Earnings?

[JAMBO]

Jesus Christ it's not just the shifts, there's so many things I'd lose, if you get 50 or 60k for freight driving its because of all the s**t you have to put up with, that is, flexible start/finish times, unable to get AL when you want it, lots of very long distance drives (compared to short distance trips around a Depot!), uncomfortable working conditions, the fair share of bad/boring diagrams, time spent on the road car driving, management ready to do you for anything, the amount of time you have to spend sat down, the fatigue at work and during time off, the loss of varied tasks and duties. Then there's the fact that the job is much more taxing than MDD. It doesn't take a genius to work it out does it ?

At 34k the MDD wage may be a fraction of the freight wage but we don't have to put up with anything really! I feel if anything the salary is extremely good for what little there is that's bad about the job, which is hardly anything, bar some of the "characters" I have to work with from time to time (Just throwing a negative in to add some balance).

Yawn yawn, more trash coming from your mouth! Your prob suited to depot driver mate as I couldn't actually imagine you sat with a mentor on the mainline learning a proper job,odds are you would be out the side window head first with that I know it all attitude of yours, you really are unique!

 

[Silv1983]

Yawn yawn, more trash coming from your mouth! Your prob suited to depot driver mate as I couldn't actually imagine you sat with a mentor on the mainline learning a proper job,odds are you would be out the side window head first with that I know it all attitude of yours, you really are unique!

Maybe we have him all wrong... perhaps he see's the world differently?

I drove to Southport and back today in the glorious sunshine. The fields were being ploughed, the countryside was in full bloom. The lancashire countryside made me happy as I raced at along at 70mph with a cool breeze on my neck.
After that, I went to Huddersfield, winding up the pennines, again with trees in full bloom, lots of flora and fauna, pretty rivers and canals - and I can say that England is a green and pleasant land.

.... I did think for a moment though..... would I be happier if I gave it all up for the same few stretches of rusty, dirty and oily rail? A few points and a lonely shunt neck for variety. With litter everywhere and splodges of pooey toilet paper by my feet. Nothing but the same fuel pump and water hose - and run down council houses to please the eyes all day every day.

Nope, sorry to those who preach MDD'ing is godlike. Mainline for me every day of the year.

 

[TOCDriver]

There is more to life than money. I don't understand the obsession with it.

I wanted to be a Train Driver, I didn't care what the salary was, I wanted to achieve the ambition I had held since I was a child. I knew nothing of the T&Cs, salary, link construction, diagrams or rest day pattern. All I knew is that it was better than the job I was in before I joined the railways. Now that I've been in the grade a good few years I know what's what and I have no real interest in moving to another TOC, I'm happy where I am with the variety of traction, routes and lifestyle my link pattern allows me to have. Another TOC would have to be offering me something similar to what I have now for me to seriously consider a move, although I wouldn't rule out a change of scenery in the future

The money is nice as it enables me to provide a decent standard of living for my family but I'm not interested in chasing the mega bucks. I'm not a company man or even a yes man, I am someone who set out to become a Train Driver and made it. Lucky? I suppose so insomuch that I joined at a time when Drivers wages were vastly improved than during BR days even if the massive route and traction cards of that time are gone.

You must be easily satisfied with the rubbish you drive
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Maybe we have him all wrong... perhaps he see's the world differently?

I drove to Southport and back today in the glorious sunshine. The fields were being ploughed, the countryside was in full bloom. The lancashire countryside made me happy as I raced at along at 70mph with a cool breeze on my neck.
After that, I went to Huddersfield, winding up the pennines, again with trees in full bloom, lots of flora and fauna, pretty rivers and canals - and I can say that England is a green and pleasant land.

.... I did think for a moment though..... would I be happier if I gave it all up for the same few stretches of rusty, dirty and oily rail? A few points and a lonely shunt neck for variety. With litter everywhere and splodges of pooey toilet paper by my feet. Nothing but the same fuel pump and water hose - and run down council houses to please the eyes all day every day.

Nope, sorry to those who preach MDD'ing is godlike. Mainline for me every day of the year.

You can't beat driving at full whack at 70mph through New Lane in a 142 and giving your passengers a serious jolting within the saloon

 

[dk1]

Only £41,273 & only 25th, i feel such a pauper :cry:

 

[the sniper]

I don't really understand why some of you drivers are getting so wound up by Beveridges. He's happy with what he's doing, in his opinion it's the best job on the railway, I say fair enough to him.

Don't worry about it guys. There are still plenty of people out there who are desperate to do your job and people out there who worship the ground you walk on! Beveridges ain't changing that.

I know there are some bitchy drivers out there, most depots seem to have a corner where they all sit together, but this thread takes the biscuit.

 

[455driver]

Some of us can remember when Bevs was sending application form after application form for mainline jobs but getting nowhere and bitching like hell about it on other forums.

Personally I dont get drawn into it, different people like different things but to say that MDD is better than mainline when he has never done mainline is disingenious at best.

 

[Silv1983]

You must be easily satisfied with the rubbish you drive
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


You can't beat driving at full whack at 70mph through New Lane in a 142 and giving your passengers a serious jolting within the saloon

I think I still smile when I see New Lane coming on a semi-express. It suprises me each time that the 142s dont grind along the platform edge when they're thrown right then left

 

[Beveridges]

Silv1983 you really think bouncing around at 70mph on one of our units beats MDD'ing?

I've been in the cab of all our units at 75mph for various reasons. They are horrible at high speed, 142s shaking you about all over the place, you get the screaming windows and the infamous whistling on corridor stock.
You mention getting a breeze down your neck- you don't, all you get from an open window is an awful deafening racket caused by the air flow that is best described as the chopping noise you get when you open the back window in a car at high speed. I don't see where your coming from.
You can't beat working outdoors in good weather - give me that over being stuck on a 1980s sweatbox anyday. Even in bad weather.



Legzr1 - no you haven't done my job in the past. If you ever was a Depot Driver I can only assume you were at a very bad depot. Your comments towards MDD work such as "mind numbing monotony" - I just don't see it in my job. That comment is said more frequently in regard to some of the some of the bad diagrams on the mainline

Uncomfortable working conditions ? Endless comments from freight drivers about how uncomfortable 66s and the older traction is. You like arguing just for the sake of arguing?

Annual leave - my T&Cs allow 8 full weeks worth of AL per year, can be taken ANY time (none of this "2 weeks in the summer, 1 week in the winter" nonsense, all leave is in floating days, does not have to be taken in batch. Can be booked at a days notice! The only restriction is if there aren't too many off at once. Can you say all that about your AL conditions ?

Flexible hours? Cant compare freight hours to MDD! My hours are fixed and there is only one shift that requires a change to sleeping patterns (nights). On freight you got everything, earlys, nights, 0100, 0200, 0300 starts, shifts starting at 23xx finishing later than 0900, start/finish times that can change at short notice, the list is endless. If your trying to say there's not much fatigue on freight driving that's bollocks, I can't imagine anything more taxing than driving at 0300 and still having another 8 hrs to go, for the 4th time this week!

I dont want to ruin your feeling of self importance, but, you get paid in proportion to the amount of s**t you have to put up with compared to me.

 

[A-driver]

Silv1983 you really think bouncing around at 70mph on one of our units beats MDD'ing?

I've been in the cab of all our units at 75mph for various reasons. They are horrible at high speed, 142s shaking you about all over the place, you get the screaming windows and the infamous whistling on corridor stock.
You mention getting a breeze down your neck- you don't, all you get from an open window is an awful deafening racket caused by the air flow that is best described as the chopping noise you get when you open the back window in a car at high speed. I don't see where your coming from.
You can't beat working outdoors in good weather - give me that over being stuck on a 1980s sweatbox anyday.

Perhaps all just agree to disagree on this one. Some of us prefer the mainline, I certainly would take mainline over depot work any day (we do a lot of depot work at my toc so I have a fair amount of experience in both types of work.)

You are obviously very happy doing what you do and that's great but you don't need to try and come up with silly reasons why mainline work is so awful all the time, especially when like quoted above most people would disagree with you!

I am slightly confused why you spent so long and applied so many times to try and get a mainline job not too long ago though if you hate it so much! (Like 455driver I am on the 'other forum' as well and saw all your posts there at the time).

 

[Beveridges]

455driver- you may or may not remember but most of those posts and app forms for the mainline driving were before I got an MDD role. The rest were (1) when I was in training I had a few problems/setbacks so felt like I had to get out, and (2) shortly after passing out and I didn't really know any better. I made a blind assumption that the mainline was natural progression from MDD.
I've been in the cab enough times on 70mph runs - on development days, on test runs and when front ending- from what I gathered its not a bad job but it just doesn't beat MDD'ing.


Everyone changes their future career ambitions at some point in their life - especially when they become more knowledgable. I am no exception. Neither is my Uncle. He changed his career ambition tremendously. From leaving School he wanted a life on benefits and his ambition was never to do a days work. Now, 30 years later, he's running his own business, making £2000 per week!

 

[A-driver]

I've been in the cab enough times on 70mph runs - on development days, on test runs and when front ending- from what I gathered its not a bad job but it just doesn't beat MDD'ing.

And that's fair enough but you are getting very defensive in here. Most others would not agree with you and I know you know a few who agree with you but most shunters who become drivers prefer the job and, as I said before, a number of us mainline drivers who do a lot of depot work to prefer to run about a 70mph than crawl round a depot at 5mph.

But each to their own.

 

[Beveridges]

I only get defensive because the usual suspects here go on the assault every time I post! (Legzr1 - I will get round to your PMs eventually - but the posts on the main forum are taking up too much of my "break time" at the minute!)
There's a lot of rubbish being posted and the record has to be put straight.

 

[Silv1983]

We are going full circle yet again folks - resist!

Oh, and the reason people go on the "assault" Beveridges is because you try to sell your opinions as facts. Mainline drivers will share their opinions with aspiring "drivers" by sharing the facts on pay and conditions etc - but you can't resist jumping in to put it all down. Even just then you say "there's rubbish posted on the forum and I need to put the record straight". That's so subjective and fatuous you must see it man!!

Anyway bedtime for me - got a really boring day tomorrow on noisy shakey 1980's sweatbox to Chester and Clitheroe. Dreading it

 

[TDK]

You mention getting a breeze down your neck- you don't, all you get from an open window is an awful deafening racket caused by the air flow that is best described as the chopping noise you get when you open the back window in a car at high speed. I don't see where your coming from.

If you open the 2nd mans window by an inch you don't get that chop thumping noise you mention.

 

[JAMBO]

I only get defensive because the usual suspects here go on the assault every time I post! (Legzr1 - I will get round to your PMs eventually - but the posts on the main forum are taking up too much of my "break time" at the minute!)
There's a lot of rubbish being posted and the record has to be put straight.

And the rubbish is coming from your trap pal! I really don't know how you think?! You sound like a very very bitter man

 

[bystander]

"I only get defensive because the usual suspects here go on the assault every time I post!"

You don't just defend your own role - in a very insecure manner - what grates is that you take every opportunity to hijack ANY thread in order to put down the role of mainline drivers. You come across as bitter, ignorant, intolerant, aggressive and insecure. If that isn't your intention I suggest you reflect on your style of communication. If it is your intention, you're exactly the type of person that most people on here take you for which is why they react in the way they do.

As I've said before, just shut up and stop hijacking and spoiling threads with your boring tirades against proper drivers. Oops, did I say that? Oh yes, I did.

 

[GB]

(none of this "2 weeks in the summer, 1 week in the winter" nonsense, all leave is in floating days, does not have to be taken in batch.

Not sure what is nonsense about it. As far as I am aware, 2 weeks in summer, 1 week in early winter and 1 week in late winter is pretty standard amongst most employments. Standard doesn't necessarily equate to s**t. All though our leave is allocated, we are free to rebook it to when we want providing the dates are free.


Can be booked at a days notice! The only restriction is if there aren't too many off at once. Can you say all that about your AL conditions ?

No, but that suggests how easy it is for you to be replaced or get your job covered.

Flexible hours? Cant compare freight hours to MDD! My hours are fixed and there is only one shift that requires a change to sleeping patterns (nights). On freight you got everything, earlys, nights, 0100, 0200, 0300 starts, shifts starting at 23xx finishing later than 0900, start/finish times that can change at short notice, the list is endless.

That's the nature of the beast and you can either cope with it or you can't. We obviously know what camp you sit in.


If your trying to say there's not much fatigue on freight driving that's bollocks, I can't imagine anything more taxing than driving at 0300 and still having another 8 hrs to go, for the 4th time this week!

Of course there is fatigue. Are you seriously suggesting you suffer from no fatigue at all in your job?



I dont want to ruin your feeling of self importance, but, you get paid in proportion to the amount of s**t you have to put up with compared to me.

Its only s**t if you chose to see it that way. Personally I'm quite happy with starting at 0600, doing my job and going home at 1100 while still being paid untill 1500....or being spare at home while still being paid or any other day where 99% of the time I am already at home some 1-2 hours before my booking off time.

A couple of words for you....rough and smooth.

......

 

[#1 driver]

Endless comments from freight drivers about how uncomfortable 66s is.

I don't get this !
I find 66s really comfortable ( except for getting the radiator end on a hot day ) .
i'll have a 66 every shift .

 

[IanXC]

I think the subjects in this thread have been pretty well covered, so its time to draw it to a close.