Pimpdaddy:
Silver_Surfer:
Great job but you’ll be fighting hundreds maybe thousands to get it.+1
Yep!
5 gcse that’s me ■■■■■■ lol oh well nevermind
Freight Dog:
Go for it pimpdaddy. Go for it guns blazing. Let them decide. Never automatically presume you won’t make it.
+1.
SteveBarnsleytrucker:
What does a normal shift entail on the freight side ? I.e what loads do you take, where do you go, do you have a regular run say from Stourton container port in Leeds down to Felixtowe?
You can be in the in the cab for upto 12 hours but driving time depending on what operator you work for is similar to driving trucks, 4.5 hours max driving before a break etc. Loads on freight can be anything. Infrastructure materials like ballast, a few thousand concrete sleepers maybe, long welded rail train with 900 foot rails onboard, all types of aggregate, coal, the list is endless. Anything from a single 40 ton wagon load up to maybe a couple of thousand tonne.
SteveBarnsleytrucker:
Something that’s always puzzled me is how do you stop a freight train from running away from you without knackering the brakes on sections of line like the one on the West Coast mainline at the side of the A74M which must be the sterpest section of railway in the UK? ?
Training and good train handling skills and basicly knowing WTF your doing! Its often said it takes more skill going down the hill than up.
SteveBarnsleytrucker:
I know that the braking systems on trains are more advanced than on your normal 44 tonne artic but with the amount of hoppers, tankers Etc they pull the braking systems must take one hell of a beating. ?
Indeed, they get literally red hot sometimes, especially some of the older ‘clasp’ brakes with cast iron blocks. Generally though, the longer the train the more brake force you have but that doesn’t mean you can tare arse about and expect to stop it where you want or need to stop.
You gota use ya noggin!
SteveBarnsleytrucker:
Also on the Intercity trains, does the driver, guard and buffet crew change 3-4 times on the long distance routes like Aberdeen to Penzance like the used to do? ?
Yeah, that’s still done. A driver “signs” only routes he’s been trained on. You gota do so many hours training and route knowledge runs on a specific route before you “sign” it. You cant just go anywhere! A First Great Western Penzance driver will only sign as far as London Paddington to the east or as far as Bristol to the north.
Likewise a Cross Country Trains Birmingham driver may sign down as far as Bristol or up as far as Preston etc.
SteveBarnsleytrucker:
Also how many hours are you allowed to drive the train and what brakes do you take? I’m guessing there’s a lot of waiting around on the freight due to them being much slower than the HST 's and having to let them through on the high speed lines and loading up etc ?
Its similar to a truck TBH. Some are 4 hours continuous driving, some maybe 4.5 before a break. Max shift length it 12 hours on the railway.
That came about after the Clapham disaster.
On freight you will spend time “inside” (aka in loops) to allow faster traffic past you. You could be on a ballast train inside an engineering weekend track renewal possession for instance, you may only move just a few yards for you entire shift!! Its all swings and roundabouts!
arn1e:
Loving the fact they look at Armed forces and HGV, that’s two ticks in boxes for this callsign
And I worked on the buses and the customer services…but Crewe is a bit far 
the maoster:
Gembo:
One good thing about being a freight driver is though, a thousand ton of rocks don’t moan when your late!As a matter of interest, who carries the can if it falls off? The driver? I’d take a punt at no to that.
All freight trains have what’s called a fitness to run exam before they move. Its carried out by a member of qualified ground staff where the train was loaded. There is then whats called a “certificate of readiness” which is handed to the driver on departure, he’s not aloud to leave and he wont leave without it. So yeah, the driver doesn’t carry the can if it falls off!
Even when the train has been unloaded, another form has to be completed and handed to the driver.
dowahdiddyman:
That`s a shame, 33bmi, think they should put a 1 in front of that!
at 25 years old, 6ft and 17st 4 lbs I just scrape under it at 32.8 lol 
For those who want some idea what the application process is like I can share my experience of about 10 years ago when I tried my best to get on with First Great Western.
After initial application form I was invited to take some aptitude tests at my local FGW station office. Started quite easy with fairly basic Maths and English questions but quite tight with the time allowed though. Then moved on to multi choice answer questions about mechanical engineering/ electrical circuits /physics etc. I found these questions quite difficult ( most of the other applicants did to be fair). Lot’s of questions about pulleys and gears, combinations of switches and lights etc. It was by far the most involved and difficult set of aptitude questions I have taken, including Army/ RAF/ Prison Officer etc. I will admit to guessing a lot of answers when I started to run out of time!
Managed to pass the tests and get to the interview stage. They told me 700 had applied and 70 got through to the first round of interviews. Did not do well in the interview so did not get any further. If you got past the interview you still had to do the reaction tests/ medical and more interviews. There were 10 jobs on offer, and according to my mate who worked in the planning section most of the jobs went to internal applicants ( guards etc).
Well worth having a go though, I have decided to apply again!
if you google aptitude tests then you will find plenty of practice tests to go at, this will give you some idea of what is involved ,
When I applied for my job ,
you was invited to a open day to explain and show you what is involved ,then a few weeks later I had to go and do the aptitude tests ,
as localboy said they start off easy but get harder ,
we was told that if you don’t know then don’t guess as you would lose more points for getting it wrong , i don’t know if this is the same for other company’s .
when I did mine it was a group of 25 blokes, out of the 25 only 3 of us made it through , it was about a month later I had to go for a interview , then a few weeks later I got a job offer providing I past the medical ,
From when I applied to starting work was about 4 months .
…
gazza1970:
a few weeks later I got a job offer providing I past the medical ,
From when I applied to starting work was about 4 months .
Lucky you fella, lucky you:)
localboy:
There were 10 jobs on offer, and according to my mate who worked in the planning section most of the jobs went to internal applicants ( guards etc).
!
My worry exactly.
Good luck to everyone that goes for it
Good insight there Gembo.
So anyone in the train industry shed some light on what the downsides (if any ) are ?
From the outside looking in that looks like a very good package especially for a 35 hour week.
Nice to know they still take safety seriously in the rail industry.
I suppose to some people a downside to the job is working 12hr shifts at the week end , the depot I’m at we do a lot of week end possessions , for me that’s a plus as you only work 17 shifts a month , ( you can do more if you want the overtime )
My only downside is I have to do a 225mile round trip to work ,but then that was my choice to move that far away from the depot .
Yeah cheers for the great answers and insight into the job Gembo 
Cheers for the insight gazza
Sorry for the thread revival…I’ve made it through to Stage 2. Now I’ve got the train drivers assessment in march.
Schade, dass es jetzt “Seite nicht gefunden” ist.
nothing about trainees,they want qualified train drivers with two years experience