Yesterday, after doing five hours on a spare shift at Arnos, I trundled up to Seven Sisters for an open day for people who are thinking of becoming train operators. There was a morning session and an afternoon session and, thankfully, I'd booked on the afternoon one - the morning on ended up in a pile of chaos due to the Victoria line having a part suspension, which meant a) people couldn't get there and b) they had to have staff taxis take small groups of the group up to the depot at a time, because the staff train wasn't running either. Luckily by the afternoon they'd gone down to minor delays, so we were alright - just rather wet! Especially the few people who arrived after they had to close off the entrance that we were supposed to use, due to flooding! They had a slightly longer walk. *g* I think I must have got there just in time to make it out of the entrance, a CSA had the Bostwick gate nearly fully across and wasn't letting anyone in.

Th first part was mainly about cramming into the room and learning a bit about the application process, especially the interview. Then the fun came, and everyone who'd come with their official shoes got into hi-vis and hard hats, and went down to catch the staff train (ooooo!!!!) to the depot. We went through the train wash and got out at the staff platform, which is not much more than a raised metal grille over some blackberry bushes. We split into two groups; our group went first on a depot tour - at least as much as is permitted - and saw the train cleaning sheds, maintenance sheds, the normal sheds, the wheel lathe, spare parts (you don't realise how big the wheels are really until you see them sans train...) and various other little bits and pieces. Then we moved onto the really fun part, and got taken round the test model of the new 09 stock that's starting testing on the Victoria line at the moment. The interior of the carriages aren't yet fully complete, and the seat in the cab was out of an old train because they hadn't settled on a design yet, but even so it all looked quite impressive - and Lisa got to press the button for the whistle. *g*

We took another staff train back to the station, and went upstairs to have a last chat and question time, and also eat the rather large amounts of food that had been laid on - somewhere the caterers had got confused and supplied far more than was necessary! Luckily the depot trip had made us all pretty hungry. *g* Even so, the train ops no doubt ate well that day!

Then it was time to go home - I wandered down to the platform, needing to go one stop to Finsbury, and got invited into the cab. At Finsbury, Lisa caught up with me on the platform, and we got another cab ride - and at the next station, two others who had been on the day with us (also from our station group), who we'd seen leaping onto the train at the last minute, came down and *also* joined us. As we got into Turnpike there was a CSA who we all know on the platform, and his face when we all started waving at him was priceless! At Arnos the other three left (with assorted bad jokes from the drivers assembled on the end of the platform waiting for their trains!) and I went on to Cockfosters. The people on duty there were people I know and like so I stayed chatting to them for about five minutes before I even thought about the time properly, and in the end I stayed on for about half an hour until my partner's train came in so we could catch the bus together. All in all, a good day!