Least demanding railway job?

[algytaylor]

Today I've been wondering about undemanding jobs - ones with the smallest (time-wise) proportion of active 'doing something' in the working day.

So, what's the least work-y job on the railways? I imagine there must be a handful on particularly low frequency, rural lines where it's cheaper to employ someone for a couple of hours work than to build the infrastructure to centralise whatever they do.

 

[DB]

Today I've been wondering about undemanding jobs - ones with the smallest (time-wise) proportion of active 'doing something' in the working day.

So, what's the least work-y job on the railways? I imagine there must be a handful on particularly low frequency, rural lines where it's cheaper to employ someone for a couple of hours work than to build the infrastructure to centralise whatever they do.

Gate keepers on rural lines with a fairly sparse service?

 

[221129]

Are we talking in terms of day to day or ? Because right now (especially with COVID) my job is an absolute steal... Until something goes wrong...

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'd say that working in a suburban Merseyrail ticket office, such as Aughton Park, say, would be a very easy job despite the frequent train service. Occasional sales of day tickets/returns to Liverpool (interspersed with the very occasional request for Preston or Manchester) and that's more or less your lot. Scallies don't bother paying anyway, so they are unlikely to bother you. And even if they did, they're behind glass, so pull down the blind and ignore them until they go away.

An evening shift would probably be even quieter.

 

[bramling]

Today I've been wondering about undemanding jobs - ones with the smallest (time-wise) proportion of active 'doing something' in the working day.

So, what's the least work-y job on the railways? I imagine there must be a handful on particularly low frequency, rural lines where it's cheaper to employ someone for a couple of hours work than to build the infrastructure to centralise whatever they do.

Incident response jobs can be quiet, however these periods of calm are interspersed with periods of very intense activity and responsibility.

 

[philthetube]

Incident response jobs can be quiet, however these periods of calm are interspersed with periods of very intense activity and responsibility.

They do spend a lot of time training though, there are probably jobs with far fewer working hours.

 

[Ianno87]

Reminds me of taking a trip to Barton on Humber.

Dropping the token off at Oxmarsh Crossing box also involved exchanging a copy of The Sun...presumably to pass the following 90 minutes until the next train....

 

[Gloster]

However quiet a signal or gate box is, one bit of your mind is always listening out for a bell or ‘phone to ring.

 

[Spet0789]

However quiet a signal or gate box is, one bit of your mind is always listening out for a bell or ‘phone to ring.

Give over! That doesn’t make you busy. Just means you can’t (or at least shouldn’t) nod off.

Anyone who thinks that sitting and waiting for a bell to ring counts as busy should try a proper job.

 

[E502]

CEO is a nice easy job.

 

[43066]

CEO is a nice easy job.

Agreed. Poor performance certainly doesn’t lead to swift removal from the grade in the way it does for mere lever monkeys .

 

[Kingspanner]

Reminds me of taking a trip to Barton on Humber.

Dropping the token off at Oxmarsh Crossing box also involved exchanging a copy of The Sun...presumably to pass the following 90 minutes until the next train....

Give over, you'd be hard pressed to spin out a copy of The Sun over 90 minutes

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Give over, you'd be hard pressed to spin out a copy of The Sun over 90 minutes

Maybe you could (just about) by doing the crossword!

 

[Lloyds siding]

Maybe you could (just about) by doing the crossword!

I did complete the Daily Mirror crossword in the time it took to travel between Southport and Ainsdale (I picked it up off the seat), and I was drunk!

 

[Philip Phlopp]

Incident response jobs can be quiet, however these periods of calm are interspersed with periods of very intense activity and responsibility.

Not for the squeamish amongst you either.

 

[2L70]

Once worked a shift in the Ticket Kiosk at Birmingham New Street(Navigation Street entrance). I wasn’t trained on Sportis at the time so that was easy.

 

[ijmad]

I'd imagine that emergency responders (infrastructure or people emergencies) probably don't have a lot to do for most of the hours they're on watch - but when they do have something to do, it's extremely intense and obviously critical.

So a much more challenging job overall than most of us could do, but in terms of OP's criteria, might qualify?

 

[43066]

Give over, you'd be hard pressed to spin out a copy of The Sun over 90 minutes

Give over, lad, you can string it out for a few weeks if you keep it by the bog and tear strips off as appropriate.

(That doesn’t add much, I just fancied saying “give over, lad“).

I'd imagine that emergency responders (infrastructure or people emergencies) probably don't have a lot to do for most of the hours they're on watch - but when they do have something to do, it's extremely intense and obviously critical.

So a much more challenging job overall than most of us could do, but in terms of OP's criteria, might qualify?

I’ve always had the impression that MOMs are kept very busy indeed. They’re spread very thinly and deal with any and all kinds of issues ranging from problems with traction current, anything that goes wrong with p-way be it broken rails, shopping trolleys on the line, flooding, dead animals etc. And sadly fatalities, of course.

 

[C J Snarzell]

When I worked for six months in railway control the job fell at both ends of the spectrum.

When it was busy, it was ridiculously busy. The pressure was immense, juggling various jobs. You could be on the phone, with five calls waiting in the queue and there would be two members of staff from across the room, stood behind you, wanting to bend your ear at the same time.

Then when there was downtime it was boring, particularly on nights during the early hours. It was painful at times. Drinking endless cups of coffee and maybe trying to watch a DVD on a portable device, but being too tired to concentrate.

CJ

 

[BTU]

Being a shunter / shunter driver at some of those outer depots is a bit of a doss, wont mention names or places but you know who and where you are.

 

[LowLevel]

Rural signalboxes can actually be pretty busy places mainly due to the telephone. If it is a box with many user worked crossings managing those can form most of the workload.

I imagine somewhere like Shirebrook Junction signalbox is a pretty slow place to work now - despite the large amount of infrastructure controlled it is an hourly passenger train each way with one empty stock first and last thing with occasional freight trains to Langwith Junction wagon works, the Ollerton test track or now very sporadic through freight.

 

[Efini92]

Train driver at Manchester Victoria. Unless you fall in the 20% that do all the work.

 

[TheVicLine]

Drivers rest day working can be very little work for a huge amount of money. Every few years you get a job with 10 minutes driving because they have a train that needs moving to the shed with no one to do it.

 

[London 10101]

Ticket office clerk in a quiet station.

 

[185143]

I'd like to nominate the crossing keeper at Tal-y-Cafn (IIRC?) for this. Especially given the line is more often than not a replacement bus!