[Closed] Train drivers what do they do??

I am train driver. I drive train.

Can't underestimate the value of applying the brakes on a train.

It is a bit of a mystery profession though, I agree. It's not something you really see on the TV or getting written about. Particularly freight train drivers. Who are these men of secrecy?

They have to know every inch of the line and are constantly reacting to signal/events/buzzers etc.

It's one of those jobs that unions like to make us think no one can do (like london underground "drivers") the reality is trained monkeys could do it

They have to deal with Fayt controllers.

And occasionally pull down a little cord thingy that makes it go 'toot-toot!'.

I know two train drivers... they happily admit that they are laughing all the way to the bank.

the reality is trained monkeys could do it

Ah, so there's hope of gainful employment for you yet! 😀

Pretty much the same as me as a lorry driver. Listen to talk sport and radio two all day. Oh and pick ones nose.

Try this...

http://www.realrailway.com/en/enoshima/simulator.html

Tricky to time the braking for the platform....well I overran

I thought lorry drivers murdered prostitutes? *

*obviously, not really - it's a Jeremyism...

Rachel

Perhaps Cameron and co could replace them all with volunteers then ?

I think a train drivers job is slightly more complicated than a tube driver. Train drivers gradually speed up and gradually slow down. Tube drivers obviously have a button to go and a button to stop. These both work at 'full' only

[i]They have to know every inch of the line and are constantly reacting to signal/events/buzzers etc.[/i]

[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon ]You can train pigeons to do that.[/url]

Pretty much the same as me as a lorry driver. Listen to talk sport and radio two all day. Oh and pick ones nose.

I think they ****, text, eat Ginsters, do YouTube and the strike when there ability to ****, text, eat Ginsters, do YouTube is threatened.

That's not fair, I was a lorry driver for eighteen years, you underestimate us,
I can eat a four course Chinese banquet while rolling a tab, tuning the radio, making a phone call AND murdering a prostitute, takes practise you know.......

I am a lorry driver and I can do all of that whilst sleeping at the wheel.

See SEE!! Train drivers, PAH!! I've shit em!!

still not sure what they do

Drive train.

http://www.traindrivertrainee.com/index.html

I think they drive the train so you IT bods can get to your office to drive your computers .

They have very restrictive D&A policies.....

what do those beeps you hear in the carriages mean?

train drivers are required to slow down, or even stop if there's a bit of a breeze, if it might rain a bit later, or if there might be a leaf on the track within a 300 mile radius

Dont't know but apparently it's worth > £35K per annum, very stressful you know 🙄

I'm a freight train driver and apart from getting up at Dark O'clock , working almost every weekend , adhering to Drugs and Alcohol , shite shifts , Not to mention shunting In all kinds of weathers and keeping the nations Power , refuse , steel and infrastucture going . We dont do much . 😀

Stanfree; shh! This is a thread for people who know absolutely f-all about what being a train diver [i]really[/i] entails, to pretend that they do. And to also insult and demean those that actually do the job, in order to feel a little bit better about themselves. Don't spoil their fun!

what do those beeps you hear in the carriages mean?

A text message has been received by one of them there newfangled mobile telephone gadgets.

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

they drive trains TSY is on song tonight
My mate had to quit being a postie due to stress and then got a job as a train drfiver so it is less stressful than being a postie
D & A is severe though

D & A is severe though

Yup, the days of being able to drive a train whilst whacked off your t*ts has long since gone 👿

so, I gather from this thread that train driving involves:
- driving trains
- antisocial hours, sometimes
- not being drunk/ stoned
- driving trains

- driving trains.

stanfree - don't you get to play Nintendo as you, allegedly, drive..? 😉

It's like Liquid Poetry. 😀

We have an editer in our midst... 😯

Get with the programme Andy , It's a Psp. 😀

😀

......less stressful than being a postie

Well that's not surprising

[img] [/img]

And them trolleys don't steer themselves. Here's one what crashed into a lampost. Probably

[img] [/img]

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

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...

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.

[img] [/img]

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!!

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

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.)