At present my usual instructor is unavailable, so I have been told to go out with another instructor by a manager. First problem, said manager did not tell the instructor, so I turned up on Tuesday, told the instructor I was going out with him – he (like Manuel in Fawlty Towers) ‘Knew nothing.’ However he agreed for me to come out with him – I wish he hadn’t!
This guy joined the railway in 1967, which makes him around 64 and has worked nowhere else. In addition to this he won’t retire as he has nothing else to do with his time - I think that I could find something to do with my time after 46yrs worth of pension contributions! However here is one of the problems – he is old school BR – you remember the sort, always on strike for reasons ranging from taking oxtail soup out of the vending machine to being expected to turn up for work when asked to! The way he (and some others) see it is that drivers should do an apprenticeship for at least four years, be a second man after that until another driver dies and has no time for this new-fangled way of turning out what he would refer to as ‘Boil in the bag drivers.’ However he is happy to be an instructor in this system as he gets additional payments irrespective of whether he has a trainee or not!
Consequently all boil in the bag drivers are viewed with extreme suspicion/contempt and women, well that’s another story altogether. Add to this the fact that he is not very communicative, as I try to make small talk and get nothing in return – I did get one or two grunts come to think of it. However one of the worst parts of it has been when I have said when I am going to either shut off power or brake (at places I have been taught to do this) I got no response – so I thought ‘Arsehole’s to you! I’m doing it here and if we crawl into the station or sail through it, you said nothing to stop me doing it!’ Mercifully only some of the former and not the latter happened! Needless to say I got it in the neck every time I stopped and it wasn’t to his satisfaction – which seemed to be more often than not – just be glad I am stopping the whole train on the platform! If this wasn’t enough I have had some of the things I have been taught by my usual instructor contradicted completely one of which was different to the laid down method of coupling-up – like hell am I going to adopt that procedure!
Mercifully I have been able to worm my way out of spending this Friday in the cab with him – as I don’t think I could have put up with all the carping criticism and with a bit of good fortune I won’t have to go through this again as I mentioned it to a manager when the opportunity arose today. If something like this happens again I might just be desperate to go back to architecture!
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