The Pinnacle of British Train Driving

[Jimmy McNulty]

Many say it's driving for Eurostar.

Is it driving the Royal train? Is it driving the the 'mail train'?

Is it doing the Settle Carlisle, the Forth Bridge, the Welsh Highlands or the Night Riviera?

Anyone done any of these as a Driver?

What are peoples thought's on the pinnacle of British Train Driving?

And if this is the wrong part of the forum I apologize. Also apologize if this thread has been done repeatedly before and feel free to post pic's of the titanic sinking etc

 

[Dave1987]

Many say it's driving for Eurostar.

Is it driving the Royal train? Is it driving the the 'mail train'?

Is it doing the Settle Carlisle, the Forth Bridge, the Welsh Highlands or the Night Riviera?

Anyone done any of these as a Driver?

What are peoples thought's on the pinnacle of British Train Driving?

And if this is the wrong part of the forum I apologize. Also apologize if this thread has been done repeatedly before and feel free to post pic's of the titanic sinking etc

Think driving HS1 or HS2 when build.

 

[ozbritusa]

Well as an outsider I would say the Royal Train. After all, the Eurostar runs multiple daily schedules whereas the Royal Train is special & unique.

 

[Temple Meads]

For me it's FGW High Speed, but that's just my dream, in a more general sense it would be Eurostar or the Royal Train, nuclear stuff is also rather important, if quite a bit less glamorous.

 

[Zerothebrake!]

Many say it's driving for Eurostar.

Is it driving the Royal train? Is it driving the the 'mail train'?

Is it doing the Settle Carlisle, the Forth Bridge, the Welsh Highlands or the Night Riviera?

Anyone done any of these as a Driver?

What are peoples thought's on the pinnacle of British Train Driving?

And if this is the wrong part of the forum I apologize. Also apologize if this thread has been done repeatedly before and feel free to post pic's of the titanic sinking etc

It was when you used to drive whatever came around the corner.

 

[bronzeonion]

A60/62 stock thrashing up down the Met line! Wish I was born earlier so that could be a reality!

 

[fordylad]

Well to me, as a trainee driver about to qualify.
It is driving turbos in and out of Paddington. And being very honest, I'm very happy driving any train anywhere.

 

[Beveridges]

What are peoples thought's on the pinnacle of British Train Driving?

Driving around a busy Maintenance Depot has got to be up there.
Never gets boring as there's so many variations. 10000's of potential different moves/shunts you can do.
Eurostar? Might be good for a while but I bet it would eventually get boring as every trip would be almost exactly the same 99% of the time.

 

[185]

142 on Liverpool-Warringtons.

Oh, you said Pinaccle.

Drat.

 

[SPADTrap]

Home time!


Is my guess!

 

[Silv1983]

Driving around a busy Maintenance Depot has got to be up there.
Never gets boring as there's so many variations. 10000's of potential different moves/shunts you can do.
Eurostar? Might be good for a while but I bet it would eventually get boring as every trip would be almost exactly the same 99% of the time.

Your depot must be something special! I tired of shunting around Newton Heath after a few weeks. Same scenary and short snippets of line at 5mph every day can't be comparable to the peak district!

 

[O L Leigh]

I wouldn't mind a crack at the West Highland Line.

Then again ANY trip is a good trip, and equally any trip can become mundane if you have to do it every day. I'm sure that there are FScR drivers who dread schlepping up and down to Fort William and Oban.

To me the pinnacle of train driving nothing to do with a particular trip or traction, but more to do with your professionalism and doing a good job. If you can take duff unit a good distance on a greasy rail, drive it smoothly and keep to good time I would say that's a good trip that gives you satisfaction. Often times, it's the less-than-glamourous "all shacks" inner-suburban or local trips that demand the most from the driver. Clipping along at high speed without stopping is not terribly demanding.

O L Leigh

 

[EM2]

I'm not a driver, but I'd say it's being selected for a one-off, a record attempt for example.

 

[notadriver]

I would say it's Eurostar. It's the highest paying TOC including the international bonus they get. To be even considered for driving these 300 kph trains you need to have at least 5 years main line driving experience at 90 mph or more and of course drivers must be able to speak French in addition to knowing the rule books for 3 different countries.

 

[Beveridges]

Your depot must be something special! I tired of shunting around Newton Heath after a few weeks. Same scenary and short snippets of line at 5mph every day can't be comparable to the peak district!

You used to shunt at Newton Heath as well?
Depot Driving is not boring for many reasons, the main one being as your not stuck in the same cab all day going up and down the same lines. Getting on and off different units all the time, pulling points, the planning & radio communications involved to avoid conflicting with other moves. The potential for tens of thousands of different moves you can get. You get more involved in the maintenance side of things as well like prepping, fault finding, fuelling, tanking, toilet unblocking, wash roads, splitting units/putting them back together again, positioning units in the right place for maintenance, etc.

 

[WannabeTD]

Bev, I think you may be getting overly defensive on this one.

I obviously have no train driving experience however I think this is slightly romantic thread that non train drivers can comment on. I am certainly not doubting that depot driving is a rewarding job but I believe that it is nowhere near the pinnacle of train driving. Surely if someone was telling their grandchildren that they had driven, for example, the orient express then this would be a far better story than telling them you drove trains around a depot?

 

[Cherry_Picker]

I think this thread proves there is no pinnacle, it's totally subjective.

 

[saracen]

Yeah, this is a bit of a ridiculous thread, especially being posted in the jobs and careers page.

I've driven freight trains and it's certainly a lot more diverse and varied than your regular passenger work...but then some people prefer going from A to B 3 times a day.

 

[TGV]

I wouldn't mind a crack at the West Highland Line.

Then again ANY trip is a good trip, and equally any trip can become mundane if you have to do it every day. I'm sure that there are FScR drivers who dread schlepping up and down to Fort William and Oban.

To me the pinnacle of train driving nothing to do with a particular trip or traction, but more to do with your professionalism and doing a good job. If you can take duff unit a good distance on a greasy rail, drive it smoothly and keep to good time I would say that's a good trip that gives you satisfaction. Often times, it's the less-than-glamourous "all shacks" inner-suburban or local trips that demand the most from the driver. Clipping along at high speed without stopping is not terribly demanding.

O L Leigh

I've done countless endurance runs, test runs and tech-rides in TGV cabs (including eurostar) and this is the best answer here in my opinion. I think as O L says, if you can take a fault-ridden DMU down an secondary jointed-track line in poor weather and make time, then not only have you earned your money, but the sense of satisfaction would be just as much if not more than if you were bringing home a faulty TGV staring at the most boring stretches of line in the world. They look good at 200mph, but when you're crawling along because of a problem, those barren linesides, endless straights or huge-radius curves and lack of any junctions or stations for km after km become very.... very....boring.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Yeah, this is a bit of a ridiculous thread, especially being posted in the jobs and careers page.

I've driven freight trains and it's certainly a lot more diverse and varied than your regular passenger work...but then some people prefer going from A to B 3 times a day.

Absolutely. I've only ever done passenger work because I don't fancy getting looped to let something faster by every 40 miles. I've spent countless days on the depot shunting and fuelling and sh*t sucking and while I will do it, I'd much prefer to be on the main line.
I've driven locomotive hauled express trains in the evening peak that have gone 90+ miles between station stops, I've driven little two car DMU's in the dead of night that stop so frequently that a five minute run between stations feels like forever. I've had days where I've not so much as seen a yellow signal, I've had days where it feels like I've hardly seen a green one.
I've had famous passengers on board, I've driven trains with more than 500 passengers on board, I've driven trains that have been completely empty.
I've had days where I have only driven empty coaching stock. I've had days when I have had to repair knackered units while in the middle of nowhere and I have taken great satisfaction at being able to do so. I've had days where I've had to cancel a service and kick all the passengers off myself because there was no guard on board. I've had days where everybody has said thank you to me for no discernible reason.
I honestly couldnt tell you what the "pinnacle" of all that is.

 

[Jimmy McNulty]

Yeah, this is a bit of a ridiculous thread, especially being posted in the jobs and careers page.

I've driven freight trains and it's certainly a lot more diverse and varied than your regular passenger work...but then some people prefer going from A to B 3 times a day.

Ridiculous? How so?

It's a discussion, a forum, a question.

I would drive anything given the chance and if I'm honest depot driving may appeal more than a mainline role, certainly for now, for me.

The thread was started in no way to belittle anyone who drives on a depot nor anywhere else.

It was only a question to provoke a discussion and if I have put it in the wrong subsection, my bad.

But I have seen it written elsewhere that Eurostar is the pinnacle of British Train Driving, not my opinion, I wanted to find out others thoughts and actually thought I may provide a thought provoking thread rather than a little cock fight. If that is ridiculous then I hold my hands up.

 

[Beveridges]

Some of the things that may seem like the "pinnacle" of UK Train Driving may be good to do the first few times but surely if you do it every day it is monotonous from driving a Eurostar at 186mph to driving a 142 that stops every 3 minutes.
The "pinnacle" would possibly be something where every trip is different... Like maybe driving Railtours, Charters or Test Trains which can go on some very unusal routes, and proper locos as well rather than just units.
Depot Driving is up there as well. One moment you could be using a unit to propell a dead unit around, with the head out of the window watching the person on the ground's hand signals, around a busy depot, then shunting it up to within inches of a derailer before scotching it and uncoupling from it and dumping the shunting traction elsewhere. Then an hour later you could be fuelling and sucking the crap out of toilet tanks. The next hour you could be walking for miles in good outdoor weather pulling points setting the roads up for other depot driver's moves. The variety takes some beating.

 

[ChrisTheRef]

Some of the things that may seem like the "pinnacle" of UK Train Driving may be good to do the first few times but surely if you do it every day it is monotonous from driving a Eurostar at 186mph to driving a 142 that stops every 3 minutes.
The "pinnacle" would possibly be something where every trip is different... Like maybe driving Railtours, Charters or Test Trains which can go on some very unusal routes, and proper locos as well rather than just units.
Depot Driving is up there as well. One moment you could be using a unit to propell a dead unit around, with the head out of the window watching the person on the ground's hand signals, around a busy depot, then shunting it up to within inches of a derailer before scotching it and uncoupling from it and dumping the shunting traction elsewhere. Then an hour later you could be fuelling and sucking the crap out of toilet tanks. The next hour you could be walking for miles in good outdoor weather pulling points setting the roads up for other depot driver's moves. The variety takes some beating.

You like depot driving, we get it.

 

[GB]

"Pinnacle" may mean different things to different people but it is in no way specifically related to a variety of mundane or standard tasks.

While its great you like it, to say depot driving is "pinnacle" when you haven't done any mainline driving is quite short sighted and quite frankly doesn't fit the definition of "pinnacle".

 

[Beveridges]

No one can say what the "pinnacle" is for sure unless they have done everything

 

[A-driver]

Personally I'd say the pinnacle is lots of variety. At my place we have a fair bit of variety in work but no route variety really compared to other TOCs.

I don't see virgin or east coast as an aim of any kind and nothing really makes me want to drive for them-I know many think it would be great to work for them but I fear it would get very boring very quickly. Plus as someone has already mentioned you can be a long long way from home when things go seriously wrong! At least I'm never more than about 80 miles from home.

 

[Manchester77]

probably the royal train but when it was in service and testing, APT on WCML at 155 mph during testing I'd imagine that was quite something

 

[TGV]

Biased, yes, but I'd offer this as a contestant for the "pinnacle" title...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJfDWtbioEM

 

[dstrat]

Yeah so its subjective.....but East Coast pays the most right?

 

[A-driver]

Yeah so its subjective.....but East Coast pays the most right?

Not exactly-they pay a high salary (think cross country and Eurostar are higher) but the thing with east coast is that their Sundays are compulsory and included in that salary where as other companies such as FCC pay about 45k and Sundays are paid extra so if you do your rostered Sundays you arnt far off what east coast get. Plus there is less overtime on east coast as far as I'm aware.

To he honest I find it boring enough doing Cambridge cruisers and so to me the idea of doing 2hours non stop to York bores me to tears!