Great Western Coffee Shop

Heard an announcement I've not heard before - can anyone enlighten me?

Pulling out of Evesham this morning, train shudders to a halt then you got the tannoy noise, a slow count to 30 and then another tannoy.  Train starts moving again then TM is asked to contact the driver.

It was the slow count bit I dont get!

Just a guess but maybe a safety system (TPWS?) which requires a 30 second delay and the presence of the Guard before it can be reset (resumable to stop the driver overriding it without thinking).

Was the driver doing the countdown?

Very interesting. if it was a SPAD and TPWS intervened did the driver also go without the token?

Asked TM on the way home (I know the evening TM's as I sleep through the morning ones - well if they dont have verbal diarea) - apparently it s feature of the PA system - does it every now and again on HST's - no one seems to know why.  The stopping was probably not connected and due to a bike being loaded on at evesham.

Of course she could have fed me total bull for all I know - but knowing the TM - I doubt it.

I was sure you would have had an "expert" answer by now.  Was teh countdown recorded or did it come from the driver/guard?

Recorded

I think she's already had one from the TM on her train the other night. The PA's recent update with very limited automatic announcements must have some kind of test or boot-up automatic count, similar to the 'testing, testing, 12345' you used to hear when Tannoy's on stations were playing up. Perhaps that was triggered if the train stopped sharply? I must admit though, I haven't heard it yet!

Either the PA system at Didcot was playing up the other night (about 2300) or someone was playing sillies... Firstly we had an announcement advising passengers who had come to see the Orient Express that it was expected to pass through platform 11 (for those of you who know the station, by my reckoning platform 11 would be somewhere in the middle of the Ladygrove estate...) is 1 minute, Celia doing her "testing, testing, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5..." and then an announcement both in English and Welsh saying that "Network Rail and the train companies would like to take this opportunity to wish you a merry Christmas and happy New Year".

It is possible to manually set those announcements you mentioned off at any time through the system... Possibly a bored nightshift worker then  :D

Ermmm.......

The TPWS brake demand timeout is actually 60 seconds +/- 3 seconds.

Incorrect about the presence of the guard aswell or the annoncment of a safety system activation broadcasting on the PA! No idea were you have got this stuff from!!!

As i said - just a guess.