What do you do for a living

Can you please stop people chucking themselves off the platform at Wembley. It's very inconvenient. Thanks.

 

In my younger days, I had an operation on my knee ,the docteur them gave me six weeks on a sick note ,work paid me full wages ,I was bored after two week and went back to work ..


Sometimes it's less about the work and more to do with the "crack" at work...

btw I was in a different place ,if I had a camper and the outlook I have now ,i would have had the docteur extend the sicky...

 

I'm a stone mason with my own small family business doing headstone and granite/Quartz kitchen worktops, been in the trade now for 26 years since I left school at 16.

 

I'm a Firefighter in London , have been for 21 years , Still enjoy it but not sure if I will make the new retirement age of 60 !


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Self employed web developer / consultant always looking for interesting things to work on. Specialise in e-commerce and growing online sales of whatever it is people sell but never found anything I want to take a punt on and ship from China myself.

 

I paint stuff

 

Recently retired after 34 years with Kelloggs. My kids used to think I put the chocolate on Coco Pops. Probably still do

 

He did the roof of the Sistine Chapel. With emulsion.

 

I don't really do anything. I was a househusband but my kid has grown up so I need to find something to do to pay for my vdub bills.

 

I'm a chartered geotechnical engineer, all my work is buried underground where no one can see it. I got the job to avoid the monotony of a 9 - 5 Monday to Friday desk job and to travel the world. I work for the most part Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 4:30, at my desk. Occasionally I go to Redhill and Glasgow. I see a small flaw in my plan.

I've got 32 years left doing this until I reach retirement age, a thought that depresses me daily. Its not that I hate the job particularly, more that I have so much stuff I want to do of my own!

 

A train-related question @mcswiggs (the rest of you can skip ahead).

I assume no train can move on the network without having some sort of ID and a route planned for it, correct? Always wondered, as the driver must just sit there driving (when they're not on strike), with only the vaguest idea of where he's actually going, or at least how he's going to get there. What do they do if say they just want to move a locomotive from one side of Euston station to the other, with all the to-ing and fro-ing that that would involve. Presumably, it's the signallers that control this, even though it's only moving a few hundred yards?

Answers welcome. I am wearing my anorak and have my plastic lunchbox ready...

 

I did think of Mr Roo as I was typing...

Good Q tho': a train driver must have absolutely no idea where they're sending him. Or her.

 

Yep - every train has a 'head code' which is a reference to its slot in the timetable. The driver must have 'route knowledge' for the journey he is making - ie location and type of signalling and line speeds, these are also sign-posted on the trackside rather like roads are. The signaller sets the route (with the help of Automatic Route Setting on newer systems) so the points are configured to take the train along the right tracks to the destination. The green signal is obviously the instruction to the driver that the track ahead is clear and he can proceed, a yellow (not amber) means the next signal is at danger (red) so exercise caution and be prepared to stop at the next signal, and a double yellow means the next signal is a single yellow.

But when it comes to shunting around a station a different system is used - these moves aren't timetabled. There are little signals known as ground position signals that allow the train to be shunted a few trains' lengths out of stations and around sets of points, and it's co-ordinated through the cab-to-signaller radio.

It's not an easy job being a driver - you need to be able to concentrate without distraction on the track ahead for long periods of time knowing that it will take about a mile to stop a train at full tilt. Not unlike driving one of our vans really..

And if you like watching paint dry or fancy being an armchair train spotter then have a look at this...

http://raildar.co.uk/map/KGX

 

Great answer, thanks. I was the local shunting I wondered about: I'd assumed they were in contact with the signallers in some way.

Can't say I'd fancy being a driver: you're not really master of your own destiny. By the time you've seen something, you've hit it...

 

I have had a fairly mixed bag of jobs but can honestly say that being a hospital porter (I did his after finishing college to get some funds together) was the best job I ever had. No two days were ever the same. I worked all over the hospital from A&E to delivery suite in maternity. The hospital I worked at was a massive teaching hospital and had a little weird museum in it which the security guards let us into on night shifts, it had pickled body parts in it......it was so cool. Working in a hospital was fun too, nurses know how to party.......

 

Cool! That's my evenings sorted (God, I'm so sad ...)

I assume locos have transponder under them so they can be identified as they whizz along?