Re: Guards to Drive During Olympics?

["Rod" <comtrain@mpx.com.au>]

> > There is no way a Guard will be fully trained in 14 weeks!
>
> You are quite right.  Guards have been in training since they started as
Guards.

Thats not right David! You are trained in crowd control and Safety to the
Public!
Thats a lot different to mastering the movement and stopping of hundreds of
tonnes of controlled mayhem.

> > > who were re-employed as Guards, shunters, Signalmen or Station Staff.
Some
> > even ended up on the Gangs. My Friends North of the border assure me it
was
> > the same there!

> Perhaps in freight, but not on the sparks.  I left a job at Scientific
Services
> to go guard for the sole purpose of later transferring to driver, as I did
not
> want to go through the freight side.

And that is why I say you are deluded, David. By the way I left my job as an
Accountant with Coats Patons to eventually drive Trains!
You wanted to bypass some of the most informative training you could have
recieved, because you are still "white Collar" and perhaps did not want to
get your hands dirty??
Well Mate, you know what you want, and I am glad I dont work on the same
system as you, and anyone else who looks for the easy way to do things.
>
> > Many hundreds of Victorian Guards and other staff have been offered
seats on
> > our Locomotives. Very few finished the normal training schemes, that is
3
> > years, amd most of those, with a few noteable exceptions, were unable to
> > continue in the grade.
>
> But they did not have to pass an exam and interview process to get into
the
> course?

Well I do not know if they did or not, but of the 1000 odd guards, signalmen
and shunters that
were left without jobs, only 9 arrived on the Engines as Drivers, the rest,
left or failed the classes.

> > You guys will be a danger to yourselves as well as others, untill you
learn
> > respect for the power of the machine you will be asked to control.
>
> If you say so.

No David, History says so, time and time again!  England produced an eleven
month whiz Kid, and I bet he was as proud as you when he went to work each
day. Wow! I can drive Trains!
Easy does it mate I drove Suburbans in Melbourne for 4 years, and I survived
on training and the ghosts of the mates who made sure I knew how to do it!
Who is going to help you?
I am trying to, Drive Trains, I recomend it to anyone, but do it right, when
you retire, you can sit back and say "I did a good job, and no body,
including me, suffered for my actions"
Cheers
Rod