SP5103 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The biggest issues with railroad operating rules
> (and air brakes) in my mind is that the
> instructors themselves aren't always qualified. I
> have had some excellent instructors, but also some
> who had no clue what they were doing. Much like
> our current educational system, there is too much
> emphasis on "teaching the test" rather than having
> the student understand the concept and THINK how
> to apply it in various situations.

I agree.

Contributing to this problem is the "boilerplate" curriculum and methods of teaching. Not all employees need to be taught the same material over and over again. It boggles my mind sometimes how much time is spent on GCOR chapters 1-4 when the class is full of oldheads who have known the material for decades, or with GCOR chapters 11-13, 16, 17 when neither ATS, ATC, ACS, or DTC is in effect on the ENTIRE RAILROAD. An inordinate amount of time gets wasted on items like this.

A friend of mine is an airline pilot and we often compare notes about training and operational practices. I'm always blown away by how advanced the airlines are in comparison. He takes the equivalent of a railroad rules class where the first hour is spent on a computerized pre-test assessment. Are you familiar with the recent internet trend of "tagging" pictures or forum posts to make them easier to find? They use the same strategy by applying tags to both the question and ALL of the answers, even the incorrect ones. The tags might be rule numbers or topic names.

Once everybody finishes, the instructor gets a printout of the strengths, weaknesses and corollaries of the class sorted by tag. For example, assume you are answering a question about occupying TWC limits belonging to another train. The question is tagged with "GCOR 14.4" and you erroneously select the answer Joint Track and Time, tagged with "GCOR 10.3" and "GCOR 10.3.3". (the answer is wrong because Track and Time is not used in TWC territory)

The software flags all three tags for the instructor to see so they can put more emphasis on certain topics if needed. Chances are if you answer Joint Track and Time for a TWC question, not only do you need help with TWC, but Track and Time, and maybe CTC rules as well. So each question is multi-dimensional in that respect.

I really like this concept and think it would go a long way on the railroad. I'm not holding my breath however.