' 'Did you know?' should have been the title of the operating training days held at Havenstreet in March before the start of the operating season at Easter. The aim was to go through the changes that were new, to emphasis safety issues and to put into practice some of the procedures that, thankfully, we rarely use. Over 60 staff and volunteers attended one of the two days - a splendid turnout. Peter Vail, General Manager, welcomed everyone and went on to outline the training opportunities at the Isle of Wight College which are open to all staff and volunteers. If you are interested please contact me at Havenstreet and I will forward all the details.

Then there were talks which included a description of the new tickets (Dog, Priv. and Exchange), purchase of new uniform, use of lamps (a trim your wick session!), the new status of Fish and Chip evenings and safety with door handles. A Health and Safety film was also shown - amusing but with a serious message.

The Ops Dept team at Smallbrook Junction - 16th March 2008.

A practical session involved Pilotman working. For the exercise the Wootton token had been 'lost' presenting the problem of how to send a train from Havenstreet to Wootton. With the election of a Pilotman to take the place of the token a train was dispatched to Wootton as per the Rule Book. This also allowed us to see the new arrangements at Wootton where five coach trains can now be run-round. Thanks to the CCE Department we were able to see how the locking on the groundframe could be safely disarranged so as to operate the points and allow the engine to run-round its train.

After lunch on Thursday we ran a similar exercise on the Smallbrook single line. On the Sunday we looked further at the new ticket arrangements and had a presentation on Personal Track Safety. My thanks to all who helped make the Training days so successful and a big thank you to everyone who made the effort to attend on what proved to be two very cold days.