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Railway modeler or multi skilled technician?


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I have written this mas a demonstration of how diverse railway modeling is, and what skills are required. With my professional hat on, I run an electrical maintenance department in one of the last surviving iron foundry's, when i have had to recruit staff the question has been ???are you multi skilled???. If you ask this to anyone sitting an interview, then the answer will be yes.

I have seen them all over the years, folders full of certificates, Cv's that make my achievements look basic, yet i have come across a very few that can actually do the job.

If is was to recruit a person on just the grounds that he was an accomplished railway modeler, then my MD would have a vision of an oval of track with Thomas doing endless laps, until the speed was too much and it fell off. So i thought i would put a list together of what skills are involved with building a modest layout, such as my own Glenuig.

 

 

 

 

Draftsman

Carpenter

Engineer

Electrician

Electronics engineer

Machinist

ARTIST

Painter

Jeweler

Photographer

Negotiator (dealing with the missus)

Tea maker (catering services)

 

 

 

 

Please add if you have any more

 

 

 

 

And i forgot, to post this entry, competent with a PC

 

 

 

 

Gary

 

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Hi,

 

I agree with this, when I say at school I'm a Railway Modeller, everybody laughs and thinks about Thomas the tank engine. But I'll tell you this, in my tech crew I'm on of a few who are consider competent with a screwdriver! Plus when I walk into my tech department, I'm the only one in my class who can walk upto the piller drills and use it safely straight away!

 

 

Mathamatician? Because when making a model you've got to be able to convert from metric to imperial units (like 4mm:ft or 2mm:ft)

 

Journalist? For those who write magazine articles about their layouts or makes leaflets

 

Simon

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I agree with this, when I say at school I'm a Railway Modeller, everybody laughs and thinks about Thomas the tank engine. But I'll tell you this, in my tech crew I'm on of a few who are consider competent with a screwdriver! Plus when I walk into my tech department, I'm the only one in my class who can walk upto the piller drills and use it safely straight away!

Simon, so when you go to University are you going to read Engineering? 'Cos that's what is being touted as being required at the moment - competent people to build things that don't fall down.

 

Wish I had some!

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Simon, so when you go to University are you going to read Engineering? 'Cos that's what is being touted as being required at the moment - competent people to build things that don't fall down.

 

Wish I had some!

 

Hi,

 

Of Course! To give you an idea of how much engineering is needed, here's a little story:

 

I'm (hopefully) going to be working with Chiltern Railways for my work experience. When the lady phoned me to say I was, she said that I had to have an interview. She said that they were more interested me because I was the only one who was looking for work experience with them that had wanted a job in Rail Engineering!

 

Simon

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  • RMweb Gold

Along with Dreamer & Visualiser suggested above - Visionary - the ability to 'see' what the model will look like.

 

Landscaper/ terra-former/ cultivator - the ability to shape the countryside

 

Architect - the ability to design and build engineering, commercial and domestic structures.

 

Stu

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Hi,

 

Of Course! To give you an idea of how much engineering is needed, here's a little story:

 

I'm (hopefully) going to be working with Chiltern Railways for my work experience. When the lady phoned me to say I was, she said that I had to have an interview. She said that they were more interested me because I was the only one who was looking for work experience with them that had wanted a job in Rail Engineering!

 

Simon

This may be of interest - it's a bit out of date but they may be doing things in 2010 http://www.railway.bham.ac.uk/ There's only Foundation degree courses in Railway Engineering specifically, but there's this Masters course. http://www.eng.bham....d/railway.shtml This is the Network Rail graduate scheme http://www.networkra.../aspx/1092.aspx

 

Good luck with getting onto the work experience. The reason I'm posting this is you may want to show Chiltern some knowledge of where you want to go, and I did some educational stuff with the rail industry a while ago. Network rail only take the top graduates.

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This may be of interest - it's a bit out of date but they may be doing things in 2010 http://www.railway.bham.ac.uk/ There's only Foundation degree courses in Railway Engineering specifically, but there's this Masters course. http://www.eng.bham....d/railway.shtml This is the Network Rail graduate scheme http://www.networkra.../aspx/1092.aspx

 

Good luck with getting onto the work experience. The reason I'm posting this is you may want to show Chiltern some knowledge of where you want to go, and I did some educational stuff with the rail industry a while ago. Network rail only take the top graduates.

 

 

Hi,

 

Thanks john! I'll look into it!

 

Simon

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I have seen them all over the years, folders full of certificates, Cv's that make my achievements look basic, yet i have come across a very few that can actually do the job.

The stuff on paper is useful, but it doesn't tell you much about whether the individual has a creative urge great enough to compel acquisition of the skill in physical application of the knowledge. But when the person tells you about the costumes they create for am-dram, the dirt track racer that they built and maintain, the stone polishing and jewelry making, the steam powered model of Titanic they have under construction, etc, etc. well, then you have a better idea.

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