Great Central Railway General Matters

You also need to ask about the number of near misses. As I recall, the GC has had it's share of near misses.

As a visitor to galas, I welcome the decline in lineside passes. The infestation of hi-viz in all directions is an eyesore, which won't be missed.

 

Didn’t involve the running of trains.

 

Some but not all. My understanding of how the regulator works is that they don't tell you what you can and can't do, but they do want to see evidence that you have a robust process for identifying and managing risks. What those risks are, and how each railway chooses to manage them, is of course up to each railway, but my personal view is that on the Bluebell, I have never felt from the footplate that line side photographers are taking a particular risk. Of course, there are rules about areas that are out of bounds, and how they must conduct themselves when "in bounds". A different railway will have different constraints (infrastructure, visibility etc) so must assess its own risks and may come to a different view.

Risk is also an interesting thing - a railway obviously has to cover risks that occur within its own boundary. But taking photos from outside the fence is not risk free, it just becomes more of a personal risk. There is a particular vantage point at the Bluebell on a section of line that is (for good reasons of visibility and lack of access) out of bounds to photographers. Taking photos from that vantage point involves standing on a road bridge to look over a high parapet with a busy road behind and no pavement - I often wonder if a photographer standing there there is more at risk from a car than their colleague a mile away "inside the fence" is from a train.

This hard-pressed editor begs to differ! I am very grateful to the handful of photographers who send me high quality photos each month!

Tom

 

Trains running or not, what was a photographer doing at the lineside if not taking pictures of the line or trains?

Implementing lone working practices is pretty standard across all heavy engineering, I'm surprised there aren't more controls one anyone (not necessarily photographers) wondering up the line out of sight by themselves.

You could argue the more likely risk compared to someone familiar with the surroundings being hit by a train is requiring first aid and being stranded or unconscious out on the middle of nowhere alone. How long would it take to realise a lone photographer was in trouble?

 

He was asleep on the parapet of a bridge and rolled off! Anyone with any sense would take a mobile phone with them when out alone anywhere be it on a railway or hiking in the hills.

 

Surely, this must be true.
In which case, is too much being read into this statement because of its rather authoritarian phrasing?
Since the (welcome, IMHO) end of pay-for passes-on-request a few years ago, photography for most of us has been vastly easier because there are no oiks wandering into everyone else's shots at, for example, just north of Quorn Station. The people I've seen within the fence have generally been in small groups or apparently official. Is there any news from the GCR itself on this?

 

Did he just sleep there regularly then?

Happy to be enlightened as to how you use a mobile phone unconscious too...

 

I must have imagined the regular complaints from mountain rescue teams about people going with the wrong kit, and wondering why their phone didn't get them out of trouble. I also note that their key advice is not to go out alone.

 

For clarity, I am not having a pop at photographers per se. My specific issue, oft-encountered at the GCR in the past, is of the locust swarm of hiz-viz clad photographers filling every possible viewpoint from the train or platform.

 

I could be mistaken, but I thought that very recently I’d read a virtual carbon copy of these terms in connection with the KWVR?

 

The incident in question happened at Victoria Bridge in 1976. I very much doubt whether there was a mobile phone signal. There are areas of the SVR where there is no phone signal even nowadays.

(On a side note, I've always thought that it was a pity that there are many remote areas of the country where there is no mobile phone signal, but these are just the sort of areas where a mobile phone could be a life saver in an emergency).

 

So we have pages and pages on the NYMR thread about how because of a lack of volunteers there have to be paid staff, yet somehow the GCR is going to provide (a presumably "qualified") minder for each photographer.
Let alone as mentioned what happens when 20 photographers turn up, what about the one who turns up having driven 100 plus mile to be told we have no one available today.
Will no impact me but if it needs this much "input" then bin the things totally.
As an aside why is it safe to stand one side of a fence without a hard hat, but not the other. Pigeons only use the railway for their "needs"
Soon we will not be allowed out of our front doors, and every pavement must have a yellow line back from the curb and an Avanti or SWR employee shouting out you to "keep back behind the line"
if you do dare to go out.

 

There has been nothing in the members journal

 

Take the SIM card out of your phone and you will see you can still make an emergency call. Dial 999 and if there is no signal it will default to 112 that goes via the GPS satellite.

 

I can’t find anything either. I think I’m mistaken. What’s the members journal - you mean P&P?

 

It was just a tragic accident, anyone who knew Paul would know he wouldn’t have bothered with trivial things like permits

 

Yes Pull & Pull, I don’t remember seeing it but could have missed it

 

I’ve done a number of photo charters on the Bluebell and it’s interesting that it’s not alone in having some safety protocols more strict than NR. For example no nearer than 2m from the nearest running line, on the big railway it’s 1.25m on a 100mph line ( that’s where the yellow line is on the platforms) although I wouldn’t want to be that close to a train bearing down on me at full line speed!
I think most serious linsiders know all the rules, the problem is with the halfwits who will just trespass anyway.

 

Reading the scheme as written:

Can only access the lineside if accompanied by a line observer. The line observer is not permitted to take photographs or undertake any work while acting in that role. his can be another photographer acting as an observer.
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Now, ignoring the sloppy grammar (who proof reads this stuff?), it seems to me that if you have two friends who wish to indulge in photography, and both go through the necessary accreditation, then the railway doesn't need to find a chaperone from within whoever is on site that day - you can rock up as a pair and go line side as a pair, with one taking photos and one acting as an observer. So in some ways, this could just be read simply as a means to ensure no-one is unaccompanied on the line side, i.e. it is about removing lone working.

Of course a single photographer turning up unannounced might be chancing their arm as to whether anyone was available to accompany them, but if you have a friend, you would be OK - at least, assuming the GCR wished to play it in that fairly low-key way. The GCR gets to demonstrate due diligence in managing the biggest risk - lone working - and essentially gets to double its fee intake from issuing permits, but doesn't have to be geared up to provide chaperones. (Which could be a pretty crap job if you were, say, spending a day cleaning locos and the day's operating supervisor grabbed you by the collar and said "take a walk up the line and keep an eye on this photographer" - I can't see that going down well). But if Mr Ivor Biglens turns up, suitably attired and permitted, and happens to have bought along his lovely wife Mrs Biglens (who also has a permit and medical, and has little interest in photography or railways, but quite likes a spot of birdwatching in open countryside) then job done ...

Tom

 

I don’t think it’s as simple as that, the observer has to be qualified as such and must be a photographer who doesn’t want to take photographs! Heaven knows what the cost will be to the individuals, it’s just a lot of bureaucracy for nothing. I would have thought it would be mandatory to be a member as on most other railways, it would be a way of getting new members on board but there’s no mention of that.