I've recently completed refresher training on rules and defect handling. This is something we do annually and although I've never had a refresher training which I've enjoyed (which is strange given that I always like initial training on stock) I do find it useful. Less so this year as training has been cut along with everything else so we didn't ( Read more... )

I had my road test today. This entails going out with an assessing DMT and with an instructor (who is just there in case I totally screw up and he needs to take over). And then we basically drive up and down the line and in and out of depots until the DMT is satisfied I can drive to a good enough standard to be let loose on my own. This all takes a ( Read more... )

Well that didn't take long did it ( Read more... )

I'm at that time again. That time where I want everyone to just go away and leave me in peace to trundle around on trains. Or zoom as the case may be. This is not a good time ( Read more... )

Today got off to a bit of a slow start as early mornings are an obscenity unto Gord and I can be a bit of a ditz with timetables at times. So it took me three attempts to track down this week's instructor. It occasionally happens that a trainee will miss whomever they are going out with but the remedy is generally fairly simple: if you stay in one ( Read more... )

This week has been spent learning how to handle the trains and getting some idea of the routes. The first part is relatively easy as I am already accustomed to the ways in which different signals work and how to judge speed and distance and so on. There's still a lot of learning to be done in some areas. Not least of which is the different layout ( Read more... )

We had our stock tests on Thursday and Friday and aside from the usual Driveritis* for everyone they went well and we all passed. In an amazing stroke of good luck the heavens opened on Thursday when we were supposed to be doing defects which generally entail bouncing in and out of a train half a dozen times to cut various bits of equipment in and ( Read more... )

So is torrential rain better or worse than snow? It was so bad today that we insisted that we only be trained on defects which can be repaired *inside* the train. :-D ( Read more... )

Snow again. I guess Friday was just a blip ( Read more... )

The events of today are as follows:

It did not snow.

I got told off (mildly).

We saw a shiny, shiny toy.

We collectively gave up listening towards the end of the afternoon as our brains were full.

That is all.