I feel like having a guard whistle you can blow whilst on conductor mode would be a nice feature. For example pressing 1 on your keyboard to equip the whistle and the lmb to blow the whistle etc. Just adds extra realism
This is a feature on Preston - Carlisle when in guard mode for loco-hauled trains however, in the modern world, the guard doesn't use a whistle anymore as that job is given to a platform dispatcher if one is avaliable at the particular station
But what does it mean when an EMR Intercity guard blows their whistle? Why did guards have whistles in the first place? Was it to indicate to the driver that it was safe to depart?
Used to be used on long HSTs with manual doors, instead of the dispatcher trying to shout down 8-10 coaches. Dispatcher shuts all open doors then blows whistle, guard blows his whistle to say “ok” and locks doors, dispatcher blows whistle again, guard blows his again, to say “ok” again shuts his door and locks it then signals the driver to leave.
A guard blows their whistle to incidate to the driver and Secondman (if one is present) that all doors are closed and it safe to depart. They will only do this when the driver has been given a green or yellow signal. They would also wave a green flag but this practise is now exclusive to heritage railways. Since the introduction of Multiple Units, DMUs & EMUs have a 'guard buzzer' which itself has it's own code but in this context, when it is safe to depart, the guard would press the buzzer twice in the rear cab or from the dedicated guard area. The driver would recieve the 'buzz buzz' which indicates that the Guard has given the driver the all clear however, the driver must respond with the same 'buzz buzz' the inform the guard that they have recieved the message.. Thanks to Preston - Carlisle, I now know that the Mk1 NHA also had this feature as well as the BR Class 87.. The Class 43 HST and 225 sets also had this feature due to how they operated which also means that the DVT and DBSO would have also had this feature.
