Best time to drive

[chris]

This ought to ease my curiosity. Personally, i'd like to do early morning.

[igelkotten]

Overnight duties (say, 23:00-06:00) all the way!

And preferrably doing test train driving, or depot work, or something infrastructure related, such as being pilotman on a tamper or other passenger-free activity.

[Deleted]

My personal preference is for lates (as you'll probably guess by the posting times of most of my posts!)

I don't know why, but I've always preferred doing lates, even when I worked on the buses many years ago!
Maybe it's because I have a nasty tendency to sleep in for early shifts, no matter how early I go to bed, or how many alarm clocks I set! ;D

[Deleted]

Dead lates and nights, if I'm ever seen out at midday something has seriously gone wrong.

[Colin]

I'm with Alan all the way (including the bus bit). I can't get up early no matter how hard I try !!

As i've mentioned elsewhere, Friday and Saturday nights can be a pain - but on the whole, driving in the evening is more relaxing than daytime.

Most passengers are not in a rush like the 9 to 5 commuters, and there's not so many tourists trying to board in groups of 30 through only one of the twenty four doorways.

There's also less trains about, which reduces the amount of red signals a driver could accidentally pass - and that's another reason to avoid earlies, passing a red signal will definitely wake you up !!

[Deleted]

jim said:

Dead lates and nights, if I'm ever seen out at midday something has seriously gone wrong.

Like you took a wrong stick out of bed? I agree i prefer dead lates and nights now i have tried them! ;D

[Phil]

Yes, Lates, though in the old days when you were paid right through for spreadovers (do they still do that?) there was something satisfying in going home and doing jobs like fixing the car in the middle of the day knowing you were being paid for it ;D ;D ;D

[q8]

We used to have a thing at our depot called "The Syndicate" whereby a little club of men who preffered certain turns always did regular changeovers. I.E Len & Les always did dead earlys. Me and John always did dead lates and the other two did what was left. Used to drive the yardmaster potty with all the swapping. Do they still have things like that?

[Deleted]

q8 said:

Do they still have things like that?

Yes, most depots have 'The Mafia' which does that. Acton District has family friendly rosters, that has the same affect, however you choose a link, and get anything on that particular link.

For example Dave's link is anything between 0632 (and thats a killer! ) and 2230 iirc?

[citysig]

Best time to drive? After the school run traffic, but then I do have to take the missus to work before that time and it's a nightmare. Late night is good aswell. Or have I missed the point....

If you all like driving on lates so much, why isn't my job easier? ;D

[Christopher J]

Personally, not being a Train Operator yet I would more or less prefer earlies.

I'm one of these 'Early Bird Catches The Worm' people, I'd like to start early and leave early in the morning/midday, leaving the afternoon for anything else and then off to sleep early in the evening and wake up early next morning.

But like Alan, I have a Tendency to over sleep, at the moment I have 3 Alarm Clocks.

I have a normal Alarm Clock, one on my Mobile and I have one on my PC, they all set off at the same time and so far they've managed to wake me up spot on time! ;D

[Deleted]

christopherjolly said:

I have a normal Alarm Clock, one on my Mobile and I have one on my PC, they all set off at the same time and so far they've managed to wake me up spot on time! ;D

I have just the one, but it is capable of having two alarm times which comes in hand for the early starts! It also is subtle as well, which i like! lol

One of the main reasons why i like late turns i that you can sleep as much as you need as you do not need to get up to an alarm! Marvelous!

[trainopd78]

I'm an early man. I've never had any problem with getting up in the morning. I like earlies because the passengers have one goal in life - to get to work. No mess, no fuss just go up and down and get the days work done. Just like watching lemmings really.

Another nice side effect to earlies is that the early turn drivers are generally more friendly (present company excepted).

I suppose it because the late turn have to put up with all the drunks, fights, kids up the east end etc, by the time I've finished on dead earlies, these pondlife would still be in bed.

So thats why I like earlies.

[Deleted]

trainopd78 said:

I suppose it because the late turn have to put up with all the drunks, fights, kids up the east end etc, by the time I've finished on dead earlies, these pondlife would still be in bed.

Not if you do a 'proper' early turn! ;D *Mutters about snip turns*

[happybunny]

Any of them, as long as its a snip

[Deleted]

Driving freight trains the best time is when there are less passenger trains to have to get out of the way for. Up until 2006 we had a run from Leeds to Southampton during the day that had an average speed 5mph less than Stephensons Rocket won the Rainhill trials with in 1829!