• Requirements To Become A Train Driver
• How To Become A Train Driver For Csx Railroad
• How Do You Become A Train Driver

We run this course throughout the year due to high demand from the industry. Secure your place today and let us help you become a trainee train driver. Sep 14, 2017. Your train driver training will usually take around 12 months. Once you've completed this, you could also work for a rail engineering company, driving on-track machines used in maintenance work. With experience you could take further training to become a train driver trainer, teaching other trainee drivers. After all, being a train driver isn't your average 9 – 5 job. But the rewards are well worth it. You'll enjoy a career that is very different. And the training is out of this world. As well as continuous professional development for experienced drivers, all new drivers take part in a yearlong training programme. This involves practical.

If you are short listed on the basis of your written application you will be invited for. Psychometric Testing. Manager Interview. Structured Interview. Medical They like to do the assessments in this order because this is the order of probability in which candidates are likely to fail – so it minimises the number they need to bother with at the next stage.

If the interviews take place on the same day as the psychometric tests they will probably take place after lunch when those who have failed the psychometric tests have been sent home. However, these things may take place at different locations, so don’t be surprised if the whole process is spread over three or four days. Because of this the stages may also not take place in the sequence listed here. They like to do the assessments in this order because this is the order of probability in which candidates are likely to fail – so it minimises the number they need to bother with at the next stage.

If the interviews take place on the same day as the psychometric tests they will probably take place after lunch when those who have failed the psychometric tests have been sent home. However, these things may take place at different locations, so don’t be surprised if the whole process is spread over three or four days. Because of this the stages may also not take place in the sequence listed here. Psychometric Testing.

(c2c); Knollys House, East Croydon (Southern); Stratford (East Anglia) and Watford (OPC). The test administrator will welcome you and provide you with all the materials required for the tests (paper, pens instructions etc). Before each module (whether computerised or paper) you will be given the chance to work through some examples. The administrator will check you have answered the sample questions correctly, and if you haven’t, will explain again what is required. Always make sure you understand what you are supposed to be doing in each test. Once the test starts the administrator cannot give you any assistance.

The content and sequence of these tests will vary depending on the testing centre used but consists of four parts and will be along these lines: First is a Mechanical Comprehension Test (MT4) which is designed to assess your understanding of basic mechanical principles, essential for the technical traction training you will receive as a Trainee Driver. You will be given a question booklet and an answer sheet (Virgin send out a practice booklet about a week before). The booklet will contain about thirty-six multiple-choice questions, and you are given eighteen minutes to answer as many of them as possible.

The questions take the form of diagrams of mechanical structures and you are asked a question about each diagram. For example, a diagram might show four cogs and the question may be “If cog ‘A’ moves anti-clockwise, which way will cog ‘C’ move?” You are marked on both speed and accuracy so work as quickly as you can but only as fast as you can think. If you aren’t sure about a particular question leave it and move on to the next; if you have time you can always come back to it. In this test you must achieve a fixed percentage of correct answers to progress.

Don’t worry if you aren’t that mechanically minded, many of the questions are more a matter of logic rather than mechanics and you can just work them out! I understand that a book called Mechanical & Spatial Relations Tests by Joel Wiensen is a useful guide to these tests and has sample papers. Available from www.amazon.co.uk, the ISBN is 0-7641-2340-8. (Thanks to Steve for this tip).

I have heard that at least one TOC has dropped this test as they found they too many people who would have made perfectly good drivers were failing it. Second is the Trainability for Rules & Procedures (TRP) Test which is a pen & paper exercise consisting of two parts.

Requirements To Become A Train Driver

This test is designed to assess your ability to learn new information and recall that information. The first part is a comprehension test, rather like those you did at school. In this you listen to a tape about a train driving related topic, read a long-ish passage on the same subject and are then given about five minutes to make notes. Be sure to write down the key points; it is a proven fact that information remains in your head longer if you write things down!

After having about five minutes to study your own notes and the write-up they will be collected by the administrator and you will be given a question booklet and answer sheet. There will be around eighteen multiple-choice questions to answer about the subject you have just heard and read about.

How To Become A Train Driver For Csx Railroad

Each question has four possible answers and you have seven minutes to answer the questions. Typically, one answer is obviously wrong but the others will be plausible, so you need to tread carefully. The second part of the test is more complicated and is basically it is a ‘logic’ assessment. You will be given a booklet which contains, for example, a series of printed dials, and you will be given instructions as to what to do when the dials point to particular positions. Everything is multiple choice and you have eight minutes to do about forty of these exercises, so you have to work very fast.

A variation on the TRP that you might encounter is the Rules Acquisition Aptitude Test (RAAT). This is very similar to the TRP except that instead of an audio tape you only read passages of information similar to the sort of rules and procedures you would encounter on the railway and then answer multiple choice questions about them. All these tests are quite complicated, but once you understand the logic behind them (and make sure you do understand from the administrator) you should be ok. Every two minutes the tester says ‘change’ and you must move on to the next page or screen. Ten minutes of solid concentration. The point is to work as quickly and accurately as possible.

This is one of those things that sounds as if it ought to be simple, but more people fail this than anything else. A variation on the GBT which you may encounter with some companies (notably Virgin) is the Safe Concentration & Attention Test (SCAAT).

How Do You Become A Train Driver

This is in three parts of three pages each, one minute each for each part. The first is similar to the GBT in that you have to find and cross out a target shape among the three pages of various shapes. Next, you have to find and cross out two target shapes at the same time. In the last part you not only look for target shape on each of the three pages but also look for a shape that changes on each line; i.e. You have to do two things at once.

An application which simulates the Group Bourdon Test has been created by someone who has done the test. The tool incorporates the SCAAT system too – both on-screen and in printed form so you can now practice for both tests prior to assessment. It allows you to see what is required and to hone your skills for the big day!

Many thanks to Chris Gresham for creating this tool; you can download it free from here. (clearly marked HI and LO) on the keyboard.

As if that wasn’t enough, you will also see yellow boxes appearing at the bottom left and right of the screen when you must press the appropriate (left or right) foot pedal. You get two practice runs then two six minute tests. During the first test the stimuli speed up twice during the course of the test. As the colours and sounds speed up, you will get lost – everyone does.

The point is to see how far you get and how you recover. Do not just hit out at anything in the hope of catching up; you will lose points for pressing incorrect buttons. Simply pause for a while, compose yourself, then try and pick the thread up again where you’re. In the second test you respond to the stimuli at your own pace for the full six minutes. Be warned though – you can’t just idle along slowly, you have to go as fast as you can manage or you will fail. Both tests are marked on speed and accuracy. People who have failed and re-taken this test report that playing computer games like Tetris or Space Invaders for some time beforehand can be very helpful.

(You can download these sorts of games from various shareware websites). A toy called ‘Bop-It’ is also strongly recommended as a preparation for this test.

Available from www.amazon.co.uk of from toy shops at about £20. Please note: The pass marks for the psychometric tests are not publicly available information. It’s one of the most frequent questions I get asked and I really don’t know. Because you’re bound to be asked about it.

You can hardly apply to Southern and then ask if they run services to places like Peterborough and Oxford or whether they run freight trains! They may also ask you questions such as “What have you done in your current job that has involved using co-ordination?”; “If I asked your employer what they think of you, what would they say?”; “If I asked your mother what she thought of you, what would she say?” or “Do you think you would be able to cope if someone decide to jump in front of the train you were driving?”.