Little Rory set me thinking about my interest in trains

This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

Rory was eight on Saturday. His grandfather Donal and I are lifelong friends. Donal sent me a video of the Lego train Rory received for his birthday. The little fellow assembled it himself. I called him to wish him a happy birthday.

He told me he got up at 6am and built the train between then and 2pm at which time he had it running on its tracks, which he also assembled.

I was reminded of the disappointment I had when the train set I was expecting never arrived. But for whatever reason, to this day I have a great interest in trains.

Since mid-November I have been a daily rail commuter. I have been greatly impressed with the service, there have been only two occasions when I was late for work and they were weather related.

I regularly chat with the locomotive driver. There is always a minute or two to chat before the train moves off and since November I have talked with many drivers. It’s a matter of going up to the cab, knocking at the window and chatting. I don’t think there has been driver, who has told me to get lost. Once or twice I realised the driver did not want to engage; no problem; I walked away.

In the past locomotive drivers came from other jobs on the railway, men working on the platform, train guards, gate keepers or permanent way staff, et al. The permanent way is the track, rails and ballast.  And drivers call the track or line ‘the road’.

Railway jobs went down from father to son. 

But all that is now changing. Today many of the younger drivers come from ‘outside’. They apply online, do a number of preliminary online tests before they are called for interview. Once successful they begin a period of rigorous training before they are appointed as drivers to a station.

Just last week the driver, with whom I was talking, told me he came to the job from outside and had no problem telling me he would never again give out about his job. He was loving it. They are coming from all walks of life and the money is attractive with a decent pension.

Another of the changes is that women are now driving our trains. Up to recent years it was an all-male profession; it was unthinkable that a woman would drive a train. Like everything else they are adding a new dimension to the job.

There are always quirky things to every job and Irish Rail is no exception. While Irish roads changed from miles to kilometres per hour in 2005, the railway is still on mph and has no intentions of changing. The next time you are on a train look out the window and spot the mile posts along the track; every quarter of a mile there is a post.  

Check the web, Irish Rail is regularly looking for drivers.

But how long will it be before we have driverless trains? This AI business is driving us all crazy.

If I had my life all over again, I think I’d have been a locomotive driver. The question is would they have employed me and then kept me? I’ll never know.