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Home > Rail
Work Experience > Monday 20th March
2006
MONDAY
20TH MARCH 2006
Today was the
first day and very good it was too! The day started on the
08:05 Farnborough to Brighton service upon arrival at
Basingstoke platform 1. I located the guard's office and was
greeted by Pat, a guard manager. We awaited the other work
experience student Matthew and we were both given a quiz.
This involved various questions about Basingstoke, as well
as Woking which meant the two of us had to travel up to
Woking and then back down to Basingstoke.
Walking back to
the guard managers' office we were then greeted by a South
West Trains guard named Anthony Cutler. He then took us
around the station and into a small office and talked to us
about our quiz and many other aspects of the railway. He
arranged for us to travel out with him to London Waterloo
and back after lunch. We had a one hour break for lunch and
Matthew and myself travelled into the nearby town centre and
located some of his mates who were doing work experience in
the various shops.
Getting back to
Basingstoke for 13:00, Anthony took us into a room where he
collected the relevant equipment for the round trip to
London. He showed us how to load up the ticket machine
systems, how to work the chip-and-pin additional plug-in and
we boarded the 13:24 8-car Class 450 to London Waterloo. He
showed us the guard's office in the train and set up the
computer system for the trip ahead. He opened the door
panels and did his work and we left bang on time. We did two
trips along the train checking people's tickets between the
station stops. We found the timetable had plenty of slack
time in it, with us being at a standstill for up to 3
minutes at a time. At Waterloo we wandered around a bit
before our new train arrived. Before setting off, the train
had to be prepared for service which involved the setting up
of the PA system which Anthony kindly put in my hands (using
a schedule card he had photocopied for Matthew and myself).
It was the 15:12 ex-Alton train formed of one Class 450 set.
This train was full, however we still did several lengths of
the train. It all paid off as we raised over £100 in just 3
hours and 3 minutes - one round trip to London. West of Hook
saw us get overtaken by light 66704 'Colchester Power
Signalbox', only for us to then overtake it only to then
allow it passed once more so it could get ahead of us on
it's run down South towards Eastleigh.
Our train arrived
at Basingstoke slightly late, however this was not due to
Anthony or us - it was down to the path of the GBRF Class
66. The trip back from Basingstoke to home at Farnborough
was pretty much uneventful. The first day of our two weeks
was great fun! Thanks goes to Anthony for answering all of
our questions etc.
Here is the
relevant part of the schedule card that we accompanied
Anthony on:
|
Act |
Location |
Arr |
Dep |
Remarks |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
450 |
Basingstoke |
|
13.24 |
2L44
(4723) |
|
|
|
|
|
64 |
|
|
|
|
|
WG18 |
|
|
Hook |
13.30 |
13.31 |
|
|
|
Winchfield |
13.34 |
13.35 |
|
|
|
Fleet |
13.39 |
13.40 |
|
|
|
Farnborough |
13.45 |
13.46 |
|
|
|
Brookwood |
13.52 |
13.53 |
|
|
|
Woking |
13.57 |
13.59 |
|
|
|
Weybridge |
14.05 |
14.06 |
|
|
|
Walton-on-Thames |
14.10 |
14.11 |
|
|
|
Surbiton |
14.16 |
14.17 |
|
|
|
Waterloo |
14.35 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
450 |
Waterloo |
|
15:12 |
2L45
(4605) |
|
|
|
|
|
64 |
|
|
|
|
|
WG9 |
|
|
Clapham
Junction |
15U18 |
15U19 |
|
|
|
(M) |
|
|
|
|
|
Surbiton |
15.29 |
15.30 |
|
|
|
Walton-on-Thames |
15.36 |
13.37 |
|
|
|
Weybridge |
15.40 |
15.41 |
|
|
|
Woking |
15.48 |
15.49 |
2L45 |
|
|
|
|
|
64 |
|
|
|
|
|
BV12 |
|
|
Brookwood |
15.55 |
15.56 |
|
|
|
Farnborough |
16.02 |
16.03 |
|
|
|
Fleet |
16.08 |
16.09 |
|
|
|
Winchfield |
16.13 |
16.14 |
|
|
|
Hook |
16.18 |
16.19 |
(2½) |
|
|
Basingstoke |
16.28 |
|
|
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