Crew change finished - should it be a phone call?

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Crew change finished - should it be a phone call? 10/05/2022 at 10:35 #146428
Bonan
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Just a minor thing, but I've wondered why the "crew waiting/will be ready" messange is a phone call, but the "crew change finished" message is in the incident report? I find it a bit easier to miss like this. Also, maybe we don't need a message/call if the crew change is finished but the train is not yet ready to leave for any other reason? Or possibly an alternate call, something like "crew change is finished and train XXXX will be ready to depart on time/at XX:XX".

I don't know how this is normally done in British operations, but in Sweden we would normally just get a call once the train is ready with a the new driver. On passenger trains there are usually no calls at all, unless the new driver is late or unavailable.

Swedish driver and part-time signaller
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Crew change finished - should it be a phone call? 10/05/2022 at 10:44 #146429
flabberdacks
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There's an option now in your F3 for the crew to only call when they're running late to the train - a true lifesaver for me, because the unnecessary calls were driving me up the wall!

Look for it in your F3 Options window, under the Display tab.

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Crew change finished - should it be a phone call? 10/05/2022 at 10:46 #146430
i26
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I guess the reason you get the phone call is so you don't route a train in too early and have it block a line because if it was in the message box you would miss it. I just pay as much attention as possible to the message box and if you have a spare monitor then stick the message box on a different screen.

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Crew change finished - should it be a phone call? 10/05/2022 at 10:54 #146431
flabberdacks
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Yeah, I'm sure that was the original intent behind the call - advice to the player for regulation purposes.
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Crew change finished - should it be a phone call? 10/05/2022 at 11:02 #146432
Bonan
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flabberdacks in post 146429 said:
There's an option now in your F3 for the crew to only call when they're running late to the train - a true lifesaver for me, because the unnecessary calls were driving me up the wall!

Look for it in your F3 Options window, under the Display tab.
Didn't know this - really takes away a lot of unneccesary distractions. Thanks!

Swedish driver and part-time signaller
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Crew change finished - should it be a phone call? 11/05/2022 at 00:41 #146441
Phil-jmw
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Speaking from memory of when I was on the back desk in Derby PSB many years ago, any one of a number of things might happen.

1. Relieving crew arrive at Derby Station mess room on Platform 1 (or, less likely but not unheard of, 4 Shed mess room) and don't announce their arrival to the signalman.
2. Relieving crew arrive at Derby Stn or 4 Shed and let the signalman know they're there, and ask is xxxx anywhere about?

In the event of 1 above, when a train which was normally booked relief was getting close, the signalman (or occasionally the back desk if the signalman was busy) would ring the mess room on Pfm.1 and ask if there was a driver for xxxx in there. If not (and also not at 4 Shed, after a call to the Train Crew Supervisor), said train would get looped and when that driver came on the phone he'd be told his relief wasn't there yet. Sometimes the driver would say "no relief today mate, I'm booked right away" and we'd pull off for him, or he'd have to wait there til his relief turned up (eg travelling PASS on a late running passenger train or working a late running freight into Derby, or maybe the Toton service car stuck in traffic somewhere, and remember also there were no mobile phones back then so they couldn't let us know they were late). If we knew (or ascertained) the forward crew were there, we'd keep the train running and tell them which platform or which signal (DY436/449/458) on the Goods lines, and how many minutes til their train was likely to be there ("Crew for 6M14? 449 in about 10 minutes").

If we knew the relief was in the mess room on Pfm.1 we did try as often as we could to run freights down Pfm.1 so they could stop and relieve right outside the mess room door half way along the platform, and the crews knew to be quick about it and not hang about, and if the relief was at 4 Shed we'd often try and run them via the Goods lines to save their legs.

Last edited: 11/05/2022 at 00:42 by Phil-jmw
Reason: None given

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