Is driving "Loco's" a thing? Like, cooler than an EMU/DMU?

[WombleGuard]

Hi,

Guard here and soon-to-be driver it seems. I had a wonderful conversation with a driver at my TOC last week about my applications and talent poolship and she mentioned a preference for a TOC 'where you get to drive Loco's".

So my question is, is it cooler/regarded more/better fun to drive a loco?

 

[ILoveLamp]

Locomotives are definitely cooler than trains! But not in the temperature sense!

 

[L401CJF]

There was a driver in our messroom the other week bragging that he was going to drive the loco hauled stock and that nobody else in the room signed it (different depots).

"Does anybody want to work this for me? Oh wait. You can't, you don't get to drive a real train!"

I suppose when you're driving mostly sprinters it feels a bit more "grown up" when you get to drive the big noisy stuff!

On the contrary, there seems to be a hell of a lot who don't like driving the loco hauled stuff as theyre quite troublesome! However to add to that some drivers like having problems with their train. I can think of a few drivers who love to get into the whole fault finding malarkey believe it or not!

 

[notadriver]

What loco class was it ?

 

[lammergeier]

There was a driver in our messroom the other week bragging that he was going to drive the loco hauled stock and that nobody else in the room signed it (different depots).

"Does anybody want to work this for me? Oh wait. You can't, you don't get to drive a real train!"

For god sake, I would have cringed to death. I'm embarrassed to work in the same industry as people like that sometimes.

 

[43066]

For god sake, I would have cringed to death. I'm embarrassed to work in the same industry as people like that sometimes.

Agreed. The railway has more than its fair share of that type, unfortunately!

 

[357]

There was a driver in our messroom the other week bragging that he was going to drive the loco hauled stock and that nobody else in the room signed it (different depots).

"Does anybody want to work this for me? Oh wait. You can't, you don't get to drive a real train!"

I suppose when you're driving mostly sprinters it feels a bit more "grown up" when you get to drive the big noisy stuff!

On the contrary, there seems to be a hell of a lot who don't like driving the loco hauled stuff as theyre quite troublesome! However to add to that some drivers like having problems with their train. I can think of a few drivers who love to get into the whole fault finding malarkey believe it or not!

I've seen a similar interaction but he hadn't noticed the freight driver who was using the same messroom for a break, who looked up and just smiled at him !

 

[91108]

There was a driver in our messroom the other week bragging that he was going to drive the loco hauled stock and that nobody else in the room signed it (different depots).

"Does anybody want to work this for me? Oh wait. You can't, you don't get to drive a real train!"

I suppose when you're driving mostly sprinters it feels a bit more "grown up" when you get to drive the big noisy stuff!

The accepted messroom response to such a person would be “See you next Tuesday”
I once saw a driver in a messroom look out of the window and say “There’s a train out there, but I’m looking for a bigger real one.”
An old hand Sprinter driver shouted out “Eh up, we’ve got a Hornby driver here left his train set at home”. Cue lots of steam train whistle noises, two tone horn noises, “is it a Deltic son ?”, jeers and laughter.
Never seen him in there again for some reason….

 

[NorthernTech]

The accepted messroom response to such a person would be “See you next Tuesday”
I once saw a driver in a messroom look out of the window and say “There’s a train out there, but I’m looking for a bigger real one.”
An old hand Sprinter driver shouted out “Eh up, we’ve got a Hornby driver here left his train set at home”. Cue lots of steam train whistle noises, two tone horn noises, “is it a Deltic son ?”, jeers and laughter.
Never seen him in there again for some reason….

The irony of a ‘train set’ being a typical passenger set rather than a Locomotive plus wagons. It’s obviously a personal opinion depending on an individual’s likes and dislikes, the job types to drive either type seem miles apart. So each to his own really... You may prefer a nice cab and the continual stop start with passenger, you may like to make moves in and out of a yard and drive a tricky, powerful, noisy loco. Both have you driving on the railway one way or another. I don’t see why a driver of one type of train would feel the need to be so rude about the other style of driver, seems unnecessary.

 

[Carl98k]

The irony of a ‘train set’ being a typical passenger set rather than a Locomotive plus wagons. It’s obviously a personal opinion depending on an individual’s likes and dislikes, the job types to drive either type seem miles apart. So each to his own really... You may prefer a nice cab and the continual stop start with passenger, you may like to make moves in and out of a yard and drive a tricky, powerful, noisy loco. Both have you driving on the railway one way or another. I don’t see why a driver of one type of train would feel the need to be so rude about the other style of driver, seems unnecessary.

Unfortunately this is human nature. I’ve just left an industry that’s exactly the same. Drivers on more lucrative contracts looking down at others, or the very least bragging. I suppose it’s horses for courses, and as long as you’re happy that’s all that matters.

 

[357]

I think this forum would be a wonderful place to start a thread asking drivers what the pros and cons are of different types of train driving.

I'd imagine we have a mix of people who drive units, people who drive locos for a TOC, and people who drive locos for a FOC! I know some drivers where I work who have done all three!

 

[6Gman]

I think this forum would be a wonderful place to start a thread asking drivers what the pros and cons are of different types of train driving.

I'd imagine we have a mix of people who drive units, people who drive locos for a TOC, and people who drive locos for a FOC! I know some drivers where I work who have done all three!

And, of course, back in BR days drivers could work all three in a week (two in a single shift).

My father, in "the block" at Crewe, signed Classes 08, 24, 25, 40, 47, 50, 81-85, 86, 87, DMUs (Blue Square*), EMUs (304s only).

On Monday he could be on an 87 to Euston; on Tuesday it could be a 47 to Rowley Regis; on Wednesday DMUs back and forth to Derby.

He would have hated the job today with its limited variety.

* I think he'd also signed Yellow Diamond earlier in his career. Oh, and he signed kettles - not just for brewing tea!

 

[notadriver]

Unfortunately this is human nature. I’ve just left an industry that’s exactly the same. Drivers on more lucrative contracts looking down at others, or the very least bragging. I suppose it’s horses for courses, and as long as you’re happy that’s all that matters.

For doing the same job at the same company / depot ?

 

[Carl98k]

For doing the same job at the same company / depot ?

Same job and depot, just delivering to a different garage

 

[E27007]

The accepted messroom response to such a person would be “See you next Tuesday”
I once saw a driver in a messroom look out of the window and say “There’s a train out there, but I’m looking for a bigger real one.”
An old hand Sprinter driver shouted out “Eh up, we’ve got a Hornby driver here left his train set at home”. Cue lots of steam train whistle noises, two tone horn noises, “is it a Deltic son ?”, jeers and laughter.
Never seen him in there again for some reason….

Classic Mess Room banter! It is the banter which kept us going, that and reading between the lines and speculation about the latest edicts from management.

 

[dk1]

Never made any difference to me whether I was driving a class 90 or a 153. I’d be happy driving Thomas the Tank as long as they paid me. Wouldn’t swap any of them back now over the new order. Perhaps it’s that ‘small willy syndrome’ with many just because they are in charge of something bigger & more powerful.

 

[craigybagel]

Hi,

Guard here and soon-to-be driver it seems. I had a wonderful conversation with a driver at my TOC last week about my applications and talent poolship and she mentioned a preference for a TOC 'where you get to drive Loco's".

So my question is, is it cooler/regarded more/better fun to drive a loco?

Funnily enough, at my TOC for two of the depots that sign locos that work is only done by what should be the most senior link of drivers. I say "should be" because for a long time they've struggled to persuade drivers to actually move into that link when a vacancy arises because people were put off by the loco, so some of the drivers moving in were actually quite junior. It's become a moot point though because the amount of loco work is increasing and so are the amount of drivers who need training.

Personally, I love driving the loco. When you spend all day driving DMUs, it makes for a nice change - and a challenge as well as it's quite a different style of driving.

 

[jettofab]

Hi,

Guard here and soon-to-be driver it seems. I had a wonderful conversation with a driver at my TOC last week about my applications and talent poolship and she mentioned a preference for a TOC 'where you get to drive Loco's".

So my question is, is it cooler/regarded more/better fun to drive a loco?

My experience at a TOC where some sign locos and some don't is that those that do think it's cooler/regarded more/better fun and those that don't couldn't care less!

 

[43066]

Interestingly some go the other way. We had drivers who actively tried to avoid HSTs*. Generally this was newer joiners who had only driven units and, given how “different” they were to modern stuff, I can understand it. Avoiding them was a risky strategy, though, because inevitably you’d end up having to drive one eventually, and be even more out of practice!

*no arguments about whether they’re locos or MUs, please!

 

[skyhigh]

Interestingly some go the other way. We had drivers who actively tried to avoid HSTs*. Generally this was newer joiners who had only driven units and, given how “different” they were to modern stuff, I can understand it. Avoiding them was a risky strategy, though, because inevitably you’d end up having to drive one eventually, and be even more out of practice!

*no arguments about whether they’re locos or MUs, please!

It's always the case, no matter what the traction is. We had drivers avoiding 195 training until the bitter end simply because they felt they were too 'different' to the old-school 14/15x they were used to. Drivers don't like change

 

[43066]

Drivers don't like change

Ain’t that the truth!