Train Company Special Offers and General Rail Travel Discussion

[NickDavies]

Inspector Sands come ...

When I used Victoria every day it happened a lot. Tended to mean a suspect package. A signal to get a move on before they closed off the tube station or cancelled all the trains for a while, both regular occurances.

[Aqualung]

When I used Victoria every day it happened a lot. Tended to mean a suspect package. A signal to get a move on before they closed off the tube station or cancelled all the trains for a while, both regular occurances.

It got to the evacuate the station messages before someone managed to turn it off. No attempt was made to clear the station.
I was getting a direct train to Worcester which stopped at Oxford due to a bridge strike near Evesham so went via Leamington, Moor Street, Stourbridge and Droitwich Spa.

[Tris39]

Have you been at a station and heard a repeated tannoy announcement along the lines of "Would Inspector Sands come to the control room". The name can easily be heard as Inspector Sams. I heard this a few weeks ago at Paddington and it dawned on me that I had heard it before at other locations. It turns out he doesn't exist and this is a notification to staff that there is a fire alert usually a false alarm. They use this to prevent causing panic but now you know you can whip up a bout of mass hysteria when they use the announcement.

Yes - he does get about a bit. I've been at both King's Cross St. Pancras and Holborn when the good inspector was on duty. The request for him to come to the control room is automated and delivered by a voice which sounds just like Patrick Allen reading the Protect and Survive public information films, so no need to panic then. On leaving Holborn, the voice shifted to 'This station is closed' and then shortly after 'This station is being evacuated'.

[Tris39]

It got to the evacuate the station messages before someone managed to turn it off. No attempt was made to clear the station.
I was getting a direct train to Worcester which stopped at Oxford due to a bridge strike near Evesham so went via Leamington, Moor Street, Stourbridge and Droitwich Spa.

Doubtless at Oxford, the duty officer is Inspector Morse?

[Aqualung]

Doubtless at Oxford, the duty officer is Inspector Morse?

I didn't find out, he was probably in the control room supping pints.

[Pangolin]

It is the nationally agreed procedure for most public transport and is triggered automatically when a fire alarm is set off to alert staff without alarming passengers. Hopefully someone will investigate and turn the damn thing off as it does automatically go to the Evacuate stage otherwise. If the alarm is in a critical location, like a control room, it will go straight to Evacuate so if you hear that without the Inspector Sands warning first best get moving!

Back in the days of regular IRA bomb threats there was a similar phrase used to warn of suspect packages but I can't remember what the name used in that one was.

[london calling]

It is the nationally agreed procedure for most public transport and is triggered automatically when a fire alarm is set off to alert staff without alarming passengers. Hopefully someone will investigate and turn the damn thing off as it does automatically go to the Evacuate stage otherwise. If the alarm is in a critical location, like a control room, it will go straight to Evacuate so if you hear that without the Inspector Sands warning first best get moving!

Back in the days of regular IRA bomb threats there was a similar phrase used to warn of suspect packages but I can't remember what the name used in that one was.

Probably "run like fook there is a bomb"

[rpadam]

It is the nationally agreed procedure for most public transport and is triggered automatically when a fire alarm is set off to alert staff without alarming passengers. Hopefully someone will investigate and turn the damn thing off as it does automatically go to the Evacuate stage otherwise. If the alarm is in a critical location, like a control room, it will go straight to Evacuate so if you hear that without the Inspector Sands warning first best get moving!

If anybody has heard Inspector Sands being called at Euston you will know that you don't need to be asked to leave the building - the recorded message is so damn loud it'll hurt your hearing and/or scramble your brain if you hang around for more than 20 seconds!

[Tris39]

It is the nationally agreed procedure for most public transport and is triggered automatically when a fire alarm is set off to alert staff without alarming passengers. Hopefully someone will investigate and turn the damn thing off as it does automatically go to the Evacuate stage otherwise. If the alarm is in a critical location, like a control room, it will go straight to Evacuate so if you hear that without the Inspector Sands warning first best get moving!

Back in the days of regular IRA bomb threats there was a similar phrase used to warn of suspect packages but I can't remember what the name used in that one was.

Probably "run like fook there is a bomb"

I thought they always phoned a 'coded message' to a newspaper.

[RealAleRobUK]

I thought they always phoned a 'coded message' to a newspaper.

I don't think there was any suggestion that the IRA went into the station affected and played a warning over the PA system with a mysterious code word.

I'd imagine that once a newspaper, police station or whatever had received a bomb threat using a recognised IRA code word, the venue concerned would be informed pretty quickly in order to allow for a speedy evacuation. I doubt an Inspector Sands (or Inspector Pipe & Nails) message would play, I'd imagine it would go straight to an evacuation procedure. Inspector Sands allows the staff to investigate for a false alarm (burnt toast in the staff room etc) before determining if an evacuation is required. If there was a confirmed bomb threat I don't think the station staff would be expected to investigate, that would be down to the bomb squad.

I have always been curious about what words were chosen for the "recognised IRA code words" that you used to hear about, and whether the code word was changed every so often, and who would communicate such a change. Was there a list of words that they went through on a rotation basis? Perhaps we will never know.