What have I been up to?
Well, briefly, i’ve been learning how to safely guard trains and do a good job safely and properly. That includes:
- Learning about the basic skills such as Customer Service, Passenger Assistance, Communication
- Learning railway systems, such as signalling, PIDD, Control and how everything integrates
- Diving into the specifics and learning how everything works, including knowing what to do when it all goes wrong (Out of Course operations)
- Learning further skills, including signing 8 different types of traction. (150/1, 150/2, 156, 195, 319, 323, 331, 769) and how to fix issues if they occur on any of those types of trains
Most recently, i’ve been working with a minder and another trainee, working trains on a booked job, so we can get practical experience, and practical experience we have got! From Saturday night revellers to dealing with near miss incidents, to having to call the police due to a disruptive passenger, it really does come back to the old adage that no two days are the same on the railway.
So, what’s next?
So i’ve got a few more shifts with a minder, before learning my Core Route, which is the only route that I have when I leave my minder. Once i’ve learnt all that, i’ve got a lovely 3 day assessment ahead of me, which covers absolutely everything that we’ve done on the course, including all the sections, practical train working, dealing with disruption etc. If we pass from that, which with the training that we’ve had, it is very well manageable, then you enter the link system, and you are official a qualified and competent conductor. Woohoo!
But, you only sign one route, so they’ll want me to take some time away from trains at first to learn some more routes so i’ve got a full route card and a full traction card, so I can be the most help to the depot as I can.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to drop a message in the #diary-chat channel on Discord. If i’m not working or sleeping, i’ll try to reply to you.
See you when I next remember this channel exists!