Reply to: Always Wanted to be a Train Driver?

[Gold Dalek]

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

Surely the Tubes will eventually go like the DLR - driverless, and then all the ex drivers can retrain to become IT specialists

[BoredBloke]

I can't see how driving a train requires that much skill. Does it need more skill than driving an articulated lorry? Also, not all train drivers drive the 125 mph passenger trains. A fair few drive the painfully slow and zero passengers freight trains.

[hyperD]

wish we could chat some more on this hyperd - i was at lockerbie with the mountain rescue and ever since have had trouble flying. it has become increasingly stressful and i'm thinking about doing a course to see whether that will decrease the angst.... i now envy people who actually enjoy it.

scotspine - private email if you want to chat offline...I'm no expert but I had a massive fear of flying as a kid but now a Private Pilot with instrument rating and fly a 200mph twin in Surrey.

[Emperor Dalek]

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

That's all you were fit for, laughing boy. Now get back in your proper casing before your mummy catches you in the Red Dalek's machine.

[scotspine]

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.

wish we could chat some more on this hyperd - i was at lockerbie with the mountain rescue and ever since have had trouble flying. it has become increasingly stressful and i'm thinking about doing a course to see whether that will decrease the angst.... i now envy people who actually enjoy it.

[mcquiggd]

Perhaps a good way to deport illegals.... tie them to the french end of the channel tunnel....

[hyperD]

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.

[Miss Ellie]

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

[expat]

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.

[red 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

[bogeyman]

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?

[Emperor Dalek]

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.

[bogeyman]

"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)

[Emperor Dalek]

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

[BoredBloke]

"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.