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[cherryslt]

Hello good morning, I have been appointed to Three bridges ROC as a Grade 8 signaller and begin in November I was hoping to get to some information about:
Where is the signalling school?
What shifts are worked at Three bridges?
Can anyone recommend any signalling manuals or reading material to have a look at before starting signalling school?
Any advice would be appreciated, Thanks

 

[TRain87]

Don't do any research or reading before you start school...that's what trainers are paid for and very good at their jobs. If you start school in November, you'll be going to York signalling school.

Advice...soak in the whole experience and revise in hotel room at night, listen and take LOTS of notes!

Congratulations and enjoy

 

[tiptoptaff]

Red for Danger is a book worth reading

 

[Dieseldriver]

Red for Danger is a book worth reading

Agree with this. Not much you can do prior to the course as you need to do the full course to fully understand everything. My advice though for any Signallers and Drivers would be to read RAIB reports relaying to your role, read archived incident reports and as tiptoptaff said, get yourself a copy of 'Red for Danger'.
There's a lot that operational staff can learn from past incidents and it reinforces why rules and safe practices are so important.

 

[Lasbrisas]

Hello good morning, I have been appointed to Three bridges ROC as a Grade 8 signaller and begin in November I was hoping to get to some information about:
Where is the signalling school?
What shifts are worked at Three bridges?
Can anyone recommend any signalling manuals or reading material to have a look at before starting signalling school?
Any advice would be appreciated, Thanks

If your starting school on 6th November then I can confirm it's York as I will be on the same one.

 

[cherryslt]

Thanks for the feedback . Just ordered the book and will look into all the info suggested . Im starting on November 27th but i was originally scheduled for November 6th in York but for whatever reason got changed yesterday however not been given any info on new location. Thanks

 

[nom de guerre]

Welcome to the grade!

TBROC work a 12-hour roster. Two hours on, one hour off - staffing levels permitting - changeovers at 0700/1900 (with some potential for mutual tweaking).

In addition to Red For Danger - which is a classic - I can recommend the handful of Stanley Hall books on railway accidents. Useful coverage of the post-RFD era and you can pick up used copies for peanuts.

 

[cherryslt]

thanks for the info , How do weekends and nights work if you dont mind me asking, regards

 

[tiptoptaff]

thanks for the info , How do weekends and nights work if you dont mind me asking, regards

I would assume that as you'd be working 12s that they would just be regular shifts in your roster pattern

 

[nom de guerre]

thanks for the info , How do weekends and nights work if you dont mind me asking, regards

Saturdays are a normal working day.

Sundays are essentially guaranteed overtime, paid at x1.5 rate. Although outside the base working week, you'll be rostered - and expected - to work them (although, in theory, if you didn't need the money and could get colleagues to cover your turns, you could give them all up).

Most 12h rosters alternate between blocks of days and blocks of nights. We receive a small allowance for every night shift worked (currently £18.68 for a G8).

 

[cherryslt]

thanks for the insight, How often do you work nights then? and do you get any weekends off? thanks

 

[nom de guerre]

thanks for the insight, How often do you work nights then? and do you get any weekends off? thanks

It's more or less 50/50 days and nights. You get some weekends off (and more), but also work some.

A sample four-week cycle might look something like this:

(Beginning on Sunday)
OFF N N N RD RD RD
D D D D RD RD RD
OFF RD RD RD N N N
N RD RD RD D D D

I'm sure your LOM will be able to forward you a copy of your future link's roster.

 

[cherryslt]

Thanks for the insight. Looks good