newdriver2017= hows the course going? off for xmas soon!?
Hi bud. So yeah I haven' updated this for a while now. I think when I last updated I was sitting my classroom hours for core traction. This was a really interesting part of the course for me being as I'm an ex fitter. Took 4 weeks, sat a 90 odd question final traction paper and then did a 2 hour practical assessment on a 313 unit. Mainly doing fault finding and preparation. Then..... finally..... after 6 months of classroom and simulator work..... they let me drive a train on a mainline. It was mint. Haven't had as big a smile on my face since I was back in Afghan calling in air strikes. It was only ECS movements but it was the culmination of months of hard work and it was awesome. Then, the week after we moved on to class 365 units and I instantly fell out of love with 313s and became very accustomed to the speed and comfort of the more modern units. After core traction, training moves into conversion type training so it's short and sweet. Class 365 was 2 days classroom, 1 day written paper, one day practical assessment and then out driving but this time in passenger service. Again, I was so excited throughout. This week we've moved on to class 387, which again is a huge technological upgrade. Classroom again tomorrow, written test Thursday, practical Friday, then out driving next week. We've also got a short 2 day course on the NCL route towards the end of next week.
As for Xmas, we're in until the 19th and then we're off until the 2nd. When we get back we've got a 10 day course on the principles of route learning up at Blackfriars. After that we're done then we're out doing our driving hours with our DI. Fingers crossed, roughly 4 months later I'll be sitting my Part C and joining the driving ranks.
