Was on a inter-city train to London yesterday. Just pulling out of Didcot, all of a sudden screeched to a sudden stop. Then the tannoy came on and a recording of a man counting slowing from 1 up to 30 was broadcast, much to the bemusement of the passengers. Once it got to 30, the train pulled away as if nothing happened.

Anyone know what it might have been?

Driving test 😀

You just lost at Hide and Seek.

Which train was you on? i could have a dig around at work and see what the delay cause was..

it was the 15:43 from BTH to PAD, stop was just coming out of DID.

Whatever it was it didnt delay the train long enough to generate a delay.. 2 mins is the threshold normally..

Then the tannoy came on and a recording of a man counting slowing from 1 up to 30 was broadcast,

maths teacher retraining in a new career.

Barely educated guesses:

ATP (or similar) fault, takes 30 seconds to reset.
Bogie motor fuse trip (ditto)
Overhead line trip (ditto)

Tannoy function/safety test? Oh no, that’s “one two, one two” isn’t it?

Tucker – it was Didcot. No overhead line, so scratch that one out.

TPWS
AWS

But both of those would probably have resulted in more delay, unless the driver was a bit naughty..

As it would’ve been an HST it’s ATP through there, imagine it was that. Emergency brake application, reset by driver.

Certainly felt like emergency brake application, was a sudden jolt of a stop.

So would the driver have an audible count from 1 to 30 in his cab? And perhaps he just broadcast it over the tannoy by accident?

Thread hijack: anyone on here know much about the development of the HST? My dad worked at St. Philip’s Marsh back in the day.

Gecko76

HST, two diesel engines from a navy power boat stuck in a power each end,designed for single driver so one central seat, then the unions decided they wanted two qualified drivers, so re design of the cabs,for 2 seats, larger windscreen, then required air con, in a 1970,s designed train, then the guards complained their compartnment next to engine ws noisy so another redisgn,and loss of passenger seats, problems with radiators leaking, engines over heating, brake pads cooking,coaches that couldnt be run as a loco hauled train due to different electrics, and lots more.

Then finally a first clas train re engined, re built and re painted many times,still running thousands of miles per week with out to many faults in service and a lot of at 125 mph.
Oh and not many have crashed so far.

Brilliant, that’s taught me much more than trawling wikipedia and the like 🙂

Also was only intended to be a stop gap until newer better trains were finished, such as the tilting one that never worked etc. Was a massive success and production continued as other overbudget projects were scrapped. Success in part down to its contemporary shape, which was the result of passing the design to and actual design firm, rather than just BR boffins who didn’t get out much.

Yeah, that’s about what I figured, though wasn’t the APT reborn as the Pendolino kind of?

The APT was one of the first tilting trains, it was more a of a pre-production fleet of prototypes.
It was pretty complicated and featured any advanced features (for the time), but it wasn’t developed fully and wasn’t given the budget needed to make it work reliably and consistantly.
The Pendolino is sort of a dumbed down version of the APT, read that as a simpler European version of the APT remade to fit the UK loading gauge.

Sounds like he had to put the train into emergency braking , some sets wont release the brakes for anything between 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Unlikely it would sound the train intercom though.

Could also be a vigilence DVD/DSD gone off which can mean a 30 second reset.

He was just yanking your whatsit – he though *that’ll annoy the buggers and keep them all guessing for days*.

Its worked so far.

…that’s taught me much more than trawling wikipedia…

Is there any form of data acquisition this ISN’T true of? 😉

Got it.

His microwave meal for one pinged, causing him to let go of the throttle twist grip (all trains use handlebars these days), then the meal instructions said to

‘Let stand for 30 seconds’

The APT was one of the first tilting trains, it was more a of a pre-production fleet of prototypes.
It was pretty complicated and featured any advanced features (for the time), but it wasn’t developed fully and wasn’t given the budget needed to make it work reliably and consistantly.
The Pendolino is sort of a dumbed down version of the APT, read that as a simpler European version of the APT remade to fit the UK loading gauge.

The APT, started offf as a gas turbine powered train, using huge amounts of fuel, with the turbines made by BL,who where working on gas turbine powered lorries, then BL pulled out, so that was the end of APT-E, next came various prototypes, ATP-P and it was converted to run on electric 25kv overhead power, and ran many thousands of miles, but the technology was to far advanced, the unions got involved again, and it was scrapped before its time, there is still one at Crewe Heritage centre though.
As for the pendolinios, they where designed by FIAT, and adapted by various companies to run in the uk under the wires.

Next some places will be getting an electric train with a diesel engine, and built and designed by Hitachi.

Might have been something to do with GSM-R (new railway comms system). It’s linked through to the PA on some trains so that the signaller can make emergency announcements to passengers or the Train Manager if the driver is incapacitated for some reason.

Did the voice sound pre recorded? If so, it may have been a DSD activation caused by the driver vigilance being tripped ( this sets up a DSD alarm call to the local signaller, which may have a countdown function built-in).

No doubt the driver will be feeling mighty embarrassed if this is the case!

My new GSM-R unit has been fitted today.. Should be working by January,

On a rolling stock procurement I did, I seem to recall that if the emergency brake had been activated for a certain number of seconds it would send an emergency signal out. Or something vaguely similar to that.

Perhaps the driver wanted to make sure he was moving again before that signal was sent out? No sure what his reason would be though.

Actually, I could probably have a look through the docs tomorrow if I find myself excruciatingly bored

This thread is about 1000000 times more interesting than most of the bike related threads on here!

I flippin love trains. And bikes. And cars. And boobs.

This thread is about a 1000000 times less interesting than the usual bike related threads 😕 But I guess that’s what comes from being a train driver! And boy oh boy is there some crappy/spotter’ish answers above 🙄

@DaveBoyWonder – have you just got back from the pub ?

But I guess that’s what comes from being a train driver!

What, you as well??

I hadn’t. I just love all those things.

Reading about why a train might have stopped for 30 seconds is genuinely more interesting to me than the constant drivel on the bike forum which (IMHO) is barely worth reading these days. The bike forum has, after all these years, aligned itself with the magazine.

And boy oh boy is there some crappy/spotter’ish answers above

So no different to any non-train related thread then!?

It’s fun to offer inaccurate and ill informed opinions on something other than bikes!

IainFP – Member

This thread is about a 1000000 times less interesting than the usual bike related threads But I guess that’s what comes from being a train driver! And boy oh boy is there some crappy/spotter’ish answers above
Do feel free to correct them!

Where’s the moral superiority in that?!

“Where’s the moral superiority in that?!“

^^^ 😆