Well that’s not where I expected to be driving to when I booked on for duty today! 😳👀 I haven’t signed this route for over two years now… So what am I doing here? Well… (short 🧵) 1/4

gWr control centre must have been short of drivers today; I sign the traction (800) but not the route, and another driver signed the route but not the traction (presumably they were also short of a suitable train type to swap it for, which the guard also signed). So… 2/4

I got “route conducted”. I drove the train while the other driver told me what to do. That includes permissible speeds, whistle boards, braking points for stations, route indications at junctions, and where the next signal is when we received cautionary aspects. 3/4

I definitely tagged the location in the first post but twitter seems to have decided not to bother showing it! This is Taunton.

@driverbod125 Does/can that contribute to you be routed signed or does it have to be a trainer(?) conducting you?

@garethklose It would count if I was route learning at the moment, but with no booked work over this route it’s not within my depot’s route knowledge.

@driverbod125 How does it work with braking points and different stock? Or are the braking rates fairly similar? Also Weymouth is the south coast’s destination for HSTs despite this week’s events. Shame one never got driven down to the quay. 🙂