Irish Railway News ‘Enterprise Watch’

[IrishTrainScenes]

An 8 car 29k did the 07:40/11:00 yesterday.

[David Holman]

 On the larger island, ever since privatisation, the issue is largely one of 'nothing spare'. Each franchise has just enough stock and it seems they don't share either. Hence, any failure leads to cancellation(s). Back in BR days, there were always sidings full of spare stock, which largely came out for summer specials, while it seemed there were a couple of spare locos at most bigger stations that could be called upon to act as pilots for an ailing train engine.

 As a small child, remember being taken to see the Irish Mail go through Colwyn Bay, hoping to see a 'Lizzie' in charge, only to find it was running late and with a 4F 0-6-0 up front!

[Horsetan]

2 hours ago, David Holman said:

 On the larger island, ever since privatisation, the issue is largely one of 'nothing spare'. Each franchise has just enough stock and it seems they don't share either. Hence, any failure leads to cancellation(s)...

The famous Japanese technique of "lean production" isn't always appropriate...

[Broithe]

6 minutes ago, Horsetan said:

The famous Japanese technique of "lean production" isn't always appropriate...

Where I worked was massively disorganised. The only thing the management understood about real modern management was how to parrot the fashionable buzz-words of the time.

The Japanese concept of JIT - Just In Time - stock control seemed a good idea to them, which it is, if you actually do it properly, but they had no chance, or even the slightest genuine intention, of doing it to any degree at all.

The boss at the time had the initials JTL, which everybody knew, as that was the code for him in minutes of meetings etc. He went by his middle name, Tom, and nobody was supposed to know his first name was Joshua.

I had a phase of putting up spurious 'official' notices at the time and invented a stock control scheme that would be more in tune with the real possibilities, given our management culture.

The notices I put up explained the new scheme - JTL - Just Too Late...

He took it very badly.

[Horsetan]

4 minutes ago, Broithe said:

Where I worked was massively disorganised. The only thing the management understood about real modern management was how to parrot the fashionable buzz-words of the time....

Nothing has changed since then.

[Mol_PMB]

We're well off-topic now so I'll carry on along the tangent...

One place I worked had a boss who loved a witch-hunt. If anything went slightly wrong, the highest priority was to find someone to blame, and give them a good b0110cking. No thought of why it might have gone wrong, or what could be improved in the process to reduce the chance of errors etc.

We countered that with the concept of the 'Duty Scapegoat', and created a roster to share that duty amongst ourselves, a different person each day. We even managed to get an official company badge made in the name of 'S. Goat' which would be worn by the Duty Scapegoat. Whenever a witch-hunt began, the Duty Scapegoat would immediately confess to whatever misdeed had occurred. This was especially effective when it couldn't possibly have been them, or when a moment's thought would have shown it couldn't be an error by any of the staff anyway. 

It took a few weeks for the witch-hunt to stop, but they did. One of my former colleagues still has the badge, I think. The boss is long gone.

[IrishTrainScenes]

22001 + 22005 have been in action all week 

[Mayner]

On 3/3/2025 at 8:42 PM, David Holman said:

 On the larger island, ever since privatisation, the issue is largely one of 'nothing spare'. Each franchise has just enough stock and it seems they don't share either. Hence, any failure leads to cancellation(s). Back in BR days, there were always sidings full of spare stock, which largely came out for summer specials, while it seemed there were a couple of spare locos at most bigger stations that could be called upon to act as pilots for an ailing train engine.

 

 

 

In my experience airline services within the United States make UK & Irish rail services appear the picture of punctuality. In 2023 we ended up having to take a bus for the final 235 miles to reach our destination after a series of cancelled and delayed flights by American Airlines between Heuston Texas & Fargo ND. Our initial flight from Heuston was delayed 8hrs by a delayed incoming flight from Chicago  (possibly a defect), our connecting flight from Chicago to Fargo had departed when we finally arrived in Chicago and the next flight was not until 3 days later, when we were due to depart for North Carolina. 

The one American Airlines customer service person on duty (when we arrived around mid night) managed to sort us out with an early morning flight to Minneapolis & I managed to book seats on the daily Greyhound bus as the wife did not want me hiring a car and driving long distance jetlagged. Our customers service person was an ex-military combat medic who told us he found working customer service for an airline stressful compared with his duties with the military.

[David Holman]

A not dissimilar experience last time my wife and I went over the pond, saw us arrive at Boston Logan Airport early, only to be held on the tarmac for nearly an hour & then when we finally made immigration, we had to wait another hour while they let all the US passport holders through first! And it was still another half hour before we got our bags...

[Robert Shrives]

On 3/3/2025 at 7:42 AM, David Holman said:

 On the larger island, ever since privatisation, the issue is largely one of 'nothing spare'. Each franchise has just enough stock and it seems they don't share either. Hence, any failure leads to cancellation(s). Back in BR days, there were always sidings full of spare stock, which largely came out for summer specials, while it seemed there were a couple of spare locos at most bigger stations that could be called upon to act as pilots for an ailing train engine.

 As a small child, remember being taken to see the Irish Mail go through Colwyn Bay, hoping to see a 'Lizzie' in charge, only to find it was running late and with a 4F 0-6-0 up front!

The idea of sharing stock falls on the alter of risk minimisation-  by only using own stock then crews expose the owners to limited risk compared to letting them operate hired in stock - even if they sign the traction. XC crews could not use GWR HSTs as not all cab switches ended up in same place due to the "non regulated" schemes , could not even use VT / Advanti 221 voyagers as cab switches had differing positions plus XC crews no longer sign tilt equipment. Thus spare Advanti sets sat on Central rivers while XC services short formed ran past.. This sort of "fun" repeated across the network. I recall running BR 304 emus  Rugby to Crewe and back to ensure the 14 standing= needs an exam was avoided. Summer specials / adex stock was rotting garbage most of the time and hardly a good experience but even with rose tinted specs were operational liability. I recall a SO detached at Shrewsbury off a Birmingham - Pwhelli train - Itself a poor shadow of the weekend London - PWL services to allow Butlins inmates swap over.  The coach lingered for weeks while resources found to rescue back to Tyesley for attention to dragging brakes. Finally some folk on a Euston - Wolves service enjoyed 08 haulage from Grand junction to the platforms one day when an 86 gave up the ghost.   IIRC fun days!

Robert               

[jhb171achill]

16 hours ago, Robert Shrives said:

The idea of sharing stock falls on the alter of risk minimisation-  by only using own stock then crews expose the owners to limited risk compared to letting them operate hired in stock - even if they sign the traction. XC crews could not use GWR HSTs as not all cab switches ended up in same place due to the "non regulated" schemes , could not even use VT / Advanti 221 voyagers as cab switches had differing positions plus XC crews no longer sign tilt equipment. Thus spare Advanti sets sat on Central rivers while XC services short formed ran past.. This sort of "fun" repeated across the network. I recall running BR 304 emus  Rugby to Crewe and back to ensure the 14 standing= needs an exam was avoided. Summer specials / adex stock was rotting garbage most of the time and hardly a good experience but even with rose tinted specs were operational liability. I recall a SO detached at Shrewsbury off a Birmingham - Pwhelli train - Itself a poor shadow of the weekend London - PWL services to allow Butlins inmates swap over.  The coach lingered for weeks while resources found to rescue back to Tyesley for attention to dragging brakes. Finally some folk on a Euston - Wolves service enjoyed 08 haulage from Grand junction to the platforms one day when an 86 gave up the ghost.   IIRC fun days!

Robert               

Utterly crazy stuff indeed!

[Robert Shrives]

JHB, 

Indeed.  I spent  1991 - 2024  less 5 back on FR co works building hostel and marketing work.  Trying to run some sort of services at BR, Reg rail, EWS , VT- XC in several colours - I was like a stray dog having several owners but nobody wanted to feed or pay the vet bills. 

Bashing heads with Railtrack and NR was fun in the day . Once I was refused permission to run a 153 dmu through the Severn tunnel as it only had one engine. Like a class 47 I asked?  It was suggested I was sarcastic and difficult. Only when needed I replied, 153 ran...

Hopefully back on topic the Enterprise services will be sorted and new shiny but tested trains will improve transport.

Robert