Lets all drive real trains!

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

News article today:

Rail firm paying train drivers £54k salary ‘with no experience needed’
The company is actively looking for all sorts of people, ‘from veterans to stay-at-home parents’

Northern rail apparently. OK, bit tongue in cheek the headline as was printed, but is factually correct. Start on 23K do about a years course and off you go!

Mind you, with modern trains & signalling why you need drivers at all is a bit beyond me?

 

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Ah, but does that course include route knowledge?

That was a point raised last year in news reports about the background to the rail strikes and to poor service between the strikes: not only too few drivers, but that you cannot just borrow a driver from elsewhere even if the train itself is identical.

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

I was offered a go in one of the new type of train but I couldn’t find where to put the coal in

H

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

About ten years ago whilst waiting for a train at Charles De Gaulle airport (they do planes as well), I was taking photos of the TGV for my nephew. Then the driver popped his head out and, after establishing I was English and therefore mad about trains, invited me into the cab for a good look at the controls. He did say that if I’d been travelling to Strasbourg (his next stop) I could have stayed in there and had a drive. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be as I had a prior engagement with Mickey Mouse at Disneyland Paris 🙁

Rob

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

If you can have a self driving car it would seem a lot easier to have a self driving train, you don’t have to steer it and there are no side roads for things to jump out of. Docklands Light Railway seems to manage. I suspect it’s just cheaper to have a knowledgeable driver than to invest in the technology for autonomous operation. However if they keep on going on strike over who closes the doors watch this space

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

Need a knowledgeable driver? Surely they could use a railway-specific version Satnav (like there is a special version for hgvs)

“At the next junction keep straight on ,do not turn right or left as you will derail”..

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

As a 5 year old invited into the cockpit on a DC3 on my way home to Jersey ! I sat tight stating I wanted to be an engine driver. At 15 my dreams were shattered when a school medical revealed I suffered from subtle shades of red/green colour blindness, later in life it prevented me from gaining a skippers ticket. Noel.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Self driving cars do actually require you to sit there ready to take over when required. Docklands Light Railway is a closed system and doesn’t have other traffic to contend with. It does have staff who are required to drive manually when required but are free to look after the rest of the train in normal circumstances. Makes more sense actually to have pilotless passenger aircraft.
regards Martin

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I’m not sure I agree, the signals tell the train whether it’s safe to proceed, and a system using GPS or some other way of knowing how far from start would tell it how fast, where to stop etc. The guard or platform staff would tell it when to set off.. The only unplanned events are things like road traffic getting stuck on crossings, which can be detected by sensors, landslips etc. There isn’t much the driver can do about the latter, if it’s dark he won’t see it anyway. There are plenty of autonomous systems worldwide here

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