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Train Operator Exam # 8098


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hey guys, unfortunetly my journey to become a T/O has ended not because i failed anything i just resigned because more and more i proceed the less time i spend with my family and life all together..i went all the way to 15 weeks..passed my practicals and my first signal exam but T/O wasnt for me..i needed to spend more time with my 3 year old and this job would of took most of my time..this job isnt for everyone so please make sure you know you want this..meaning..the training isnt easy for what it is..its very intense and strict..dont be LATE or miss any days..study your SIGNALS ..your TSS's will drill you on signals and reading the iron everyday..i dont see how people are failing the signal exams my biggest fear was the dam practicals..hardest one would be cuts and adds..preparing a trainf or service is a piece of cake..PAY ATTENTION..especially your circuits,handbrakes,bco,mco,emergency brakes etc..your TSS plays a big role of you passing school car sad to say..some are here just for the money..Francis is a GREAT tss (francis with the dread hair) aka brooklyn francis..

 

-things that were told before you start school car are

-what do you think a T/O does? answer from class " operate up and down the tracks" WRONG you will see the amount of stuff you need to do and know

-be ready because this is 25 years to LIFE...you will have no family functions,no social life,and GET REST because you will need it

-DO NOT LEAVE YOUR CURRENT JOB...take a leave if you have to..trust me this saved me

Sorry to hear that, but you made the best decision.  Francis was my TSS in school car.  You might have seen me at Brighton a couple weeks ago.

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Can anybody give me a number who I can call and speak to about me taking off this list for unknown reason?? I been a B/O going on 5 years and found out I was disqualified from this exam. If anyone have info where I can call and find out why can you please inbox me a number.

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Can anybody give me a number who I can call and speak to about me taking off this list for unknown reason?? I been a B/O going on 5 years and found out I was disqualified from this exam. If anyone have info where I can call and find out why can you please inbox me a number.

 

IMHO, you can try calling the HR Department at (347) 643 8229/8230/8231/8232 or email them at examsunit@nyct.com.

 

Hopefully this will help.

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What's with the horror stories regarding T/O position. Any current T/O's wanna chime in

 

i just think T/O position is not for everybody..i dont believe there is no horror stories..dont listen to the old schoolers who are on the job because they would tell you why are you wanting this job...then when you ask them how long you been on the job you would get answers such as 20 years,25 years and so on..so job shouldnt be that bad eh? LOL..alot of old timers are retiring because of the new tech trains and signals now are being recorded ..so its time for them to retire ..too much TO are getting written up for hitting homeballs and taking wrong routes..everyone and there grandmother are TSS or superintendants..so they will ride you even more now..its a good job but i believe the new bees will be paying for the mistakes of the old timers hench the reason why schoolcar is so hard and strict..just pay attention and make sure you want the job..as for signal exams ..i thought that was one of the easiest test i ever took..which job will give you the answers before the actual exam? mta gives you the answers you just have to retain it.the hardest part for me was the schedules,traveling,and family time..if i was younger i wouldnt even look back..so please as i said ..dont leave your current job because you never know..it sucked when people spend 13-15 weeks of training and when it was time for the signal exam they got 1 answer wrong and was terminated..sad..very and now they dont have anything to fall back to..so dont make a signal exam ruin your career

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Those same people complaining where probably complaining ten years ago. They want to be able to do what they want on the road. Some people don't like change, especially technology. Some are too good to wear their uniform. I can't even swipe my Metrocard at a terminal to enter, without hearing a senior person tell me "they are tracking me with my Metroocard" (I'm on a legal break).

 

I was road posting with TO's over the last four days, and saw everything your not suppose to do, from senior guys. I'm not going to get into it in details. However, today was the last straw, I am going to have to "speak up" to the TO I post with, going forward. I saw first hand why people hit signals and overrun stations, and why you keep hearing over and over let the signal clear in front of you. People disregard that statement... just to save two to three minutes on a run. Literally!

 

TSS are throughout the system because trains and employees are everywhere throughout NYC. Everyday I hear issues going on over the radio. Forget hitting signals, death, sick passengers, natural death, and many other issues. Also, new employees are throughout the system operating and conducting, and yes, we may need help at times. One call and help is on the way at the upcoming station. When I was doing YX the first thing I did was found out who the TSS was on duty, stated my name etc. They took care of me, brought me down the road, showed me the board, and help boost my confidence. I even picked their brains, and joked with a few of them. We all have a job to do, and just want to get through the day. Once your earn your respect, you will get your respect.

 

Train operator is NOT for everyone, and MTA is not the best job in the world. However, if you want a good paying job to feed your family, get promotions, or even find a better transportation career elsewhere in the world the MTA is a good start.

Edited by ErikNYC
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so much bad habits out there..just do it the school car way and you guys will be  fine...senior guys will try to intimidate you but just ignore them for what it is..your only friend when becoming a T/O will be your TSS..senior guys are just pissed off because here you are as a newbee and you know more then them trust me..take advantage as a T/O and move up quick because the knowledge you know now is fresh in your heads..become a TSS,dispatcher or even work work trains

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so much bad habits out there..just do it the school car way and you guys will be  fine...senior guys will try to intimidate you but just ignore them for what it is..your only friend when becoming a T/O will be your TSS..senior guys are just pissed off because here you are as a newbee and you know more then them trust me..take advantage as a T/O and move up quick because the knowledge you know now is fresh in your heads..become a TSS,dispatcher or even work work trains

There are a lot of friendly helpful train operators, and other just don't know any better.

 

Everyday I have to hear a senior guys version of school car while road posting. Some of the info is good, and some is bad. It's part of the learning process.

 

When I say people try and save 2-3 minutes, I'm talking like driving on a highway, and someone is eager to jump in front of you to go nowhere. There's traffic ahead...

 

I still have a lot to learn.

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There is a great George Carlin saying that applies here.

 

"Why do those who know the least know it the loudest?"

 

Remember that when you're sitting in a crew room with so called "senior people." Many of the people making these outrageous claims don't even have that much time, or that much knowledge of what is actually going on, even if you think they do based on how they talk. There are 25-year-idiots here, and there are people with 5 years you'd swear had 20. And there are people with 2 years in title who go around talking like they have 15 who can't stay out of Labor Relations. You can't paint everyone with a brush. Most of the truly senior people in the crew room are completely quiet unless you are posting them. Why? Because they have their papers in their back pocket, and they don't give a darn. Maybe once they tried to help someone that wasn't their student and were told "What do you know, old man?" and decided to keep their mouth shut from then on unless they were getting paid the 2 hours not to. The bottom line is you don't know.

 

Bottom line is, you have to evaluate each person on the job case by case to determine the merit of what they are telling you. If you read the posts I put on here, this is why I routinely say such "not quite schoolcar but really you should do it this way" kind of advice such as never take a shortcut you are unfamiliar with, meaning that if you do, you must know exactly what can go wrong and how to troubleshoot it, as well as to properly explain yourself if you have to in a way that is compliant with the rules, and does not end with you being charged with lying.

 

Why do I say this?
 

Because schoolcar is a wonderful foundation for the start of your career...IF you pay attention, listen closely, and learn what you are supposed to. HOWEVER, it does not encompass every situation you could encounter, nor does it teach you what to say or how to react if you find yourself in such "uncharted waters" when you're on your own. Particularly in regards to dealing with breakdowns, and passenger related issues.

 

Schoolcar does not teach the new C/R to pull their head in after 25 feet of platform observation if they feel threatened by that smirking teen hiding behind a column. It teaches you to call control when you already need to go to the hospital. Schoolcar does not teach the new T/O how to recognize and adapt when the application or release magnet valves on their car are acting up, and the brakes are wonky at best. It teaches you how to call for an RCI after the train has already run out of the station. There are smart, preventative tactics that senior T/O and M/M know that can save you a lot of trouble...they can save you being taken out of service, having to explain yourself, having to go down to 2 B'way...even if it all ends up OK in the end. There are quirks of the road that good senior people can tell you about - hidden hooligans, signals that appear to clear on station time but don't, missing or mislabeled conductor's indication boards, entering greens that don't actually mean all the signals within station limits are clear, invalid signal aspects that are not in your rule book but remain on the road anyway, etc.

 

There are many things that can go wrong with a train too that these people can help you troubleshoot or overcome, that are well within a Train Operator's scope of responsibilities to perform, and they will get you from 1 end of the line to the other. But you have to know who to listen to.

 

Not everything "new" is great. The reason you road post is because no matter how good your schoolcar instructors are, most of them cannot keep up with what is current on essentially 10 types of equipment running on 20+ lines in 2 subdivisions, OPTO, CBTC, and all of the knowledge in work trains and flagging all at the same time. Which is the curriculum a schoolcar TSS is considered qualified to teach, to both T/O and C/R, at any given time. This is the reason you post. Probably no one in Transit is capable of providing that info, and if someone claims they are, RUN AWAY. And RUN FAST. The best people to teach you a particular area are the ones who work that area all the time, which is why you post.

 

Your most important survival skill as a new TA employee is the ability to distinguish between someone who is full of shit, and someone who is trying to help you. Regardless of time.

 

Anyone who says "stick to schoolcar 100%, don't even learn anything else" is scared, probably new, and will never learn anything else that can help them in their career. RUN. These are the same terrible human beings that when they get promoted to supervision, quickly become common crew room names. The TSSs that can take a C/R out of service for forgetting a tie, and cause a terminal abandonment, but they can't get a train with stuck brakes moving during rush hour. The Dispatchers that will cut your time for being 1 minute late when the trains were running late, then demand you to make an extra trip when you clear on a penalty job, which they wouldn't have needed you for if they hadn't insisted on running an "extra" interval on a 5 minute headway at 11pm, using up their WAA crew, when they would have needed that extra train later in the night anyway.

 

Likewise, anyone who tells you to disregard something important schoolcar taught you, RUN. These are the people that can't stay out of trouble. The ones who tell you where it's "OK" to speed. The ones who tell you to challenge certain timers. That no one will notice if you key an automatic. The ones who tell you that full service is the only position your train should ever be stopped in, or that it's OK to leave the key in the MDC, or close both sections at the same time. Or that no one ever looks at the black box on new tech trains. STAY AWAY.

 

But, anyone who provides additional information that builds on the principles that schoolcar taught you, give it a listen. It might help you someday. You also might never need it ever.

 

But learn who to listen to and who to tune out. When I see blanket statement posts like I'm reading up above, I see people that aren't learning the difference and that's bad. Because knowledge that's forgotten by retiring people won't be passed down and will be lost forever, and someday you will have students and need to teach them, and you won't have the knowledge that the best of your predecessors had. Transit wouldn't bother posting new students if they thought everything they needed to learn could be obtained from schoolcar. Remember. That.

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And as for promoting and moving up, make sure you learn the ins and outs of each title FIRST before promoting. There are too many people moving up who do not even have the basic principles of what the other titles do, and it's disconcerting.

 

The amount of new people I hear bellyaching about not getting a drop while another crew does when a dispatcher knows what he's doing is absurd. The dispatcher has to keep crews as close to in place as possible for future trips, not just give drops to whoever they feel like. The timetable determines who gets a drop more than the dispatcher does. Yet you will hear this sort of thing all the time.

 

Same goes with the amount of Train Operators bellyaching about a conductor doing something they are supposed to, or Conductors bellyaching about their T/O and they've never done the job. Or Train Operators bellyaching about Tower Operators asking for their call letters. Or not understanding why a Tower Operator gets so upset at a Train Operator who responds to a request for a train at XX ball to give call letters, and they're not at XX ball, but generally approaching it, and give their call letters, confusing the tower (hint: you just took a risk at sending him and the train operator and conductor on the train in front of you downtown!)

 

You should have enough familiarity with both divisions, the service pattern, the equipment, and the quirks of each line, and the different RTO titles before attempting to go to supervision. The people who don't generally make the worst supervisors, especially the ones that don't take the time to learn. No one's going to say turn down a promotion, but the ones who don't have that knowledge that only comes with experience need to pick it up in a hurry.

 

As a TSS, you can be expected to take over the operation of a train if needed to, as a T/O or C/R. As a Dispatcher or TSS, you can be asked to operate the tower machine (hint: they all have quirks!) if need be until a tower operator returns from a random, a relief TW/O comes in, or a signal problem is corrected. As a TSS, you can also be asked to run a terminal until, say, a Dispatcher comes back from a random. And as a superintendent, you'd be expected to know the interaction of all the different titles, and be able to assess performance based on the day's paperwork, as well as judiciously handle the fallout from any incident. You can't do that if you don't know what your employees' jobs are.

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I totally agree with you SubwayGuy.

 

Let me be clear, when I say "senior" I'm talking people with more seniority than I. The real old-timers are quiet, as you stated, and have a lot of knowledge. Most will help, but you have to be willing to listen.

 

I currently post with people ranging from five to thirty years of seniority. It's hard on me when some are telling me to wrap it and the misc sign clearly says fifteen miles, or asking me told hold the mc and the one shot timer is ten feet in front of the train, clearing at the last couple seconds. As well as asking me to fly in the station telling me to take full service and wait. I'm not looking to operate like that.

 

A TSS did tell me just what you said about learning from the old timers, and passing the knowledge down.

Edited by ErikNYC
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I totally agree with you SubwayGuy.

 

Let me be clear, when I say "senior" I'm talking people with more seniority than I. The real old-timers are quiet, as you stated, and have a lot of knowledge. Most will help, but you have to be willing to listen.

 

I currently post with people ranging from five to thirty years of seniority. It's hard on me when some are telling me to wrap it and the misc sign clearly says fifteen miles, or asking me told hold the mc and the one shot timer is ten feet in front of the train, clearing at the last couple seconds. As well as asking me to fly in the station telling me to take full service and wait. I'm not looking to operate like that.

 

A TSS did tell me just what you said about learning from the old timers, and passing the knowledge down.

 

You can be on schedule without really speeding. That is the importance of making good station stops. If you make bad station stops, then the only way you will be able to be on time is to cheat elsewhere or have your C/R do so. Some people never learned proper station stops, so they have to cheat in other places, and this is the knowledge they pass down.

 

But if you make good station stops, you won't need all that. It is OK to take heavy brake applications, but there is no one size fits all way to make a station stop. Generally, grab a little, feel the train slow down, take more to bring the train speed down properly, give back as you approach the proper marker to smooth out the stop. Don't fan, don't take excessively light brakes (dining car stops), but don't stonewall stop either. The mechanics of what you will do for each stop depend on the station and more specifically the train. You will hear the phrase "adjust your operation" often when referring to trains with non critical defects. I don't like this. You should be adjusting your operation every time you get in the seat of a different train because they all handle slightly differently, and what makes a stop smooth for one may not make a smooth stop on another one, even if they're the same car type.

 

Some people also don't understand taking students is not about showing off, but building their skills in a way that will make them able to handle that particular line when they're on their own. A good trainer will show you lineups, where the various switches go, indicate points you can be turned or rerouted, and how to get back to the line (reroute), or give familiarity with some of the turn moves so that you're aware of them. They will also show you tricky signals, fast stations, hidden stop car markers, and other quirks, and should indicate to you the types of places where there are posted speed restrictions that could result in a radar check since it's easy to miss the signs sometimes. They should also go over the equipment with you to give you a better feel for it, and work on fine tuning your station stops. They're also there to help you if anything should go wrong during your trip, so you don't panic, and to catch you if you make a mistake...such as coming up on a stop marker too fast, they should tell you take more break so you don't run out of the station. Things like that.

 

If someone isn't doing all this, they're not posting you properly. That doesn't mean you can cry uncle and get a repost (unless you feel they REALLY did a lousy job), but if they're not volunteering this sort of stuff you should be asking them questions. Transit has tried in the past to get students assigned to jobs for maximum exposure or where trainers were known to both take students and be good, but sometimes the regular is off, so you get who you get. Just make the best of it.

Edited by SubwayGuy
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Hey Train Op 2016 was the first time you took your drug test on 12/31/15? I'm only asking because I took my drug test on 12/14/15 and I haven't received a phone call or email from the mta in regards to coming in for the medical as of yet.

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Thanks for the words of encouragement, I'm Def gonna be on time and will be all ears. What I'm the most afraid of is the signal exam seems serious. Question ralphed007, is it cool to drive once it's time to start at ps 248 or is mass transit the best option?

Personally i prefer mass transit, i mean it's longer you have to leave your house way earlier, but if something happen you covered just take the train car number and give it to the tss. But if you drive your car and you late because of traffic or flat tire stuff like that you screw.

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@TrainOp2016, PS 248 is about 5 blocks from either the D train or N train stops. Allow a good 5 minutes to get to class from when you get off the train. You're welcome to drive but parking can be challenging after 6 am, and parking tickets are $100+. Lots of street parking that's limited because of alternate side restrictions, bus stops, etc. The Belt Parkway is tricky in terms of traffic. You never know when you'll come to a dead stop. Some people drove everyday without problems. They generally arrived by 6 am and then would kill time studying in the class room or break room.

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Personally i prefer mass transit, i mean it's longer you have to leave your house way earlier, but if something happen you covered just take the train car number and give it to the tss. But if you drive your car and you late because of traffic or flat tire stuff like that you screw.

 

Regardless, get your classmates phone numbers and your TSS's phone #'s if they are willing to give it to you. That way, if you should be delayed, you can call ahead and explain what's going on and why your train is delayed beforehand, instead of everyone getting frustrated wondering where you are, and possibly starting without you / cutting your time / you needing to write a report about being late.

 

Things can still happen...Better to be proactive than reactive.

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