Update from Frank: the advantage of (t)rains.

Posted by Frank on 16/5/2009, 11:28 pm

It is long overdue (like a lot of the topics on this excellent board) to let seasoned readers and especially my early 2007 co-workshoppers know how I’m doing these days. In the process of planning my January 2007 train trip to London for my first Workshop I was faced with a sidebar on the site of the Belgian Railways saying the equivalent of “TheRailwaysAreHiring .be”. Since I actually was looking for a job (at 57) and having to send applications at any rate (well, ah, at least the prescribed rate), I was more than happy to fill in all the required data for an online application. Trains have had my warm interest ever since 1960 or so, so why not apply (even if late) for a job I have always wanted to do? Much to my surprise, I was actually invited for several subsequent phases of the selection process. However, I was rejected at the interview. Probably a fall-out of the growing self-esteem that comes with attending two workshops, I applied for a second time and this time prepared myself better for the questions they fire at you before hiring! And believe it or not, after a lot of theory and regulations learning, mixed with driving under supervision, late last year I obtained my “limited” train driver’s licence. I sometimes work within large marshalling yards but most of the time I work short-range goods trains in and around the extensive docks and tracks of the world’s largest railway port: Antwerp. Since these runs are short, not really tied to a fixed timetable, and interrupted by waiting in railway yards and at signal stops, often in the wild (much unlike motorway (un)rest area’s), it appears that I have found a (for me) almost ideal workplace. The UKPT workshops have taught me to be less frightened and more resourceful in challenging situations (driving under supervision, recently followed by having trainees myself!). I even had an instructor who (very surprised) confessed to be paruretic himself. Normally however, I’m on my own most of the time. In some situations that I come across I feel it’s better to prepare colleagues for a possibly longer pee break and then every colleague readily accepts that “older men need more time”! When having to be open with people, much depends on your own attitude: like dogs, other humans tend to sense whether someone is at ease with his or her “problem”, or not, and they act accordingly. Some people need to smell no fear in you in order to decide to behave decently themselves. BTW, several times I have noticed that it is easier to pee “in the wild” when it’s raining, apparently because then I leave my glasses inside before leaving the locomotive to avoid having to wipe them dry afterwards. Well, and when I’m not able to see distant potential onlookers, there really aren’t any, at least in my “view”! I guess it works in a similar way as having earplugs or earpieces in. Frank