NEWS HEADLINES
Stop Press
Disaster stops railway operations!!
On Wednesday the 9th of August all operations on the D&S came to an abrupt standstill. Mayhem and passenger injury and death was averted but only by the fast response actions of train operators. The outcome of this disaster is not fully known at the time of writing this news report but it was evident many carriages, wagons and diesels are on their side. The cause of this man-made disaster was ascertained fairly quickly, however, it is going to take time to clean up the mess. It has been reported that the Charde Peninsula (also containing the operations of Durston and Mynend) was rear-ended by someone’s rearend. The person under investigation for this act has not been placed in custody, however, only once the full damage report has been compiled then the true costs, both financial and human, will be made public. The said rearend belonged to the D&S owner (Dispatcher, Fat Controller, Train Control). This makes this disaster all the more difficult to comprehend. All operations ceased just as GD21 (Charde operator) ex Durston was due to depart at 12.26pm. A further update will be published in due course.
This event truly threw the D&S into chaos with all operations ceasing immediately and passengers certainly didn’t take long to air their concerns, with one passenger in particular, a Mrs Kafoops really going off her tree. Mrs Kafoops had traveled on a special excursion train all the way from the Border Downs District and as a regular train traveler, she wasn’t happy when she was left stranded at Watchit. She has been known to complain before and unfortunately she was at it again but in reality, this time it was for good reason. She was left high and dry due to someone’s rear(end) actions. At the end of the day this whole event was as simple as: someone’s misguided bodily actions giving both operators and passengers a bum steer.
Media Report
9th August 2023
Operators:
Dispatcher: Ron
Charde: Allan
Marabost: Geoff M. (for David)
Watchit: Ray
Tawnton West: Geoff D
Tawnton East: Craig
Operational Preamble:
As per usual the kettle was on and the evening started with coffee, tea, biscuits and some nice looking tarts. The night was a ‘pick night’. Allan, the new kid on the block, was automatically given Charde, so that left the 2 Geoffs, Ray and Craig to pick. Geoff D. picked the station he was king of in a previous operating session and he decided to keep not only his title but decided to keep his ‘lot’ at Tawnton. Ray picked his favourite station, the one right next to Ron – this way Ray could easy offer Ron advice for required changes rather than yelling across the room. He could just lean over and say, ‘hey Ron, have you thought about this’ or ‘Ron, you should do this’ or ‘Ron, this isn’t working’. Ron’s immediate response to this last statement would be the standard, ‘well, read the bloody instructions’….
Geoff M. was a rather happy chappy when he saw he had grabbed the Marabost card. Craig was envious but graciously accepted his most familiar spot as the Tawnton East operator.
Charde
Allan was a new kid on the block and like all new operators over the years their first operational roster is at Charde. Allan embraced this new ‘operating’ concept with enthusiasm and he took it all in. He attempted to learn the ropes and in reality, he did a pretty good job. At times it certainly wasn’t ‘laid-back’ Charde and Allan was kept busy all throughout the session. Hopefully Allan wasn’t put off by what he saw and heard and he will be back again for the next round. Interestingly, a new shunting manoeuvre was seen at Charde in which the Flying Banana DMU shunted a van into the track at the CCC company, quite effectively one might add. There were reasons behind this move but it is too difficult to explain in this format. At the end of the day, ‘what the Fat Controller doesn’t see, then it doesn’t matter’, as long as the outcome is still achieved.
Charde operations
Tawnton
Craig was on East and Geoff D. was on West. Between them communication was effective and this then transferred into the operational running which was seamless. All wagons were shunted into their respective sidings, trains were made up and all trains left Tawnton on time.
A lot of handy work occurred at Tawnton, particular at the location of a 3-way point that was causing some grief and for the entirety of the operating session it was, in reality, a 1-way point. Basically 1 out 3 tracks were alive. The point had 2 tracks dead, so the big hand protruded out of the sky 58 times during the operating session to push locos past the dead section of track.
Tawnton gave a new meaning to the word ‘efficiency’ throughout their operating session. They were on time, every time…..actually in most circumstances the Tawnton operators were so efficient and so effective at their shunting that they were often ready for trains arriving at Tawnton well and truly prior to the scheduled arrival time. Someone recently commented that David and Craig were the dream team at Tawnton. ‘Were’ being the operative word, ‘in the past’, ‘historically’ maybe yes but not any more. The effectiveness of the Tawnton operations were taken to a new level throughout this session. The new ‘Dream team’ has arrived.
Even though a so called error was picked up by the D&S owner in relation to a tanker train from Watchit that enters Tawnton (T/O TE4), it was further investigated and it was deemed not the error of the Tawnton operators because the operating session hadn’t finished and therefore not all duties were completed. If operations hadn’t ceased because of the disaster then the job in question would have been completed and there would not have been an error. Editor note.. see Stop Press #2
Notice the lack of trains - that's because Tawnton was so effective at shunting.
The tanker train
Marabost
Geoff M. operated at Marabost just like he did when he worked on the real railways……’he just went about his job and made it happen,’ with relative little fuss. It was evident that Geoff was reasonably pleased to get Marabost and there were no recorded mishaps or derailments or damage done at Marabost. Everything travelling out of Marabost seemed to be on time and had the correct wagons attached. It is certainly evident that Geoff is getting used to the various D&S stations and operational processes.
Operations at Marabost with Newton Abbot in the background.
Focus time at Marabost - considering the make-up of the next operation
Watchit
The most experienced D&S operator had the pleasure of being the chief at Watchit. It must have been a relatively productive session for the Watchit operator as there wasn’t a great deal of communication coming from that side of the railway room. For the entire evening there was very minimal ‘Fornication under consent of the King’ language used by all. Yes, certainly Watchit had the odd train depart a little late but no additional operations were held up because of this and in reality it may have only been 1 late departing train from Watchit. The reading of instructions, or lack there of ............ didn’t appear to hinder the effectiveness of the Watchit operator on this occasion.
Who is the Watchit station master in this photo??
Dispatch
The Dispatcher did a reasonable job……..well until the disaster occurred and then all operations turned to diarrhea. There were a couple of instances that the Watchit operator had to keep the Dispatcher on his toes by reminding him to change a signal but other than that, the new dispatch panel is proving valuable and there were times where the dispatcher became repairer and tried to fix the above mentioned point problem. In reality, the dispatcher kept control of the evening, until it stopped abruptly.
The Dispatcher on the phone to ARTC after operations ceased at the D&S - due to the disaster.
Once operations were ceased the crew made their way indoors and enjoyed a cuppa, some biscuits and a chat, although unfortunately most of the tarts had gone. It was great to welcome Allan on board and thanks to Geoff M. for filling in for David. A good night had by all
STOP PRESS: The 3-way point is now working as a 3-way point. It was a wire issue.
STOP PRESS #2 The problem with Tanker train T/O TE4 was very early on in the Op session, it had arrived at 5:50 & had left well before all the mainline passenger & DMU services & the calamity was far later around 12:30. The problem has been identified in detail to the Tawnton "Dream" team & I guess each person is allowed one error during the Op session... :-P
That's all Folks
The D&S Media
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