MarkGuy

8 hours ago, I Run Trains said:

Me being a A division guy i love early AMs. i report at 4am and im done by 12-1pm sometimes 2pm. I always pick extra so i see senior guys all over the place. i can't really pin point what line they are mostly on. I'd say maybe the  and Work trains as well!

Love am's as well. Some constantly say that you can do all these things (i.e. appointments, laundry, and the like) in the morning before going to work when you have pm's. 

But honestly, if you end work between 1 and 3 pm, I do not see why you cannot do those things in the afternoon as well. All those things do not magically close at 4 pm all of a sudden.

And with summer imminent, I would rather have the whole afternoons off to enjoy, instead of the morning.

On 5/17/2021 at 12:01 PM, STtoMTA said:

I’m a BO now, always like midnights or ams. .....so XXL gets a lot of A ?

On 5/19/2021 at 9:23 AM, STtoMTA said:

What about far rock

Not sure abt the latter tbh

On 5/17/2021 at 12:01 PM, STtoMTA said:

I’m a BO now, always like midnights or ams. .....so XXL gets a lot of A ?

Depends. If you live closer to uptown getting the A is more likely on a regular basis.

4 hours ago, STtoMTA said:

That’s better for me because I’m an AM and a midnight guy .  I thought the b is a monster and it’s like the dreaded 2 in the A 

The B a monster? Ha! It's nowhere near as long as the A. That run goes quick as hell. Especially after Prospect Park. Easy day whenever I get the B.

I am an AM guy as well. Not a fan of pm's. 

1 hour ago, STtoMTA said:

That’s great , so this is for @beanz, @RTOMan, and whoever else has experience....would you say that the B division most senior line is the M ? , A division most desirable is like an am 2 job that’s a 2 tripper? I have a little inside knowledge and view of the workbook so I know the terminology .

 

also, what are YOUR opinions of people most desirable shift....like do a lot of people want midnights and pms etc

Well, I'm hitting 2 years in shortly. Though I'm not sure where exactly it stands, the M is definitely not the most senior line in the B. The J and the B (especially the latter) are more senior. Getting the B five days a week can take years because it means you have weekends and holidays off automatically built in.

A lot of people prefer pm's down here, I'm finding. They say it gives them more time to do things before going to work and lets them sleep in.

6 hours ago, Jchambers2120 said:

It’s going to take way longer than a couple of months. I started in the A division and it took me close to two years before I was able to pick my first job in the B division. That’s why if given the choice it’s in everyone’s interest to choose wisely.

 

Congratulations BreeBree and to everyone else who made it and welcome aboard. It’s going to seem nerve wracking and overwhelming at first, but it’s really not a hard job. The hardest part is getting to work on time and dealing with these looney toon passengers. 

...I still can't pick a job...and Im close to 2 years...tears >->

17 hours ago, beanz said:

The 2nd one is later in may, i believe 3 weeks after the first one. We got stalled one week, came back for 2 days, and then got sent home for 8 more work days. We are all healthy now and moving on but they are trying to speed things up a little to get us back up to speed with the 3 other classes.

Ok. That first one is not too hard, as you likely already know.

5 minutes ago, beanz said:

We got quarantined a couple of times so we are behind the other classes. Our first practical isn't until this coming Saturday may 1st. I'm feeling pretty good since it isn't my first rodeo. My classmates feel a little nervous as everybody is before their first major test, but i think they will all pass. We have the practical, then a day off, then the signal exam and signal practical, and then the midterm. A little unnerving for them but i think they are ready. 

They can do it. I was hella confident for the first one and my whole class murked it on the first try. Gd luck.

3 minutes ago, beanz said:

We got quarantined a couple of times so we are behind the other classes. Our first practical isn't until this coming Saturday may 1st. I'm feeling pretty good since it isn't my first rodeo. My classmates feel a little nervous as everybody is before their first major test, but i think they will all pass. We have the practical, then a day off, then the signal exam and signal practical, and then the midterm. A little unnerving for them but i think they are ready. 

Wait, what about the second yard practical? Are you guys getting a condensed version of schoolcar because of the pandemic? I heard some classes were stalled because of quarantining.

9 minutes ago, beanz said:

I just saw this post. I don't think that was us. Only time we went out on the D we went from stillwell to concourse and right back out, no pizza shop.

Well in any case, how is training going?

On 4/15/2021 at 1:43 PM, RTOMan said:

Looks like its moving right along they are doing various "Tie-In" GOs in queens...

So CBTC might be in effect from Kew to 50th street and 8th ave on the Echo...

Kew to Roosevelt Island on the Fox...

CTL to 5th ave on the Mikey..

CTL to Queens Plaza on the Romeo..

We been in BYPASS from 2100 to 0500 during the nights with these GOs...

Looking forward to them turning that "ON" switch fully.. Heh...

I stay keeping that mss in normal whenever I have the Fox. Or Echo. I remember I left Roosevelt and my follower immediately went cbtc bie entering the station. Not trying to deal with it as long as I can.

13 minutes ago, Danavigata said:

There were 2 school car trains out there today. The one from Concourse Yard to Euclid and Back. 
 

The other was an R160 from Continental Relay to Euclid and Back. 

Yes the former was right behind me but eventually went behind a c train en route to Euclid.

So schoolcar followed me up and down Concourse today. @Schecter @beanz if u were there I was the guy who came into the pizza shop offering u advice.

8 hours ago, RTOMan said:

FYI... Train Operators...

DO NOT LET the Dispt rush you to make service if the train comes in late and you have to go right out..

DO YOUR PRE TRIP INSPECTIONS...

Seal beams, PA, IC, Trip Cock, Horn, Required Brake Tests (If you are on SMEE equipment).. 

Oh yes and the One most of us just do out of impulse but if forgotten can have serious ramifications if a incident occurs... 

Especially on R142 and Up type equipment..

Make sure that Buzzer Works as designed...

So when one goes down the road and one calls RCC because the Buzzer is BO.. 

Then one wont be explaining why they left the terminal without a working buzzer, good luck trying to explain that....

You will be throwing your CR under the bus along with you and TA loves to do things in Multiples... 

Remember its a team effort not a "Me" Effort...

Hmm. Something happened 

On some G ish tho good luck to all.

Great ya'll went to the B. And if they putting many of you in that div, all the more faster I jump up in senority. 

Maybe I'll get to pick a steady job before the pick closes out next time.

Can only hope.

4 hours ago, beanz said:

Sorry I haven't updated, but i managed to get in this class. Got sent to the B today also, so that's my trade off for getting to come back 🙄 but all things considered that's a small price to pay. 

That was a fast turnaround. Congratulations on the 2nd chance! 

1 hour ago, Schecter said:

Great hope I can tolerate Carney then I was hoping to have TSS Blackman he's funny as hell 

Good man. Funny TSS.

3 hours ago, Late Clear said:

Especially important for new train operators.    Stop chasing yellows. 

Def! You learn how to "sense" when a train is ahead on a curve. Hell, I no longer wrap it on long curves with green automatics anymore bc u never know if a train just went bie in the station ahead and they haven't called it in yet.

Yeah-you're doing exactly what I was when I first started schoolcar-putting the cart waayy before the horse. 

I was asking questions to advanced topics when I hadn't even charged up a train at that point. Worry moreso about your weekly quizzes, learning the train from a technical standpoint, and those signals. Cause if you can't grasp those at all whatsoever, don't worry about lineups, since they'll send you back to the middle.

Also, your induction doesn't even begin until the 22nd. So how do you know which division you will end up in this soon? For all you know, they could keep you in the A.

1 hour ago, Schecter said:

The lineups and points of no returns are gonna be crazy in the B the A is much more simpler especially with ATS which also helps the B is stuck in the past. Especially with the new CBTC introduction on the Queens corridor a bunch of fun BIEs everywhere and signal malfunctions wish me luck 

Many of those lineups are shared between lines which makes it much easier. You will see. They try scaring B div folks at the school the first week by saying, "The A div only has 7 lines and 6 of them go either up the west or east side. Meanwhile you're all over the place in the B."

Personally for me I didn't struggle much with getting lineups. And a T/O who invited me into his cab during schoolcar gave me advice that maybe can work for you:

Remember all the bottom yellows on your route. 

Served me well 

On 1/25/2021 at 4:30 PM, beanz said:

Just a friendly piece of advice to all you guys starting up soon.

When I was road posting this time last year, I had a trainer tell me about the importance of focus. He told me a story about fighting with his girlfriend on his way to work. She dropped him off at flatbush right before his first trip and said to him "that's why I f**ked your best friend!".

 

This was back in the day so no cellphone, no way to confirm with his friend or nothing like that. He had to get on his train and go and handle it after work. He could not get he words out of his mind however, and on his first trip, before even getting to franklin ave, he hit a signal.

 

He told me the story and I laughed and forgot about it at the time. Went out on the road on my own February of last year. Everything was gravy, no issues all of February. Then March hit and corona came through and made an impact on my family. Lots of people got sick and even lost my great grandma and a few others.

 

Me being overweight, I was also super anxious and worried about catching it myself. You have to remember that MTA workers were dropping left and right at the start of this. I believe the number was 135+. So needless to say my wife was worried for me and I was worried as well.

 

My daughter also got diagnosed with autism earlier last year which was also tough, but she is doing better now with her therapies even though remote learning is difficult for her.

 

So I went to work with all this shit in my head and in April, after taking time off to self quarantine, I had my first incident. Small overrun in the rain, no biggie, but my conductor was a stickler and even though we were barely off the board and there was no one in the first car on a rainy Sunday evening, he made me call it in. So I did, it was my first, no biggie. Wrote a g2 and didn't even get taken out of service.

 

A week later my grandmother had a heart attack. A week after that it was mother's day and right before my last trip back up to Van Cortland we video chatted for mother's day and I saw my mom, aunts and grandma for the first time since Christmas. 

Well on that last trip to VC, 6 stops from signing out, I had a massive brain fart and took a few cars out of the station on an overrun. Turns out I didn't knock power all the way off and even though I took a full service at stockman, the train was still in full power(can't downshift but u will learn about that later). 

 

Out of service and retrained and embarrassed at my shitty incident.

 

They happened because I did not take heed to my trainers advice which was keep a clear mind. Never ever bring your personal life to work with you. You have to be 100 percent focused at all times. You can't daydream and think about bills or girlfriends or family or your kids while operating.

 

Operating a train offers a unique challenge. It isn't difficult once you get used to it. You start to feel yourself and get cocky. You start to think to yourself 'i got this' and get confident.

 

That is where the doom is waiting for you! U have to stay just as scared as u were day one because the moment u get confident, that's when the challenge kicks in. Staying focused.

 

Because u become so adept at operating and confident in your operation, it starts to become muscle memory after a while. It's monotonous so this is unavoidable. So your brain, seeing that it's barely being used, it takes a break. "Ok, looks like u got this under control without me. I'm gonna go think about all your problems now. Lemme know if u need me".

 

Now u in the danger zone.

 

When I came back after my second incident, I was good for almost 3 months. Summer was here, covid numbers were down, I was making money, my family had mostly recovered, I didn't get sick, my daughter was thriving with her therapists.

 

Life was good.

 

I was 3 weeks from finishing probation and said to my wife "let's go buy an apartment and move out". We found a place we loved, made an offer, didn't sign our lease at our apartment because we were moving, and gave a 25k deposit on a co-op apartment in Riverdale, just north of Van Cortland terminal. So close I could walk on a nice day, or take the 9 bus for 3 stops. 

 

Then, the one incident I will always regret happened. I was on the 3 out of lenox. Dispatcher told me to deadhead to new lots and pick up my train over there so my conductor and I head down. It's pouring raining that day but I got a 2 tripper that was just cut down to 1.5 trips so I'm happy.

 

Get to new lots and my train back north comes out the yard. I get on, do my tests, and we are off.

 

First station, Van Siclen. Brakes felt longgg. That means they don't react as soon as u are used to them reacting. I stop on the market but it was scary for a second there. Still, I'm a professional now, so I adjust. 

 

I know my brakes are long so I just brake a lot sooner. I am fine all the way uptown, even put the punch box at 135 perfectly on my window. No issues. 

 

Coming into the terminal though, my adjustment didn't matter. I adjusted for high speeds, but in the terminal u gotta clear timers and keep your speed at around 5 mph. I take a tiny brake well before the stop marker but I feel the train stop way short, so I release all the brake and let the train keep coasting. I pull the brake again and nothing.

 

Nothing...

 

Full service(full brake) and the train, very slowly, not even at 1mph I would say, glides right into the stop arm at the end of the terminal. It didn't hit it hard at all, but just barely kissed the stop arm just enough that the train could not charge at the other end and I had to report it.

 

Gets charged as a collision because in essence that's what it is.( These terms will make sense to u as you go on in Schoolcar so come back to this post later for the technicals.)

 

Nobody believed that the train had long brakes because I didn't call it in. No investigation on the train nothing, but I swear on everything I hold dear that the train just didn't stop. I definitely did what I should and it just didn't stop. My error was not calling in the train for having long brakes, but as I said, I adjusted and made it to the end just fine.

 

So at that point I get extended with a final warning. If you are an anxious person who over thinks like me, you do not want to be at final warning.

 

Needless to say I screwed up once more, a station overrun again. From the moment I went back out on my final warning until my final incident, I was operating scared and nervous. At that point, I was facing homelessness because I had the deposit in escrow and we hadn't closed on the apartment yet, my old apartment lease was about to expire, and I knew I could lose my job at any second. 

 

I had just booked a vacation and that night of my final mistake was the day before my short much needed vacation. I almost made it lol. That night I was particularly anxious over some news I got about my mother's health that turned out to be nothing. To give u an idea of how nervous I had been, I was a social drinker up to that point and during that time I made sure to have jameson's at home waiting for me every night after work to unwind.

 

So I am no longer a train operator. I was told I could get back on the list and start over again which I am in the process of trying to do, but it's been a bunch of hoops so far. So I'm still not on the list.

 

I wrote a lot of words because before I started I came here a lot for information, and this forum helped me out tremendously in knowing what to expect. I am returning that favor by giving you guys information that you may find invaluable. 

 

In short, focus and keep your private life and issues at home. 2020 was the most mentally challenging year of my life and it also happened to be probationary year of the best job I ever had, and I failed the challenge miserably.

 

All of my issues are not excuses, I am not the only person with problems. I should have risen to the challenge and done better. You don't want to be where I am, so that's why I felt like sharing.

 

Good luck to all of you and maybe I will be back someday and see ya down the road. 

Keeping it a buck-this damn company knows half these trains have shot brakes. Yet they still knowingly allow them on the road. I can't tell you how many times I've had R46s on the Broadway line with garbage brakes. Yet anything happens it's still on you. It's total garbage.

1 minute ago, Schecter said:

Who's bowser 🧐 the TSS?

Could be depending on who u get.

6 hours ago, beanz said:

Don't be you'll be fine. They hype it up to more than it is. Just study and you will be fine believe me.

That's the truth. @Schecter now ur time to save Princess Peach on a bigger level!

1 hour ago, beanz said:

At that point I had 2 months and a half out on my own and I didn't wanna make a big stink about it so I just said eff it let me not argue. My first car was literally empty and as per rcc I keyed open the first 5 cars and they were all empty. Calling it in was unnecessary but like I said I can't be mad at the guy. 

Must've been some new jack or someone on their last leg, cause someone with their papers in their back pocket or someone else with real time and a decent record would probably not have given an eff. 

I had a situation recently where I overran the board by 15 feet but still platformed. C/R was nervous and I called it in--when I should've told him to check it himself instead. RCC didn't really seem to care much though. Wanted a call at the terminal, but never even answered.