Post by railtechnician on May 4, 2013 22:40:05 GMT
Slightly off topic but can anyone explain why the SSR is only partially Command and Control. The District being the perfect example with Barking and Upminster retaining there Cabins with Farringdon and Aldgate Cabins closing only in the past decade or so.
As for Command and Control on the SSR it does not exist.
The original command & control concept as I was given to understand it when commissioning various facilities in the Bakerloo CR was one of CR staff being able to 'wear one or more hats' i.e. controller, signal operator, info assistant, engineering works controller and thus being able to 'play musical chairs' when the need arose. This was supported by the concept of the 'live control room' to obviate the need for someone at one desk to have to make a phone call to a colleague on another desk for the realtime audio events 'black box'. Further, train radio monitoring and control was available on both controller and signal operator desks and the idea was for signal operators to use it routinely and controllers during incidents/emergencies.
The Bakerloo was AFAIK the only CR where the EWC hat was worn, other lines left it to the EWC centre controllers, it was a bad idea but I have no idea if/when they gave it up and left it to those properly trained to it.
The new Central CR was as I recall a strange concept as the controller was apparently allowed only a single handset to ensure that he could not talk to more than one person simultaneously, very annoying when I was trying to sort out his T/T problems at Liverpool Street or other site and he had to cut me off to deal with something else. It must've been real fun on an incident having to 'play musical jacks' with his one handset!
AFAIK no other CR got even remotely close to C&C up until I retired, I expect things are somewhat different now and I doubt that any CR is now using the original Command & Control concept as initially envisaged.