I was looking forward to a quiet Sunday at work. That SO did not happen.
I woke up to the news that there was a fire at Lidcombee station which turned out to destroy the newsagency that I talked about in Erk Pod episode 70. The fire started in the early hours on the morning and there was extensive smoke, fire & water damage to the shop and the surrounding areas. I thought a lot about the amount of time I'd spent in there talking to the guys that run the shop and put myself in their shoes. The shop can be replaced but I'm glad that no one was hurt. There's a lot of work to be done but I know these guys work hard so they'll either decide to get in and get the work done as quick as possible or have a break first and get someone else to clean up. I don't know.
When I got there, the smell of smoke hit me as soon as I left my car. There was devastation inside the shop but in one of the drink fridges, I could still see some labels on the (now smoked flavoured!) Pepsi.
So I went to my meal room where the smell of smoke was quite strong and there were no phones, no running water and no toilets. How anyone could sit in that room for a long period is beyond me but they were.
Then it was time to head west. It was strange for me to head east from home to go to work in the car and then go straight back west in a train and then head back east in the train again.
I had the company of a driver going home and then there were some trainee guards and a guard trainer coming for a ride to learn about the network. I had a pretty uneventful trip west and when I was heading back east, I was zooming along when I heard a big bang and the train told me that there was no power in the overhead wires. No power equals no move once I'd stopped.
So I stopped at a station that I wasn't supposed to (are we equal after the one I missed the other day?) to do some fault finding. I won't bore you with the technical details of what I had to do but I got the train going again and we headed to the next station only to find that I had 1 power car working out of 4.
So I struggled (needless to say) to get to the next station and soon another train came past us on another track (luckily, there was another track available) so we transferred all the passengers (except for one lady who slept through the whole thing!) to the other train and then I worked to repair the train. Again, I won't bore you with the details but I eventually managed to get 2 power cars out of 4 working and I was able to leave to head to Sydney for further checks before it's next run. I left the train in the hands of another driver and the Train Tech and because I was late, I'd missed my next train so it was now time to eat.
After my meal break I was supposed to drive on a line that I haven't been down for a long time so I can't technically drive on that line so someone else did. In that time I met up with BJ and also Arthur who was in my Driver's school who I seem to bump into once every 6 months or so. And to think - if I was doing my roster like I was supposed to, I would not have met up with either bloke! So the longer the day went, the better it got!