Becoming a train driver is no piece of cake

Becoming a train driver is no piece of cake

Text and photos
by Tarko Sudiarno

YOGYAKARTA (JP): To the public, it may seem easy to operate a
locomotive. You could drive it back and forth while sitting in
the locomotive operator's room, perhaps having something to eat
or drink at the same time. Few realize, however, the great
responsibility that a locomotive operator assumes or that to
become one, you must go through a long period of training.

In a recent interview with The Jakarta Post here, chief of
Yogyakarta's Traction Engineering Educational Center (BPTT),
Arief Wahyudi, said that special training over a relatively long
period would be needed for someone to become a locomotive
operator. "Theoretically, you can be fully entrusted to assume
control of a train locomotive after completing two years of
training, but in reality the training period can be as long as
five years," he said.

BPTT is the center for locomotive operators and their
assistants in Indonesia. It is at Yogyakarta's Railway Depot
Zone, located to the east of Lempuyangan railway station. This
center provides training for candidates sent by railway
operational zones from Java and Sumatra. These candidates have
usually graduated from technical high schools, have majored in
mechanical engineering, or are already employed with state-owned
railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI).

Arief said there were phases that one had to go through before
one could become a locomotive engineer or operator. After three
months of training as a locomotive operator's assistant at BPTT,
the participants are returned to their respective operational
zones, where they will be assigned for one year as a locomotive
operator's assistant in charge of driving trains forward and
backward at stations.

When the candidate is considered competent as a locomotive
operator's assistant, they will be assigned to help a locomotive
operator on public railways. At this phase, he will be assigned
to a cargo train, not a passenger train. Success at this
assignment will allow him to assist a locomotive operator on a
passenger train. Even here there are steps, too. He will start in
economy class and progress later to business and executive class.

"In all, a locomotive operator's assistant will have to
complete a successful stint of two years before he may be
promoted as a suitable candidate for a locomotive operator. Then
he will return to BPTT to learn how to become a locomotive
operator. Theoretically, this training period will last three
months."

"In practice, it takes a locomotive operator's assistant an
average of five years before he can be promoted as a fully-
fledged locomotive operator. This long period is not the result
of keen competition or bureaucracy but because it is really
necessary for a locomotive operator's assistant to build up a lot
of experience from train journeys," he said.

During the three-month training to become a locomotive
operator, participants learn more of the theory that they
received earlier and are given more opportunities to practice
this theory. They also receive lessons about diesel engines in a
train and its braking system, the tactical running theory,
railway signs, take part in train workshops as well as receive
some deeper knowledge of wiring diagrams.

"All the advanced subjects are necessary, especially in
respect of locomotive maintenance, to minimize the likelihood
that the train will brake down. When a train does encounter some
mechanical difficulties on a journey, the locomotive operator
plays a very important role. He must be able to sort out the
problem and fix it so they are required to know the mechanics of
a train locomotive inside out," he noted.

After completing training as a locomotive operator at BPTT,
the participants will be returned to their respective operational
zones. Again, they will have to go through the same phases in the
same order that they underwent before as assistants.

Each phase takes a relatively long time, because controlling a
train is not as easy as it is generally imagined. A locomotive
operator must know the nature of his train and the conditions of
different railway routes. This is something that he can acquire
only over a long period of time.

"Take, for example, how to bring a train to a stop at a
station. This is a skill that takes a long time to acquire. A
skilled locomotive operator will be able to apply the brakes
smoothly for the sake of the passengers' comfort. Obviously, this
skill cannot be acquired overnight."

"Recently I joked with a pilot," Arief said. Flying an
airplane, he told the pilot, is a piece of cake because the
instruments are fully automatic. A pilot only has something to do
when the plane takes off and lands. When the plane is in the sky,
it will be automatically operated. A train is different, he said,
because a locomotive operator must always be alert along the
entire route.

Complex in nature

Arief said that the difficulty in operating a train locomotive
was complex in nature. Apart from being able to operate all the
instruments, a locomotive operator must also keep watch over the
rail tracks ahead. He must observe the condition of the rails,
railway crossings and the railway signs. Therefore, he said, a
locomotive operator can only take charge of a train for about
eight hours only. After eight hours, he will be replaced by a
fresh operator.

"Experience shows that locomotive operators must be alert,
particularly at railway crossings not officially designated as a
crossing. Across Java there are quite a lot of places with
unofficial railway crossings, where accidents have often occurred
despite the alertness and watchfulness of the locomotive
operator. In such cases, the public will always blame us," Arief
said.

BPTT is not the only institution that will decide whether the
participants successfully complete their training as locomotive
operators or locomotive operator's assistants.

Instructors from railway operational zones and railway depots
from the places that participants originate from will also have a
say. After successfully completing the training, a locomotive
operator's assistant will be given a license called T-62A and a
locomotive operator T-62.

This license, issued by KAI, must be renewed every year. When
renewing his license, a locomotive operator or a locomotive
operator's assistant will have to go through an evaluation
process to determine whether he is still qualified for this
position or not.

After an absence of three months from operating a train for
whatever reason, a locomotive operator cannot resume his job
right away. He must go through a period of adjustment, during
which he will work as an assistant, until he gets all his skills
back and gets the hang of his job again.