June 13, 2025
by Miss Douglas
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Today we were very excited to have Orla’s daddy James in to speak to us about his job as a train driver for Scotrail. James has recently spent a long time training to become a train driver, including completing lots of tests and assessments which we ourselves enjoyed having a wee go at! Part of James’ training was to test his accuracy and to do this he was tasked with sheets upon sheets of paper filled with the letter Q where he had to pick out the Os – and trust me it was a lot harder than it sounds!! 😮
James spoke about his main responsibilities as a train driver and the skills he uses as part of his everyday life, we have been learning all about the 12 Meta Skills so it was great to hear how these can be used out with school in the world of work 🚆🛤🚋
Adapting Aleksander – He explained that prior to being train driver he worked in Dubai doing a completely different job so it was a big change being at home and working in Stranraer along with all of the different aspects of his new job!
Focussing Fergus – Driving so many passengers is a big responsibility so James explained that he must concentrate to make sure he keeps everyone safe! He explained there are lots of things he has to watch to for or listen for so needs to make sure he doesn’t miss these signals! 🔔
Collaborating Cora – As a police officer Stuart needs to work with lots of different people including passengers, engineers and drivers, he explained that after his shift he must give the next driver a wee hand over to make sure they know of any problems from earlier in the day.
Communicating Cate – Communicating is something a train driver must be very good at (and the ways they communicate are very creative indeed). They use flags, bells and coloured lights to communicate with staff (a bit like a secret code 🤫) so they know when the train is ready to depart, stop, slow down, move back or if there are any problems on the line.🚩🚦
Critical Thinking Chris – Occasionally train drivers might have a bit of problem solving to do – when things break down or stop working they always seem to have a back up plan which is great!
A huge thank you to James for his time, the boys and girls really enjoyed his visit – they were well and truly captivated with the driver assessment and I have no doubt we will have a few keen to follow in his footsteps after this afternoon! We are very much looking forward to our wee jaunt to Ayr and back on the train in a few weeks time thanks to James’ kind generosity helping us out with the train tickets!
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