Site visit prior to Depot Interviews

[Craig PO45]

Good morning all,

Looking to see how you would go about a site visit prior to a Depot Interview or indeed if that is the done thing?

I am awaiting a date for the Motherwell Depot Manager interview and I feel i could learn a lot with a pre site visit.

Any advice or contacts to arrange same would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

Craig

 

[winks]

I doubt very much that can happen. Your not an employee of the TOC and most firms won’t entertain the idea of giving potential candidates a site tour - it’s not worth it this stage of the recruitment

 

[scotraildriver]

You might be able to speak with a DTM and get a look around at Motherwell as it's based in the station. You wouldn't get access to a maintenance depot.

 

[Craig PO45]

Thanks for that. I had read about others who have so thought Inwoukd pose the Q.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Aug 2025 ==

You might be able to speak with a DTM and get a look around at Motherwell as it's based in the station. You wouldn't get access to a maintenance depot.

Thank you - I can look into that.

 

[GPR]

Only ever heard of it happen when an internal employee got a depot visit. Can’t say I’ve heard of an external candidate before an interview.

 

[43066]

Good morning all,

Looking to see how you would go about a site visit prior to a Depot Interview or indeed if that is the done thing?

I am awaiting a date for the Motherwell Depot Manager interview and I feel i could learn a lot with a pre site visit.

Any advice or contacts to arrange same would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

Craig

A little hard to see why they’d offer this, as it would take up scarce management/staff time, or what would really be gained by the candidate from looking around a depot prior to interview. The best bet is to surely focus on preparing for the interview in terms of demonstrating that you have the skills required by the job spec.

 

[RiverDon]

ScotRail encourages it. By depot they mean a traincrew facility at a railway station not an actual train maintenance depot that would require induction, PPE etc... They tell you at the end of the first assessment session to visit the depot you have applied for and speak to drivers or DTM if possible, to find out info about stuff like routes and traction and rosters. You are asked about this at the Driver Manager Interview, about whether you have carried out any research about the role and specifically whether you visited the depot. I went and chapped the door at my depot and was made very welcome even though I was about the 10th one that day lol

 

[whoosh]

ScotRail encourages it. By depot they mean a traincrew facility at a railway station not an actual train maintenance depot that would require induction, PPE etc... They tell you at the end of the first assessment session to visit the depot you have applied for and speak to drivers or DTM if possible, to find out info about stuff like routes and traction and rosters. You are asked about this at the Driver Manager Interview, about whether you have carried out any research about the role and specifically whether you visited the depot. I went and chapped the door at my depot and was made very welcome even though I was about the 10th one that day lol

Good. I think it's a sensible thing to walk in with 'eyes open' about rosters and diagrams. I'm glad it's encouraged, and glad you were made welcome.