train driver

is it a good job? brothers looking at it….any on here?

Great pay, hard to get in, limited training compared to the old days,of steam and diesel locos of British TRail,if he is good at computer games he has a chance as the tests are pressing buttons in responce to prompts.

Also not all companies are equal in quality.

Freight may be easier to get into, I know DB Schenker had some going when I was looking for a new job.

Which TOC is he looking at? Like above not all operating companies are equal, virgin pay well, mate works for cross country, think he only works 190odd days a year, a lot of drivers our way start at some of the lower end TOc’s (London midland) then apply to the other operating companies once trained

My friend drives the little ones over t’moors.

90% chance of killing someone during your careers; cows make a very loud bang when you hit them; mind-numbingly dull whilst also being stressful.

Good money; better shifts than proper shifts but still some early starts and late finishes; often paid for sitting in the break room reading and watching TV; lots of days off.

A cow also caused 13 deaths and 61 injured at Polmont, when a train hit a cow at 87 mph.

The cow also died.

cool i think he wants to stay in scotland…but may travel about.all good tips ta

My friend drives the little ones over t’moors.

90% chance of killing someone during your careers; cows make a very loud bang when you hit them; mind-numbingly dull whilst also being stressful.Freight doesn’t sound like a dull job, tbh. Seems it would be quite interesting riding the rails, hauling the nations materiel hither and yon. You might get to go to the docks, as well.

A lot depends on how alert you need to be I suppose – if it’s like flying were you can stick it on autopilot for an hour and tackle the guardian cryptic, then that sounds quite relaxing. If you’re constantly in a state of vigilance then I guess it’s not dissimilar to HGV driving.

Gotta keep your eye on the signals and the warning system, drugs and alcohol policy is very strict, half a pint before work and you’ll be down the road if you get caught! Lots of rules and regulations to learn too! Route knowlege needs to be learnt too before they let you out on your own!

The thing is you have to be vigilant for speed limits, signals, even though you get a buzzer or gong when approaching them, then there is a pedal to push every minute to stop the brake being applied, you may have trespassers , animals,vehicles on the line ahead, even broken down trains, fouling your line.

There is also no desk to rest your paper on,ontrain monitoring, to check your speed and how you drive, along with forward facing cctv.

Nobody to talk to, and no radio,or mobile phone,although sometimes they do get through the door.

I’ve been a driver for years (8 of those freight) , Its very hard to get into but passenger companies are really the only option these days. Check out current vacancies on your local TOC. Freight Is all but dead in this country and DB Schenker are laying off high numbers . Freightliner and Gbrf have recently taken on low numbers of already qualified drivers.
Pay is good but working hours mean you will give up most weekends to have your days off during the week. If you get an interview and you will do well given the heigh numbers who apply you will then get an interview with the area managers then sent for a physcometric test and final interview. Pending a medical training for passenger drivers is usually a year at around 20 k and full time pay ranges from 35 – 40k though the big companies like East coast are closer to 50k.

Hope this helps.

Just noticed the wants to stay In Scotland part , Scotrail vacancies close on the 20th of Feb.

An hour for the Guardian cryptic?

Hang on…the GUARDIAN?

I heard TOCs employ from within, so you might start as a conductor and work your way up?

bobbyatwork – Member

is it a good job? brothers looking at it….any on here?

Yes. The pay is far better than a lecturer with PhD.

No stress no hurry just turn up to work and do a proper job.

If your brother can get in then by all means do it while it’s still available. Do a good job and retire happy and in peace.

if it’s like flying were you can stick it on autopilot for an hour and tackle the guardian cryptic, then that sounds quite relaxing

So that’s what airline pilots do is it?

I have some friends who are train drivers, they love it. One of them never works a Sunday, he basically always swaps it with others who want to work Sunday’s.

FCC were taking on recently, I sent in an application and got a “no thanks” e-mail 2 days later. No idea why, I think due to the huge number of applicants they probably do some sort of automated computer screening of applications. My friend said I’m more intelligent than a lot of drivers he knows and he knew were applying, but intelligence doesn’t really come into it!

Here’s a useful website

No stress no hurry just turn up to work and do a proper job.

Really? 😯

So the thought that if you screw up a couple of hundred people sitting behind might get killed you is “no stress”.
The idea that some selfish, deluded idiot may jump out in front of you is “no stress”.
I could go on.

Wouldn’t be to me…

FuzzyWuzzy – Member
Wouldn’t be to me…

If that is the case you would fail at the interview stage for the job.

Airline pilots don’t read The Guardian 😯

Not necessarily Matt. Not sure getting stressed about the responsibility of making sure 1,000s of people make their journeys safely every day is a trait a train company would like you to have.

Understanding the responsibility you have and being able to deal with stressful situations calmly however is one I think they’d want you to have.

I know my friends don’t find the day to day job stressful, even though there maybe incidents they have to deal with which can be stressful.

I think you misinterpreted my comments a tad. The implication was that a Train Driver has a no stress job. My intention was to highlight a just a couple of areas that may refute the implication.
I agree that it is not a job for some one that gets stressed out easily and you do need to be able to handle the day to day pressures of the job.
All jobs have varying levels of stress and many people seem to make massive assumptions about other peoples occupations.

It’s not stressful at all.

Ok, maybe a little when you fail comming out of the depot in the morning rush and block the Leeds-York/Hull mainline and also the exit to the depot 😈 (“I don’t care how you do it driver just get out the ******* way!” is I think what the bobby said to me). It’s rare owt like that happens though. Most days you turn up, book on, drive a bit, book off and go home. No taking work home, no corperate brown nosing, no working over to get stuff done. Keep your nose clean and there’s far worse ways to earn a living.

This is an excellent site, plenty of info:

http://www.traindriver.org/index.html

Driver for 8 years here, some of the above is accurate, some a bit wide of the mark. I write this while watching some dross crime drama in the mess-room where I will spend most of today in between ferrying empty trains around Manchester but the rest of the week I will be driving for 9 hours in total each day. Our earliest shift starts at 0325 and latest finishes at 0229, 35 hour 4-day week, Sundays outside working week (ie voluntary overtime).

Applicants ‘off the street’ have to get through an interview with a driver standards manager/HR, psychometric assessments + structured interview day and medical. Training will be intensive and take 9-12 months. You get two shots at the psychometric assessments, fail twice and that’s you. You can lose your job/life/kill people and/or end up in court with one simple mistake. The shifts can be marriage-breaking. In reward you can earn decent money, good pension, have plenty of quality time off (grouped rest-days) and a good craic with your new mates who are all in the same boat.

I’ve been a freight driver for the past 14yrs. Enjoy it most of the time, but work to live etc………..
Ruined at times by the vast numbers of spotters, enthusiasts that the job/industry attracts who are more interested in “playing trains” than actually doing a job of work.
The hours are absolutely dire at times and you need to like your own company, more so freight than passenger.

Damn those enthusiastic train drivers! 🙂

Seriously what’s the problem with enthusiasts driving trains – wouldn’t have thought there was much scope for dicking around at the controls of a freight train? Do they arse around with locomotives in the switching yard or something?

Think if i wasn’t a signalman i would like to be a train driver!

If you do get a job can I ask you turn up on time!

Its the signallers fault usually 😀

Yep, blame the bobby (while you still can – they’re a disappearing breed!)

There are one or two crank drivers I know (a few ‘closet’ spotters too) but the proportion of guards who are trainspotters is an order of magnitude greater. The spotter types tend to be a pain because they are more concerned with how things ‘should’ be done in an OCD/ideal world/island of Sodor way rather than the patched-together-with-masking tape, getting-up-at-1am, arguments-with-rosters-departments reality.

I’ve been a freight driver for the past 14yrs. Enjoy it most of the time, but work to live etc………..
Ruined at times by the vast numbers of spotters, enthusiasts that the job/industry attracts who are more interested in “playing trains” than actually doing a job of work.
The hours are absolutely dire at times and you need to like your own company, more so freight than passenger.

Ian I’d give my left nut to be working freight again for a company that could guarantee work till I retire. Who Is It you work for .?

Yep, blame the bobby (while you still can – they’re a disappearing breed!)

Yup, got just over 2 years left at Wolverhampton, then off to join the seagulls @ Saltley in the super dome 🙁

Yep , superboxes are the future, till the first one burns down and a quarter of the country is without a train service. Still it’s great winding up the cheery staff at Ashford IECC asking when they’ll be moving to Threebridges.

The dome @ Saltley is bombproof 🙂
no bloody windows and soulless 🙁

Crewe and Merseyrails signal control centres are just steel boxes, like you get on a cheap industrial estate,no windows or roof lights.

Recently merseyrail had a cable cut by accident and it blacked out the trains from chester to southport, and the rest of the system as well.

What a fun day that was for the sparkies.

“stanfree – Member
I’ve been a freight driver for the past 14yrs. Enjoy it most of the time, but work to live etc………..
.
Ian I’d give my left nut to be working freight again for a company that could guarantee work till I retire. Who Is It you work for .?”

In reply to Stan; The “blue” lot, I’ll let you work out who that is 😉

?

No, the other blue ones!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙄