Assessments & Medicals discussion

[T4a1n6r1v3r]

Well I think, had my DMI two weeks afterwards and passed that too. Never got told any scores but I felt confident and didn't find any of them too difficult. What TOC are you applying to as they are all different

My assessment is with Greater Anglia at Stratford. Where was yours ?

 

[I2026]

My assessment is with Greater Anglia at Stratford. Where was yours ?

SWR - Southampton and London Waterloo. The pack you should have been sent through should be sufficient - just don't overthink any of it and remember a lot of the testing is your ability to keep it simple, do what is asked and not rush. The dials and 2 hand tests were the only ones I would say need some skill element, one mentally the other physically. Other than that the tests should be straightforward.

 

[T4a1n6r1v3r]

SWR - Southampton and London Waterloo. The pack you should have been sent through should be sufficient - just don't overthink any of it and remember a lot of the testing is your ability to keep it simple, do what is asked and not rush. The dials and 2 hand tests were the only ones I would say need some skill element, one mentally the other physically. Other than that the tests should be straightforward.

Did you do all of the assessments in one day ?

 

[I2026]

Did you do all of the assessments in one day ?

No I did the WAFVT, Vienna and 2 hand as my first assessment session (1 hour total but lots of waiting about) then got invited back at a day of my choosing for the longer day with the others. I went back 2 weeks after, for 2nd day (half day of tests) and then had a phone-call for interview the followinf week which I have done.

I only applied for the job early November and it is my first involvement with the railway, zero experience of any of it before.

 

[Lights Out]

I've successfully got through all the assessments, interviews and medical and have a start date next month and as this Forum was so helpful to me I thought I'd pay it forward by breaking down how the process went for me to hopefully shine some light on what can seem quite an opaque process.

Timeline
Application submitted & SJT completed: 07/12
Invited for online assessment (miniSCAAT):11/2
Stage 1 assessment: 02/04
Stage 2 assessment: 15/04
DMI: 06/05
Medical: 15/05
Start Date: 16/06

So all in all the whole process has taken me ~7 months which from the looks of things is on the quicker side. On that front I think I just got very lucky as I'll explain later.

I won't cover the application and SJT in any detail as the former should be self-explanatory and the latter is just something you either get right or you don't. I'll just say I initially applied for the Thameslink Cricklewood talent pool.

Online Assessment (miniSCAAT)
Basically you just go through rows of letters and click on ones It's asked you to. You do this three times with each round a little more difficult but I say that lightly as this is an incredibly straightforward test. I've seen a few people on here worried when they get invited to this but they give a practice go before all three runs and you can repeat those as much as you want. Obviously I don't know what score I got but this felt by far the easiest test I did through the whole process and bluntly I struggle to see how you'd be able pass any of the other tests if you can't pass this. Which i guess is the point of using it as a pre-sift.

Stage 1 (Pencil and Paper tests)

Group Bourdon - One of the tests I think practice would have the biggest impact as you'll learn to recognise the patterns. You can practice this actual test online although it's much easier to do with pen and paper than on a computer let alone a touch screen. You can print off practice papers to do it that way or just do it the harder way knowing on the day it will be easier.

Tea-Occ - Done in 3 stages. Firstly you hear a series of high and low tones and count the low ones. Secondly you have to go through what's essentially a telephone directory of IIRC plumbers all with symbols next to them. You circle all the ones with double symbols next to them. Finally you combine the two although the tones are all one tone and you just have to count them whilst circling the symbols. I just focused on the tones and circled the symbols in the gaps between. Not sure this is one you can really practice.

TRP1 - A memory test. They read a sheet of A4 to you about something related to the railways, then gve you 5 minutes to read it as many times as you want and make notes (these are taken away from you after the 5 minutes though), then you're asked multiple choice questions about what you learned. I've got an excellent memory so this was very easy for me. If you have a poor one then maybe look at some memory techniques but i don't think any of the specific practice materials are going to do much.

TRP2 - Dials test - The practice material they give you is almost identical to the actual test so if you can do that you'll be fine, and I'd save your practicing for the Bourdon and DFFT. You'll never complete all 43 questions so don't worry if you don't, I think i managed 31.

DFFT - Basically you get a series of illustrations of train dash boards as well as a instruction sheet telling you how to spot faults and if there are multiple how many and which to prioritise. You then record what was at fault. Probably the most "difficult" test in it requires you to somewhat think for yourself. Well worth going over the practice materials as it familiarises you with how it works and I can imagine some people wasting precious time working that out if they haven't gone over the practice materials provided.

At the end they told us at the OPC we'd hear from the TOC within 10 working days, Thankfully I didn't have to wait that long and they contacted me two days later to say I'd passed and then the following Monday gave me dates for the Stage 2.

Stage 2 (Computer Tests and MMI)
You do the 3 computer tests one after another with no breaks in the order below. Everybody starts at the same time but depending on how long it takes you to read the instructions, have a practice you'll finish at different times so try to ignore other people as best you can.

WAFV - Very straightforward in that all you have to do is watch a screen and press the large green button on your console, as quickly as you can, every time the flashing grey square on screen turns black. However it is IMV the most challenging of all the psychometrics ests and the only one somebody in my group of 5 failed at. Why? because you're doing it for 32 minutes. I don't think I missed a single black square but i definitely pressed the green erroneously a couple of times. The guy who failed said he did zone out at one point, I can't really add anything more than tr not to do that as you can't really practice this.

ATAVT - You hear a beep then see an image for 1 second and then you select if you saw pedestrians, vehicles, bikes, traffic lights and traffic signs. I was worried about this but felt it was much simpler on the actual test than when I'd tried to practice it with either the material provided or youtube. So personally i wouldn't bother practicing and from what I've seen it's rare people fail it.

2HAND - You have to take a ball round a track using two joy sticks one moves it vertically the other horizontally. Every time it goes outside the track you hear a beep. You get a couple of practice runs then you have to do it 10 times for the test*. Everybody thought they'd failed (I only didn't because I'd read on here everybody thinks that!) and everybody passed. I think the main thing is not to panic if you make a bunch of mistakes and then spiral into making more or get too cautious and then become too slow. The only people I've heard fail this was from taking too long. Stay calm and try to remember they're just sifting out people with below average hand-eye coordination not testing to see if you have the fine muscle control of Roger Federer.

*I saw somebody earlier in this thread have a problem with people revealing how many times you have to go round the track. Which I find a bit daft as the instructors tell you before you start as do the instructions on screen so it's not meant to be a secret and I can't see how it gives you any advantage when it's a physical test.

MMI - The 4 of us that passed (they told within 20 minutes) were then all given the SJE and a pre-interview form. The former has no wrong answers they just use it to inform what to ask you at interview and the latter is just asking for one sentence examples to the interview questions that they'll then interrogate further in the interview. You then get given a time slot for to come back for. Overall the interview took almost 90 minutes and was the most gruelling thing of the whole process. I finished the stage 1 and the rest of stage 2 and the DMI fairly confident I'd passed but I was really unsure with this. My main advice would be to think about the type of questions you'll be asked (you can google them, search the forums or even use AI), come up with about 10 and then get confident answering them using the STAR method. HOWEVER you can't just memorise a monologue as the interviewer will really delve into your answer. For one of mine she said my answer wasn't appropriate so asked me to give a hypothetical scenario, which i had to do off the cuff, but i was able to to do as I'd practice enough at the type of answers to give.

DMI
Found out the next day I'd passed the MMI and this is when my luck came in as the recruiter for GTR called me up to check if I still wanted to be at Cricklewood depot as she'd arrange my interview with the relevant manager. I asked what other depots were available and she mentioned Hornsey (for Great Northern) which just so happens to be 10 minutes from where I now live, and even better had space on course dates right around the corner. I'm not a "meant to be" type of person but it felt it at that moment!

Interview was very straight forward with sevral competency based questions plus a few questions about why I wanted to switch careers and become a train driver, what i knew about GTR and what I foresaw as the challenges of driving a train. Honestly after the MMI this felt easy and took a third of the time. Just practice similar things to the MMI, they'll ask you follow up questions if they feel you haven't provided enough but if you have they won't cross examine you like at the MMI.

Got a call later that day to say I'd passed and got my verbal offer.

Medical
They'll scan your glasses if you wear them when you come in (although beware as my prescription was very inaccurate) and getv you to fill out a form then you'll see the Nurse who'll do hearing, eyesight, colour blindness, diabetes, drugs & alcohol tests as well as an ECG. As I said in an earlier post if you need the toilet tell them so they'll do the urine tests first!

After that you'll see the Doctor. Who will ask you some medical history questions then do some very basic mobility tests (standing on one leg, rasing hand above your shoulder) and check your peripheral vision. She told me I was cleared straight away so no waiting to hear. I then got my formal offer later that day and just had to provide 2 character references (Can't be family, employer or somebody you live with).


Hope this helps somebody like similar posts helped me.

Hello, This was very helpful and a great read. I'm just at the start of the journey ans have been given a OPC Miniscaat link. Is there any practice material you can advise me to check, or just run through the practice runs on the actual test?

 

[T4a1n6r1v3r]

I've successfully got through all the assessments, interviews and medical and have a start date next month and as this Forum was so helpful to me I thought I'd pay it forward by breaking down how the process went for me to hopefully shine some light on what can seem quite an opaque process.

Timeline
Application submitted & SJT completed: 07/12
Invited for online assessment (miniSCAAT):11/2
Stage 1 assessment: 02/04
Stage 2 assessment: 15/04
DMI: 06/05
Medical: 15/05
Start Date: 16/06

So all in all the whole process has taken me ~7 months which from the looks of things is on the quicker side. On that front I think I just got very lucky as I'll explain later.

I won't cover the application and SJT in any detail as the former should be self-explanatory and the latter is just something you either get right or you don't. I'll just say I initially applied for the Thameslink Cricklewood talent pool.

Online Assessment (miniSCAAT)
Basically you just go through rows of letters and click on ones It's asked you to. You do this three times with each round a little more difficult but I say that lightly as this is an incredibly straightforward test. I've seen a few people on here worried when they get invited to this but they give a practice go before all three runs and you can repeat those as much as you want. Obviously I don't know what score I got but this felt by far the easiest test I did through the whole process and bluntly I struggle to see how you'd be able pass any of the other tests if you can't pass this. Which i guess is the point of using it as a pre-sift.

Stage 1 (Pencil and Paper tests)

Group Bourdon - One of the tests I think practice would have the biggest impact as you'll learn to recognise the patterns. You can practice this actual test online although it's much easier to do with pen and paper than on a computer let alone a touch screen. You can print off practice papers to do it that way or just do it the harder way knowing on the day it will be easier.

Tea-Occ - Done in 3 stages. Firstly you hear a series of high and low tones and count the low ones. Secondly you have to go through what's essentially a telephone directory of IIRC plumbers all with symbols next to them. You circle all the ones with double symbols next to them. Finally you combine the two although the tones are all one tone and you just have to count them whilst circling the symbols. I just focused on the tones and circled the symbols in the gaps between. Not sure this is one you can really practice.

TRP1 - A memory test. They read a sheet of A4 to you about something related to the railways, then gve you 5 minutes to read it as many times as you want and make notes (these are taken away from you after the 5 minutes though), then you're asked multiple choice questions about what you learned. I've got an excellent memory so this was very easy for me. If you have a poor one then maybe look at some memory techniques but i don't think any of the specific practice materials are going to do much.

TRP2 - Dials test - The practice material they give you is almost identical to the actual test so if you can do that you'll be fine, and I'd save your practicing for the Bourdon and DFFT. You'll never complete all 43 questions so don't worry if you don't, I think i managed 31.

DFFT - Basically you get a series of illustrations of train dash boards as well as a instruction sheet telling you how to spot faults and if there are multiple how many and which to prioritise. You then record what was at fault. Probably the most "difficult" test in it requires you to somewhat think for yourself. Well worth going over the practice materials as it familiarises you with how it works and I can imagine some people wasting precious time working that out if they haven't gone over the practice materials provided.

At the end they told us at the OPC we'd hear from the TOC within 10 working days, Thankfully I didn't have to wait that long and they contacted me two days later to say I'd passed and then the following Monday gave me dates for the Stage 2.

Stage 2 (Computer Tests and MMI)
You do the 3 computer tests one after another with no breaks in the order below. Everybody starts at the same time but depending on how long it takes you to read the instructions, have a practice you'll finish at different times so try to ignore other people as best you can.

WAFV - Very straightforward in that all you have to do is watch a screen and press the large green button on your console, as quickly as you can, every time the flashing grey square on screen turns black. However it is IMV the most challenging of all the psychometrics ests and the only one somebody in my group of 5 failed at. Why? because you're doing it for 32 minutes. I don't think I missed a single black square but i definitely pressed the green erroneously a couple of times. The guy who failed said he did zone out at one point, I can't really add anything more than tr not to do that as you can't really practice this.

ATAVT - You hear a beep then see an image for 1 second and then you select if you saw pedestrians, vehicles, bikes, traffic lights and traffic signs. I was worried about this but felt it was much simpler on the actual test than when I'd tried to practice it with either the material provided or youtube. So personally i wouldn't bother practicing and from what I've seen it's rare people fail it.

2HAND - You have to take a ball round a track using two joy sticks one moves it vertically the other horizontally. Every time it goes outside the track you hear a beep. You get a couple of practice runs then you have to do it 10 times for the test*. Everybody thought they'd failed (I only didn't because I'd read on here everybody thinks that!) and everybody passed. I think the main thing is not to panic if you make a bunch of mistakes and then spiral into making more or get too cautious and then become too slow. The only people I've heard fail this was from taking too long. Stay calm and try to remember they're just sifting out people with below average hand-eye coordination not testing to see if you have the fine muscle control of Roger Federer.

*I saw somebody earlier in this thread have a problem with people revealing how many times you have to go round the track. Which I find a bit daft as the instructors tell you before you start as do the instructions on screen so it's not meant to be a secret and I can't see how it gives you any advantage when it's a physical test.

MMI - The 4 of us that passed (they told within 20 minutes) were then all given the SJE and a pre-interview form. The former has no wrong answers they just use it to inform what to ask you at interview and the latter is just asking for one sentence examples to the interview questions that they'll then interrogate further in the interview. You then get given a time slot for to come back for. Overall the interview took almost 90 minutes and was the most gruelling thing of the whole process. I finished the stage 1 and the rest of stage 2 and the DMI fairly confident I'd passed but I was really unsure with this. My main advice would be to think about the type of questions you'll be asked (you can google them, search the forums or even use AI), come up with about 10 and then get confident answering them using the STAR method. HOWEVER you can't just memorise a monologue as the interviewer will really delve into your answer. For one of mine she said my answer wasn't appropriate so asked me to give a hypothetical scenario, which i had to do off the cuff, but i was able to to do as I'd practice enough at the type of answers to give.

DMI
Found out the next day I'd passed the MMI and this is when my luck came in as the recruiter for GTR called me up to check if I still wanted to be at Cricklewood depot as she'd arrange my interview with the relevant manager. I asked what other depots were available and she mentioned Hornsey (for Great Northern) which just so happens to be 10 minutes from where I now live, and even better had space on course dates right around the corner. I'm not a "meant to be" type of person but it felt it at that moment!

Interview was very straight forward with sevral competency based questions plus a few questions about why I wanted to switch careers and become a train driver, what i knew about GTR and what I foresaw as the challenges of driving a train. Honestly after the MMI this felt easy and took a third of the time. Just practice similar things to the MMI, they'll ask you follow up questions if they feel you haven't provided enough but if you have they won't cross examine you like at the MMI.

Got a call later that day to say I'd passed and got my verbal offer.

Medical
They'll scan your glasses if you wear them when you come in (although beware as my prescription was very inaccurate) and getv you to fill out a form then you'll see the Nurse who'll do hearing, eyesight, colour blindness, diabetes, drugs & alcohol tests as well as an ECG. As I said in an earlier post if you need the toilet tell them so they'll do the urine tests first!

After that you'll see the Doctor. Who will ask you some medical history questions then do some very basic mobility tests (standing on one leg, rasing hand above your shoulder) and check your peripheral vision. She told me I was cleared straight away so no waiting to hear. I then got my formal offer later that day and just had to provide 2 character references (Can't be family, employer or somebody you live with).


Hope this helps somebody like similar posts helped me.

Thanks for sharing this info. What was the TOC you applied to ?

 

[Lockrl]

Anyone applied for GTR, I can guide you on the questions to expect at DMI and also has anyone gotten the offer to start at cricklewood ?

Are you able to give an idea of the questions they might ask

 

[boneeeey]

Anyone applied for GTR, I can guide you on the questions to expect at DMI and also has anyone gotten the offer to start at cricklewood ?

I start on 23rd March for Cricklewood

 

[JJBH]

Question,

I failed the SJT for ARL in 2023 but passed the Group bourdon, Tea-Occ and DFFT. I then retook the SJT in 2024 but failed it again. Recently, I passed Stage 1 for Chiltern and I passed all of the Stage 2 computer tests but failed the MMI. Does that mean all my ‘lives’ are gone?

 

[I2026]

Question,

I failed the SJT for ARL in 2023 but passed the Group bourdon, Tea-Occ and DFFT. I then retook the SJT in 2024 but failed it again. Recently, I passed Stage 1 for Chiltern and I passed all of the Stage 2 computer tests but failed the MMI. Does that mean all my ‘lives’ are gone?

Did you get any feedback on where you failed particularly the MMI - what age are you and from what industry are you coming from - how is your life experience etc?

 

[JJBH]

Did you get any feedback on where you failed particularly the MMI - what age are you and from what industry are you coming from - how is your life experience etc?

I haven’t got any feedback yet. I should get it within the next 2 weeks. I’m 25 and have worked in multiple industries including delivery driving and retail and most of the answers I gave were related to those, especially delivery driving as it has a lot in common with train driving but I guess it wasn’t good enough for the assessors.

 

[Profkay]

I was consistently getting 10 or 11 lines on the Group Bourdon test in practise on paper with no omissions or errors and I passed. Concentrate your practise on getting no mistakes at all rather than speed as I'm pretty sure that's what they're looking for. Just keep doing it whenever you have a spare 10 minutes, over and over again until you recognise the shapes without trying. You can even turn the pages upside down and start from the top (which was the bottom before) to save paper.

In my opinion the ATAVT test is definitely the hardest and most unpredictable one and also probably the hardest to practice for. The picture is on screen for 1 second or just under (definitely not as long as 2 seconds) but it's an adaptive test so the better you do at it the more complicated and busy the pictures will become. I guess if you find it ends up showing you a normal picture of just a Fiat 500 on its own or something, you probably aren't doing so well at it.

May thanks for this info.

Do you remember how many lines/rows the actual test got?

 

[Markus99]

I have passed the driver psychometrics at the enhanced level all bar one test which i only managed a national standard. That test being the DFFT. I have been invited to sit this test again to try and acheive an enhanced level. Does anyone on here know where I can get some good practice material from. I dont mind paying for the material, just need to be pointed in the right direction. I have the normal standard practice material from the OPC and from the rail company itself but its very standard. Was looking for more complicated DFF tests?? Thanks in advance.

 

[Pintman]

I have passed the driver psychometrics at the enhanced level all bar one test which i only managed a national standard. That test being the DFFT. I have been invited to sit this test again to try and acheive an enhanced level. Does anyone on here know where I can get some good practice material from. I dont mind paying for the material, just need to be pointed in the right direction. I have the normal standard practice material from the OPC and from the rail company itself but its very standard. Was looking for more complicated DFF tests?? Thanks in advance.

OPC sells specific DFFT practice material

The OPC - Practice Test - Driver Fault Finding Test (DFFT) Practice

 

[Markus99]

Thanks for the reply. Like i said in my message, I already have the OPC practice tests but very basic and standard. Looking for enhanced practice material of it excists

 

[JSM97]

I’m delighted to say I’ve passed my medical and I start with SWR as a Trainee Driver in February. I just want to say a big thankyou for everyone’s guidance in this forum

 

[Dein]

Has the OPC slacked off and become less strict or is it just down to assessor discretion?

A friend of mine attended Stage 1 assessment before Christmas and saw several people not following instructions during the tests. I was convinced they would fail, but to his surprise a couple of them still progressed to his Stage 2 assessment day.

My friend then completed the MMI and felt he struggled with a few of the questions. On one in particular, he was asked to change his answer multiple times because he didn’t have a relevant example. The interviewer then asked if he had an example based on someone else’s experience, which he used to answer. He was certain he’d failed, but despite this, he was pleasantly surprised to be told the following day that he’d passed.

I’m glad he passed, but when I went through the OPC they were far stricter and I’ve heard and seen people on this forum fail for much less.

Hi, if you don’t mind me asking what instructions exactly was not followed? ie did he/she tick an answer that was ment to be circled which I would think is small discrepancy or would you say it was more stringent than that. I attended the OPC assessment today and felt like I did pretty good on most test but may have had a couple mistakes on 2 of the test!

 

[ku_ku_ka_cho]

I’m delighted to say I’ve passed my medical and I start with SWR as a Trainee Driver in February. I just want to say a big thankyou for everyone’s guidance in this forum

Can I ask what the medical entails? I assume height, weight, blood pressure, joints check, eye and hearing test?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Jan 2026 ==

Hi, if you don’t mind me asking what instructions exactly was not followed? ie did he/she tick an answer that was ment to be circled which I would think is small discrepancy or would you say it was more stringent than that. I attended the OPC assessment today and felt like I did pretty good on most test but may have had a couple mistakes on 2 of the test!

I did mine 18 months ago and a girl could not get her head around some of the questions at all, they really did try to help, repeating the instructions that should be read once, and pointing out some errors but she still failed. I didnt think they were overly assisting but they did try help as opposed to being totally ruthless.

 

[lee1234]

Does anyone know where to find definitive advice on the musculoskeletal mobility requirements for a train driver medical? I am interested in applying to become a driver and I have had both my hips resurfaced, which is a type of hip replacement that Andy Murray had done, and I would like to know if that is going to be an automatic fail on the medical. I am having difficulty finding some specific advice on this question. I have no mobility issues but I have definitely had surgery and would need to declare that, my right was done in 2018 and the left in 2021.

 

[JSM97]

Can I ask what the medical entails? I assume height, weight, blood pressure, joints check, eye and hearing test?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Jan 2026 ==


I did mine 18 months ago and a girl could not get her head around some of the questions at all, they really did try to help, repeating the instructions that should be read once, and pointing out some errors but she still failed. I didnt think they were overly assisting but they did try help as opposed to being totally ruthless.

Lots of eyesight stuff. Colour blindness, height, weight, ECG, blood pressure, hearing test, lots of questions of general health/medication. Didn’t have any joint checks

 

[Lights Out]

Guys, how long after completing the OPC MiniSCAAT did people get a response to see if they made it to the next round? This was for GTR.

 

[ku_ku_ka_cho]

Lots of eyesight stuff. Colour blindness, height, weight, ECG, blood pressure, hearing test, lots of questions of general health/medication. Didn’t have any joint checks

Thanks mate, I'm currently in the Police and remember the medical officer pulling and rotating my hand / wrist which did make me flinch which I did think was a bit strange!

 

[Horizon22]

Does anyone know where to find definitive advice on the musculoskeletal mobility requirements for a train driver medical? I am interested in applying to become a driver and I have had both my hips resurfaced, which is a type of hip replacement that Andy Murray had done, and I would like to know if that is going to be an automatic fail on the medical. I am having difficulty finding some specific advice on this question. I have no mobility issues but I have definitely had surgery and would need to declare that, my right was done in 2018 and the left in 2021.

I doubt it would be automatic fail, but there may be questions around it.

If you have no ongoing mobility issues and can effectively prove you could get in/out of a train cab externally, walk a reasonable distance and walk on ballast that will be the key info that they need.

 

[dtr1989]

Hello all. Bit of a strange one.

Last year I passed Day One to an enhanced standard. I passed 3 out of the 4 Day Two assessments, failing on the joystick manoeuvre one (the joystick actually fell out of the terminal but they weren’t interested, maybe I was too rough!).

A year on I was skipped through the online assessments due to passing them last year. I’ve now been invited back to Day One. After contacting recruitment who avoided my question, I had to book onto Day One to avoid my application being withdrawn. I have since contacted recruitment again with the results email from last year, they are not replying.

Has anyone been in this situation? I don’t want to have to book a day off work for no reason and don’t want to travel quite the distance to be told to go home!

 

[Colly103]

Hi everyone- apologies as I’m sure this has already been answered elsewhere but can’t seem to find it!. Does failing any of the OPC conductor tests go against your lives when applying for a driver position? Also if you sit the OPC conductors ones and were unsuccessful- then would you have to wait 6 months before you could apply for a driver or conductors position again?

 

[RiverDon]

Last year I passed Day One to an enhanced standard. I passed 3 out of the 4 Day Two assessments, failing on the joystick manoeuvre one (the joystick actually fell out of the terminal but they weren’t interested, maybe I was too rough!).

The joysticks are just very lightly screwed in and come off really easily. Someone in my assessment had both sticks come off while he was doing it and one of mine came off just after I finished. It's pretty poor they didn't reset the test for you and give you another go.

 

[I2026]

I’m delighted to say I’ve passed my medical and I start with SWR as a Trainee Driver in February. I just want to say a big thankyou for everyone’s guidance in this forum

Do you mind me asking your times lines and which depot as I am in a process with them which has started lightening quick and then seems to have slowed right down. Thanks

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Jan 2026 ==

Thanks mate, I'm currently in the Police and remember the medical officer pulling and rotating my hand / wrist which did make me flinch which I did think was a bit strange!

We may be on the same journey, which force area and where you applying to? I am Met and in the process for South West rail.

 

[traineesw]

I’m delighted to say I’ve passed my medical and I start with SWR as a Trainee Driver in February. I just want to say a big thankyou for everyone’s guidance in this forum

Congratulations mate! Is this for Waterloo?

During my DMI last week I was told SWR would have 12 groups of 12 new trainee drivers this year. Their biggest ever!

I’m not sure if that’s only for the Waterloo depot or for the whole swr network.

Hopefully I can join you soon

 

[NSEWonderer]

Congratulations mate! Is this for Waterloo?

During my DMI last week I was told SWR would have 12 groups of 12 new trainee drivers this year. Their biggest ever!

I’m not sure if that’s only for the Waterloo depot or for the whole swr network.

Hopefully I can join you soon

They've been having 12 since the mid half of 2025. Mix of all different depots where possible. Before 2025 it was smaller groups which worked out better for Sim days as there was less waiting

 

[traineesw]

They've been having 12 since the mid half of 2025. Mix of all different depots where possible. Before 2025 it was smaller groups which worked out better for Sim days as there was less waiting

Oh right I see, that’s good. I’m just awaiting my DMI results for Waterloo depot.

Are you currently a driver for SWR?