^ correct! I'm a DD with GA, and yeah we do all the same training as mainline drivers who go straight in like on the west, just without 3 modules I think it is. We still have to learn all about SLW, TBW etc etc just without stuff like level crossings.
Although I do quite enjoy my job, theres no way I would be enjoying it as much if I knew that this was my job forever. £25k for doing night shifts (mainline don't have them), running round all day long pulling points and freeing your a$$ off at 3am doing a diesel shunt in the ******ing rain is not what I want to be doing all my life. Don't get me wrong, I really do like my job and the people I work with, but in my view it is a natural progression to go from DD to mainline driver. The amount of traction knowledge we have is far superior to many mainline drivers, as we handle the units at their worst and often in pieces with EBS, TIS and gawd knows what else.
You get a good grounding as a DD, I can pretty much couple/uncouple/prep and fault find in my sleep the amount of times I do it in a week.
As the AOM described it when I had my interview, he likes to think of the DD position as a kind of drivers apprenticeship, whereby you get grounded in traction and the railway in general before progressing up to mainline money.
But at the end of the day, being a depot driver is a darn sight better then most jobs out there, good money (for starting anyway), good time off and benefits, not that hard work and most of all a good laugh!