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West Midlands training

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Weebs

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St albans
Hi, if anyone has recently trained with West Midlands trains as a driver in Birmingham, can you please tell me how much of the training was in Birmingham and were else and how long was the training, cheers. Paul
 
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RailUK Forums

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portsmouth
1 week induction in brum
2 weeks rules in brum
2 weeks front end turns from your depot
3 weeks rules in brum
3 weeks traction probably Soho for New St drivers
2 weeks rules - brum
from this point onwards you are with a driver instructor (if they have any) based at your depot
 

Weebs

Member
Joined
16 Jan 2020
Messages
10
Location
St albans
1 week induction in brum
2 weeks rules in brum
2 weeks front end turns from your depot
3 weeks rules in brum
3 weeks traction probably Soho for New St drivers
2 weeks rules - brum
from this point onwards you are with a driver instructor (if they have any) based at your depot

mate that is so helpful you won’t believe, thank you so much, let’s just hope I passed the interview today to get in the course..
 

S-Car-Go

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19 Mar 2019
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1 week induction in brum
2 weeks rules in brum
2 weeks front end turns from your depot
3 weeks rules in brum
3 weeks traction probably Soho for New St drivers
2 weeks rules - brum
from this point onwards you are with a driver instructor (if they have any) based at your depot
After your last rules, do you have a week called "principles of route learning"? (Bletchley trainee here - we have the same courses in the same order, split between Bletchley & Northampton)
 

Weebs

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16 Jan 2020
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St albans
Yea if I pass my depot will be Bletchley as well, how challenging have you found the course? How long has it taken you so far?
 

Coach Carter

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21 Sep 2018
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Ours ran,
1 week induction/PTS
2 weeks introduction to operations
2 weeks front ending
3 weeks rules part 1
3 weeks traction
1 week depot specifics/slow moves
2 weeks rules part 2
1 week principals of route learning
(I also have 2 weeks of traction conversion to do next)
Then comes the handling (learning to drive) and there is a SPAD awareness week popped in the middle of that.
 

Weebs

Member
Joined
16 Jan 2020
Messages
10
Location
St albans
Ours ran,
1 week induction/PTS
2 weeks introduction to operations
2 weeks front ending
3 weeks rules part 1
3 weeks traction
1 week depot specifics/slow moves
2 weeks rules part 2
1 week principals of route learning
(I also have 2 weeks of traction conversion to do next)
Then comes the handling (learning to drive) and there is a SPAD awareness week popped in the middle of that.

how challenging how you found it, what job did you do before you joined West Midlands trains?
 

Coach Carter

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21 Sep 2018
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how challenging how you found it, what job did you do before you joined West Midlands trains?
First 3 weeks were the most challenging as at that point everything was new to me as I came from coach driving. After that you have some knowledge to work from.
The facilities at the academy are great and the trainers are all really good and nice people.
 

Weebs

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Joined
16 Jan 2020
Messages
10
Location
St albans
First 3 weeks were the most challenging as at that point everything was new to me as I came from coach driving. After that you have some knowledge to work from.
The facilities at the academy are great and the trainers are all really good and nice people.

thats really helpful to know, thanks, if I find out that I’ve been given a place on a course can I please pick your brains some more?
 

S-Car-Go

Member
Joined
19 Mar 2019
Messages
222
Yea if I pass my depot will be Bletchley as well, how challenging have you found the course? How long has it taken you so far?
Good luck with your interview. If you need to ask anything, just message me.
 

S-Car-Go

Member
Joined
19 Mar 2019
Messages
222
Ours ran,
1 week induction/PTS
2 weeks introduction to operations
2 weeks front ending
3 weeks rules part 1
3 weeks traction
1 week depot specifics/slow moves
2 weeks rules part 2
1 week principals of route learning
(I also have 2 weeks of traction conversion to do next)
Then comes the handling (learning to drive) and there is a SPAD awareness week popped in the middle of that.
Pretty much same as mine then. Although we had 3 weeks front ending as some trainers were unavailable for Rules Pt 1. Then a 2 week gap for Christmas after Traction, and I don't think we do much traction conversion since we sign only 1 type. In your Rules Pt 2, do they just examine you on that 2 weeks of learning? Or bundle stuff from previous modules to test you on too?
 

Weebs

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Joined
16 Jan 2020
Messages
10
Location
St albans
Great news chaps I’ve passed the interview, very chuffed, unfortunately unless something changes I’m not on the course in April but on the course after later in the year.
 

Withoutabix

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Joined
6 Mar 2019
Messages
57
Great news chaps I’ve passed the interview, very chuffed, unfortunately unless something changes I’m not on the course in April but on the course after later in the year.

Congrats dude

there seems to be a few of us now just waiting for a medical so hopefully will start hearing about that soon if there starting to get more people through to this stage
 

Jon1930

Member
Joined
15 Jun 2019
Messages
93
Great news chaps I’ve passed the interview, very chuffed, unfortunately unless something changes I’m not on the course in April but on the course after later in the year.


Well done, good luck
 
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