Post your successes here!

[railtechnician]

Jul 29, 2008 12:07:40 GMT Colin said:

Indeed Oracle - that's precisely why we earn the money we do..........pity the general public will never appreciate the fact.

I wonder how the list would look if you did it by subject......bit like yer GCSE's or whatever....

• Rules
  
• Procedures
  
• Signalling (theory)
  
• Track & traction current
  
• Roles & responsibilities
  
• Stock (all circuits and how to fix/bypass) - x2 stocks on District
  
• Driving (theory)
  
• Driving (Practical)
  
• Line knowledge (all cabin codes, traction current sections, signalled moves, non signalled moves, signal locations, gradients, speed limits, order of stations, locations of trip cock testers, locations of spring & toggle points, handworked points, the line supplement book, etc, etc)

It's quite something when you write it down isn't it?!!

In terms of time:

• 4 weeks central training school (for rules, procedures, signalling (theory), track & traction current and roles & responsibilities
  
• 4-5 weeks on stock (+ extra 2 weeks on District for second stock)
  
• 4 weeks Job training (the basics of driving a train - starting & stopping it, getting used to characteristics, etc)
  
• 2 weeks annual leave - to prevent the trainee becoming too overloaded
  
• 5 weeks road training - learning the line in detail (includes more detailed practical driving)

That's about 19 weeks - quite often it'll end up stretching to 20 weeks as the operational railway can sometimes upset the best laid plans...........looks worse when you say 5 months doesn't it! ;D ;D

Other former LT/LU departments compared well to this, I agree that the average passenger hasn't a clue just how much training it takes to work on the system. 20 years ago my training to be a Comms Equipment Technician (the then Comms equivalent of a signals AET) was an intensive 29 week training course covering every Radio, CCTV, PA, Telephone system as well as BMR, BBMS, UTS and miscellaneous other systems in use at the time. A few years later I spent 19 weeks intensive training to be a signal lineman and hold the dual grade of Communications TO and Signalling TO. Both these courses involved burning the midnight oil on homework virtually every night and being back in the classroom the next day after just 4 hours sleep.

I would add that the above did not include the additional roles and responsibilities also required of those grades which were Site Person in Charge (SOTT), Protection Master (SOTT), Keyholders duties for all Signals, Comms, Electrical, UTS etc equipment rooms, relay rooms & IMRs as well as substations, Lifts & Escalators Engineering level access and Trolley Operator. Most of these being the subject of annual refresher training of course.

[1018509]

My successes.

I started on London Transport on 13/4/1971 as a stopgap while I looked for a job that I wanted to do.

When I took redundancy on 1/1/2011 I was still looking for that job and still am although not quite so hard now.

[supreme]

Started CSA training on 25/04/12

Got my main exam tomorrow, so hopefully once i have passed i can relax and look forward to my station/s which are the Stratford Group (Stratford, West Ham, Canning Town and North Greenwich) just in time for the Olympics, so no pressure. Looking forward to my new career.

[tupperwarequeen]

good luck for tomorrow Supreme x

[version3point1]

Hoping it went well. Stratford was my old group – was there from April 2007 to June 2011. Was rostered at North Greenwich from 2008, then went back to reserves at the beginning of 2011 following the crappy OSP. Stratford has recently increased its roster, so as a result they need to top up the reserves list. You may more than likely get it. It's a fairly nice group – I do miss it for the people. West Ham and Canning Town fairly quiet most of the time, Stratford's always organised chaos (well – unless you're placed on the mezzanine level, in which case, you may find tally marks on the walls of the GLAP-that-looks-like-a-ticket-office-but-isn't). You're forever on your guard there, the there's North Greenwich, which has the buzz of the O2 on event days as well as the usual masses who work at Canary Wharf (who live in/commute from Kent). There's the clubs too. It's all go! I imagine more exciting times given the Olympics.

There's the Jubilee train crews at NGW and Stratford – we get on fairly well (and it's nice to sit in the canteen at Fleet House – lots of laughs and banter there once you get to know the ladies and gents from the crew – the whole of Jubilee line trains has some of the best camaraderie, not just between themselves, but between stations too).

You don't half learn quick on the Stratford Group. When I was training as an SA, they taught us about POD codes but never how to hard reset a gate or deal with a ticket jam/retrieve a ticket from the escrow! The heat of the peak at Stratford will make you learn it almost instantaneously! After all – the man who travels on NXEA every day with the paper ticket that doesn't work will no doubt blame you for it! (As most of them do!)

[supreme]

thanks 3.1 for the heads up! i passed my exam and done the live track walk today so its escolator training at Liverpool st on tomorrow and then its stratford on frida. Cant wait!

[Dave A]

Ooo, escalator training! Have a go in the wheelchair, it's fun!

[slr]

After ages of trying for something, finally been offered a job working for LUL maintaining lifts and escalators. Subject to medical and references etc but hopefully I'll be ok!

Allegedly 600+ went for 4 places so must have done something right!

Thanks for anyone who contributed to an earlier thread I made about interviews, every little helps!