Working as a track operative

[trainp165]

Hello All
My Company Deliveroo has sponsored me for a 4-and-a-half-week training course with Intertrain at Enfield. It's a boot camp that will give me employment as soon as I finish so I can start working on the railways as a track operative. I was wondering if anyone has experience working on the track.

Few questions...

How hard is it? (Will I come back numb after each shift)
Can I do the morning or is it just all night?
Whats the average hours per week/would they force hours etc
Whats your experiences good n bad?

Many thanks
Dan

 

[Westy91]

I'm a track operative down on the south coast. So a few answers for you:

How hard is it? Well in all honesty it depends on the shifts you're doing. Once you've passed out your PTS into learning support (and the blue hat legion) you'll be sent out onto possessions. The work will be hard graft and there will be times where you'll be out in the middle of nowhere freezing cold in the pouring rain eight hours into a 12 hour shift wondering just exactly what on earth you've let yourself in for. But when you finish off for the weekend and the trains carrying hundreds of passengers start passing over the work you were involved with, that's genuinely a great feeling.

Can you do mornings or nights? Unfortunately there's very little work that can be done during the day now that the red zone ban is in force. If it's days you want, then you'll be best off looking at the civils contractors like Osborne, ASH etc. etc. 99% of the work is done at night and during the weekend where it can be anything from installing rail to stressing a mile's worth of track and out to full blown renewals.

Average hours? This depends on the firm you end up with. It can be anything from 0 hours to 60 hours per week, and the rates differ by firm and route. Most will expect you to be available to work unless you give them notice in advance (1 or 2 weeks usually). Your best bet is to get off your blue hat and go for Network Rail ASAP.

Experiences? So pros are this: You'll make friends for life, you'll earn good wages and you'll become part of the railway family that keeps our country running no matter what. The cons are thus: You'll get so cold you'll swear you just saw a polar bear run past, you'll find blisters on top of blisters, and in the summer that hard hat may just melt your head.

 

[trainp165]

I'm a track operative down on the south coast. So a few answers for you:

How hard is it? Well in all honesty it depends on the shifts you're doing. Once you've passed out your PTS into learning support (and the blue hat legion) you'll be sent out onto possessions. The work will be hard graft and there will be times where you'll be out in the middle of nowhere freezing cold in the pouring rain eight hours into a 12 hour shift wondering just exactly what on earth you've let yourself in for. But when you finish off for the weekend and the trains carrying hundreds of passengers start passing over the work you were involved with, that's genuinely a great feeling.

Can you do mornings or nights? Unfortunately there's very little work that can be done during the day now that the red zone ban is in force. If it's days you want, then you'll be best off looking at the civils contractors like Osborne, ASH etc. etc. 99% of the work is done at night and during the weekend where it can be anything from installing rail to stressing a mile's worth of track and out to full blown renewals.

Average hours? This depends on the firm you end up with. It can be anything from 0 hours to 60 hours per week, and the rates differ by firm and route. Most will expect you to be available to work unless you give them notice in advance (1 or 2 weeks usually). Your best bet is to get off your blue hat and go for Network Rail ASAP.

Experiences? So pros are this: You'll make friends for life, you'll earn good wages and you'll become part of the railway family that keeps our country running no matter what. The cons are thus: You'll get so cold you'll swear you just saw a polar bear run past, you'll find blisters on top of blisters, and in the summer that hard hat may just melt your head.

Thank you, I really appreciate the insight.

So it would be a 3rd party company and not national rail off the bat for whom employs me and I'm guessing for shift hours an example could be 2 weekdays and 2 weekends 12 hours but I know it varies

 

[Stuart-h]

Hello All
My Company Deliveroo has sponsored me for a 4-and-a-half-week training course with Intertrain at Enfield. It's a boot camp that will give me employment as soon as I finish so I can start working on the railways as a track operative. I was wondering if anyone has experience working on the track.

Few questions...

How hard is it? (Will I come back numb after each shift)
Can I do the morning or is it just all night?
Whats the average hours per week/would they force hours etc
Whats your experiences good n bad?

Many thanks
Dan

Im also a trackman.
Job is only as hard as you make it. You'll probley end up acheing in places you didnt even know exsisted!

Most work is midweek nights and weekend nights in all weathers.

Hours wise it depends who your working for. Network rail, volker rail ect im fairly sure you'd be on a contract. Agencey (like my self) your on a 0 hours contract. It makes budgeting a challange!