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Always Wanted to be a Train Driver?

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    Always Wanted to be a Train Driver?

    When I was a little Kaled mutant I wanted to be a train driver when I grew up. Okay, so being Emperor of the Daleks has its priviledges, but the work/life balance is not so good and this little article got me thinking:

    Bankers, teachers and chemists are leaving their professions to become train drivers, research has found. Flexible hours and a salary which can top £35,000 a year were among the main attractions, drivers union Aslef said.

    Train driving draws professionals

    I think that is rather poor pay compared to tube drivers who start of £34k basic but, then again, as Bob Crow is always saying, tube staff are all prepared to jump on a suicide bomber to muffle the blast in order to protect their customers.

    #2
    "I find it fascinating that people who 10 years ago wouldn't have considered train driving are drawn to our profession," said Aslef general secretary Keith Norman.

    "Train drivers used to emerge from a set pattern - they were technically rather than academically gifted men, often from 'railway families', who came to the job after working in other capacities in the industry."

    I think the fact that it is 35k for a 34 hour week may have something to do with it. Would you rather sit on your fat hairy @rse at the pointy end of the train all day or do something such as teaching where the little feckers mouth off to you and where you can't give them a slap.
    Rule Number 1 - Assuming that you have a valid contract in place always try to get your poo onto your timesheet, provided that the timesheet is valid for your current contract and covers the period of time that you are billing for.

    I preferred version 1!

    Comment


      #3
      I think saying you need to be technically gifted to drive a train is a bit over the top as well.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by TonyEnglish
        "Would you rather sit on your fat hairy @rse at the pointy end of the train all day...
        I don't think train drivers (I mean real ones - not tram or tube drivers) get the respect they deserve. Especially drivers of express passenger trains where there are far more lives at stake than the average airliner.

        There's a lot of skill in driving a train (yes, I know it runs on rails and you don't have to stear it) but other than that, it takes a lot of judgement, knowledge, coordination, concentration and nerve.

        Commercial airline pilots are held in high esteem, yet nowadays, they barely have to touch the controls except to program-in the flight plan prior to takeoff.

        Poor old train drivers have to have the same medical exams as airline pilots and be at least as sober and competent, but everyone treats them like tulip.

        It's not fair

        (disclaimer: I am not a train driver)

        You've come right out the other side of the forest of irony and ended up in the desert of wrong.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by bogeyman
          There's a lot of skill in driving a train (yes, I know it runs on rails and you don't have to stear it) but other than that, it takes a lot of judgement, knowledge, coordination, concentration and nerve.
          Nerve?! There shouldn't be. There are too many lives at stake to require relying on a fat, hairy, disinterested train driver, who has wedged the dead man's handle down with his lunch box and is watching DVDs on his portable player.

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            #6
            Originally posted by Emperor Dalek
            Nerve?! There shouldn't be. There are too many lives at stake to require relying on a fat, hairy, disinterested train driver, who has wedged the dead man's handle down with his lunch box and is watching DVDs on his portable player.
            Don't you think it requires more than a little nerve to carry 500 odd passengers at 125+ mph, over badly-maintained, possibly sabotaged-by-ASBOs track, day-in and day-out, fully knowing that if there's a major failure anywhere in the system that you will either: -

            a) die horribly

            b) be blamed and scapegoated for the tragedy

            c) probably both

            eh?
            Last edited by bogeyman; 10 April 2006, 16:50. Reason: option c

            You've come right out the other side of the forest of irony and ended up in the desert of wrong.

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by Emperor Dalek
              When I was a little Kaled mutant I wanted to be a train driver when I grew up.
              Well, now you tell us!

              And all the time we thought you simply wanted to be emporer of Skaro, and ultimately the universe!

              Listen up, bulb-head! While you've been swaning around in time and space playing trains on some human contractor forum in their early 21st c., someone has had to hold things together - guess who? Yep me - poor old Red Dalek. Picking up all your tulip all over again - as usual!

              And before Davros starts - remember, I had to open the hatch in your casing and empty your pooh pot everyday?

              So, get your goddam fat golden arse back to Skaro asap, and shape up!

              Love

              Red

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by bogeyman
                Don't you think it requires more than a little nerve to carry 500 odd passengers at 125+ mph, over badly-maintained, possibly sabotaged-by-ASBOs track, day-in and day-out, fully knowing that if there's a major failure anywhere in the system that you will either: -

                a) die horribly

                b) be blamed and scapegoated for the tragedy

                c) probably both

                eh?
                That's something train drivers have in common with airline pilots: in an accident they go first because they're at the front; and then, being unable to reply, are blamed for it later.

                Comment


                  #9
                  I investigated tube driving but that is apparently boring beyond belief. It's just a case of having a lever for stop/go and a button for open/close. If you are on the Jubliee line you get even less to do which is why tube drivers have been caught reading, studying for exams, drinking, eating and half asleep. Oh and tube drivers can't get lost train drivers can

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Commercial airline pilots are held in high esteem, yet nowadays, they barely have to touch the controls except to program-in the flight plan prior to takeoff.
                    There's a quantum leap in the learning ability to fly a passenger jet compared with a train or tube.

                    Apart from the 1500 hours of flying required before an ATPL and the 2 years of training and ground school including aeronautics, meteology, flight management, navigation, , the bi-yearly (or more) checks are intensive and include landing gear failure, engine failures, windshear drills etc on the simulator plus requiring to pass a yearly Class I medical.

                    Also, they don't just jump in a plane and press buttons: NOTAMS, weather briefings, calculating best altitude for fuel management, cockpit management, weight/balance calcs, STARS and SIDS etc etc

                    I'm not decrying the skill required to drive a tube or train, but it's a fair way off to comparing an airline pilot's skills.

                    Although FMCs and autopilots/cockpit management make the workload of the flight easier to manage, especially during high cockpit workloads, it's when things go wrong that you thank that these guys in the front seat have the skills to cope with any unexpected deviation from normal flight.

                    Autopilot disengagements still require the skills of a pilot to land at Hong Kong in minimums with windshear for instance - bit different from stopping the train when you see a red light.
                    If you think my attitude stinks, you should smell my fingers.

                    Comment

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