Driving Safely

Chris describes all the tasks involved in driving a locomotive.

Chris Fox: “But the work-life balance is one of the hardest things,” 

Bob Fallowfield (interviewer): “It’s tough.”

Chris: “The next thing you touched on, very much so, is once you’re in the cab, it’s not all about you know having a conversation with your mate and that type of thing, you know, what you did last night, you can say that and we do that, but when you’re, usually you have a conversation like that at the station, you know, then we do another job briefing between stations, the nice bit about it is if you do job briefings from station to station you won’t miss anything on the track in between when you break it down like that between mile to mile to mile to mile like for whatever the station is 3 or 4 miles between each station then you’re pretty much set. You know there’s a lot of different things that can happen, a lot of things that can go sideways on you. I know you’re not steering it, but you’re when you’re, I don’t know how to describe this, what I find is anything above 50 mile an hour, cause you know when you’re doing 83, or 93 for that matter, you’re eating a lot of track up fast.”

Bob: “Oh yeah.”

Chris:  “It’s coming at you quick, and I don’t usually say anything in the cab at that point. I know my DOB, I know where I am, I’m looking at my lights and I’m watching where I’m going.”

Bob: “You’re locked in.”

Chris: “I’m locked in.”

Bob: “You’re in the zone.”

Chris: “Both of us are at that point, you know, when we’re calling lights, we’re calling it, we have to be, there’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it, and I’m not tooting my own horn or saying that because you have to be, I mean I’ve done it, where you’re trying to have a conversation and stuff and you’re booking along and your brain starts and you start swimming, because you’re gonna miss something.”

Bob: “Well you’ve got signals, you’ve got people.”

Chris: “Yep.”

Bob: “You’ve got potential trespassers, you have grade crossings, you have whistle patterns.”

Chris: “Yep.”

Bob: “You have all these things that require your vision and your action with your hands.”

Chris: “Yeah and you know when you’re coming to, everyone thinks anybody can be an armchair quarterback which is easy, but the thing is that you know I have to do all of that, plus I have ring the bell, blow the whistle, turn the lights on and off, meet all that stuff and then get the train over the road safely.”