Train drivers what do they do??

You on 66s stan?

There’s far more to it than people give credit for. How many of you could kill 1000+ people in a momentary lapse of concentration at work? Pilots have autopilot, and another person checking everything they do. Train drivers don’t.

We have an editer in our midst…

editry is done by an editor

How many of you could kill 1000+ people

I would

Stan – do you drive the freight up and down the country and have to stay in hotels etc? Or is it more local runs? Just wondering how long you’d be at the controls for.

I know that’s true in the traditional sense… but I think editration in the forum sense is deserving of a new word. That word is editer.

Sorry about that , Aye we dont even have to steer the bloody thing and get paid bucket loads…

I allways wanted to be a train driver when I was an hgv driver, it seemed much more civilised than being lost all the time, and then actualy going home at the end of the day,
But I was too drunk and stoned to do it 😆

66 and 67’s , Garry Its all fairly local In Edinburgh and the longest you are actually driving Is no more than 3 hours. Occupational hazards are sometimes having to pish in a bottle or as some have shite in a bag whilst driving (Not me personally).

I know a train driver, a few of you guys in the Taunton area do too. It may not be too tough a job………Not a lot of fun when you’ve just had a jumper though. The regularity is quite surprising

have shite in a bag whilst driving

You know what I’d do, right; I’d tie the bayg up tight, then use a catapult to fire the parcels at STWers (you can tell them as they’re the ugly miserable ones standing there moaning about everything) as I passed through stations. 100 points for a head shot; 200 if the bayg bursts in their face. 😀

…300 if you hit a small one? 😉

😆

Sitting in the cab knowing that if some pillock decides to jump in front of your train you’d not be able to stop for a mile or so!! Not for me thanks. 🙁

Knowing the route you drive intimately, hills,signal locations, how your train performs on the route, take into account how the weather affects your train. If you think its easy, you have NO clue.

Can I make a confession?

I will feel so much better if I do …

Opening a can of worms, if drivers are a mystery, what about us pesky signallers, what the hell do we do? Other than steer the trains and lead the drivers by the hand when something goes wrong? 😉

I wasn’t allowed to play with my brother’s train set. 🙁

No penance required.

Do signallers get paid more i’m sure they could cause more havoc 🙂

Pilots have autopilot, and another person checking everything they do. Train drivers don’t.

Oh yes they do… pass a red signal and the train stops pretty damned quickly! Are there any lines left now without some kind of train protection? I thought it was all rushed in after the Clapham crash…

And on the underground, all the drivers do is press some buttons and the train drives itself to the next station.

On the whole, what you are really paying train drivers for is knowing what the hell to do when it all goes tits up… which is pretty much what you pay airline pilots for these days too..

Polite request – does anyone have a train set I could play with please?

We deserve to be paid more than drivers, but we don’t and they get the prestige, you can actually watch peoples eyes glaze over when you say you’re a signaller, means nothing to them, but drivers bombing along with a toot and a wave everyone loves a driver! 🙂

peajay – ah but you signallers are powerful! Have you a pic of the inside of a signal box please?

Im always really polite to signallers as I’m usually trying to get finsihed early and they dictate whether I manage to do so . That said like any profession you get some real nobbers who will let an early running freight train sit at a signal for a couple of hours In the middle of the night when there Is nothing else running. It didn’t help the other day calling a signal woman ‘Signalman’ the other day needless to say I didn’t run early.

Don’t have any pics on flikr etc, and have failed miserably in the past to post pics on here, one box is the old style with levers and push buttons, the other is vdu screens and touch screen keyboard, lever box covers a couple of miles and the vdu box around 190 miles of track, fun fun fun 😛

If I can run an early freight I will, good to keep spare time up your sleeve you never know when you might need that time back,

Yer a good man Peajay , fancy transferring To Edinburgh Panel 1.

Got the job of a man that did 20 years ago, Archie Toal, don’t know if he’s still there?

i’d want paying handsomely if I had to hold a dead mans handle all day 🙂

Not to mention let a shunter pull your cock for you. Im not being disgusting It’s a term for a brake test.

Not to mention getting relieved by other drivers. Again It’s when someone else takes over your shift.

😆

responsible for around 60,000 passengers per each tube run also when the train brakes down you are expected to get the train moving and you have to retrain every year for your job

Some tubes are driverless

I think 60,000 passengers each tube run might be exaggerating. There’s alot to be said for every type of train driver to be fair.

Freight : Trains will vary between being 1,000 – 3,000 tonnes which means you need to be able to judge a few miles ahead to break / accelerate.

Passenger : Trains tend to be light but obviously can go up too 150 miles per hour on eurostar , that said brakes are very good. (Rheostatic etc).

Underground : Easier to drive but more stations / Incidents can happen , signals are a lot closer together and much higher passenger numbers .

Personally being a freight driver coming down towards Dunfermline town station with a heavy 2,500 tonne stone train in the pissing rain In November on a single yellow yer cacking It.

stanfree – Member

There’s alot to be said for every type of train driver to be fair.

Freight : Trains will vary between being 1,000 – 3,000 tonnes which means you need to be able to judge a few miles ahead to break / accelerate.

Passenger : Trains tend to be light but obviously can go up too 150 miles per hour on eurostar , that said brakes are very good. (Rheostatic etc).

Underground : Easier to drive but more stations / Incidents can happen , signals are a lot closer together and much higher passenger numbers .

Personally being a freight driver coming down towards Dunfermline town station with a heavy 2,500 tonne stone train in the pissing rain In November on a single yellow yer cacking It.

.

ivixxiv – Member

the reality is trained monkeys could do it

.

ivixxiv might not be the sharpest pencil in the drawer himself………….but he certainly knows some smart monkeys.

cinnamon_girl – Member
Can I make a confession?

I will feel so much better if I do …

…you also want to become a train driver in order to be able to poo in a bayg then catapult it at commuting STWers?

It’s nothing to be ashamed of. 🙂

Mind, The Gap.

Stand clear of the doors, please.

Sitting in the cab knowing that if some pillock decides to jump in front of your train you’d not be able to stop for a mile or so!!

Yes, the driver gets to see it happen, but as a Guard, it was my job to walk back and see what was left of them! Fortunately in my short time on the trains I only ever got sent back once, and the bloke had managed to get out of the way of the train (taking a shortcut rather than suicide) before being sucked back down the embankment and hitting the side of the train at the very back. I’d heard it happen but didn’t see anything and by the time I’d walked back the bloke had limped off. He was found in hospital later on with broken ribs, arms, a leg and a punctured lung, yet probably the luckiest man alive – had we been a 4 car rather than a 3 car train (which we should have been) he’d have got wrapped up in the bits and bobs underneath the train. That would not have been pretty.

Oh yes they do… pass a red signal and the train stops pretty damned quickly! Are there any lines left now without some kind of train protection? I thought it was all rushed in after the Clapham crash…

TPWS stops the train after passing a red signal, or if they fail to acknowledge a yellow/double yellow signal but that’s rather too late! ATP is a little more advanced, but still leaves control in the hands of the driver ultimately.

There’s a scary amount of naïveté here! Yes there are protection systems in place, but ultimately the driver (and signaller!) stops you dying, that’s more pressure than most jobs face!

TPWS stops the train after passing a red signal

Does it? I seem to remember being asked to sit next up front to verify every signal to the driver when this got switched off for whatever reason. (This was nearly 15 years ago though)!

OK 2 questions…

1. If aircraft have autopilot, why don’t trains?
A train in space can’t be any more difficult to model/simulate than a plane in the air. Actually come to think of it, same goes for the signal men. Cant we just replace both with a black box?

2. Why do trains take so long to stop?
1 x 32t lorry takes say 100yds to stop. 10 x 32t lorries traveling in transit, all break at the same time, would also take 100yds to stop. Assuming all train carriages have brakes, why is it any different?

WhooHoo. Love trains.

1) It’s possible to do both, but the difficulties arise when things go wrong.

2) Steel wheel, steel rail. But before you start going on about getting rubber tyres the steel/steel interface allows for a huge amount of stuff to work (ie signalling systems, coasting for miles without burning fuel, differential slip when going round corners etc etc.)