the TD-TDD . . .
(a display screen), then knowing that the TM is now indicating to the platform staff that the doors are closed, the TRTS (Train Ready to Start) button is operated by them, which requests of the signaller that the route is set for us and the signal can be set to OFF
(Off & On equate roughly to stop and go in railway parlance).
I will see the signal change, usually first to a double yellow aspect, and I check the route code letter now lit in the theatre box mounted above the signal lamps to make sure it’s one of the routes I can take . . .
I will see the signal change, usually first to a double yellow aspect, and I check the route code letter now lit in the theatre box mounted above the signal lamps to make sure it’s one of the routes I can take . . .
(it can be embarrassing if you’re wrong!). Now the signal is OFF, I can release the parking brake, the train will now be held by the ASC holding the train brake on, and I move the train’s “gear lever” to the Forwards position.
About now, the signal aspect shown usually changes to green. Red means stop. 1 yellow means stop at the next signal. 2 yellows mean the red is 2 sections away. Green means any red is at least 3 block sections away.
Something that *I* do now is to talk out loud to myself. Something like “OK, my signal is OFF, but I can’t go yet, I’m in forward, the brakes are still holding me, ( #StPancrasInternational is on a slope and just a few seconds of brakes off will have me tapping the stops!).
I’m waiting for the RA (a theatre box above the main aspects of the signal physically illuminates the letters RA for Right Away) and waiting… Got it!” I now say out loud “I have the RA”.
It might seem a bit over the top, but it’s important, the repercussions are career threatening, so if it helps, and it does, what’s the harm?
So, with permission to depart granted by the signaller, the platform staff, and the train manager, I make sure the ASC speed selector is set to 40 km/h, the permitted speed of the line here. I move the power controller to around the 20% mark . . .
and watch the TD-TDD display for the blocks of light that will indicate to me the train is actually taking power. If due to a glitch, or mismatch of controller positions it isn’t, we’re at risk of rolling back so one has to be checking vigilantly for this.
The view from the front windscreen is too vague to be of help in this, so I look out of the side window to check. The brakes release automatically once they detect the power controller has been moved to a demand position, which isn't helpful if you don’t *actually* have power!
Small risks, but they happen so you have to be ready.
It can be quite a few seconds before the train moves against the friction of the brakes taking their time to release. I like to aim for imperceptible starts that ease passengers into their journey.
It can be quite a few seconds before the train moves against the friction of the brakes taking their time to release. I like to aim for imperceptible starts that ease passengers into their journey.
Once we’re up to about 6 km/h, I shut off gently for about 5 seconds. If we had any dragging (not fully released) brakes on a coach I need to know and the reduction in speed greater than that which the gradient would normally give me is my potential clue to that.
I reapply power, about 30% will see us easily up to about 38 km/h within around 20 seconds or so, and we head due North out of the station, before curving to the right to head East, and London Tunnel One.
The line speed increased a few hundred metres back, but of course we have to allow the back of the train, 400 metres away, to get clear of the 40 km/h zone before we can increase speed, as we enter the metal tunnel that crosses us over the #EastCoastMainLine at up to 60 km/h.
As we pass the last line side signal, the train is now waiting for the #TVM (the in-cab #signalling system that enables us to run at high speeds on specially signalled lines) to arm up, which we monitor while at the same time making sure the train, now heading downhill . . .
doesn’t exceed the permitted speed.
The TVM display lights up with 080 Execute indication, so we can a bit of power to get us from around 50 to 70 km/h, while simultaneously pressing a button on the brake handle that selects the particular air-controlled train brake that we
The TVM display lights up with 080 Execute indication, so we can a bit of power to get us from around 50 to 70 km/h, while simultaneously pressing a button on the brake handle that selects the particular air-controlled train brake that we
need to test now, which we do by shutting off the power, and applying a few clicks of train brake. We want to be reassured that the brakes are working. It seems a given, but in a quarter of a mile long pipe, things can go wrong and it’s been the cause of accidents in the past...
on the railway system. We note a retardation of 10 or 15 km/h and when we release the brakes, the 800 tonnes train quickly gathers speed just with gravity. If we have timed it right, the train will glide past the 80 km/h mark just as the permitted speed jumps to 160 km/h . . .
in our desk display. Power can be now gently applied for a few seconds, as we then head into a neutral section. Traction current at 25,000 volts can’t be supplied at one end of the line only, it has to be chopped into sections which are then independently supplied . . .
and kept separate so the phases don’t meet and go bang. A short electrically dead section of wire is how we do this. Once through this, after having coasted through it, I can now apply power for real, demanding 100% traction, which gives acceleration you can now feel. To Paris...
