Guards Jobs - "qualities n qualifications" needed now

[Mickey]

By one of those moments of Serendipity I was talknig this morning about been a Guard and that Id always looked on what is now Arriva Trains Wales as one of the better TOCs to work for ( I may of course be very wrong on that point!)

 

Then i was having a look at thier website for something totally unconnected and I notice they are advertising for Trainee Conductors

 

The question is - what do "they" or any other TOC look for in their potential Guards these days; I get the feeling that it isnt the same things as it used to be...

[big jim]

having been an atw guard id say they look for handsome chiseled looks, and a body like brad pitt!

 

honest!!

 

i actually applied under first north western before the fanchise changed to atw in chester

 

after i got the appication in i was invited to do tests which involved role play where you had to one one hand be very defensive and on the other try to reason with the person being defensive, i wasnt looking forward to that but i really enjoyed it on the day

 

they also want someone good with money and mental arithmatic, someone who can think on their feet in a crisis, somone flexable regards shift work etc

 

as you say all the usual gubbins

 

i started as a guard but applied for a driving course after my 6 months probabtion and got straight on it so its good for foot in th door incase you wanted to go driving

 

as for atw bein one of the better, i'll reserve judgement on that one but hey are certainly not the worst from people ive spoken to at other toc's

[Mickey]

I got the looks and the personailty, trust me on that one

but my travels round the railway in the last 3 years seem to indicate a "need" for customer service rather than operational ability

 

Ive got no desire whatsoever to go Driving........cant say too much cos you never know who is reading this

Id rather get back into the job and maybe trya bit of Train Planning - after all it is. or seems, to be done by trained monkeys

[The Stationmaster]

I got the looks and the personailty, trust me on that one

but my travels round the railway in the last 3 years seem to indicate a "need" for customer service rather than operational ability

 

Ive got no desire whatsoever to go Driving........cant say too much cos you never know who is reading this

Id rather get back into the job and maybe trya bit of Train Planning - after all it is. or seems, to be done by trained monkeys

 

I think the problem with train planning nowadays is that a lot most of the experienced staff have gone and what's replaced is manuals and computer programmes - and neither of those do a train planner make (well certainly not a decent train planner). But then I'm biased.

 

And a little story to amuse - when EWS opened their new central planning office in Doncaster very few existing planners were prepared to go there (which was probably the idea in the first place, that would have cost EWS a lot of money) so there was a lot of recruitment 'off the street' although some of those who hadn't been prepared to take the job were persuaded to go up there doing training. One such trainer was taking a newbie through planning a light engine move when the newbie turned round and asked 'what's a heavy engine then?' The old tale is alas quite true - if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

[Mickey]

I can believe that.....we had a "firm" from New Zeland doing our Rosters at one point - Instead of just tweaking them at LDC meetings we had to re-write the entire thing, just to make it legal - not to make it "staff friendly" and one guy in "control" thought that cos Plymouth was only 80 miles from Pz then it was an hour......

[mjkerr]

To avoid the confusion, a Conductor is not a Guard

A Conductor simply checks tickets and can perform this duty either at a station or on a train

A Guard is also responsible for passenger and/or train safety

Therefore a train (not operating as DOO) can leave with a Guard but not a Conductor

Equally, some long distance trains carry both, but again if the Guard does not turn up then the train cannot leave until one is found

 

Check the job description to see if it includes door operation, if so then that is a Guard but quite often the job title is Conductor

 

I was a Senior Conductor for InterCity East Coast (just as the business split occured)

The role hasn't changed much (comparing what East Coast, Cross Country, and West Coast operate now) and is essentially the same

Operating HSTs was a challenge, the trick was to base yourself around the centre of the train, the platform staff would then check the doors, by which time you had walked to the TGS and prepared the train for departure

However, this meant walking back through the entire train for ticket issuing purposes

This was simplified with Mark 4 coaches and you could tell by the roats who preferred the easy life, as a result I ended up working more HSTs than anyone else...

[big jim]

an ATW "conductor" is definatly a guards role

 

to be honest i've never heard of a revenue only role being described as a conductor, revenue protection and csi are the onlyw 2 ive heard of, always makes me laugh when they get on my train and tell me they are there, "hi, such and such csi high wycombe", not quite miami

[Mickey]

Conductor is the name for the job at most Tocs and had been since 1988....

the Grade is Guard just like it says on the rule book, as issued by NR/Railtrack