At the risk of shattering many a schoolboy's dream, you can't simply apply to drive a train for Iarnrod Eireann. The company recruits from among its current employees.
The approach is bottom up with people usually getting their first job in railway operations as a temporary depot-person. According to Sean Cooke, manager of recruitment and staff development, up to nine months ago there was no need to advertise.
"We'd have a bundle of applications in the office," he says. "But, we had to put in two advertisements in the past nine months." The minimum educational requirement for a depot-person is five passes in the Junior Cert.
The job involves maintaining the station in "a neat and tidy condition" as well as supporting graded staff such as shunters, ticket-checkers and guards by acting in their place if they are absent.
Vacancies for trainee locomotive drivers arise usually once a year and are advertised internally. These positions are also open to people who come in on entry grades in the civil and mechanical engineering and the catering areas. They are not open at present to clerical and administrative staff.
There is a fairly rigorous internal selection process, says Cooke, including aptitude test and interview. Those selected complete a long training course and, if they are found to be satisfactory, they become a fully-fledged locomotive driver. So, there is no guarantee that anyone who begins employment will get into the driver's seat.
Depot-persons may progress to jobs other than locomotive driver. For instance, they may become ticket-checkers at the station barriers or on the trains or they can become traffic supervisors and signal-persons. The signal cabins around the country are being replaced by a central automated system but there will still be a need for them in the central control cabin.
In the civil engineering area, Cooke says the basic job is that of plate-layer - someone who works in a gang on the permanent tracks. He or she does basic work such as lifting and replacing rails and putting new rails in.
More experienced plate-layers may walk the line, ensuring connections are in place, and doing safety checks. Promotion may be to ganger and then supervisor.
Apprentices are recruited separately and span a range of trades, from mechanic to fitter to electrician. There are also some metal fabricators and body-makers. The old job of saw doctor - sharpening and setting the saws - has vanished along with wooden-bodied trains. In addition to the plate-layers and apprentices, the company employs civil engineers.
In mechanical engineering, there are engineering operatives who do the basic non-craft work in the workshops. They may operate fork-lifts and cranes. There are also apprentices, craft-workers and graduate engineers.
On the catering side, there are entry-level positions for both juniors and adults and jobs on the trains and in Heuston Station, Dublin, and Cork.
Progress on the clerical side is usually from clerical assistant to senior clerical level to stationmaster. Anyone who wants to become a station-master must do a signal certificate and must complete a rules test. Yes, it's very much a man's world, says Cooke, despite the company's best efforts to attract applications from women. As to the physical nature of the job, automation such as levers for shunting have reduced the physical demands.
There is one woman trainee locomotive driver (see left), but no women drivers yet. Iarnrod Eireann would look favourably on applications from women so schoolgirls attracted by jobs on the railway should not write it off as an "unsuitable job for a woman".
