Training: it’s all in the delivery
GB Railfreight’s Bessie Matthews describes the new world of mainline driving and talks up the benefits of straight talking in training.
Going from 5 to 75mph in two years sounds slow, but it’s felt like 0 to 100 in seconds. I’m talking about driving trains again – you know it.
In Right Track 46 I said goodbye to my much-loved role as a shunt driver for Freightliner, and I was bursting with excitement to start my new role as a trainee mainline driver for GB Railfreight (GBRf) at the beginning of 2024.
It’s been just under three months since my first day in blue, with every day that passes being more incredible and fun than the day before.
It’s not been easy, though. I love railway-based classrooms—going over the Rule Book as a group, talking over scenarios, and having mini assessments before the big scary one at the end of the course. But I felt like I struggled more than I’d ever done before to retain information.
I’d already learnt a lot over the last six years in different railway roles that I was beginning to feel frustrated with myself that nothing seemed to stick, no matter how much I revised. I wasn’t the only one who felt like this way.
I’m pleased to say the support I had was second to none. My classmate simplified the work over dinner each night. My instructors in the classroom tried different ways of teaching until I finally had that ‘Eureka!’ moment. How on earth had I not seen it that way before?
Our time in the classroom was only a short one, as we had all driven freight trains before. We smashed our first major written assessment and were set free on to the network, down to our depots and ready to begin our 225 handling hours.
The first train I drove on the mainline as a trainee train manager (the name that drivers are given at GBRf) was from Guildford to Eastleigh on a cold, foggy February morning. My new driver instructor and I stood on the platform, going over what was about to happen in the next 10 minutes or so as we waited for the train to arrive. I was nervous.
‘If I do this with my hand, it means take the power off,’ he had explained. ‘And if I say, “Rub the brakes,” it means to put them in to Initial.’ I was so grateful for this clear understanding about our future communication that my worry suddenly turned in to excitement, and even more so as 66790 came in to view.
My first drive feels like a blur now, even though it was only a month ago. At the end of the journey, my face hurt from grinning so much and my back hurt from being so rigid, unable to chill and relax in the chair like I can now, just 50 hours in.
The things I have already seen and done in my 71 days a driver have been the best days of my life. I am living the dream.