It would be good to get some student feedback regarding these sessions and in particular details re length / content / delivery etc from which we can learn in case we repeat the exercise in India or elsewhere. Please feel free to post any comments here or otherwise send private email.
David and I were expecting to have been able to spend more time informally with students at the refreshment and meal breaks to chat, but needed to observe (well, as far as we were able being untrained in Indian eating manners and other etiquette) the local practices. It was good to have all the votes of thanks at the end and we did pick up on a few issues but obviously this was not the time and place to have mentioned what could have been better.
We have now returned to the UK both getting back safely, but both after travel plans disarranged by the snow in and around London. The last 300m to my house was about the most difficult part of the journey as the taxi driver considered the sideroads impassable and I was left to drag my suitcase through drifts of up to 40cm of snow whilst slipping about on the ice- I only fell once but fortunately no lasting damage.
The airport delays did give me a chance to begin to get my head around the Indian style Control Tables for HEBSUR on South Western Railway- see other post.
I hoped that I'd then look at the part of the Indian Control Table kindly completed for me on the Wednesday. Unfortunately I have to admit I have lost it (possibly not permanetly as I think that I left it with the batch of Student Application Forms that I and Buddadhev were going through- we needed a scrap of paper to write something down when talking to the IRSE in London and used the reverse of that piece of paper which then got put away with all the forms). Hence if the person concerned (I am sorry I am not even sure who it was but think it may have been Dibyender Nath Chakraborty) could scan it again and email to be I'd be grateful.
Also I am looking forward to various Study Groups in India forming and as your first challenge, coming up with what you see as a possible solution in the Indian context to the 2003 Layout 3. I'd like you not to restrict yourself to the routes and points stated but do all the Control / Locking Tables for ENTIRE layout in this instance. Clearly there is discrepency between our expectations of how controls are shown as far as inter-relationship of points and signals is concerned and therefore I need to see the whole picture to understand that locking isn't missing, but is actually shown elsewhere instead. This will be a useful exercise in creating in the UK a better understanding of Indian practices and then we can try to make the exam compatible in the longer term. In the short term we need to identify those areas where confusion would otherwise result and ensure that we inform candidates of what will need to be stated as an assumption in order to apply Indian practices to the set example of a layout which actually would not have been like that in the Indian context. This general subject is something I have already spoken to the examiners about (to make the exam more accessible to those of different backgrounds); until I came to India I hadn't realised what an issue it would be in this case- I suppose I believed practices would be far more similar to the UK. I guess the reality is that there was perhaps little colourlight signalling in India during British days so whereas mechanical looks familiar the colour light practices have diverged. Anyway I know now and will work with Buddadhev to recommend a way forward; however to get the job started we do need you to attempt that 2003CT layout for us in order that we have the ammunition to use as a concrete example. Similarly I am hoping that those people from India who have passed either module 2 and / or module 3 will be willing both to help this year's students and also work with me in refining the Study Packs for futue years. Ideally I'd like to be able to make a few minor amendments to the Module 2 for 2010 (litlle time left now) but for indians to have written a specific Indian Appendix in time for the 2011 edition- any volunteers to work with me on that?
I believe that over this weekend Buddadhev is overseeing the distribution of the various pieces of learning material to each of the companies who sent staff (I understand that we had 68 from a total of 12 different companies - some with several sites- on the 3 day event and also had arund another 30 from McML on the one day intro which I did as an additional activity as a fill-in prior to the 1st IRSE Seminar at Delhi). This will result in a DVD full of files which we think the companies will then load onto their IT systems and hence make accessible to their staff- so if it doesn't seem to happen in the next week or so I suggest you enquire of your management.
It was good to see you all even if circumstances were such that we were able to speak to few of you individually and therefore in general are unable to associate your names with faces. Amongst the information on the DVD should be the group photos and therefore I suggest it would be a good thing if someone from each of the companies could use this to identify to us who is who from their organisation by referencing their position on the photos.
As a footnote the only group photos available are the early ones with the ladies sitting. Unfortunately those taken of the lecturers seated in front of the students are all useless. It is a terrific coincidence that immediately after the lecture regarding 50126/8/9, random and systematic failures risks, RAMS etc that this occurred. We had thought that we had adequately mitigated the risk by taking multiple photos. However whilst the chances of the previously reliable camera equipment suddenly developing an intermittent malfunction since the last time it had been used a few minutes before was regarded as so low that it was assessed as extremely improbable, in fact unfortunately it did occur. Therefore this affected all the photos- there was a common mode systematic failure (must emphasise that this was the camera equipment and not the photographer!) which ruined them all.
David and I were expecting to have been able to spend more time informally with students at the refreshment and meal breaks to chat, but needed to observe (well, as far as we were able being untrained in Indian eating manners and other etiquette) the local practices. It was good to have all the votes of thanks at the end and we did pick up on a few issues but obviously this was not the time and place to have mentioned what could have been better.
We have now returned to the UK both getting back safely, but both after travel plans disarranged by the snow in and around London. The last 300m to my house was about the most difficult part of the journey as the taxi driver considered the sideroads impassable and I was left to drag my suitcase through drifts of up to 40cm of snow whilst slipping about on the ice- I only fell once but fortunately no lasting damage.
The airport delays did give me a chance to begin to get my head around the Indian style Control Tables for HEBSUR on South Western Railway- see other post.
I hoped that I'd then look at the part of the Indian Control Table kindly completed for me on the Wednesday. Unfortunately I have to admit I have lost it (possibly not permanetly as I think that I left it with the batch of Student Application Forms that I and Buddadhev were going through- we needed a scrap of paper to write something down when talking to the IRSE in London and used the reverse of that piece of paper which then got put away with all the forms). Hence if the person concerned (I am sorry I am not even sure who it was but think it may have been Dibyender Nath Chakraborty) could scan it again and email to be I'd be grateful.
Also I am looking forward to various Study Groups in India forming and as your first challenge, coming up with what you see as a possible solution in the Indian context to the 2003 Layout 3. I'd like you not to restrict yourself to the routes and points stated but do all the Control / Locking Tables for ENTIRE layout in this instance. Clearly there is discrepency between our expectations of how controls are shown as far as inter-relationship of points and signals is concerned and therefore I need to see the whole picture to understand that locking isn't missing, but is actually shown elsewhere instead. This will be a useful exercise in creating in the UK a better understanding of Indian practices and then we can try to make the exam compatible in the longer term. In the short term we need to identify those areas where confusion would otherwise result and ensure that we inform candidates of what will need to be stated as an assumption in order to apply Indian practices to the set example of a layout which actually would not have been like that in the Indian context. This general subject is something I have already spoken to the examiners about (to make the exam more accessible to those of different backgrounds); until I came to India I hadn't realised what an issue it would be in this case- I suppose I believed practices would be far more similar to the UK. I guess the reality is that there was perhaps little colourlight signalling in India during British days so whereas mechanical looks familiar the colour light practices have diverged. Anyway I know now and will work with Buddadhev to recommend a way forward; however to get the job started we do need you to attempt that 2003CT layout for us in order that we have the ammunition to use as a concrete example. Similarly I am hoping that those people from India who have passed either module 2 and / or module 3 will be willing both to help this year's students and also work with me in refining the Study Packs for futue years. Ideally I'd like to be able to make a few minor amendments to the Module 2 for 2010 (litlle time left now) but for indians to have written a specific Indian Appendix in time for the 2011 edition- any volunteers to work with me on that?
I believe that over this weekend Buddadhev is overseeing the distribution of the various pieces of learning material to each of the companies who sent staff (I understand that we had 68 from a total of 12 different companies - some with several sites- on the 3 day event and also had arund another 30 from McML on the one day intro which I did as an additional activity as a fill-in prior to the 1st IRSE Seminar at Delhi). This will result in a DVD full of files which we think the companies will then load onto their IT systems and hence make accessible to their staff- so if it doesn't seem to happen in the next week or so I suggest you enquire of your management.
It was good to see you all even if circumstances were such that we were able to speak to few of you individually and therefore in general are unable to associate your names with faces. Amongst the information on the DVD should be the group photos and therefore I suggest it would be a good thing if someone from each of the companies could use this to identify to us who is who from their organisation by referencing their position on the photos.
As a footnote the only group photos available are the early ones with the ladies sitting. Unfortunately those taken of the lecturers seated in front of the students are all useless. It is a terrific coincidence that immediately after the lecture regarding 50126/8/9, random and systematic failures risks, RAMS etc that this occurred. We had thought that we had adequately mitigated the risk by taking multiple photos. However whilst the chances of the previously reliable camera equipment suddenly developing an intermittent malfunction since the last time it had been used a few minutes before was regarded as so low that it was assessed as extremely improbable, in fact unfortunately it did occur. Therefore this affected all the photos- there was a common mode systematic failure (must emphasise that this was the camera equipment and not the photographer!) which ruined them all.
PJW