Teaching people how to open doors

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Sorry it's just a Facebook link

https://www.facebook.com/ScotRail/videos/576705902775789/

Our fleet is growing. Classic InterCity trains are helping us on our way to build the best railway Scotland has ever had. You might notice some features different to what you’re used to. Here’s some info to help you get familiar with the Classic InterCity train

[Red Squirrel]

I think the Rab C Nesbitt soundtrack is rather appropriate... after seeing this, I look on HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s with fresh eyes. Isn't it astonishing that in 2018, in what is still nominally and for now a first-world country, people are expected to push a (potentially pretty stiff) window down, lean (quite a long way) out and turn a handle just to open a door?

[stuving]

I think the Rab C Nesbitt soundtrack is rather appropriate... after seeing this, I look on HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s with fresh eyes. Isn't it astonishing that in 2018, in what is still nominally and for now a first-world country, people are expected to push a (potentially pretty stiff) window down, lean (quite a long way) out and turn a handle just to open a door?

Why? Isn't more to the point that ScotRail put out that patronising video and the web page that it goes with that says:

You might notice some features aren't what you’re used to, and change is on its way. Over the coming months, Classic trains will be replaced by our Inter7City fleet, bringing even more comfort and style to our intercity services. Here’s some information to help you get familiar with the Classic InterCity and allow you to plan your journey.

It's entirely obvious (the rust on the door in the video being just the biggest hint) that these are the same trains as "Inter7City" being put into service unmodified while waiting for Wabtec to struggle their way through their backlog of refurb work? So why not admit it - instead they come up with this "classic" tag as if it's got some extra appeal.

[Timmer]

Considering LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) operate HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) Edinburgh-Inverness/Aberdeen I'd say most people are familiar with the operation of a door on an HST.

[patch38]

I think the Rab C Nesbitt soundtrack is rather appropriate...

Given the 'Classic' tag, maybe this would have been even more appropriate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9GmXMNitxw

[Red Squirrel]

...I'd say most people are familiar with the operation of a door on an HST^▸ (High Speed Train).

Probably true, but it wasn't able-bodied people familiar with this (let's face it, rather eccentric) way of opening doors I was worrying about. I have on more than one occasion shown a totally bemused fellow passenger how to do it - but what if there's no-one there to help?

[IndustryInsider]

So why mot admit it - instead they come up with this "classic" tag as if it's got some extra appeal.

Plenty of extra appeal if you’re an enthusiast and want to listen to some thrash. 

[stuving]

So why mot admit it - instead they come up with this "classic" tag as if it's got some extra appeal.

Plenty of extra appeal if you’re an enthusiast and want to listen to some thrash. 

I can't see them as the audience for the video! And anyway, I don't think that's going to be changed by Wabtec's angle grinders, is it?

[IndustryInsider]

They’ll be sealing the windows shut won’t they?

[stuving]

They’ll be sealing the windows shut won’t they?

Yes - more like portholes, really. So that's right if you were suggesting people might travel in the vestibule with the window open, offering a temptation to stick their head out ... perish the thought!

[onthecushions]

Reminds me of the (not issued) advice (or practice) on the SR^‡(resolve) slammers that went something like:

1 When the train is about 100 yards from your destination, lean out of the window, grab hold of the outer door handle and with your other hand steady yourself against the inside of the train.

2 When your doorway passes the platform entry ramp, unlock the door but hold it close to the train body against your foot.

3 When the train has slowed to a fast walking place, open the door and step onto the first outer wooden step.

4. When you are happy with the speed and that there are is no one waiting on the platform in your way jump off outwards and move well away from the edge of the platform as there will be twelve other commuters following you quickly at fractional-second intervals.

5. You can often beat the train to the buffer stops.

6. If you go flat on your face, get up quickly, look embarrassed and clear off to your place of work to attend to any bruises or wounds in your own time and with your firm’s elastoplast.

E&OE

OTC

[paul7575]

Reminds me of the (not issued) advice (or practice) on the SR^‡(resolve) slammers that went something like:

1 When the train is about 100 yards from your destination, lean out of the window, grab hold of the outer door handle and with your other hand steady yourself against the inside of the train.

2 When your doorway passes the platform entry ramp, unlock the door but hold it close to the train body against your foot.

3 When the train has slowed to a fast walking place, open the door and step onto the first outer wooden step.

4. When you are happy with the speed and that there are is no one waiting on the platform in your way jump off outwards and move well away from the edge of the platform as there will be twelve other commuters following you quickly at fractional-second intervals.

5. You can often beat the train to the buffer stops.

6. If you go flat on your face, get up quickly, look embarrassed and clear off to your place of work to attend to any bruises or wounds in your own time and with your firm’s elastoplast.

E&OE

OTC

Would be great to see all that on a railway style sign, complete with all appropriate pictograms...

Paul

[Dispatch Box]

Reminds me of the (not issued) advice (or practice) on the SR^‡(resolve) slammers that went something like:

1 When the train is about 100 yards from your destination, lean out of the window, grab hold of the outer door handle and with your other hand steady yourself against the inside of the train.

2 When your doorway passes the platform entry ramp, unlock the door but hold it close to the train body against your foot.

3 When the train has slowed to a fast walking place, open the door and step onto the first outer wooden step.

4. When you are happy with the speed and that there are is no one waiting on the platform in your way jump off outwards and move well away from the edge of the platform as there will be twelve other commuters following you quickly at fractional-second intervals.

5. You can often beat the train to the buffer stops.

6. If you go flat on your face, get up quickly, look embarrassed and clear off to your place of work to attend to any bruises or wounds in your own time and with your firm’s elastoplast.

E&OE

OTC

This reminds me of what used to happen, When Gloucester used to have Loco hauled trains, People would open the door slightly as the train came speeding through platform 1 and then stopping at 2. Probably the reason that the Signal Gantry on Plat 2, Is so far back from the Platform edge. Now all has changed with nearly all trains having sliding doors.

[IndustryInsider]

They’ll be sealing the windows shut won’t they?

Yes - more like portholes, really. So that's right if you were suggesting people might travel in the vestibule with the window open, offering a temptation to stick their head out ... perish the thought!

Yes, that’s exactly what I was suggesting.  You only have to watch a railtour go by to see heads aplenty hanging out the windows.  HST^▸ (High Speed Train)’s might not have quite the draw of a pair of Hoover’s, but I bet they’ll still be a few.

[Red Squirrel]

They’ll be sealing the windows shut won’t they?

Yes - more like portholes, really. So that's right if you were suggesting people might travel in the vestibule with the window open, offering a temptation to stick their head out ... perish the thought!

Yes, that’s exactly what I was suggesting.  You only have to watch a railtour go by to see heads aplenty hanging out the windows.  HST^▸ (High Speed Train)’s might not have quite the draw of a pair of Hoover’s, but I bet they’ll still be a few.

You remind me of the good old days when solid respectable Rail magazine was in its adolescent form as Rail Enthusiast.  I well remember a railtour review (by David Maxey?) which, referring to the habit of the railfans of the day to photo-bomb by waving their arms out of the windows of carriages, said:

...there was plenty of arm-waving at Glenwhilly, and some unspeakable behaviour at Glenarm...