Just visited eBay and there's a 'wanted' advert for a village looking for an idiot - £60K a year so a certain member could live the dream and double their wages in one click of a mouse.
Since the introduction of TDA's (and NR dedicating lots of time, resources and staff to the 'project') it's worth mentioning that freight in no longer the nice & easy jaunt through the countryside that it once was - there's lots of money to be lost and gained with this paper exercise so the 'no chasing the clock' comment earlier in the thread no longer holds true I'm afraid.
As for freight -vs- passenger it all depends on the individual. I know lots of drivers who've gone from one discipline to the other and have loved the change, some who wouldn't even contemplate ever moving from one to the other and quite a few who've chopped and changed between the two for 30 years!
What suits one individual will not suit another - if the seed of doubt is there then you really have to try it for yourself.
Loco's - as said 66's and the odd 60 are the mainstay (some companies still use relics but they're few and far between) - 70's and 68's are making an appearance but I have nothing to do with those.
They're relatively simple and reliable machines but have common faults - these you will soon pick up and learn how to fix - GB and DBS have 24/7 contact to experienced fitters which can sort out a lot of more complicated issues. Naturally, there are times when nothing but a full engine rebuild is going to get you going (ask me how I know...
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Take the rough with the smooth - one one occasion you'll be stranded in the middle of nowhere in the depths of winter waiting for someone to get to you in 5ft of snow - 14 hours seems a long time, I guarantee it feels like 14 weeks when it's you doing the sitting and waiting.
A few short months later you'll be rostered a 6 hour turn which means you'll drive for 2 hours, home on a passenger train and back in your garden at 10am 3 and a half hours after signing on - BE WARNED however, this will happen on mon and Tuesday so you'll make arrangements for Wednesday to pick up family from airport or take kids to the park - GUARANTEED this is when you will fail and get 12 hours in !!!
Most freight drivers will have something to moan about but it's easy to stop and simply think - "could be worse, could be working for a living".
DBS Peterborough - visited that place a few times in 2010/2011 - it used to be big and busy but was like a ghost town recently - loads of drivers have left and I think they swapped buildings with FCC into a much smaller depot (although still bigger than the potting shed that FLHH use on platform 3 LMFAO!) so I'm not surprised there's no vacancies there.
GBRf have a big presence in that area so a CV to them might help.
Security: there's no way to sweeten the pill - compared with TOCs it's far less secure but it looks like the bad days of knee-jerk redundancies without any long-term thought are behind us all (fingers crossed) - there's also TUPE regulations to protect staff when large contracts change hands.
Best of luck to anyone thinking of changing.
Since the introduction of TDA's (and NR dedicating lots of time, resources and staff to the 'project') it's worth mentioning that freight in no longer the nice & easy jaunt through the countryside that it once was - there's lots of money to be lost and gained with this paper exercise so the 'no chasing the clock' comment earlier in the thread no longer holds true I'm afraid.
As for freight -vs- passenger it all depends on the individual. I know lots of drivers who've gone from one discipline to the other and have loved the change, some who wouldn't even contemplate ever moving from one to the other and quite a few who've chopped and changed between the two for 30 years!
What suits one individual will not suit another - if the seed of doubt is there then you really have to try it for yourself.
Loco's - as said 66's and the odd 60 are the mainstay (some companies still use relics but they're few and far between) - 70's and 68's are making an appearance but I have nothing to do with those.
They're relatively simple and reliable machines but have common faults - these you will soon pick up and learn how to fix - GB and DBS have 24/7 contact to experienced fitters which can sort out a lot of more complicated issues. Naturally, there are times when nothing but a full engine rebuild is going to get you going (ask me how I know...
)Take the rough with the smooth - one one occasion you'll be stranded in the middle of nowhere in the depths of winter waiting for someone to get to you in 5ft of snow - 14 hours seems a long time, I guarantee it feels like 14 weeks when it's you doing the sitting and waiting.
A few short months later you'll be rostered a 6 hour turn which means you'll drive for 2 hours, home on a passenger train and back in your garden at 10am 3 and a half hours after signing on - BE WARNED however, this will happen on mon and Tuesday so you'll make arrangements for Wednesday to pick up family from airport or take kids to the park - GUARANTEED this is when you will fail and get 12 hours in !!!
Most freight drivers will have something to moan about but it's easy to stop and simply think - "could be worse, could be working for a living".
DBS Peterborough - visited that place a few times in 2010/2011 - it used to be big and busy but was like a ghost town recently - loads of drivers have left and I think they swapped buildings with FCC into a much smaller depot (although still bigger than the potting shed that FLHH use on platform 3 LMFAO!) so I'm not surprised there's no vacancies there.
GBRf have a big presence in that area so a CV to them might help.
Security: there's no way to sweeten the pill - compared with TOCs it's far less secure but it looks like the bad days of knee-jerk redundancies without any long-term thought are behind us all (fingers crossed) - there's also TUPE regulations to protect staff when large contracts change hands.
Best of luck to anyone thinking of changing.