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The Schoolcar Experience


mediccjh

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Day 3/15 of yard posting @ ENY yd from 1600 to 0000. No one took me until some guy who came from a board job transferred to the yard. He wasnt even looking to take a student because he only has 1 year on the job but the yard dispatcher suggested that I shadowed him while he did his moves. I still learned a lot from him about walking the lineups and just guessing where the reverse movement car stop markers are lol. TSS Williams was one cool cat. I look forward to returning here even though this is one my least favorite yards.

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day 4/15 of yard posting at 179. Had the pleasure of working with Mr. Blondet. I learned you can go uphill on coast on the R160 coming from the lower yard. Day goes by much faster than yard posting. I don't see how people "forget" that you operate the stop arm release lever.

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21 hours ago, nipaaaa said:

day 4/15 of yard posting at 179. Had the pleasure of working with Mr. Blondet. I learned you can go uphill on coast on the R160 coming from the lower yard. Day goes by much faster than yard posting. I don't see how people "forget" that you operate the stop arm release lever.

On D2?

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day 5 of 15, started switching at Broad terminal. Then finished at ENY where I was able to make a move on my own! Had another awesome trainer who so far, does things a bit closer to schoolcar way lol. I was "critiqued" by TSS Ross but it was more like a 30 second review of the yard, I thought he was gonna give me feedback on how I made the moves cuz i wasn't sure how fast I was going due to a malfunctioning speedometer.

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2 hours ago, nipaaaa said:

day 5 of 15, started switching at Broad terminal. Then finished at ENY where I was able to make a move on my own! Had another awesome trainer who so far, does things a bit closer to schoolcar way lol. I was "critiqued" by TSS Ross but it was more like a 30 second review of the yard, I thought he was gonna give me feedback on how I made the moves cuz i wasn't sure how fast I was going due to a malfunctioning speedometer.

Ross is a very very great person one of the best from East NY if I may say!

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day 6 of 15, started switching at bedford park and then brought a train into concourse yard. Had my lunch, chilled until a put in towards my clear time. My trainer was Mr. Grey, taught me some cool tricks of the trade and got me comfortable operating the R68s. I don't fear the SMEEs anymore!

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day 7 of 15 @ coney island yard. Pretty boring day only made 1 move. My trainer Mr Buckwell? Buckle? was awesome at not overwhelming me with info. He just focused on the most important thing about the yard which are the double entry/exit tracks that either face NY end or coney island end. Pretty self-explanatory but he told me that all of the damage from past YX students occurred in those tracks. That was the takeaway for the day. Could I say best crew room in the system?!

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day 8 of 15 @ 207 yard. Did my craziest move so far. Pick up 8 cars, drop 2 cars in 3 separate tracks. My trainer did the last 2 because he didn't want me gapping. The problem was adding into the standing cars when they were only 2 cars and my train had 6 and 4 cars. Had to change trains, and add the fewer cars to the greater number of cars. That was annoying. After dropping them off, had to then cut 2 to leave behind.Coupled with the fact that a TSS was onboard evaluating me and my classmate. He was also evaluating my trainer which forced him to ask us questions, kinda like in schoolcar.

It was the first time that my trainer picked up 2 students and that other student happened to be my classmate. What a day.

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5 hours ago, nipaaaa said:

day 10 of 15 @ 71 st. Sat for 7 hours and did a relay and put in at the last hour. This is so boring I'm gonna have to start bringing movies and shows to watch.

Lmao you should see how C Division is 😅

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day 11 of 15 @ 207 yard again. This time I posted with Mr. Rosario, he could very well be a TSS with all that knowledge. He took me on a 5 hour tour of the yard holy crap my feet were giving out and this guy was still going. He showed me the valve for the reservoir tanks and he pulled it, that air just shot out so loud that I had to cover my ears. He saw me and was like "You hear something?" lmao

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38 minutes ago, nipaaaa said:

day 11 of 15 @ 207 yard again. This time I posted with Mr. Rosario, he could very well be a TSS with all that knowledge. He took me on a 5 hour tour of the yard holy crap my feet were giving out and this guy was still going. He showed me the valve for the reservoir tanks and he pulled it, that air just shot out so loud that I had to cover my ears. He saw me and was like "You hear something?" lmao

Rosario is the man. I would bet he knows more about these trains than anything. 

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day 13 of 15 @ Jamaica Yard. There was an issue with the barn doors so I was held outside for 2 hours staring at a low home signal... Had a putin from parsons blvd to 179. My trainer drove from the yard and parked right outside the station lol.

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day 14 of 15 back at coney island yard. I was skiing with the R160 this early morning! As I was winding down my shift, I ran into my AM trainer from last week who was just signing in. For once I feel like I'm starting to know people.

PS: those chairs in the locker room are the best chairs in the system

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Hi, just wanted to say how interesting this whole thread is. I find the NYC subway fascinating as I am a train driver trainer in the UK on mainline trains. Obviously, never get a chance to drive a subway training but my God is your training tough (regarding failing signal exams and out of a job!)

Francis

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last day of yard posting at 179! Midnights switching is a whole different animal...so many bums on the trains. Almost stepped on crap walking between cars. Our subway is so filthy, NYPD has to crack down on these bums. They urinate, defecate, sprawl out on seats, stinking up cars.

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Day 1 of 15 Posting,boldly going where no one has gone before, well except one over the pass three weeks but i'm not gonna let Nipaaaa take my spotlight :P. Had PM relays at 179 today. Did a relay on the upper overhanging, then a relay on the lower, another relay on the lower, then a relay on the upper overhanging again. then a double end on the lower where I did the put in. Then another double end but on the upper. I did the put in again. Then lunch. After lunch we took a train to the lower relay and then back to Jamaica yard. We didn't go into the yard, Just into the lead up to the first homeball of the yard, then changed ends and bought it back to LU1 on D4 parsons. Then a double end relay to the lower, I did the put in side. Very busy day for me. I was with T/O Douglas. Very cool guy and had some great advice for braking. I learned a lot today!

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14 hours ago, LIRRMedford said:

Day 1 of 15 Posting,boldly going where no one has gone before, well except one over the pass three weeks but i'm not gonna let Nipaaaa take my spotlight :P. Had PM relays at 179 today. Did a relay on the upper overhanging, then a relay on the lower, another relay on the lower, then a relay on the upper overhanging again. then a double end on the lower where I did the put in. Then another double end but on the upper. I did the put in again. Then lunch. After lunch we took a train to the lower relay and then back to Jamaica yard. We didn't go into the yard, Just into the lead up to the first homeball of the yard, then changed ends and bought it back to LU1 on D4 parsons. Then a double end relay to the lower, I did the put in side. Very busy day for me. I was with T/O Douglas. Very cool guy and had some great advice for braking. I learned a lot today!

I appreciate you posting your experiences too. It'll help me learn and "review" for my YX! I'll be by myself and I'm getting nervous thinking about it. I don't wanna be that guy gapping with 2 cars lol

I believe tk 5 on the upper level is the overhanging move if there's a train laid up at the back already (there is another track that is similar on the upper lvl, can't remember the number). This is the track where you'll see a bumper block with a marker signal at the head out. In order to pull into the station you look at 3 things:

1) train departing out of 179 
2) switch, make sure it's set for you
3) home signal entering the terminal should clear (look out the left window)

In both my posting at 179, i never got the chance to lay up a train going from 179 to JYD portal to Parsons. I didn't even think this was a move until you posted it, thanks! Another weird thing about 179 is going into the station from the lower relay tracks, you can coast up hill at 10 mph without losing speed.

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On 3/5/2019 at 9:29 AM, staffspm1 said:

Hi, just wanted to say how interesting this whole thread is. I find the NYC subway fascinating as I am a train driver trainer in the UK on mainline trains. Obviously, never get a chance to drive a subway training but my God is your training tough (regarding failing signal exams and out of a job!)

Francis

Wow we have a rare foreign visitor! Yea training is absolutely nuts and unnecessarily stressful. It's my opinion that schoolcar should be longer than 2.5 months, I think 4 would be adequate.

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