A career as a train driver

A-driver said:

TOC is the individual employer yes.

You don't need to learn anything. They teach you everything you need to know. They will send you for tests to see if you are suitable and likely to be able to cope with the training. There is little you c an do to train for these tests apart from getting a good nights sleep the night before and concentrating/listening carefully to the instructions on the day.

Look at pretty much any job and you'll find a company online offering to flog you some book or software which they claim will help you get that job. Personally I don't rate them. There is more useful info on this thread than in those packages and this thread is free.

I personally came from an office based railway background but didn't look at any material such as this when I applied for a driver job, I just filled out the application to the best of my ability like I would for any job. A lot of drivers come straight into driving with no railway experience and I hardly know any who wasted money on these kind of packages. It's an expensive way of being told what you most likely already know.

Look at FGWs careers page as trainee driver jobs do come up from time to time. If you find a trainee job and wish to apply for it then come back on here if you are unsure of anything and people will be able to help you. I certainly don't see any gain in paying for one of these packages of you havnt even found a vacancy you wish to apply for yet.

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ml said:

Yeffy:

Bristol won't surely hire for a long time (trainees) as not only are freight men out of work but 100 plus internals and externals are said to be in a pool with people plucked at random while some get left by the wayside. I was one of them but have made a lucky escape.

Your written English was the cause of my rolling eyes emoticon. It seemed slightly better in your second message but unless you can improve it sadly you will not pass the sift

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trainmania100 said:

I wouldn't mind being a train driver, it has been a life long interest...until only a few years ago I lost quite a bit of my hearing as an unexpected medical side effect. Most of the applications I see state hearing tests and requirements...

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Nick82 said:

Regarding assessments, if a candidate has passed the train drivers assessments but later applies for a different TOC, but does not reach the standards of that TOC in question. How would that TOC accommodate the candidate. Would they have to resit some or all the assessments again to reach their pass mark and can you undergo that process within the 6 months time frame of completing the tests.

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ml said:

If you fail to meet their standard as to them you have failed you will not be allowed to resit in till six months have lapsed and even risk failing it outright on your second attempt taken in order to try and reach their higher standard. Usually you just resit those you need a higher mark on

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ml said:

If you retook and failed to the national opc standard a fail is a fail

If you failed to reach an enhanced standard but reached national you are shown on database as a pass but a toc with a higher benchmark would then check the database to see you met their standard

Yes you can not resit within six months if you need to bump a score up as C2C refused me as I did not meet their wafv score requirement

A. Northern pass is meaningless... You could still pass with northern and get the enhanced pass even if they did not require it freightliner did not require enhanced I just happened to reach that level which was accepted by gtr and aga both of whom require enhanced on stage one

I don't think the dfft counts as it is an extra test I think the enhanced is usually the group bourdon and trp part one and two possibly the teo-occc as well though few fail that

My email from C2C last year:


Dear -

It is with regret that I have to inform you that you are not eligible to attend the c2c trainee depot assessment day on Thurs 30th November

Upon checking your recent test scores with the OPC it has been notiied to me that they did not meet our required standard.

OPC feedback - Cant attend as failed WAFV to c2c standard on 01/07/2014

My deepest regret for being the bearer of this news and any disappointment this may cause.

Thank you for your interest in c2c and may I wish you the best for the future.

Every other toc accepted my pass

I know where I went wrong as I hit the green button a few times when the box appeared to go dark ... Afterwards I realised when it really did go dark. I was mistaken

Was not poor reactions though

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Nick82 said:

I see, I applied for TPE and I understand you require a enhanced for them. So it looks like they will reject my application on the grounds of not meeting their enhanced pass mark. I can resit what tests they require me to do so but I passed on my second attempt in Aug so I fall within the 6 month category. I was also lead to believe Northern had a high benchmark to pass also but I guess not high enough for TPE.

Since I passed on my 2nd attempt does anyone know that if I need to bump up my scores my slate would be wiped clean in terms of sitting the nationwide tests in no more then two attempts.

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ml said:

You can pass them 100 times only fail,them to the national standard twice

How do you know you have not got an enhanced score..mnorthern might not require enhanced but you might still have an enhanced score if you did well enough

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trainmania100 said:

I wouldn't mind being a train driver, it has been a life long interest...until only a few years ago I lost quite a bit of my hearing as an unexpected medical side effect. Most of the applications I see state hearing tests and requirements...

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"Hearing assessments should take account of the driver’s normal working environment, including ambient noise levels inside and outside the driving cab and the communications equipment that may be required to be used. The following values should be used as guidelines to assess a person’s audiometric test results:
a) The hearing deficiency should not be higher than 40 dB at 0.5 and 1 kHz.
b) The hearing deficiency should not be higher than 45 dB at 2 kHz for the ear with the worst air conduction of sound.

Railway undertakings may decide that more stringent hearing values than those shown above are necessary to control any potential risks that may have been identified by an assessment of the required physical and sensory functions for a particular driving role. This may be particularly appropriate where an individual’s duties require them to be on or near the line. It should be noted that the widely adopted hearing standard for persons who are required to maintain their own safety when working on or near the line is that hearing loss should not exceed 30 dB averaged over frequencies 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 kHz in either ear.

It is also recommended that the following are not present:
a) Anomaly of the vestibular system.
b) Chronic speech disorder (given the necessity to exchange
messages loudly and clearly).

In special cases, subject to medical opinion, train drivers may be allowed to use hearing aids to meet the hearing levels shown above. Such cases would normally arise at a periodic medical examination, if an employee were found to have increased hearing loss. Measures, which railway undertakings are recommended to take to prevent increased risk to railway operations from the use of hearing aids, are included in GO/GN3655."

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Fred Dinenage said:

Is it Tyne and Wear Metro you've been offered the MDD role or Northern? That might help clarify things for people and not look like algebra

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ml said:

Yeffy:

Your written English was the cause of my rolling eyes emoticon. It seemed slightly better in your second message but unless you can improve it sadly you will not pass the sift

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Dave999 said:

Quick question, has anyone else done the Managers interview before the MMI. QUOTE]

Yes mate, my DTM interview came first. I actually think it's a good idea from the company's point of view.
The managers can filter out anyone they really don't want, for whatever reason, before paying for the tests (assuming they are done by an external company).
My MMI was the very last thing I did.

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spider8 said:

I'm in training at the mo' and there's a Polish guy whose English isn't bad but he'll struggle with words I hear spoken in class like 'generic', 'actuator', 'bearing', etc.

Now a lot of (first-language English) people will struggle with one or two, but will get a 'feel' for things like 'actuator' more easily. I do wonder at the wisdom of employing people whose standard of English will make the training harder when there's SO many well-spoken applicants, but I wouldn't suggest Yeffy gives up, based on what/who I've seen.

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ml said:

If you retook and failed to the national opc standard a fail is a fail

If you failed to reach an enhanced standard but reached national you are shown on database as a pass but a toc with a higher benchmark would then check the database to see you met their standard

Yes you can not resit within six months if you need to bump a score up as C2C refused me as I did not meet their wafv score requirement

A. Northern pass is meaningless... You could still pass with northern and get the enhanced pass even if they did not require it freightliner did not require enhanced I just happened to reach that level which was accepted by gtr and aga both of whom require enhanced on stage one

I don't think the dfft counts as it is an extra test I think the enhanced is usually the group bourdon and trp part one and two possibly the teo-occc as well though few fail that

My email from C2C last year:


Dear -

It is with regret that I have to inform you that you are not eligible to attend the c2c trainee depot assessment day on Thurs 30th November

Upon checking your recent test scores with the OPC it has been notiied to me that they did not meet our required standard.

OPC feedback - Cant attend as failed WAFV to c2c standard on 01/07/2014

My deepest regret for being the bearer of this news and any disappointment this may cause.

Thank you for your interest in c2c and may I wish you the best for the future.

Every other toc accepted my pass

I know where I went wrong as I hit the green button a few times when the box appeared to go dark ... Afterwards I realised when it really did go dark. I was mistaken

Was not poor reactions though

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spider8 said:

Certain companies only want qualified drivers. I'm employed by Southern (now GTR)who are embarking on the biggest trainee driver recruitment ever in the UK. Unfortunately for some, they have not been advertising, but instead, dipping into their saved list of previous applicants (numbering thousands) to save them advertising again. Also, they do specify that you need to live within a certain area (I hour I think). Also (again) most of the trainees seem to be from internal applications. Most in my class did a fair bit of work/research before even submitting the application form.
Just keep looking/trying though it could take years...
All I can suggest is keep looking, improve your english
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
btw they're very strict on communication skills. i.e. with passengers, conductors, signallers, emergency services, written reports; just the wrong word here or there can result in a misunderstanding and an accident.

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stevieoz said:

Was this sent to you from your original application or did you pass the application stage and then receive notification that you could not attend the tests at a later stage?

If that makes sense.

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shorts said:

Does anybody know if there are height restrictions with east Midlands trains? I am only 5'1" but have got through to assessment stage. Hoping they don't suddenly tell me I'm too short.

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YCDBT said:

I'm 42, English, fit, degree educated and located 30 mins from principle location.



Didn't even get past the sift.



2 months on, I'm still finding it hard to digest.

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