Trainee driver

[Lee Rambo]

For those who are qualified drivers, what did you find the hardest and why?
Rules?
Traction?
Route learning?

 

[class ep-09]

For those who are qualified drivers, what did you find the hardest and why?
Rules?
Traction?
Route learning?

Getting the job was the hardest part.

 

[Stigy]

For those who are qualified drivers, what did you find the hardest and why?
Rules?
Traction?
Route learning?

As a newly qualified driver, this is all still fresh in my mind. For me it was all challenging in different ways. Rules were intense and traction, which I thought I’d be better at, was a mind cluster (I’m mechanically minded, but that was not what I was expecting). There were times when I thought I simply wasn’t getting it when out practical handling in terms of the route knowledge. But then it kind of suddenly fell in to place. There are still things I don’t quite understand, but all of a sudden, you really think about it, they fall in to place nicely.

The action of driving is easy, you just have to concentrate. The tough stuff is all you other things that go hand in hand with driving a train (rules/traction/routes). Oh, and it doesn’t stop when you qualify, as you’ll be assessed in line with your TOC/FOC policy periodically. The intensity lessens, but you’ll be well aware that your driving is being closely monitored - to an extent more so now with Covid, and managers aren’t allowed in the cab to do assessment rides, so data will be used from the data recorder (it’s easier to analyse a driver this way more thoroughly as everything of importance is logged, which may be missed in a physical drive assessment).

 

[king_walnut]

Traction was probably the hardest for me. It was an intense few weeks.

 

[vikingdriver]

I'd say traction as well. By that point, as a trainee, my head was saturated by the rules course and the fatigue from over concentrating (had bloodshot eyes!) whilst doing my hours with my DI. So there wasn't a huge amount of space up there for the traction course - combined with not being the most technically minded. It sort of went in one ear and out the other. I've done further traction courses since and they are a lot easier when you have experience and it's the only thing you need to worry about.

 

[dk1]

For those who are qualified drivers, what did you find the hardest and why?
Rules?
Traction?
Route learning?

Traction. Rules was easy as I had already been a signaller & routes is a piece of cake.

I have never had the slightest interest in how an engine works or what a torque converter does. I just press a button or turn a key & expect it to go. I used to switch off in classroom stuff or get sidetracked in depots. If they hadn't just given us the answers I'd never have passed. Managed to wing it on that front for 22 years now & thankfully the legacy fleets I trained on back then have all moved on.

 

[Joliver]

Getting the job was the hardest part.

Second this.

Once you're in training school, there is a lot to learn; but you'll be given all the help and support you need from the trainers and your fellow trainees.

 

[Seehof]

My traction course consisted of getting down on the track and the Instructor pointing at the underneath of a 156 and saying” see all that there - do not touch it”. Everything you are supposed to touch will be rock hard and you will waste hours achieving nothing!” The signaller will want you to get proper professional help!!!

 

[EvoUK]

Still a trainee... honestly the thought of route learning (the scope of what needs to be memorised) terrifies me.

 

[lammergeier]

Still a trainee... honestly the thought of route learning (the scope of what needs to be memorised) terrifies me.

Why are you terrified? It's straightforward. You'll just pick it up as you go along.

 

[craigybagel]

Traction. Rules was easy as I had already been a signaller & routes is a piece of cake.

I have never had the slightest interest in how an engine works or what a torque converter does. I just press a button or turn a key & expect it to go. I used to switch off in classroom stuff or get sidetracked in depots. If they hadn't just given us the answers I'd never have passed. Managed to wing it on that front for 22 years now & thankfully the legacy fleets I trained on back then have all moved on.

Exactly this for me except that I was a guard rather than a signaller. The extra rules you need to learn as a driver were mostly just logically extensions of stuff I already knew. But I had zero mechanical experience, and everything that happened below the solebar was a mystery.

Still a trainee... honestly the thought of route learning (the scope of what needs to be memorised) terrifies me.

Don't panic. It's something you pick up without even realising. It sounds like a lot on paper, and it is, but when you're actually out there seeing it in person it makes sense and somehow it all goes in a lot easier than you expect.

 

[ComUtoR]

Still a trainee... honestly the thought of route learning (the scope of what needs to be memorised) terrifies me.

I wouldn't worry so much tbh. Route learning sounds daunting but in reality its pretty straight forward and you learn naturally. If you drive a car.. . When you drive to your local supermarket, go to work etc etc. you are basically doing exactly what is required for route learning. You know the junctions, road names, which way to turn at lights, which lane to be in, local landmarks, diversions and no doubt the road speeds too. With a train its easier because there are hard limits to the information. Some of the routes I drive only have a junction to take you on, then one to take you off. Thats it.

Have faith in the system, like @Stigy says, it will all suddenly drop in and the jigsaw will suddenly reveal itself.

 

[Stigy]

Still a trainee... honestly the thought of route learning (the scope of what needs to be memorised) terrifies me.

I thought the same as you. In fact, even through actual route driving it wasn’t until about 100 hours I really started to “get” the route. After that it came together quite quickly. Once you commit the nuts and bolts of it to longterm memory, the rest falls in to place quite quickly (like why is there a reduction in speed? Is it a structure/station/curve etc. One thing generally leads to another on a route and it’s all good to aid remembering). Take note of any quirky mnemonics or sayings your DI drums in to you as a way to remember. Worked for me.

There were a few aspects I wish I’d memorised earlier relating to the route at principle stations, but we live and learn.

 

[class ep-09]

Still a trainee... honestly the thought of route learning (the scope of what needs to be memorised) terrifies me.

Chill .
After going through the routes you will sign few months , you will remember them in your mind as a movie that plays over and over again.

After going few 100’s of times you will be able to close your eyes and you will know where you are and drive them from memory ( of course DO NOT close you eyes ).

That is exactly how the driving looks like at night in dense fog , like today in some places .

Add poor front lights to that and the night time thriller starts .....

 

[SA91]

As a newly qualified driver, this is all still fresh in my mind.

Congrats on qualifying!

 

[Stigy]

Congrats on qualifying!

Thanks, it’s a big weight off.

 

[S-Car-Go]

Well done @Stigy must be amazing relief
I'm about 180 hours away from the dreaded qualifying exams.

I'd echo what others have said. Traction was hardest for our training group. Rules had specific material and handouts. Traction was mornings of projection slides of technical jargon. Frantically making notes and writing it all down with little time to understand it until we got home to revise. Afternoons were a bit better, more practical on static trains in sidings.

 

[Timpg]

Still a trainee... honestly the thought of route learning (the scope of what needs to be memorised) terrifies me.

I found route learning the easiest part of training to be honest, and also probably the most enjoyable aspect also.
I’ll also say it is very challenging depending on your routes, I sign the east Suffolk which is notoriously difficult due to the amount of crossings, some 90 odd crossings of which half have different speeds associated with them. I was very anxious about learning that route, but after a few trips it’s all in there now!
I found route learning easier when you associate an area with an action, such as using bridges or certain signals or whistle boards as areas to coast, starting braking, mitigate against setting off over speed tpws loops or speed markers upon entry to a station or speed reduction etc etc. Just try to break areas down in to block sections then fill in the gaps in between.

 

[sw1ller]

For those who are qualified drivers, what did you find the hardest and why?
Rules?
Traction?
Route learning?

Route learning for me. Reason being was I was very good with road routes and remembering many many directions to places so I thought it would come naturally to me. But it really didn’t and when I got to about 170 hours and not much had sunk in, I started to really worry. I had a few days to myself and changed the whole way I went about route learning and a few drives later it all just clicked. I was told it would but started to doubt it. Once it was in though.... well, I reckon I could go away for 50 years and come back with ease now. Haha.

 

[Stigy]

Route learning for me. Reason being was I was very good with road routes and remembering many many directions to places so I thought it would come naturally to me. But it really didn’t and when I got to about 170 hours and not much had sunk in, I started to really worry. I had a few days to myself and changed the whole way I went about route learning and a few drives later it all just clicked. I was told it would but started to doubt it. Once it was in though.... well, I reckon I could go away for 50 years and come back with ease now. Haha.

That’s how it was for me too. Stuff wasn’t going in. I learned a lot of the finer points on routings and stuff in a couple of days with just me and some printed off route maps.

 

[DaveTM]

Everyone is different. My mind is very good at fitting together components of something complex to make a system, but is very bad at remembering names of things. I gave up biology before GCSE because so much of it was names, but did physics at university and then had a career in software engineering which are both subjects which require building a mind map of how A affects B affects C etc.
So when I became a driver I found the same broad distinction held; operating memory is great but name memory is lacking.
RULES: The railway rulebook is one massive system, and I found it easy to learn my part of it, whilst being aware of how that interacts with the signallers/conductors/platform/etc parts of the rulebook. Some people learn a rule; I find it easier to learn why a rule is required - we do X to avoid mangling people and trains like happened at Y - and then the rule follows logically.
TRACTION: A train is another big system with lots of subsystems fitting together within the train and also interacting with the rules; easy.
ROUTES: Partly easy and partly very hard for me. The easy part for me was the operational knowledge - where to put the brake in, where the stop boards are, where the red will be if I've got two yellows here etc. The hard part was things like crossing names and platform lengths, which you have to know and have to be able to demonstrate for the initial competency assessment but may not use for years until the signaller cautions you or the selective door opening system on your train fails. There is no system or pattern to these; they have to be learned by rote.
OTHER: a neglected part of the driver's knowledge is the random stuff. 3 years in and I'm still learning colleagues names, who shirks work and who is good for a fair swap, which shunters can be relied on to work by the book without mistakes and which shunters will set the wrong road and need watching like a hawk, what the door code is on that far out mess room this month, where to get the best bacon and mushroom butty on PNB.

 

[Seehof]

At York we used to do an occasional empty trip to Newcastle which could involve all kinds of goods loops etc, which we might never have experienced before. I made no secret to my colleagues and the management that I always had my track maps readily to hand. Anything doubtful I would always query with the signaller and they were always incredibly helpful especially at Newcastle. Once I stopped at a signal and got my maps out to see if the route indication was appropriate. Any doubt about anything ask the signaller. They will always be your best friend when you are out driving.