School stresses train engineers must stay alert

School stresses train engineers must stay alert

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 an engineer 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 an engineer.
"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 engineers 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 an engineer. After three months of training as
an engineer's assistant at BPTT, the participants are returned to
their respective operational zones, where they will be assigned
for one year as an engineer'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 an engineer 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, an engineer's assistant will have to complete a
successful stint of two years before he may be promoted as a
suitable candidate for an engineer. Then he will return to BPTT
to learn how to become an engineer. Theoretically, this training
period will last three months."

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

During the three-month training to become an engineer,
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 engineer 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 an engineer 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. An engineer
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 engineer 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, an engineer 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, an engineer
can only take charge of a train for about eight hours only. After
eight hours, he will be replaced by a fresh engineer.

"Experience shows that engineers 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 engineer. 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 engineers or
their 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, an engineer's
assistant will be given a license called T-62A and an engineer T-
62.

This license, issued by KAI, must be renewed every year. When
renewing his license, an engineer or an 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, an engineer 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.