Great Western Coffee Shop

Bristol Evening Post article links.
http://thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144913&command=displayContent&sourceNode=231190&home=yes&more_nodeId1=144922&contentPK=20009179

http://thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144913&command=displayContent&sourceNode=144913&contentPK=20008123

What a load of crap, Bristol drivers/guards don't sign the route to Penzance! or vice versa!

Unless they are made to work 4-hour non stop. Ouch!
Which could never happen.

Yes, but Bristol crews don't sign Penzance-Bristol so it's total crap! the only crews that sign the entire route from Bristol to Penzance are Exeter and Plymouth and why would they taxi an Exeter crew from Bristol to Penzance??? Virgin (and now XC) have always taxi'd crews from Plymouth to Penzance to work the 0730 and 0830 up.

doesnt say anything about guards being taxi'd up to paddington early sunday morning to work trains out of paddington due to staff shortages in London

Or half the other daft taxi moves!

Possibly not Bristol Penzance but most TOCs use a lot of taxis to get drivers to and from work. There's also riding on the cushions as it use to be put i.e travelling by train to pick your train.

I met an EWS driver at Hither Green who was travelling to Leicester to pick up the VSOE coaches and bring them back to Stewarts Lane. Which is a pretty impressive piece of route knowledge. But then Hither Green drivers had a reputation in the 60s with their 33s that they pull anything anywhere. They had a regular turn as far as Peterborough on the ECML with the Cliffe Uddingston cement. They were always hoping not to be relieved at Peterborough and take it right through.

I also know of a taxi driver who made a living out of ferrying Thames train drivers to and from Reading & Swindon. For some unknown reason Thames had a Turbo to Swindon in the middle of the night which seemed to swap drivers at Swindon.

It is alleged that the record for an unsigned journey was a Bristol (Barrow Hill) driver who got as far as Sheffield. Probably signed to Birmingham. But it was during the war.

It is interesting though how sensitive drivers productivity is and how hard it is  get right. There was an article many years back in one of the scandal sheets  (maybe in even BR days) that it was a disgrace that the Aberdeen - Penzance Cross Country took something like 8 drivers for it's run. How many does it take now? I would suggest at least 5 and that would have to be Aberdeen Newcastle EWS men do this with the sleeper but it's an out and lodge, Newcastle - Derby, Derby - Bristol, Bristol - Plymouth, Plymouth - Penzance.

In fact the EWS sleeper diagrams were very intersting in that Newcastle men took the Inverness and Aberdeen sleepers right through from Newcastle and lodged, but they worked the other sleeper back i.e the Aberdeen out man bought the Inverness sleeper back to Newcastle and vice versa tavelling between Inverness and Aberdeen this gave them enough rest. As the Inverness train arrived later in the morning and departed earlier in the evening with insufficient break time.

A lot of old rubbish as usual

There's a hell of a lot of inefficiency with men being taxied everywhere, but in part this is due to privatisation, as staff from different companies can't generally work each others trains unless an agreement has been made, so it means men being taxied to one location, even though it may have a depot for another company and spare staff.

Besides inefficient as it is, it's the train operators money, and it's better than cancelling services from the point of view of the punters.

It doesn't cost anything in the long run though as they just put it against tax! As for drivers driving on unsigned routes, isn't that why the Sutton Coldfield crash back in steam days? driver didn't know the route so was doing 70mph on a 20mph curve through the tunnel?