Railway Network Visit to SWT-NR Basingstoke Campus
An interesting day out. After less than 2 minutes’ instruction I was in charge of an 8 car Desiro train doing 100mph! OK, maybe I overshot the station by 4 car lengths, but I didn’t go through any red signals! My fellow drivers had it worse though, in a very short space of time they had cracked windscreens, road vehicle incursions, driving rain, thick fog and heavy snow. No, this wasn’t a typical autumn day but a very enjoyable day spent at the Basingstoke Campus a joint venture between South West Trains and Network Rail to train operating staff (drivers, guards etc.) as well as maintainers. We were initially given an overview of the centre by Mark Ellis then Brian Kimber (both of South West Trains) gave us a very detailed and illuminating presentation on not only what they (South West…