Great Western Coffee Shop

Hey there folks, been watching this site for a while and decided to join up so I can add my two-penneth when I think I have something to add!

I'm a train guard from Edinburgh working for ScotRail, though I am a First Group sceptic and have not succumbed to the head office propaganda!

Normally interested in fare and customer service topics and will give you an honest insider's opinion!

Welcome, and enjoy the forum.

Indeed welcome to the forum readytostart. Fare and customer service related issues regularly appear on the forum so you will be more than at home here.

Welcome! :)

Buzz buzz  ;)

Blakey, we're more beep beep or ding ding up here! Only get the buzz buzz on some hand me down Wessex 158's!

Sorry, had forgotten how posh you lot were up in the frozen north! These days we're even back to using flags and whistles on a few trains down this way...

No whistles on the lhcs set. Green flag and a toot on the horn.

Sorry d_m, need to correct you slightly here...

You are correct in that the "rightaway" signal itself is simply a green flag. However, guards are required to carry a whistle with them when on duty and will use it at their discretion. If a guard working the loco-hauled set feels the need to use a whistle, they will do so. There are some guards who will use their whistle before despatching units at unstaffed stations: it's not technically required by the rule book but is very handy for (a) speeding people up if they're dawdling and (b) making sure everyone in earshot knows the train is about the depart.

Nitpicking over now, I promise.

Welcome.  After FGW I travel most with Scotrail (thanks to your "bargain berths" I am up north on the sleeper a few times a year and am trying to climb the Munros that can be done by train).

Pretty impressed with "Scotland's Railway" (if a little jealous).  I was not pleased when NX lost its franchise to First (was a sleeper travelling North on the last day of NX and the staff were determined to give away the last of their buffet stock before the handover), but I think they have made a pretty good job of both Scotrail and FGW ain't so bad now either - and look what has  happened to National Express...

The green flag isn't the only right away signal. At the major station they have Right Away markers mounted on signals which illuminate when pressed by dispatch staff, so the green flag is mainly only used at the unstaffed stations with the bigger staffed ones using right away markers.

We'll happilly take them back off your hands!!! welcome fellow railwayman!

And swap them for your nodding donkeys, I don't think so! :oP

After a successful escape bid from First McJockRail, I shall be coming to little gap in the FGW network in Bournemouth so may see some of you on my travels!

Welcome the sunny South, readytostart - well, to Bournemouth, anyway!

Chris  ;) :D ;D

Congratulations! Just think, you might even get issued with some proper ticket cancelling kit now...  ;) :)

Well, judging by the Vomiters I've been on recently I'll be lucky to get a biro! Fingers crossed tho!

Congratulations (If you consider Voyagers a promotion  :D)

I'm sure you will find it much warmer down south!

Congratulations.

Please don't think that the whole of the South of England smells like the inside of a voyager.

And please try to be compassionate to the disgruntled punters when you have to skip-stop Basingstoke (or other stops) when you're running late!! It's happened to me twice....

I promise not to laugh until I've cleared the platform! In my limited experience of the route so far everything's run pretty much to time, there seems to be a fair buffer of time at Birmingham and a sharp reversal at reading can cure most ills. I still love the look of panic on peoples faces departing Reading, all thinking that the train is taking them back whence they came!