Re: guard/driver training (was: "Olympic Sprint Platform - Lidcombe")

[Railway Rasputin <bob@fastlink.com.au>]

C. Dewick wrote:

> In <19990511033905.09631.00000722@ng-cb1.aol.com> markbau1@aol.comQQQQyuk (MarkBau1) writes:
>
> ><<<<<<> So to say that a guard can come out of a 5 week school and perform to a
> >100
> >> percent expectation level is ludicrous.>>>>>
>
> >Your argument falls down a little when it is known that trains can run just
> >fine with no guard!
>
> >5 weeks, I could have a newbie 90% of the way to being a good spark driver in
> >that time.
>
> Except the Sydney rail system is has so many physical contingencies with
> running driver-only that there are lots of problems to solve regardless of
> the crewing and training issues.
>
> >Is Australia the last country in the world that thinks it takes years to train
> >drivers and guards?
>
> It doesn't take years, but you *cannot* get in-service experience out of a
> textbook. Things don't work the same in real life as they do in the books,
> and that's something any experienced railway person will tell you.
>
> Working on the freight trains at Enfield for 4 years certainly proved that
> the books usually go out the preverbail window when it comes to solving
> problems irl.
>
> You can certainly teach people by the book(s) in a short time - I don't
> dispute that at all, but to give people a classroom course and then say
> "right, off you go" doesn't work with a system so diverse as ours.
>
> Regards,
>
> Craig.
> --

When I was learning the instructors said you will learn 90% of the stuff after you have taken
up.
They were right!