Time flies by when you’re the driver on a train…

12 August saw the start of training and gauging train services into Grand Central station, which opens for bus services on 8 September, but Thursday of this week was rather special.  The media were invited to see the NIR driving and signalling simulators in Adelaide depot, which was the site of the GNR’s loco shed, then NIR’s freight depot after the closure of Grosvenor Road (now the site of Grand Central), and for several years now, a split site between Translink’s training facilities and one of its two railcar depots (the other being at Fortwilliam.)

By now I’m a familiar face to Translink [Too familiar?-Ed] Almost certainly far too familiar, but I’m a known quantity.  This isn’t my first visit to the driving simulator – I went with another group last October and got to drive virtually into Great Victoria Street.  Today the route is set for me to drive from Grand Central Platform 8 to Lisburn.

You sit in the driver’s seat, and you’re told how to use the controller (forward to go, backwards to stop).  You can get rain, fog, snow or just perfect weather (there’s bound to be an option for sun shining into your eyes in the evening somewhere) and while I found the wiper switch, I’m still none the wiser about the headlights.  Of course, come to think of it, the C3Ks and C4Ks have a headlight on at all times, one for daytime and one for nighttime.  Maybe that’s why I couldn’t find it.

The videos are quite true to life.  There are landmarks like the billboards between Lambeg and Hilden, and you know Derriaghy a mile off.  The busway hasn’t been added yet, but the source video is being updated to send to the providers.  The biggest thing is that when you sit in the driver’s seat simulator, you see pretty much exactly what you would as a driver on a real train.  The split in the screens in front of you is where you would expect it on a real train (so if you’re on the other side, the split looks wrong), and get this.  The video runs outside the cab windows as well.

And then there is the actual experience.  You drive by feel – you have the speedo in front of you, and you learn how the train behaves when you change notch, including how quickly it accelerates.  The seat is programmed with the same sort of suspension as you would feel when the train brakes or accelerates.  Perhaps it’s as well the simulator doesn’t cover the worn out track we “enjoyed” on the Bangor line and elsewhere in the 1990s [Things have changed?- Ed] Yes, and where the condition of the track is concerned, very much for the better, if Translink are given the funding to keep it that way.

We were also shown the signalling simulator.  It’s provided by Siemens and is designed to look exactly like the real thing – the line stretching from left to right, and the console in front of you to operate the signals.  Siemens have included dynamic route setting – I believe the first time we have had it in Northern Ireland – so that if the trains are running within a few minutes of on time, they will run automatically most of the way between Lisburn and Grand Central except at Dunmurry because of the level crossings (still controlled from Lanyon Place).

Signalling simulators are a bit familiar to me.  Train nerd Andy has long enjoyed the simulators at SimSig (now licensed from Hitachi), but will have to wait for another time to see if he will get the privilege of touching the Siemens simulator.  It is programmed with how each type of train, either all stops or express, will work over the section, how well it brakes, how quickly it accelerates, and how a driver is likely to respond to a change of circumstances (SimSig always makes sure they never crash.  I wonder does Siemens’ simulator?)

So how did I get on?

Well, I had a crash.  A car managed to jump over the barriers at Glebe Road in Dunmurry.  Clunk.  Emergency brake (a bit late), stop the train safely, make an emergency call to the signaller.  Of course, in real life it would be emergency brake, get out of the cab before you hit the thing, and hope to goodness you don’t derail, and then worry about emergency calls in that order, but on the simulator you tell the signaller (actually the trainer running the simulation) what has happened, they tell you what they will do and you must do, and then you continue as if nothing had happened.  Not entirely unlike Chigley where Lord Belborough, Brackett and Bessie could sort everything out in time for the 6 o’clock whistle, but you cannot try the simulator without getting a proper appreciation of the professional job the drivers carry out.

In the meantime, a little factoid I gleaned from yesterday.

The railway platforms at Grand Central are actually closer to the City Hall than the platforms at Great Victoria Street.  Not much closer, but a little closer.

I had to think about that, but it makes sense.  Straight down the Grosvenor Road and into the new building, compared to through Great Northern Mall, turn left, then the length of the 1995 station before you get to the platform.

Many thanks to Kerry, Lynda, David, Irwin, Ciara, Chris and all the others who welcomed me on Thursday.

Andy has a very wide range of interests including Christianity, Lego, transport, music, the Alliance Party, chess and computers. Anything can appear in a post.

Andy tweets at @andyboal