What do real train drivers do when...

[Marius]

Dear reader,

What do real train drivers do when they face a long period between twee stations, with all green lights and no or lil speed change? Do they pick out their notebook/laptop/phone and browse internet? Listening to music? I was wondering this cause it might be very boring if you do a route everyday and you know it in and out and have to face this kind of situations.

Kind regards,

Ivy.

[IC125]

Hi Ivy,
In the UK, and most countries, there are strict rules that prevent drivers from having any distractions for safety. It doesn't matter how boring it may be, the railways can always throw up challenges. Things like phones and music can distract a driver, potentially having grave consequences as shown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_Compostela_derailment
I hope this helps :)

[Glenn]

Well, when I was a driver (UK), such a situation rarely arose. Trains are usually timed according to how long it usually takes to cover that distance. On the rare occasions that we were running a couple of minutes early, we simply drove as normal and then just stopped and waited a bit longer at the next station then set off again at the correct time. Little bit different for freight, which could sometimes be directed into a platform loop or a siding either to get us out of the way or simply to allow a period of time to pass to get us back on time (then we would possibly have a read of the newspaper, maybe a mug of tea or something. No such thing as notebooks / laptops or mobile phones in those days!).

[Sharpey™]

Like IC125 mentioned as much as you may have driven a route before and how boring it maybe, we still need to be vigilant for things like people and objects in the rail corridor, signal changes, speed changes, gradient changes, stopping pattern.

Also varying rail conditions such as rain starts to alter the handling/physics of the train you are driving and how you may start to alter the way you drive the train.
Economic and good driving habits are achieved by thinking ahead and somewhat planning where you are going to power/cruise/brake according to the conditions/gradients and other factors which I mentioned in my previous paragraph.

The only time I would use my mobile for browsing music or reading SMS messages are long turnaround times such as where I have terminated my service and changed cab ends, prepared my cab and then still have 15 minutes or so to scheduled departure time. Or if I have prepared my train in the yard and still have a long period before departure.

[IC125]

It is great to get the opinions and advice of real drivers ;)

[Marius]

Thank you all for the kind word and the information. It all was very interesting to read. I know real life is whole differen than running Train sim in an scenario or free roam, cause it adds so much more variables. Like cars or people on the track, and other stuff. So you have to give 100% attention.

I was asking this cause I was facing an 'boring' scenario where I just could put the throttle on 40 m/h and do 14 mins of nothing. Just browsing internet for 14 mins.

[electronx]

As far as real life goes, this is partly a monitoring job.

As far as the game - if you don't enjoy the rolling scenery, then either you picked the wrong route, or the wrong game. (No offense! Just being bluntly realistic.) If just the former, maybe ask around for routes with busy stopping services or somesuch.

[Marius]

Yeah, I guess I am a busy stopping service guy. But perhaps I need to gain more patience and such. Just like driving in the Netherlands; Everything is close to you. However, driving in Ireland you need to have more patience cause you are driving for hours to get somewhere.

[LeadCatcher]

Originally posted by RacingIvysaur:

Yeah, I guess I am a busy stopping service guy. But perhaps I need to gain more patience and such. Just like driving in the Netherlands; Everything is close to you. However, driving in Ireland you need to have more patience cause you are driving for hours to get somewhere.

Come to the States and drive across Texas -- you are driving for days.... :-)

[Glenn]

Won't be long before they are all driverless pieces of computer controlled plastic tubes.............

[Rev Counter]

Originally posted by Glenn:

Won't be long before they are all driverless pieces of computer controlled plastic tubes.............

1 word: eurrggchhhh

[IC125]

Trains made of plastic don't sound too sturdy. I prefer metal.

[Glenn]

I remeber the all metal clockwork trainsets I had as a kid. They just don't make 'em like that no more!

[ItsChris]

Originally posted by Ivysaur:

Dear reader,

What do real train drivers do when they face a long period between twee stations, with all green lights and no or lil speed change? Do they pick out their notebook/laptop/phone and browse internet? Listening to music? I was wondering this cause it might be very boring if you do a route everyday and you know it in and out and have to face this kind of situations.

Kind regards,

Ivy.

In the UK, they can't do those things because they need to be watching out for what ever is holding them up (mostly likely a red aspect). Doing those things you listed could make them have their license revoked.

[Chicken Balti]

When driving trains (especially steam traction) most certainly not time to get bored and get out your phone to surf the web, far to much to look out for in front of you. You have the lives of many people behind you, sat on the train, to care for and depending on you the driver, to get them to their destination safely.
Being 100% alert to all possible situations that 'could' unfold in front of your train is most important to a driver.
Best.

[IC125]

Originally posted by Chicken Balti:

When driving trains (especially steam traction) most certainly not time to get bored and get out your phone to surf the web, far to much to look out for in front of you. You have the lives of many people behind you, sat on the train, to care for and depending on you the driver, to get them to their destination safely.
Being 100% alert to all possible situations that 'could' unfold in front of your train is most important to a driver.
Best.

Lso the 4G signal in some areas is so poor that you probably wouldn't get any signal. No phone signal to call for help when you crash either ;)