Becoming a Train Driver

[Jord]

I just thought making a thread on this, people saying if they want to be a driver and how you would drive, here's mine:

I would prefer to be a freight train driver, driving, 20s, 31s, 37s, 40s, 50s, 52s, 55s, 56s, 59s, 60s, 66s, 73s, 86s/87s, 92s (so pretty much everything that's works freight) on a mixture of days/nights - morning/afternoons.
Definatly not be a jobsworth and will offer people for a look in the cab/ make conversation with enthusiasts (give out any decent info i know of).
If i drove a railtour, drive for the enthusiasts, including lots of thrash, not just get it over with as quickly as possible.
Blast the horn a couple of times (or 6 or more lol) for enthusiasts videoing and also to the nice girls lol :P and to make people crap themselves lol

So really just be an all-round happy, decent driver.

Can't wait to try and become a driver

what do you want to be like?

 

[Tom]

I would be a grumpy old fart who drove 442s.

Two tones at every vegetable though. In the fields that is.

 

[Jord]

I would be a grumpy old fart who drove 442s.

Two tones at every vegetable though. In the fields that is.

Thought so

 

[me123]

I'd be a passenger driver on the high-speed intercity services; GNER, Virgin, EMT, Arriva or FSR's Highland services.

Failing that, local trains out of Glasgow Central on behalf of SPT aren't bad.

 

[Gizmogle]

I'd drive around London Waterloo with hopes of hitting Tox and any other graffitiers or trespassers.

 

[DescendingSadly]

i'd be in bed sleeping

 

[Mintona]

I'd drive the Bubble Car to Cardiff Bay all day long - just for the hell of it

Though I'd rather drive Dreadfully Rancid Sheds

 

[332 > 444]

Id drive Heathrow Express - 15 mins quicktime, laughing at the Connect....

 

[Dave A]

Id drive Heathrow Express - 15 mins quicktime, laughing at the Connect....

Maybe on the way to Heathrow, but between Ealing Broadway - Paddington, those 360's pick up a nice bit of speed!

 

[thefab444]

Id drive Heathrow Express - 15 mins quicktime, laughing at the Connect....

I'm not laughing at the price difference. Return fare on HC is £11.90, HX £29.00. I think I know which I'd choose.

Back on topic, if I was a driver I would be fairly enthusiast friendly, but I'd never let people in the cab - too much of a risk.

 

[Dave A]

I'm not laughing at the price difference. Return fare on HC is £11.90, HX £29.00. I think I know which I'd choose.

I do agree, however, as I learnt on my first day, when your only alternatives to get into central London are a cab costing £60, the tube which takes forever and means making changes and a coach which is quite frankly a horrible experience, then HEx is the best option for most.

As for Connect vs. HEx, the HEx is a guaranteed service, whereas Connect is not. Meaning, if the Connect gets cancelled you WILL have to wait 30 minutes, whereas if the HEx is cancelled, the next train is always a maximum of 15 minutes away! :mrgreen:

 

[Tom]

As for Connect vs. HEx, the HEx is a guaranteed service, whereas Connect is not. Meaning, if the Connect gets cancelled you WILL have to wait 30 minutes, whereas if the HEx is cancelled, the next train is always a maximum of 15 minutes away! :mrgreen:

A guaranteed service in my definition means every service will run - by your definition the Connect is a guaranteed service as well.

You effectively said the same thing for both - just pointing out the different service interval.

 

[Dave A]

Precisely. :mrgreen:

 

[me123]

Forgot to add: 37s on the "Deerstalker" Caly Sleeper. Best train on one of the best routes in Britain; fantastic.

 

[Tom]

Precisely. :mrgreen:

You're contradicting yourself...

 

[thefab444]

As for Connect vs. HEx, the HEx is a guaranteed service, whereas Connect is not. Meaning, if the Connect gets cancelled you WILL have to wait 30 minutes, whereas if the HEx is cancelled, the next train is always a maximum of 15 minutes away! :mrgreen:

So the Express is more than twice the price for a twice frequency service AND you get the pleasure of that bloody TV going on and on.

You may only have 1 bottle of 100mil of baby food. Wifi is available throughout (you WILL need to pay) but by the time we finish this it's too late. Why not go First Class and get the luxury of tables.

 

[Dave A]

I don't care if people use HEx or not, but there is a reason why people do find it good value for money.

E.G. Today. Two elderly American tourists wanting to get to Marble Arch from Terminal 1. I told them they could take The Tube, it would cost £4, and it would take about one & a half hours and explained that they would need to go to the tube station between Terminals 2+3, about a ten minute walk. So about 1 hour 40 mins, and they said no.

They asked about the coach for a more scenic view. I said it wasn't very scenic (which it isn't), but I told them about the National Express to Victoria, told them it was £4 each, it would take a minimum of 45 mins to get to the coach station from the bus station (which is a 10 min walk), then another 10 mins to the tube station, plus 15 mins to Marble Arch. So 1 hour 35 mins minimum, they said no.

I also told them about Connect, explaining that the next one was in half-an-hour (they'd just missed one), it would cost £6.90 each, and would take roughly 25 mins to Paddington, then 15/20 minutes to Marble Arch (including the walk to LU from the Connect platform). Over an hour, they said no.

I finally told them about HEx. The next train is in 10 minutes, the platform is just below them, it takes 15 mins to Paddington, then 15 minutes to Marble Arch from leaving the Paddington platforms, and they could buy a ticket from T1 valid to Marble Arch, so no queuing at Paddington. It cost them £18.50 each. So 40 minutes roughly in total, and they said yes.

So what made them say yes? People do seem to when you lay out the other options in front of them. Someone who had no intention of using HEx is suddenly changed to do so, just because its less hassle for them to use the other options. Only the people whose intentions are to use LU, coach or Connect, actually will, everyone else just want easy, hassle free and quick, and don't care about the price.

 

[me123]

It really depends on what you want. I@m surprised that the tube's really ever used; it's crazily slow. But I can see people paying extra for the faster and mroe frequent service when they need it. I personally wouldn't pay unless I had to, but there are a lot of people commuting into Heathrow who value the extra time they save.

 

[Juniper Driver]

I used the HEx recently as I came close to missing my flight to Hong Kong on November 1st.

The Victoria line had a signal failure at Highbury and Islington and the Piccadilly line was severely disrupted.For the return I caught some desiro thingy and when I returned from Japan I caught a 332.Can't use privs on it apparently though.

I had to do something as I was always having trouble with the piccadilly line.

 

[Metroland]

They hate is being called HEX, anyone with a dictionary knows why

Aside from that, HEX is supposed to compete with the taxis which are far more money. Don't forget HEX is NOT a TOC (They invested £750 million in today's money in it) and is a big money spinner for BAA, it's quite high up their food chain.

Just to put it into context:

Heathrow Express: Revenue £58 million, Profit £14 million

Southampton Airport: Revenue £16 million, Profit £6 million

Aberdeen Airport: Revenue £28 million, Profit £11 million

Glasgow Airport: Revenue £62 million, Profit £26 million


http://www.baa.com/annualreview07/our_business_areas/heathrow_express.html

back on topic, the best TOCs to drive for are probably freight.

 

[mbonwick]

I'd like to be like Jord, quality freight traction. Wouldn't mind a bit of passenger work now and then mind.

 

[Jord]

I'd like to be like Jord, quality freight traction. Wouldn't mind a bit of passenger work now and then mind.

I would hate to do passenger work unless i was only on HSTs, but the rest excluding 91s/90s, Multiple Units have no great power, tiny cabs and are short so i don't understand anyone that would want to spend hours stuck in something like that, whereas freight, you have POWER! big spacious cabs to get comfy in (Unless in the small end of a 66), there long (normally), your on your own which i certainly don't mind, not driving other people about (Unless on a charter) now i would understand anyone that would want to do that

 

[me123]

I would hate to do passenger work unless i was only on HSTs, but the rest excluding 91s/90s, Multiple Units have no great power, tiny cabs and are short so i don't understand anyone that would want to spend hours stuck in something like that, whereas freight, you have POWER! big spacious cabs to get comfy in (Unless in the small end of a 66), there long (normally), your on your own which i certainly don't mind, not driving other people about (Unless on a charter) now i would understand anyone that would want to do that

But the acceleration on som eof them is crap. 0-20 in 60. Minutes that is.

 

[Jord]

But the acceleration on som eof them is crap. 0-20 in 60. Minutes that is.

0-20 in 60 minutes - i doubt it lol abit of an exageration

 

[me123]

0-20 in 60 minutes - i doubt it lol abit of an exageration

Yeah, a wee bit of hyperbolé to make a point. SOme freight work would be really good I'd think.

 

[Jord]

I think it would be brilliant, a mixture of days/nights - mornings/evenings Also driving a mixture of traction, could you ask for more really? :P

 

[O L Leigh]

I think that you're somewhat divorced from reality if you think that such jobs really exist.

The reality for freight drivers is that you work mostly weekends and nights on ballast jobs which require you to drive to some godforsaken worksite in the middle of nowhere to then wait in a queue for hours on end or have to screw your train down and PASS back home again. You may be lucky enough to get proper freight jobs (Freightliner seems the best bet for this), but even then you'll spend most of your time in a loop somewhere and work unsocial hours going to out of the way places. You'd also be lucky to 'sign' more than two or three different types of traction no matter who you work for, though even then that would be dependent on your location and the type of work you'd get. You can also pretty much forget charter work. It comes around only once in a blue moon, and even then you'd be lucky to land such a cushy number. And as for all the "I'd do this, that and the other" nonsense, what the Rules doesn't knock out of you your driver manager, the H&S Nazis and their black box downloads will. But the real killer (for me, at least) is that, if your employer loses the contract for a particular freight movement, you could find yourself facing redundancy.

Train driving is not glamourous. It's boring, dirty, monotonous work that requires you to be up long before dawn and working well past midnight. It's a position that brings scary responsibilities with little or no recognition from employer or customer. You have to be 100% perfect 100% of the time with no slips, mistakes or f*** ups at all. It affects your home and social life, and makes unreasonable demands on your family and friends. In short, if you're serious about becoming a driver you will need to ditch those rose-tinted glasses and wake up to the everyday grind that is the job you aspire to.

Then again, if you've the aptitude and personality for this sort of work it can be enormously rewarding. Just don't go looking for the icing on the cake, because there isn't even any cake to begin with.

Geddit...?

one TN

 

[Jord]

I think that you're somewhat divorced from reality if you think that such jobs really exist.

The reality for freight drivers is that you work mostly weekends and nights on ballast jobs which require you to drive to some godforsaken worksite in the middle of nowhere to then wait in a queue for hours on end or have to screw your train down and PASS back home again. You may be lucky enough to get proper freight jobs (Freightliner seems the best bet for this), but even then you'll spend most of your time in a loop somewhere and work unsocial hours going to out of the way places. You'd also be lucky to 'sign' more than two or three different types of traction no matter who you work for, though even then that would be dependent on your location and the type of work you'd get. You can also pretty much forget charter work. It comes around only once in a blue moon, and even then you'd be lucky to land such a cushy number. And as for all the "I'd do this, that and the other" nonsense, what the Rules doesn't knock out of you your driver manager, the H&S Nazis and their black box downloads will. But the real killer (for me, at least) is that, if your employer loses the contract for a particular freight movement, you could find yourself facing redundancy.

Train driving is not glamourous. It's boring, dirty, monotonous work that requires you to be up long before dawn and working well past midnight. It's a position that brings scary responsibilities with little or no recognition from employer or customer. You have to be 100% perfect 100% of the time with no slips, mistakes or f*** ups at all. It affects your home and social life, and makes unreasonable demands on your family and friends. In short, if you're serious about becoming a driver you will need to ditch those rose-tinted glasses and wake up to the everyday grind that is the job you aspire to.

Then again, if you've the aptitude and personality for this sort of work it can be enormously rewarding. Just don't go looking for the icing on the cake, because there isn't even any cake to begin with.

Geddit...?

one TN

I think that's a very negative attitude to become a train driver with anyway, because anyone wanting to because a Freight Train driver would know it's mostly unsociable hours etc, and your on about the Rose Tinted thing, i think any enthusiast wanting to become a driver is like that to begin with, it's exiting to go and work because that's what you like doing, i don't see the point in doing a job if you don't like it, but you do it just for the wage packet, i would rather get a less wage if i enjoyed doing that job, like before Train driving i wanted to be a lorry driver for years as i used to travel all over England with my Uncle in his Articulated truck, because i love travelling, but because i had to stop going with him for Insurance reasons, that's how my Train enthusiasm got more serious as i wasn't doing anything on Saturday's now, but maybe if i didn't have to stop going with my uncle, things could have been different and maybe i would have still wanted to be a Truck driver, although i would still do it if i couldn't get a job on the Railways. Back on topic - I do understand that people that just do it for the money and just a job it would have the affects on he/she.

 

[Respite]

Well I think One TN summed it up quite well really (gives one TN a passing driver to driver wave, all in order.:wave:. How many fellow drivers are on here anyway? )

The only bit I will say in my own opinion is that the routes I sign don't really get monotonous. I sign five routes & everyday I find them different & challenging. Also as I sign 4 different units just adds to the variety as I can drive all four on four of the routes within a few days.

As for what you said about units Jord, well don't knock em till you have tried them. I drive at the shortest single 153's right up to a 9 coach 175 formation (plus a 12 coach 158 on shunt jobs for fuelling). Yes some cabs are small on them but as for what's behind you, who cares. Passenger work can be fun though, interaction with decent passengers, checking out the ladies on a friday/sat night . Trying to keep to time (within the OTMR's observation) whilst notwork fail attempt to regulate trains by colour,starting with red ones. Judging braking distances with ever changing railhead conditions. Back with BR & a bit after, I have (ahem) "had a go" with classes31/37/47/56/58/60/66/85/86/87 & 90's with varying different trains. Each one is a challenge, but nothing majorly different to driving a unit.
Although I dont sign 142/143's thankfully.

Having said that I am thinking about a change in the next year & a bit or later. Dont Really know when but Should be sometime then. I just fancy driving proper loco's again(although they do have some sheds,but no ones perfect.Oh & driving a 66 is duller than watching ballast settle!) & who I have in mind have a good selection of real engines & also dont do ballast jobs!8)

Shame I was a signaller in BR days as for example Crewe depot in 80's/early 90's used to sign 33's on passenger turns Man Picc to Cardiff,1st gen dmu's,20/56/58/60's on MGR turns to Ironbridge,47's/85/86/87/90's on IC work (besides more) & signed a lot more than is average in the modern TOC scene.

 

[AlexS]

If you're that desperate to try it out, start volunteering at a preserved/private railway and you'll get a sort of taste of how it is.

Slightly less risky to your future/current prospects and if you do like it you can put some effort into taking it up full time.