Favourite bit of your railway job

[Davside84]

Hello! I've signed up to this forum just to reply to these posts. I've been lurking for a while, keeping an eye on information on job vacancies, but I've loved reading this thread so I thought I'd register and comment.

I'm 30 and 3 years ago, after spending most of my 20's killing myself in recruitment, decided a complete change was in order and became a bus driver.

I absolutely love my job and some of these posts mirror how I feel when I'm driving around in my bus. The countryside, not being locked in an office, the passengers, waving at the kids, shift work..I could go on!!

One of the best things has to be the camaraderie, I really feel like I made 300 new friends when I became a bus driver. My main gripe is that 99.9% of my camarades detest the job and resent the company - It can be difficult maintaining my sunny outlook when everyone else would rather get paid to be punched in the face for 8 hours a day!!

Anyway, I just found it nice reading all the positive things you guys had to say about your jobs and it's really solidified the idea that I want to move onto the rails at some point in the future. Whether it takes 1 or 10 years to get in somewhere, I'll make it happen and that will see me until retirement.

Sorry for the long post and thanks for the enjoyable read this morning!

 

[91104]

Walking along the platform at Kings Cross and seeing one of the 'celebrity' class 91s Battle Of Britain or For The Fallen at the head of my train and thinking wow I left school at 16 with no qualifications and I'm driving that,how did that happen?

 

[Will.C]

Not been in this game for long, but for me its seeing times of the day that a lot of other people don't. Yeah it can be hard when you're booking on at 02:10 but you see things a lot of others don't.
The other morning as I was passing through South Tottenham about 05.30, the sun was coming up and was like a huge orange orb slowly rising, looked beautiful. Was a moment of satisfaction when thinking this is the first of many sunrises I'll get to see.

Also agree with a lot of what has been said by others here, I've never been waved at so much in my life, does put a smile on your face when it happens.
And the feeling of successfully getting your 2-3000 tonne load safely and on time to its destination is pretty cool.

Id like to think Im still this happy in 30 years time, best job I've ever had!!

 

[Timpg]

Sounds awesome mate, I hope one day I'll be able to be in your shoes and experience this. For the time being I shall continue to apply and hope for the best.
All the best mate

 

[trainplan1]

Knowing that I took on a mainly thankless task for the most part and (usually!) gave my very best to try and make the timetable work a little bit better. Hopefully doing something to improve the workload for those in signal boxes, control centres, on the platform, in the cabs of trains, those out on renewals and maintenance and the travelling public.

 

[Johnnie2Sheds]

For a number of reasons that I do not wish to elaborate upon, I can safely say that the best part of my job is the 15 minute bus ride home on Friday, followed closely by the 15 minute bus ride home on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

 

[Gavmnnng]

Telling people I work on the railway,oh and moving trains safely and on time through my patch.
A cheerful friendly driver on the other end of the phone also makes my day!

 

[amateur]

For a number of reasons that I do not wish to elaborate upon, I can safely say that the best part of my job is the 15 minute bus ride home on Friday, followed closely by the 15 minute bus ride home on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Do tell...you don't have to mention the employers/colleagues name!

 

[TomBoyd]

A cheerful friendly driver on the other end of the phone also makes my day!

This is so true. A driver told me yesterday, at the end of a routine call "Have a nice day signaller!"

I was so taken aback, I almost didn't wish him the same! It was a nice start to the day!

 

[sprinterguy]

Definitely the cakes in the office.

Also the sense of camaraderie amongst colleagues, the feeling that you are part of the "railway family" and that we're all pulling in the same direction for a cause greater than the sum of its parts, despite the best efforts of privatisation to divide and segregate (though old divisions die hard )!

 

[Llama]

Seeing drivers who I have trained going about their day to day activities in a confident and professional manner always gives a sense of pride.