A career as a signaller

[Dannygee]

Does anybody know what shift pattern Lancing is on?

777,earlies, lates & nights, 1 RD between nights, lates & earlies, 5 off (long weekend) between earlies & nights.

 

[Alan77]

777,earlies, lates & nights, 1 RD between nights, lates & earlies, 5 off (long weekend) between earlies & nights.

Thanks mate.....I wish this made sense to me though!

 

[Highlandspring]

777,earlies, lates & nights, 1 RD between nights, lates & earlies, 5 off (long weekend) between earlies & nights.

That sounds absolutely awful.

 

[Dannygee]

It is what it is... Old school shift pattern!

 

[BRblue]

Does anybody know what shift pattern Lancing is on?

8hr roster with 12 hr Sundays.
Starting from a Wednesday night...
7 nights, rest day, 3 lates, Sunday off, 3 lates, rest day, 7 earlies, 5 rest days.

 

[Sunset route]

Does anybody know what shift pattern Lancing is on?

8hr roster with 12 hr Sundays.
Starting from a Wednesday night...
7 nights, rest day, 3 lates, Sunday off, 3 lates, rest day, 7 earlies, 5 rest days.

To add to that they either after every other cycle (8weeks) add an extra rest day attached to the long week off for a 6 day long week end off, or after four cycles (16weeks) add two extra rest days to one before and one after the long week off giving a 7 day long weekend off. Awaiting confirmation from my mate who works the roster and is the local staff rep on how they use their extra day but I believe it’s the latter option.

 

[BRblue]

To add to that they either after every other cycle (8weeks) add an extra rest day attached to the long week off for a 6 day long week end off, or after four cycles (16weeks) add two extra rest days to one before and one after the long week off giving a 7 day long weekend off. Awaiting confirmation from my mate who works the roster and is the local staff rep on how they use their extra day but I believe it’s the latter option.

Indeed it is SR.
16 weeks... 7 day super long weekend.

 

[Alan77]

Thanks for the information everybody, seems like there’s a long slog in the middle but good to have such a long period off, could have a holiday every month!

 

[Highlandspring]

Or get a job in a 12hrs area, work a 3 day week and still go away on holiday every month, without using any annual leave!

 

[Clydefrog]

That sounds absolutely awful.

Im just leaving a box that has this 4 weekly roster. You do feel almost like jet lagged alot of the time. The 12 hour rosters sounds alot better.

 

[Alan77]

.....

 

[Sunset route]

cancel

 

[nom de guerre]

Or get a job in a 12hrs area, work a 3 day week and still go away on holiday every month, without using any annual leave!

This is a recurring topic here, but suffice to say the vast majority of us who have worked both 8h and 12h rosters much prefer the latter.

I can understand people with a 2-3hr commute perhaps not relishing the prospect of a 14-15hr working day with - down here, at least - possibly two rush hours to endure. But you'd be making 80 less return commutes a year, only ever have to work a maximum of four consecutive turns (is 4 x 15hr worse than 7 x 11hr?) and, as Highland says, get much nicer chunks of time off.

The interesting development around here is that two single-manned areas have just voted near-unanimously to switch to 12s. A first for this part of the world, if it goes through...

 

[Alan77]

This is a recurring topic here, but suffice to say the vast majority of us who have worked both 8h and 12h rosters much prefer the latter.

I can understand people with a 2-3hr commute perhaps not relishing the prospect of a 14-15hr working day with - down here, at least - possibly two rush hours to endure. But you'd be making 80 less return commutes a year, only ever have to work a maximum of four consecutive turns (is 4 x 15hr worse than 7 x 11hr?) and, as Highland says, get much nicer chunks of time off.

The interesting development around here is that two single-manned areas have just voted near-unanimously to switch to 12s. A first for this part of the world, if it goes through...

So who makes the decision on the shift pattern? If all signallers in a box wanted to change from 8 to 12 hours is it likely to be considered?

 

[Sunset route]

So who makes the decision on the shift pattern? If all signallers in a box wanted to change from 8 to 12 hours is it likely to be considered?

Signallers in a group of one person boxes including their associated GPR staff would then discuss changes amongst themselves, raise via local reps to the management.

Or signallers within a link at a multiple panel/workstation discuss and raise via their local reps to raise to the management.

It’s best that all the options are whittled down to a preferred option before raising with the management.

Under the General Collective Bargaining agreement (2005) and the much talked about National Rostering Principles, rosters are an issue for local (LDC) reps and local management (LOMs).

 

[Southernsig]

The interesting development around here is that two single-manned areas have just voted near-unanimously to switch to 12s. A first for this part of the world, if it goes through...

Apparently as good as going to happen. But with heels being dragged so much on the issue by the higher ups I'm beggining to wonder if they are ignoring it in the hope it will go away!

 

[Dannygee]

Apparently as good as going to happen. But with heels being dragged so much on the issue by the higher ups I'm beggining to wonder if they are ignoring it in the hope it will go away!

Where is 'this part of the world' out of interest? Doesn't have to be too specific, a county will do!

 

[nom de guerre]

I'm talking about Kent and Sussex (geographically, anyway).

 

[Alan77]

Signallers in a group of one person boxes including their associated GPR staff would then discuss changes amongst themselves, raise via local reps to the management.

Or signallers within a link at a multiple panel/workstation discuss and raise via their local reps to raise to the management.

It’s best that all the options are whittled down to a preferred option before raising with the management.

Under the General Collective Bargaining agreement (2005) and the much talked about National Rostering Principles, rosters are an issue for local (LDC) reps and local management (LOMs).

All sounds simple enough, I’m guessing some people prefer the 8 hour roster if it hasn’t been changed to the 12 hour one. What does the 12 hour shift pattern look like?

 

[jdxn]

All sounds simple enough, I’m guessing some people prefer the 8 hour roster if it hasn’t been changed to the 12 hour one. What does the 12 hour shift pattern look like?

Su-M- T-W- T-F- S
x D D D RD RD RD
x N N N RD RD RD
x D D D RD RD RD
x RD RD RD N N N
etc
every so often you will have a week that only has 2 days. This is to account for the working week being 35 hours and 3x12 hr shifts being 36hrs

Sundays will rostered in addition and are paid as overtime, so when you have a Sunday you will do 4 days on the spin.

So the days you are working you do little else other than sleep, eat and travel.

But you normally have 3/4 days off a week and get 9 groups of 7 days in a row off per year, before you start thinking annual leave. I can't understand why anyone would want to do 8's.

 

[Dannygee]

I'm talking about Kent and Sussex (geographically, anyway).

Interesting, thanks

 

[Sunset route]

Su-M- T-W- T-F- S
x D D D RD RD RD
x N N N RD RD RD
x D D D RD RD RD
x RD RD RD N N N
etc
every so often you will have a week that only has 2 days. This is to account for the working week being 35 hours and 3x12 hr shifts being 36hrs

Sundays will rostered in addition and are paid as overtime, so when you have a Sunday you will do 4 days on the spin.

So the days you are working you do little else other than sleep, eat and travel.

But you normally have 3/4 days off a week and get 9 groups of 7 days in a row off per year, before you start thinking annual leave. I can't understand why anyone would want to do 8's.

As I’ve tried saying to all the people seeking jobs as a signaller there are nearly as many rosters as there are signalling locations. The 12hr roster at our place is multiple of 6X6 week asymmetrical rotations but there is usually a 7 days off within each 6 week mini cycle plus there are 2 other weeks that don’t really fit the pattern to create a 38 week 12hour rotating roster for 38 signallers. There is also a 8hour 38week rotating roster for the staff that decided that an eight roster works better for them. So we have two links one 12hr one 8hr the 8hr roster is no where near as harsh as the ones in the outside small boxes and rest assured there are no single restdays for changing shifts or nights every four weeks, one advantage of working in a large multi panel signalling Centre compared to single person locations.

 

[Clydefrog]

The other thing to look at i would think is that if one signal box in a certain area wanted to go to 12 hour this would also throw the relief signallers in that area out of sync. Going from 8s in one box to 12 in another. It may affect rest between shifts etc. Plus im guessing the relief signallers would have the right to vote on it aswell. So one or more of them may not agree with a 12 hour roster at a location as relief signallers do not live close to every signal box. Causing them to have really long days if they have a long distance to travel to that location. As i believe nom de guerre discussed on the thread earlier.

 

[Alan77]

Su-M- T-W- T-F- S
x D D D RD RD RD
x N N N RD RD RD
x D D D RD RD RD
x RD RD RD N N N
etc
every so often you will have a week that only has 2 days. This is to account for the working week being 35 hours and 3x12 hr shifts being 36hrs

Sundays will rostered in addition and are paid as overtime, so when you have a Sunday you will do 4 days on the spin.

So the days you are working you do little else other than sleep, eat and travel.

But you normally have 3/4 days off a week and get 9 groups of 7 days in a row off per year, before you start thinking annual leave. I can't understand why anyone would want to do 8's.

This sort of shift pattern looks like a dream!

 

[Sunset route]

The other thing to look at i would think is that if one signal box in a certain area wanted to go to 12 hour this would also throw the relief signallers in that area out of sync. Going from 8s in one box to 12 in another. It may affect rest between shifts etc. Plus im guessing the relief signallers would have the right to vote on it aswell. So one or more of them may not agree with a 12 hour roster at a location as relief signallers do not live close to every signal box. Causing them to have really long days if they have a long distance to travel to that location. As i believe nom de guerre discussed on the thread earlier.

I know I did I post #2175 above. I think it’s more important for new applicants to be more worried about getting through all the assessments, interviews and signalling school, to be too worried about various locations base rosters. Once you get your feet in the door then you can use the internal vacancy list to move to a more desirable locations for the variety of workload and shift pattern.

 

[Clydefrog]

I know I did I post #2175 above. I think it’s more important for new applicants to be more worried about getting through all the assessments, interviews and signalling school, to be too worried about various locations base rosters. Once you get your feet in the door then you can use the internal vacancy list to move to a more desirable locations for the variety of workload and shift pattern.

I totally agree. A discussion is going on and i am entitled to add to it though.

 

[Alan77]

I know I did I post #2175 above. I think it’s more important for new applicants to be more worried about getting through all the assessments, interviews and signalling school, to be too worried about various locations base rosters. Once you get your feet in the door then you can use the internal vacancy list to move to a more desirable locations for the variety of workload and shift pattern.

Totally agree, fingers crossed I’m about to land a post, then it’s time to focus on passing train school then learn the job then I shall be looking at my shifts

 

[Southernsig]

I'm talking about Kent and Sussex (geographically, anyway).

Yup, same as!

 

[Alan77]

Has anybody used that simsig website and is it of any use for getting an insight before training?

 

[jdxn]

Has anybody used that simsig website and is it of any use for getting an insight before training?

It may be of some help if you are going to and IECC. However the training is designed to work for people without any railway knowledge at all. Far better to have some time off relaxing before going on a 12 week IST course, and gear yourself up for the work required over 3 months without any days off (weekends, PH excepted). You find people trying to read rulebooks etc before going, but there is no point and could just confuse anyway.