Letter from Manila - Santol - of course!

Just having a Sunday morning beer, as you do.



LA Cafe, a class act!

So last week, the Japanese supplier of rolling stock, issued an invitation for six people to fly out to their factory and look at various driving cab layouts. Three days, all found. Up trendy Yokohama, if I'm not mistaken. Or are those the tyres on the '38?

We discovered that the Department of Transport had filled all six places.

It was mentioned that someone with train driving experience could, despite obvious evidence to the contrary, be a valuable asset on this trip.

Reluctantly, the DOT dropped two of somebody's cousins/wives/boyfriends/girlfriends out, and our rolling stock engineer and his deputy, who's driven lots, have been reluctantly allowed to attend.

The project that keeps on giving!

To be fair, they've commissioned loads of trains whilst I've been driving and they never ask drivers' opinions on them. Once they're running a couple of union clowns on a jolly get to go and have a play on them to approve them. But sine the company's picking up the bar tab there's no way a Union fool is ever going to bat anything back Which is why we always get an ergonomic catastrophe of a cab every damned time becos a) they're designed by ...well, designers and b) it's a well known fact union reps are only union reps because they can't drive trains very well and therefore don't know their radius from their rectum when it comes to working one and how the cab should be laid out

Possibly just a little more than a ten year old child?


What I can't understand is that a top cab layout should be a top cab layout. We're not buying a motor where the wife says, "I don't like the colour, and that handle's in the wrong place" (remember mine's a Filipina, so handles abound). It's a train, and someone years ago should have come up with an ergonomic layout that suits 99.9% of drivers, and all others follow suit. But no.

Our original trams in Manchester, had a Traction Brake Controller (TBC) that required constant pressure on the wrist to deactivate the deadman's. The TBC at rest was north/south in the cab and had to be twisted east/west when driving. So you wrist was constantly under pressure.

The drivers didn't like it, and, as I had to driving turns as well, didn't like it either.

We went to market and finally selected one that had a "gate". If the whole TBC was kept over to the left which, given that's the side it was on, was a fairly natural weight transfer of your upper body, then you could rock and roll. No wrist pressure. Drop dead and either you kept the weight on the TBC but were stopped by the next red signal, or you fell over and the "dead man" shifted to the right applied the brakes.

So why are we still fannying around with cab layouts?


Nah, I'm a bit anti-Japanese at the moment. They are a major cause of my grief on this project. Also our Project Director is going, which is a damn good reason not to.

Don't get me wrong, Madam speaks fluent Japanese (French and Engerish too) and lived in Tokyo, so a trip would be easy and she wants a visit. I'd love to see the place but, over the last 19 months, they've given me so much of their, "This is how we do in Japan" arrogance, I need a while to settle.

Then we'll go.

Oh and luckyseven , that's multi quotes.

I think I found a PNR crew training video that's pretty authentic apart for the 'snow'

And the all-time winner
Has got him by the balls
He picks up Gideons Bible
Open at page one
I think God, He stole the handle and
The train won't stop going
No way to slow down


God doesn't need to steal our handles; they were made by very efficient Teutonic engineers so of course under no circumstances would they ever just fall to bits under their own spring pressure when the little grub screw works loose and fires the ball-end across the cab. Would they?

Nahh. German engineering is the envy of the world, right?

Hi, There's concern over here as well because of all the antivaxxers, there's talk of making vaccination compulsory.

Colin

Let's wholesale ignore the overwhelming correlation between Autism and infant vaccinations and the studies linking the two, yeah? We'll just call all those people caring for their children's wellbeing paranoid and hysterical because they obviously don't care enough about the kids to force them to have untested viral concoctions rammed into their bloodstreams by unqualified people of unsettlingly vague title funded by PharmCos.

I see the transport system over there is in the news again George.

What chance it gives any impetus to your new line? Perhaps glaciers move faster?

BBC News - Manila transport crisis: Commuters outraged by 'leave earlier' advice
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-49983397