It's Sunday, the 21st of May. Yep.
Actually, the day that the new timets
start. Yeah. But today, we're on a very
special mission cuz today is it's the
only day like of the whole of the whole
summer that we can do this very
particular one station. We're at
Houston. It's our first fay north.
Are you ready?
Yes. to the train.
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So, our train's on platform 3. We're
going to Manchester. Uh, before we go
though, oh, yes. Whilst we're on the
train journey, yes. We can treat the
viewers to an interview we we did with a
lovely man called Richard. Who was
Richard? He was a train driver for
Southeastern. Yes. And he met us Oh,
what day was it? Yesterday. The other
day. Last week. Cheers to Vicki on a
train to tell you all about it. We are
in Tumbridge and we are on the train
going to Nutfield. Jeff is here, but we
also have Richard with us who is a
driver. Hello. How do you do? You're a
driver for South Eastern. Is that
correct? How many years have you worked
on the railway for Southeastern? Uh, I
would have done 10 years this year on
the railway. Is this like a a boyhood
thing? Were you the little boy that
wanted to drive trains and it became a
reality? Why why did you become a
driver? Yeah, I think you probably hit
the nail on the head there, to be
perfectly honest. I think most kids
probably dream of being train drivers at
some point in their life and for most it
fizzles out, but it's just something
that stayed with me. Do you still get a
kick out of it? Is there still part of
8-year-old Richard inside of you that
enjoys driving a train most days? Most
days. Most days. Some days. Um, now are
you a PA friendly driver? I love it when
you get on a train and you get a driver
that's that and they like to do a bit of
banter. What do you have any particular
sort of favorite banter moments? Well,
if we're delayed for a sign significant
amount of time, especially going to
London on the morning peak, I normally
remind people that it's a good thing cuz
it gives them a few minutes extra to
finish the crossword.
You've done that. I've done that. I have
made that announcement. What's the most
bizarre You must have had a bizarre
interaction with with with I hear
Richard is an award-winning driver. Oh,
that is right. I was um two years ago,
now 2015, I was nominated um for train
driver of the year in the Rail Staff
Awards. I This is for real. This is for
real. Um now, you can check on the
website, check the previous nominations.
I actually made it through to the final
10. Um there was an incident on the
Hastings line one morning. Um there had
been lots of trees come down overnight
due to a storm. Okay. Um and I cleared a
number of trees from the track and by
doing so it prevented delays and the
company saw fit to nominate me for train
driver of the year. I didn't win. Sorry.
Let's just let's just back up a few
stops. You you cleared some trees from
the line. I say trees, probably branches
to be fair. Sorry. By hand. Yes. Oh, you
actually got out of the line and you
were like, "Oh, so remove them from the
track for a minute. I had visions of you
sort of attaching like a a plow device
to the front of your train and just sort
of driving through." Okay. So, have you
ever hit a tree? I have hit a tree. What
happened? Several. The worst one I hit
was coming out of Mountfield Town. It
was battle bonfire night in actual fact.
I'd come out of Mountfield Tunnel and I
was traveling around 50 mph. So, was
this in the evening? Was it night time?
Um, this was in the afternoon. Oh, so
you you could see? Yes. Yeah. Um, good
visibility, but it's on a it's on a
bend. Okay. And I'd come out the tunnel
doing 50 m an hour. I saw a tree across
the track. It crossed both tracks. And
we're not talking like a little branch.
Talking like a big a big And it was
lying horizontal across both horizontal.
And it was at cab height. It wasn't
lower down on the track. It was actually
at cab height. So, how 50 m an hour you
suddenly with how with how much time to
go? I I put the emergency brakes on. I
didn't have very long. Um and I left the
cab. You left the cab? I left the cab.
Wow. I applied the emergency brakes and
I stood behind the cab door. Cuz if
you'd have stayed in the cab, you would
have felt the force of the tree or
potentially if there's a branch sticking
the wrong way, it could come through the
windscreen. It could be quite quite
nasty. So, how much damage was sustained
by the train? The cab windscreen was
completely destroyed as most of the
front of the train. Doors on the front
of the train with the train attached was
bent. The coupler was bent. It was Yeah,
it was quite nasty. And in that
instance, what do you then have to walk
back through the train and just go,
"Sorry, folks. We've hit a tree." I made
a PA announcement to tell everyone. Did
another train have to come and pick you
up or how No, we we proceeded to the
next station where all the passengers
were drained and taken away in in buses.
I sense that you love working on the
railways. Could you sum up why why that
is? Working on the It's a great thing.
It's a great community of people that
come together on the railways. Um the
staff all look out for one another and
we we're pretty well looked after and we
look after each other and it's just it's
a very family orientated way. It's a big
railway family. Right. I've heard that
expression.
Very true. Thank you so much for joining
us. And you're not driving this train.
You're going to just ride the cushions
as I believe. The expression is just
with us all the way down through the red
hill. I'm traveling pass. Traveling.
Traveling pass. I thought you said
traveling. I have to believe that now.
Hello, Manchester. Hang on. A quick
cutaway
now to prove that we're in
Manchester. What are we here in
Manchester to do? We are here. This is
the last opportunity we have this summer
to visit this particular station. We are
here to go to Old Trafford to Manchester
United hold station which is only open
on matches.
I'm told that this is an an unusual
maneuver because normally trains on this
platform 13 would just go straight
through, keep going that direction. But
instead, it's come empty from Man
United. It's just done the 1321 service,
dropped everybody off and it's come back
empty and it will come in and then go
back out like the wrong way and there's
a lot of football fans here which is a
bit expected and that's the whole point
and that's that's the great thing. So
Northern run this train uh just on match
days only.
Where is it? What's the train? Is it
winter? I don't think it is.
Other door. Other door.
Other door. There we go.
Been following your blog. We're so
pleased that we're on this train.
We're on the train. It's quite busy.
What we're trying to determine, chatting
to some of the uh Manu fans, we're
trying to work out, we should just look
at Wikipedia. We're trying to work out
how long it's been here. Did Man United
pay help pay? Did the club help pay for
the construction of the halt? That would
it seems to make sense to me, but I
don't know anything about you know
nothing about football.
What color Man United play?
Do not jump
to here.
How many stations you got left to do
there? About 2,000. Made it to the
floor. Is this the actual This isn't the
ground, is it? There's our car parked.
We got to find a sign. Obviously, we got
to got to have a picture that says
there's definitely some people entering
turn styles. We're going to have our
picture taken. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
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That's kind of it.
You asked the train staff how to get out
if we're not going to do football and
the guy just like looked at you so
weirdly as if we were like actual
bonkers. It does look like turn styles
to me. It really does.
again. There's no one in the booth, but
just some turn. Maybe there was at one
point, but you do have to go through the
turn.
Okay, buddy. If you just put your bag
on.
So, we're at a football match.
There are a lot of people. Yeah. And uh
police on horse and search dogs. And I
got I got back. I got back. We had to
leave the platform quite quickly, but it
will fill up again later because they'll
run three
services back and we have to not go
inside. Never been driving. It's quite
exciting.
If you're watching the match, hope your
team wins. I found Jeff. Don't worry,
guys. He's here.
Your glasses are great. Can I get a
picture of the reflection in your
glasses? you get caught up in like the
the um the excitement of it all cuz
there's a guy over there selling my new
scarfs and I'm thinking oh yeah let's
get a scarf and then I'm thinking no I
don't I don't want to buy a manu scarf
but you like get caught up in the
excitement everyone's really excited who
thinks Vicki should buy a scarf who
thinks I should buy a scarf for Vicki no
I don't want a man new scarf why don't
we buy you a Man United polish I really
don't want to buy just as a souvenir I
really don't want one we've met Ailing
is that correcting and you're here to
support Man United Man United. Yeah. And
do you regularly come to the football?
Yeah, we try to get over four or five
times a year. What is it about the
football that you like so much? The
husband likes it.
I just go with the flow. Have you
traveled by train to get here today? We
travel by bus, but we usually travel by
train.
Can I ask how much they are? How much?
For £8 or two for £15.
I came for some chips and I got a lovely
lady dancing. That's made my Saturday.
Some chips,
please. Yeah.
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stations.
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Trying to get a clip of it. station all
over the country.
That was in the
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1950 canal. Canal canal. I I love I
love where this is at.
Get this. Get it. Get it. Get it.
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All the
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stations
all the station.
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