• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Recent content by Kraken

  1. Kraken

    A career as a signaller

    I would take the day shifts off, nights are way preferable. Fewer line blocks, fewer trains, no crossing requests, no box visitors, heavenly!
  2. Kraken

    A career as a signaller

    Pretty easy I would say, depending on whether you’re on 8s or 12s and how short staffed your line is (I’m not sure how it works in ROCs). In the last two years on Grade 3 + 18% FP I’ve managed 55k and 60k, albeit that is hammering the overtime quite a bit. They’ve done a recruitment drive...
  3. Kraken

    A career as a signaller

    I’m a Grade 3 General Purpose Relief, the locations I work in attract an 18% flexibility premium on top of base salary so my pay, as an example, is: Grade 3 - £36,009 + 18% = £42,490 I then get overtime and night shifts paid at Grade 3 rates (I.e. what a resident would get, so not + 18%). So...
  4. Kraken

    A career as a signaller

    That’s a really good summary, just when you think you might be getting to grips with a confusing new concept you’ve been taught a funnel is rammed down your throat and the next concept is piled in on top.
  5. Kraken

    A career as a signaller

    That clears that up then!
  6. Kraken

    A career as a signaller

    I’ve never been able to find firm rules for when all the pay starts. I think it really just works however your LOM wants it to work or however it has historically worked in the location you work in. For me it was training pay all the way through IST and learning the box(es). As soon as I...
  7. Kraken

    A career as a signaller

    Agreed, we moved from 8s to 12s last year and, for me at least, it’s been a dream. I don’t really notice the extra 4 hours at work each shift, but I definitely notice that I’m barely at work any more. 7/8 rest days in a row every four weeks is unbelievable. As you say, any overtime on 8s...
  8. Kraken

    A career as a signaller

    As I’ve previously posted I absolutely love this job and, whilst every job has its downsides, the downsides of signalling are for me trivial compared to those of every previous job I’ve had in the 20 years before I started doing this.
  9. Kraken

    Drivers v Signallers

    It’s threads like this that really make me rue the loss of cab rides for signallers. I’ve been a signaller for 4 years now and never set foot in the cab of a train, or had a decent chat with a driver outside of usual comms. It would be bloody invaluable to speak to some of the drivers down our...
  10. Kraken

    A career as a signaller

    Happy days, welcome aboard!
  11. Kraken

    A career as a signaller

    That’s how it would work on our line - stay on training pay until you’re passed out and ready to work a box on your own, then get the full grade of whatever that box was.
  12. Kraken

    A career as a signaller

    Grade 3 boxes, between 2-6 trains an hour usually. I wasn’t trying to dismiss your opinion on the job by the way, just giving my 2p’s worth. 1703846065 I undoubtedly miss having colleagues to take the piss out of and generally chat rubbish with I must say. I’d never say never with working...
  13. Kraken

    A career as a signaller

    I think it’s an amazing job. I work on my tod in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nature. I only see my boss about once a month and when I do he mostly sorts my requests and gripes out. Every shift I go home and forget about trains and work until it’s time for the next shift, no fretting...
  14. Kraken

    A career as a signaller

    I was on an IST of 10 people. 9 passed on first attempt, 1 passed on second attempt after illness. 5 were on a contract where they had to apply for jobs during the course. All 10 of us had permanent jobs within 3 months of finishing IST.
  15. Kraken

    A career as a signaller

    Another 10 applications here mate, keep going with it. I eventually got the job by reapplying for a post I originally got rejected for without an interview. I used 99% the same application, got an interview and got the job so there’s definitely a large element of chance to it. As gator op says...

Top