Becoming a Train Driver

[Jord]

Ghostcav, i take it you mean with DRS then, well go for it, i would love to have that opportunity, but who do you work for now then? and where you based?

Oh and by the way, i would rather drive 66s than any units lol but that's just my opinion

 

[Respite]

Ghostcav, i take it you mean with DRS then, well go for it, i would love to have that opportunity, but who do you work for now then? and where you based?

I may mean DRS, who knows It wont be for a while anyhow, marriage looming next december & I havent got the energy to swap jobs & sort that out.hock: Currently I work for Arriva Trains Wales based at shrewsbury.

Oh and by the way, i would rather drive 66s than any units lol but that's just my opinion

YING YING YING YING YING YING YING YING YING YING YING YING YING YING YING YING YING YING...."AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!Stop it you Gm pile of cack."
As said by most EWS drivers sat in a 66 cab on a 12hr ballast job during the middle of the night.

Picop says"Right driver can you shunt up 3 feet" for the 30th time that night.
EWS 66 says "YING YING YING YING rattle rattle YING YING YING clunk Ying Parpfff!"
EWS driver pulls out gun & blows his head off.

Sorry in that case I would rather be doing up to 90mph in my 158.

 

[Donny Dave]

Jord, driving isn't all it's cracked up to be (this includes lorry driving as well). I'm in the process of applying to be a trainee driver, and it's a tough process. The one big plus (in my opinion) I have in my favour is that for most of the last 5 years, I have been driving lorries and vans on long distance work. That involves concentrating on everything all the time, as you never know what is going to happen right in front of you, same as a train driver.

What I'm not too sure about though, is all the assessments and psychometric tests. Although I'm fairly certain I can pass them, nothing is guaranteed.

As has been mentioned above, I then have to put up with unsociable hours, and depending on where I'm based, by your standards, inferior traction (subject to passing all the tests, route learning and training first).

With all that, I've accepted the fact that I will have to move away from Scunthorpe (I've lived here for over 25 years), as there is no jobs in the area (Doncaster, Hull, Cleethorpes, Sheffield and Leeds, all within easy commuting distance), so my only choice has been to apply for job(s) elsewhere, and hope the TOC concerned does realise that I will relocate in order to get the job, and not just throw my application in the bin.

All in all, If you have no patience, then driving trains for a living is not for you.

 

[Techniquest]

Well I still want to be a driver, irrespective of the terrible hours et al. It was something I was concerned with before I did the driver experience on the SVR. OK, so that was just a short experience. The reality of mainline driving these days is nothing like that. Nevertheless, from that experience I knew I wanted still to be a driver. Working nights? I prefer them anyway. On your own all day? Suits me.

But I'd definately prefer passenger work. Sitting in loops for most of the shift with a yinger behind you? That's got to be painful...

 

[AlexS]

Well I still want to be a driver, irrespective of the terrible hours et al. It was something I was concerned with before I did the driver experience on the SVR. OK, so that was just a short experience. The reality of mainline driving these days is nothing like that. Nevertheless, from that experience I knew I wanted still to be a driver. Working nights? I prefer them anyway. On your own all day? Suits me.

But I'd definately prefer passenger work. Sitting in loops for most of the shift with a yinger behind you? That's got to be painful...

Bearing in mind the difficulties you've had in the past both doing volunteer shunting work at the SVR and this other job that escapes my mind as some kind of building thing, are you really sure you want to be climbing under trains in all weather to mess around with couplings that are quite possibly covered in excrement and all sorts, not to mention lifting up 14 stone buckeyes and all other such jobs.

From a person who at 1500 this afternoon was between a pair of carriages, under the corridor connection, right next to a pile of bangers and mash, in the pouring rain, in a gale, messing with a screw link coupling and vacuum brake pipe, while another train passed a few feet from my nose.

The difference being it was my day off university and I love doing it.

 

[Respite]

What I'm not too sure about though, is all the assessments and psychometric tests. Although I'm fairly certain I can pass them, nothing is guaranteed.

Don't worry too much about the test's mate, the worst is certainly the reaction test. 4 coloured buttons,a high & a low note button & two pedals on the floor. Respond to the colour pattern on screen with same coloured button,whilst pressing the correct side pedal in relation to the left or right box on the screen is shown & whilst you are doing that make sure you press the high or low note button to respond to the correct noise coming through the headphones...........I'm telling you that you will leave the room feeling giddy! Two tests on that one that gets faster & faster until you have to stop & try & start back over, it is designed to see how you can deal with being overwelmed with information & how quickly you can get back on track, the other goes at your own pace,but dont go slow.

Also there is the grouped dots test before,can be a bit of a eyefull.

As for where you live , most TOC's state within 1 hour travelling from home to depot which is not based on driving like a loon at 140mph.

Oh & good luck.

As you say the railway looks for dedication,attention to detail & SAFETY!!
If you need any advice I would be glad to help,although its been a while so I might be a bit rusty.

Oh & BTW driving trains is as much as you put into it, I must say I totally love it. As for the hours,well I've worked shifts all my life. It aint that bad at all. But I am a lates kinda person,mornings are not my finest hour.

VXC, You keep at it & dont let anyone put you off. I joined the railway at 17 to be a driver, got sidetracked into signalling & ops manager roles. Finally got to driver which was harder than I planned in the privatised railway enviroment. But its all been worth it, I actually love going to work as everyday is unique due to the routes I sign. I work a 4 day week & get paid £31,000 a year (which I know is low for drivers but its a start in the grade) plus theres usually overtime (although ASLEF is trying to stop that,yep your own union ****ing you over YAY!). BTW I used to work on the SVR as a teenager & living in bridgnorth at the time.
Oh & I like the name "yingers", will use that now. Bloody things are always sat in the middle road at salop when I'm spare in the messroom at night. Trying to watch TV or read a book with yinging on one side & a bloody nightclub banging away on the other....Grrrr
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

are you really sure you want to be climbing under trains in all weather to mess around with couplings that are quite possibly covered in excrement and all sorts, not to mention lifting up 14 stone buckeyes and all other such jobs.

Well if he's a driver he wont have to mess about with coupling stuff up, unless it's units & then its just aim,ram,tug test & press couple!

Besides shunting aint that bad, I used to love it.
See how happy I am here in 1991:-

There's a tool for buckeyes,introduced after I finished in the grade I may add. But when they realeased that tool even Janice at wolverhampton a 7 & a bit stone woman could lift a buckeye up. Vac pipes are a pig, but what uses vac on the system these days. I once had to uncouple a 4 car 101/117 set at wolves that had mown down about 6 donkeys. I will always remember trying to get the pins out & split those pipes as large chunks of 16oz donkey fell on me as it rained blood,guts & stomach linings down on me....Gah not nice.

 

[AlexS]

Yeah, I can lift a buckeye 1 handed with said tool - still not the greatest fun in the world though, specially when the pin is too well oiled and sliding around all over the place or the chain has jammed and you have to hang off it to get the knuckle out.

As for vac pipes...

You might one day move to a charter operation

I still use them and I assure you they're still wonderful especially when twisted or when the seal on the dummy goes for a burton in the dark.

And if you're a Freight driver, with the slow demise of the groundstaff at many locations, you find yourself doing your own shunting!

 

[Respite]

And if you're a Freight driver, with the slow demise of the groundstaff at many locations, you find yourself doing your own shunting!

But almost everyting is air now, & air pipes are a piece of ****. Ok so screwcouplings are a bit awkward if the weight is stiff on the screw but not that bad. BTW that tool was banned when I was a shunter,we were taught to lift the buckeye with one hand,then forearm & rest it on the shoulder. Then fiddle with the pin (& as you know those two split bits on the end would both different ways & then the chain would of twisted so there wasnt enough slack to get the pin in). Actually I can make my right shoulder click by just doing the movement of lifting a buckeye. Good job I'm not into blame culture.

 

[AlexS]

I heave it up halfway with both hands, then let it drop slightly and chuck it right up again using the momentum, then get my right forearm under the knuckle to keep it up and bang in the pin with the left (obviously having turned the pin sideways and having it as far into the slot as to not interrupt the casting helps with this banging in!).

One of our traffic managers made the mistake of getting under the buckeye to push it up from underneath. He slipped and now has no front teeth of his own. Sometimes useful with an uncooperative screw coupler to get behind it and shove it upwards but not advised for a buckeye!

 

[DescendingSadly]

I remember seeing a post on railchat where a certain driver knew how to reset the time it took to trigger the vigilance alarm...apparently he set it to 2 seconds (so if the driver didn't move the controls for 2 seconds, it goes off)

Apparently he could hear the alarm in his sleep

 

[adamp]

Id love to drive 158's. as they are my fav trains. also 150/3/6's too.
142's I dont mind, too slow though for me!

 

[Respite]

158's are a fantastic unit to drive. Saying that, 150's aint bad either, but 153's.........Ugh! No power,no backup if your engine shuts down,the smallest cab ever & the worst thing is.....No way of stopping the bastards when they start to slide! (No sanders on a 153 as they claim it would affect the TCA's).hock:

 

[DescendingSadly]

158's are a fantastic unit to drive. Saying that, 150's aint bad either, but 153's.........Ugh! No power,no backup if your engine shuts down,the smallest cab ever & the worst thing is.....No way of stopping the bastards when they start to slide! (No sanders on a 153 as they claim it would affect the TCA's).hock:

Do they not have WSD?

 

[Techniquest]

Don't worry too much about the test's mate, the worst is certainly the reaction test. 4 coloured buttons,a high & a low note button & two pedals on the floor. Respond to the colour pattern on screen with same coloured button,whilst pressing the correct side pedal in relation to the left or right box on the screen is shown & whilst you are doing that make sure you press the high or low note button to respond to the correct noise coming through the headphones...........I'm telling you that you will leave the room feeling giddy! Two tests on that one that gets faster & faster until you have to stop & try & start back over, it is designed to see how you can deal with being overwelmed with information & how quickly you can get back on track, the other goes at your own pace,but dont go slow.

Also there is the grouped dots test before,can be a bit of a eyefull.

As for where you live , most TOC's state within 1 hour travelling from home to depot which is not based on driving like a loon at 140mph.

Oh & good luck.

As you say the railway looks for dedication,attention to detail & SAFETY!!
If you need any advice I would be glad to help,although its been a while so I might be a bit rusty.

Oh & BTW driving trains is as much as you put into it, I must say I totally love it. As for the hours,well I've worked shifts all my life. It aint that bad at all. But I am a lates kinda person,mornings are not my finest hour.

VXC, You keep at it & dont let anyone put you off. I joined the railway at 17 to be a driver, got sidetracked into signalling & ops manager roles. Finally got to driver which was harder than I planned in the privatised railway enviroment. But its all been worth it, I actually love going to work as everyday is unique due to the routes I sign. I work a 4 day week & get paid £31,000 a year (which I know is low for drivers but its a start in the grade) plus theres usually overtime (although ASLEF is trying to stop that,yep your own union ****ing you over YAY!). BTW I used to work on the SVR as a teenager & living in bridgnorth at the time.
Oh & I like the name "yingers", will use that now. Bloody things are always sat in the middle road at salop when I'm spare in the messroom at night. Trying to watch TV or read a book with yinging on one side & a bloody nightclub banging away on the other....Grrrr
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


Well if he's a driver he wont have to mess about with coupling stuff up, unless it's units & then its just aim,ram,tug test & press couple!

Besides shunting aint that bad, I used to love it.
See how happy I am here in 1991:-

There's a tool for buckeyes,introduced after I finished in the grade I may add. But when they realeased that tool even Janice at wolverhampton a 7 & a bit stone woman could lift a buckeye up. Vac pipes are a pig, but what uses vac on the system these days. I once had to uncouple a 4 car 101/117 set at wolves that had mown down about 6 donkeys. I will always remember trying to get the pins out & split those pipes as large chunks of 16oz donkey fell on me as it rained blood,guts & stomach linings down on me....Gah not nice.

Ta for the informative post there GhostCav.

Yes, I didn't like having to heave around buckeyes on the SVR, that much is well known. Couldn't use the tool on the shunter tests apparently. With that thing, I could manage OK. The rest of it was simply down to practice. Then of course it was the fact that shunting around with MK1s all day just isn't my thing. I wasn't (and I'm still not) willing to give up weekends for bashing to mess around on the SVR. Didn't enjoy it anyway. That aspect of the network didn't appeal.

Still gonna keep going at it, though! I've wanted to be a train driver since I was 11, so a long 12-year dream so far!

 

[Respite]

Do they not have WSD?

Do you mean WSP?

If so then no, not really. I once had a 153 off the clock at around 110mph without noticing(clock only goes to a 100mph)I was only actually doing 50mph. It's wierd but some cut throttle when wheelslip is detected, others keep powering until you shut off. As for wheelslide (wheelslip is under power,wheelslide is underbraking) then no, they have nothing at all to assist in braking. Also being clasp braked then even step1 on the brake handle delivers way too much brake friction & usually leads to instant lockup. It's why you will hardly ever hear a 153 without wheelflats.

 

[O L Leigh]

Chaps,

I wasn't trying to knock train driving as a job because I certainly enjoy it. All I was trying to do was inject some reality into the discussion. Those of us already in the grade understand these things.

Ghostcav: I did skidpan training in a Cl153 on the MNR last year. Total waste of time it was too, especially given that the brakes are totally different to what we have on our own units. It didn't help matters that we were given a target shorter than the platform at Berney Arms to aim for from 40mph. Not pleasant. The unit we drove seemed to sense wheelslip and cut the power whenever it spun up. It also flashed up the tranny fault light at the same time.

adamp: You may not like Cl142's, but I believe they are popular with drivers (at least, that's the impression I get from other forums). They have the same power output as a Sprinter but a fraction of the weight, which means they are actually seriously quick off the mark.

one TN

 

[Respite]

One TN, LOL at the 153 for skidpan training,great choice that! As I said some of ours cut power on slip(with red train light),but most dont. I did My skidpan training with a 158.The WSP on these is great & I actually stopped at the same point on contaminated rail as I did on the first dry run.:roll: Funny thing was I had been driving for a year when I went on the course & I was well used to sliding around the network already.

Oh & you mentioned the Berney Arms station, I have spent many a night in that pub on the broads. I used to go sailing there every year.

 

[O L Leigh]

Ah, twas indeed a good day, made all the better by the chap driving the Scud up to the starting point almost coming a cropper.

We'd all just been picked up and the onboard tank refilled and off he went ready for the first victim trainee. Unfortunately, the jets seemed to be in overdrive and he took an absolute age to stop. When he finally did, the chap running the course came down the train looking very red faced. It seemed that he'd overrun the section of line we were supposed to be using by something in the region of two coach lengths and had almost collected a crossing gate.

It was a short day as it was, but would have been even shorter if we'd had that collision right at the start.

one TN

 

[adamp]

OneTN:
I do like driving class 142's (on my simulator anyway). But I just think the front looks really ugly. Is the class 158 german made?
I was looking at this box thing outside the cab, where it says systems are okay or have a fault. It said some random word that I cant remember. But it was definantely not english. In bold blue writing. Anyone know what I mean?

 

[Juniper Driver]

Oh & BTW driving trains is as much as you put into it, I must say I totally love it. As for the hours,well I've worked shifts all my life. It aint that bad at all. But I am a lates kinda person,mornings are not my finest hour.

I prefer really early turns.

 

[Respite]

Oh & BTW driving trains is as much as you put into it, I must say I totally love it. As for the hours,well I've worked shifts all my life. It aint that bad at all. But I am a lates kinda person,mornings are not my finest hour.

I prefer really early turns.

Completly agree with you there fella. I also love driving & I've done most operational jobs on the railway. Ditto with the shifts as well, certainly a lates kinda person as well. It's 2am & I've just got in, few beers & then bed to complete the day & a nice long sleep in tomorrow morning & up ready for 16:05 start. Sweet.

OneTN:
I do like driving class 142's (on my simulator anyway). But I just think the front looks really ugly. Is the class 158 german made?
I was looking at this box thing outside the cab..............

I drove 142's/143's during training in cardiff & I must say they are F***ing awful things to drive. You get sea sick bouncing around in the cab, they ride as rough as a ,errrrr rough thing. Just to top it off they make you deaf with all the flange squeal they make.Nasty nasty things. We had some cardiff lads on our training course, all headed for the valley lines.........man we felt sorry for those guys.
As for 158's,no they are as british as all recent units.........i.e. they have german bits on them.Built by British Rail enginering limited. They are based on the Mk4 coach structure, come with a Cummins engine (or Perkins in later builds) powering through a voith two stage transmission (voith being german & actually built U- Boat gearboxes during ww2). They use the standard german designed Bergan stile industrys coupler<SP?, its late> (BSI). With a host of other parts from germany on it. But it is made in britain.
They are also a damn good unit & certainly the best I drive by far, after driving a 175 & then going to a 158 really shows how cack a 175 is!

 

[Juniper Driver]

Yeah I drive 158's,159's and 159/1s.Very similar

 

[me123]

As for 158's,no they are as british as all recent units.........i.e. they have german bits on them.Built by British Rail enginering limited. They are based on the Mk4 coach structure...

I didn't think it was, despite the huge similarities? Where did I see that...

Anyway, 158s are good. Still prefer my turbos, though

 

[Jord]

me123, you ever been on a loco hauled train or Railtour?

Also did you get pics of a Grampian Railtour from Aberdeen - Arrochar & Tarbet in late August 2006? as we went around the suburbs of Glasgow

 

[O L Leigh]

I didn't think it was, despite the huge similarities? Where did I see that...

Agreed.

Cl158's may look outwardly similar to Mk4 stock, but that's about as far as it goes. They certainly aren't "based on the Mk4". For one thing, the construction jigs were built by a company in France who also turned out the shells for 158701 to check the alignments before the jigs were handed over to BREL and shipped to Litchurch Lane. They certainly weren't a derivative version of the Mk4 jigs that were in use at York.

one TN

 

[Respite]

Agreed.

Cl158's may look outwardly similar to Mk4 stock, but that's about as far as it goes. They certainly aren't "based on the Mk4". For one thing, the construction jigs were built by a company in France who also turned out the shells for 158701 to check the alignments before the jigs were handed over to BREL and shipped to Litchurch Lane. They certainly weren't a derivative version of the Mk4 jigs that were in use at York.

one TN

I didnt actually mean they were based directly on the Mk4 shell, that simply woudnt work as there are not the same load bearing areas on a coach monocoque as there would be on a unit. By saying "based on a mk4" I mean it was part of the company image of the day.The sloped in sides etc etc, probably a design image that heralded from the APT?

Anyway hope I have got my point across this time Thats the trouble with writing things rather than saying them,its harder to say what you mean.

Anyway it's late & I finished a late spare early so have been enjoying a friday night in the pub. Hence spelling & grammer mistakes.

 

[me123]

me123, you ever been on a loco hauled train or Railtour?

If HSTs count, then yes (An unusual HST to Glasgow one day a wee while ago). Mallards as well. Love the quiet you get on them In the centre carriages), as well as the immense power up front.

 

[kestrel]

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

you've been travelling on my train then lol

 

[Nym]

Clarksonesk there, "FLOOR IT!" or "POWWWEEERRRR!"

 

[Donny Dave]

What a brilliant post with which to raise a dead topic. :roll:

*click*