To be a train driver what skills experience and qualifications do you need?

Question

To be a train driver what skills experience and qualifications do you need?

Answer 1

you will need to live within close traveling distance to the depot you work from. have excellent eye sight and no hearing problems. you will most likely need a full driving licence.

the best way is to contact train operating companies who will give  you their requirements to join their train drivers program.

Answer 2

To be honest, with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, "the BNSF" you don't need much.  You do have to be a conductor first.  When there are job postings for engineer classes it goes in order of senority.  If there are 5 class openings and you are in the top 5 conductor senority applying for the class, you get in.  There are no skills required to be accepted.  You must however have a valid drivers license.  It's all about senority.  So, if you want to be an engineer, you have to work for the railroad first as a conductor.....with BNSF anyways.  Then once you have a little senority under you, you can apply for the engineer classes as they become available.  There's no job interview, references or anything like that.  It's all senority.  You can have the biggest idiot on the whole railroad system get in an engineer program if he has more conductor senority than the other guys applying.  The key is getting hired as a conductor first with the railroad......then it's all about time in.

Answer 3

In North America, we refer to our drivers as engineers, also by popular nicknames, such as hogheads, or hoggers.

In Canada, you must first start as a conductor/brakeman working the ground.  After working for several years (it depends on a lot of factors), you may be eligible to take engineer training.  Once you finish your training, you still work full-time as a conductor/brakeman, and can take engineer work as your seniority allows you.  Eventually, your seniority will allow you to work full-time as an engineer.

Engineers need to have a good mechanical sense; they have to be patient, calm, and collected in very intense situations; they must know the road they operate on down to the finest detail; they have to be able to pay close attention to details for very long periods of time; and they have to be flexible in their learning abilities, because you never stop learning on the railway.

There's more to it than this - it's tough to fully explain the job in a forum such as this.  Hoghead will be able to elaborate further on what I've said here.

Answer 4

This has been asked before and only a couple of weeks ago!

But here we go again.

You will need to have passed English & Maths at GCSE Level

Then you look on the internet at the Train Operating Companies web sits under vacancies and apply if they are advertising.

If there are any training opertunities you will then get asked to attend a an assessment day, were if you are suscessful you will then sit an interview.