[12-2-2007] Heuston
 

Why does everything break in Sallins

Locomotive Breakdown - again
 

I'm just a paying commuter who has missed a meeting - know nothing about locomotives - but one would have to wonder at the adequacy of pre-journey locomotive inspection protocols if IE have them- if IE do not have any, they should have them and if they do have them they clearly are not fit for purpose!

Word coming in suggests a possible ground relay at fault, fairly notorious issue with the 071 class locomotives, it would trip out the traction system and halt the train, restarting it possible but it will trip again. Soggy batteries will get you eventually and it won't restart. If the relay trips more than 3 times in 30 minutes it locks it out and you are stuck

Not the kind of thing you would notice on a visual inspection

Driver do a basic check on fuel levels, brakes, lights, radio, DSD and cab signalling before the locomotive goes into service

Hazelhatch Sallins seems to be a bermuda triangle of railways you enter but may never leave

The notice was fairly useless since it didn't give specifics on any train

The 16:50 had no announcements or explanations or God forbid any apologies for the delay, found out from a friend on another train what was going on

The 18:05 pulled out on time so it could go nowhere and sit in Inchicore - why bother - why not let people know so they can decide whether to bother getting on the train or not? I got in about 45 mins late, starving! I would have got food in Heuston and got a later train if they'd let us know before we headed off.

There was no announcement for about 20mins and the driver said he didn't know when we'd get moving. How does everything take so long to be communicated?

Well someone in charge last night decided to clear all trains out of Heuston to free up platforms, platform 5 scenario again

There was no communication to train staff on the issue

Sure why tell them, they'll figure it out from the red signals :rolleyes:

18:25 Heuston-Waterford. "Apologies for the late arival [at athy], this was due to signals".

Factual and concise. What more do you want? ;)

kevin

Nearly all rail delays will manifest themselves as being stuck at a signal, why you are at the signal is the question