Tommy John

I am so grateful for this board ! A lot of great people on here who take the time to help out even though they don't have to !

Thanks Beneka for the congrats/advice and thank you everyone else for chiming in too. I heard about TSS Lee from my TSS. He said he is one of the best. Wish I could meet him one day. Just to confirm the info I have to see if its correct. After I finish my final yard practical, it says I do Yard Posting for 15 days then it says "released to RTO for 3 months". The first 15 days on YP, I am shadowing someone so I get familiar with what to do? (ex: laying up a train, put-in, relays?) After that 15 days, when "released to RTO for 3 months, then I am on my own? The reason why I ask is because there are some things in the schedule we will not be able to do because we were behind from early on and never caught up to par so I am concerned about doing yard posting and they are telling me to do something which I never did and only read from the book. Please bear with me when I ask these newbie questions.

Your right SubwayGuy's posts are always golden on here. I start Yard Posting beginning of next month. Not going to lie, I am nervous and excited at the same time (you pros might think that sounded corny lol). I only went down the road 3 times during school car. I would have thought I would have went down the road a little more than that. This site has really helped me along the way with SubwayGuy and others making my experience much more at ease.

SubwayGuy as always I look forward to reading your informative posts ! Thanks man !

Thanks for your responses. Patco, how are you doing ? Are you yard posting now or past that ?

Just want to thank everyone on here again for the tips. I passed my 1st practical and went on my own pace. Talked out loud and next thing you know I was done. The worst part was actually waiting to go.. that by far was the worst. lol. Now its the midterm next week, the signal test/practical the following week and the final yard practical the week after that. Jesus this is a lot in a short period of time !! On a side note, I only been down the road 3 times. I am trying to find my groove in terms of stopping by the station car stop sign, I either brake too soon or brake too late. I know you have to get a feel for it but if anyone can share how they learned to brake properly in a timely fashion would be great. I was on the R46 the other day and I noticed I brake too early then have to put it back to coast and/or switching (4 seconds or so) to move to the correct station car stop sign. So the next stop I braked too late and the stop sign was slightly pass my cab window. 1) I been observing going to work the T/O on the train that I am riding it seems to me most of the time they come into the station still taking power and I feel the brake by the time about 1/3 of the train is already into the station. 2) I am going down the road on a 160 next week so how do you guys like the braking on the 160's compared to the 46's or 68's ? Thanks guys.

Andrew thanks brother for your vote of confidence !

Thanks for the vote of confidence beneka !

Next week man.

Thanks Beneka for the post. I will keep everyone who gave me their advice in my head during the practical. And congrats to anyone who made it out of probation. I hope to post that kind of post one day on here.

Ok thank you.

One more question on the 1st practical (sorry to be a nuisance), the cutting/adding, once I cut do I actually move the train to a different track and add to a new set of cars or is the cutting/adding is like how we do it in practice ? (cut, move 1 foot away, put reverser in forward then make the add).

Thanks guys as always for the advice. My practical is at Jamaica yard matter of fact. I will memorize the steps verbatim and play it out in my mind over and over again. I will try my best for my old brain not to freeze up during the test. lol. SubwayGuy, glad you mentioned those 2 auto fails because our TSS mentioned that for some reason students always do these 2 mistakes specifically. Much respect to everyone here.

I have my first practical coming up and not going to lie I am a bit nervous. I have been studying my notes everyday, past all my quizzes but what really counts now is the 1st practical. I am an old fart (lol) so I might not be as quick as someone younger but hope someone can share any words of wisdom. The practical for cuts/adds could be on any trains that we learned so far right ? (R32/42, R46, R68, R160), in addition to reading the iron, track questions(parts of a track) and reading signals (low home, marker, standard home signal) ? Thank you.

Thanks guys and thank you again SubwayGuy. Seems to me the general consensus is the Blue Rule Book is the #1 place to source everything then comes the others.

Ok thanks RTOPRO

How would you guys define "Track Indication Signal" because in the induction book/rule book, signal guide and TSS I have 3 different worded definition Induction book / Rule Book: = "A home indication signal which when clear displays the track for which a train is being routed" TSS = "Proceed with caution on the track indicated by the illuminated number, be prepared to stop with 1/2 range of vision expecting to find the track occupied Signal Guide = "Proceed with restricted speed and extreme caution on the track indicated by the illuminated number"

Thanks guys for your replies, you guys are the best. We didn't contact the school because we don't know any better. We just thought this is how it goes but then other classes were asking us why we are not going over signals/reading iron everyday and we told them we don't know why. We did signals/read iron the first one or two days of schoolcar then we stopped completely, literally. We are so far behind that we haven't gotten any quizzes yet because he said he didn't even have time to cover the material that was going to be on the first quiz. RTOMan, what do you mean they changed the signal quiz? What was posted here is similar to what is in the induction/rule book, so its no good? Where should I go to get the material that they are look for on the test ? My brain is all over the place because I don't know what or where to study now. Then I question the material that I am studying because the substitute TSS tells us that's not a complete answer and he adds in words that's not even in the book. Maybe because I'm an old man fart or what because I am not sure of my self anymore. SubwayGuy, I see that DG10 definition in the Blue Rule Book only, not in the Induction book.

Thanks SubwayGuy. Your posts and others I always look forward to reading on here.

Thanks guys for the feedback. Just to clarify, one of my instructors said put it like how it says in the book and that's it, nothing more because he said if they ever questioned you then you can show them the book but we had another instructor this week (only for this week because our main instructor had to do something) said you have to write it out more because the book (Induction book) is too vague and he said they will question you further. So the substitute TSS had us doing signals practice everyday this week (first time we practiced signals, 4 weeks in) and he is adding words, sometimes an extra sentence in where it doesn't say it in the book and its kind of screwing up the students on which one they should study and memorize. The whole class did terrible. He was surprised and asked us why we aren't doing this everyday in school car from week 2/3. We are behind a good full week from what is on the schedule because orientation got screwed up and we had to finish what we didn't do at orientation at week 2 and 3. Maybe once we get the signal book, that book will have more of a complete definition than the induction book ? From what I read here we are suppose to get the signal book the 1st week right ? We are going into the 5th week man w/o that signal book.

Question about the signal test. I am getting conflicting answers from different TSS's. One said we should write it verbatim exactly like how its written in the Induction book (we didn't get the signal book yet, going into 5th week) and we should have no problems but he stressed NOTHING MORE because you might write yourself into a wrong answer. Another one said we should add to it because they may question you asking you to expand it more. Example. Home Signal: 2 Green. "Is a fixed interlocking home signal which indicates proceed on main route" <== book just says "proceed on main route" The 2nd TSS recommends saying it "Is a fixed interlocking home signal which indicates proceed on main route at allowable speed, expecting next signal to be clear" There are other examples where the ending in the book is use "Restricted Speed and Extreme Caution" but the 2nd TSS recommends adding in "Restricted Speed and Extreme Caution, expecting to find the track occupied, broken rail, or any other obstruction in the block" The only time the book adds in this is with the "Call-On" method and that's it but he wants us to add it in with the "Key-By" as well. There are more example of him adding more wordings in to other signals not listed in the book Did you guys write to verbatim exactly like how it is in the book or did you guys add more to it where it is NOT printed in the book ? To those who did write what is only in the book and no more did you guys get questioned about it and told to elaborate ? Just want to get an idea because I studied hard these past 5 weeks on the signals and learned it pretty much verbatim like how it is in the book but now adding new words in left and right is kind of screwing with my head a little. Thanks for any inputs

Cosmo, you went through school car when it was the old way or the way it is now (9 months) ?

Thanks guys for the support and feedback. My TSS was saying that school car changed the way they did things from before and we are the 4th class that is doing it this new way. He was saying before (I am writing from memory so correct me if I am wrong) school car was 5 1/2 months of teaching, then you post for a couple of weeks then come back to school car or something like that. He said now all the info is condensed into 3 1/2 months then do 3 months of yard posting, after that your back in school car for 1 week then you take the final. He doesn't agree with that because he feels that is too much info to give to students in too little of a time and wished it was back to the old way in which you can teach it at a slower pace so the students would "get it". Now it makes sense because in previous posts in this thread someone mentioned why I was "cutting and adding" so soon into school car. If I got any of this info wrong please correct me.

Can anyone give me some info on the 1st practical ? Is it uncouple and couple plus train inspection ? We did uncouple and couple today but our TSS said our first practical is coupling and uncoupling plus troubleshoot ? I thought troubleshooting was a different practical? All of us did uncouple and coupling about 4x each. I really truly hope we have more practice for our 1st practical than just today man.

Thanks for the responses guys. Our TSS is VERY good in explaining the stuff clearly. Perfect actually. I just wish he was more approachable and offer words of encouragement instead of saying if you don't know this you fail, you do this thing wrong you fail, etc. I know there are rules and regulations but every now and then say "Good Job" or "I have faith that all of you will pass" or something to give us some confidence, is that too much to ask ? He gets agitated if we do not understand the material instantly and there were a few instances he starts yelling. The whole class can tell he has no patience with us and has a very short fuse. I am not talking bad about him because he is very good as an instructor, awesome actually but if we make a mistake don't yell at us which makes us feel worthless. We have little to no confidence as it is because we don't know any better.