First day doing new Job today as Train driver today. Follow your dreams!
- Thread starter David_VI
- Start date
Talk about baptism of fire.
I arrived at work for my first proper shift.. on the busiest shift! Walked through the station to see 100s of passengers.
There had been a fatality at Romford, (30th this year). The incident log actually said there were injuries from 3 people getting hit by flying body parts..
Yet twitter still went crazy with passengers being insensitive.
So the service had gone to hell so all the planning for getting arrivals into the yard went to hell. Such chaos! Ended up with too many trains as control just kept terminating them in the station and wanting to put them in the depot.
Luckly the guy on the previous shift helped out a lot, usually you'd let them go home early but when things go wrong you should stay till the official time.
The radio was going crazy and at points I had no idea what was going on... all in all I had about 1 hour on my own manning the shed. What a long hour.. But I survived.
I suppose that broke me in a bit!
Wasn't moving/driving. DRA was set (the red light on the desk) which cuts all power to traction motors as I was sitting at a red signal. I was sitting there in the yard for 10minutes waiting for the cleaners to finish so I could get it into the station.
Mainline drivers aren't allowed their phones on at all but depot are incase you have a trip or fall in the yard. They don't really mind you taking photos depending on what they are. Its such a safety critical job that you'd not even risk it unless like in my case you know you're not going to be doing anything for a while.
I arrived at work for my first proper shift.. on the busiest shift! Walked through the station to see 100s of passengers.
There had been a fatality at Romford, (30th this year). The incident log actually said there were injuries from 3 people getting hit by flying body parts..
Yet twitter still went crazy with passengers being insensitive.So the service had gone to hell so all the planning for getting arrivals into the yard went to hell. Such chaos! Ended up with too many trains as control just kept terminating them in the station and wanting to put them in the depot.
Luckly the guy on the previous shift helped out a lot, usually you'd let them go home early but when things go wrong you should stay till the official time.
The radio was going crazy and at points I had no idea what was going on... all in all I had about 1 hour on my own manning the shed. What a long hour.. But I survived.
I suppose that broke me in a bit!
I saw you took a picture whilst driving it, presumably with your phone (in random image thread). Is that allowed?
Wasn't moving/driving. DRA was set (the red light on the desk) which cuts all power to traction motors as I was sitting at a red signal. I was sitting there in the yard for 10minutes waiting for the cleaners to finish so I could get it into the station.
Mainline drivers aren't allowed their phones on at all but depot are incase you have a trip or fall in the yard. They don't really mind you taking photos depending on what they are. Its such a safety critical job that you'd not even risk it unless like in my case you know you're not going to be doing anything for a while.
Heard on the radio this morning that they were running 15 minutes late Colchester -> Liverpool Street because trains were in the wrong places.
Yeah because of the chaos they end up terminating trains in the wrong place and they just end up in our depot. We had too many trains overnight, some were stored in sidings we rarely ever use. That's probably why they were in the wrong places. Some were meant to be at Clacton Depot but ended up with us. Chaos!
Being in the industry definately makes you realise how much is going on behind the scenes and all the planning and chaos to get the trains running back to normal the next day.
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Soldato
Read the whole thing, often thought when on a train how nice it probably is in the cab with nothing infront of you. I suppose it gets boring after a while but hell you did it despite all the obsticals in your life.
and LOL
and LOL
Theres no doubt the novelty wears off. But as far as jobs go it's a pretty sweet deal. Like I said a job that pays this well without needing qualifications is a decent thing.
I really like the idea of seeing the world at different times, not being stuck in an office. Seeing the world go by with every day being a little bit different with some potentially crazy.
I've been in the depot 6 weeks now and I really love the depot driving, the walking around the yard at night, pulling points, driving trains.. Just feels great having a job outside compared to my previous job where I sat on a 1:1 with a patient in a secure unit for 12 hours a day.
