Rail Engineering Technician
Josh is an Apprentice Engineering Technician at West Midlands Railway
I help to keep the trains in my area running safely and smoothly.
My job includes anything from oil changes and basic servicing to big jobs like swapping out whole engines.
Lots of people rely on trains every day to travel to work, home, visit friends, or wherever it is they’re going, so it’s really important to make sure the trains are running reliably, safely, and on time.
The variety – no two days are the same. One day I might be changing an engine and the next I could be fixing something small.
It keeps things fresh and exciting and I’m always learning.
I also love how hands-on it is. I get to see how everything works and actually be involved in keeping the railway running. It feels like an important job.
Curiosity is the biggest one. I’m always asking, how does this work? Why does it work that way? If you want to be a good engineer, you need to be interested in how things go together.
I also use problem-solving skills every day, I need to figure out what’s gone wrong and the best way to fix it. Being precise matters too, because even small mistakes can cause big problems later on.
There are four apprentices in my year, and we help each other out and learn from each other all the time. But I work with lots of different people depending on who is on shift, including very experienced technicians.
It’s great having people around you who have lots of experience and are happy to give advice. I never feel like I’m on my own.
I haven’t had the chance to use everything in the depot yet, but I’d really love to get trained on the forklifts.
They’re powerful and are used to move heavy parts around the depot. They’re really cool, hopefully I’ll get trained on them soon.
I’m really into cars. A while back, my mates and I each bought cheap old cars for a road trip around Scotland. Mine cost £550 and had 236,000 miles on it. Loads of things went wrong, but we fixed them all ourselves, everything from the clutch to the timing belt.
I’ve still got my car and now I’ve got it running like new – I love tinkering with it! I also enjoy kayaking, ever since my dad surprised me with one. I still go paddling, usually with my mates in Wales where the rivers are a bit more exciting.
School worked well for me because I had the right support for my dyslexia. The teachers explained things in a way that made sense to me and it really helped me build confidence.
I enjoyed practical subjects like design and technology and IT, and looking back, those lessons really helped lead me into engineering.
Taking part in an engine change for a train. When I started, I couldn’t believe they could swap out an entire engine in a day. In a car, that would take ages. But on a train, it’s designed to be quick.
The engine and all its systems sit in a special frame called a raft, which you can just lift out and replace. Being part of that and seeing how it all works was amazing.
Next year, I’ll move onto shifts and get assigned to a team.
I’d also like to learn how to drive forklifts and maybe one day move into computer-aided design (CAD), which I really enjoyed in college.
Be curious and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Learning how things work is one of the most powerful skills you can have, and most of the time it’s free.
Discover what qualifications you’ll need, how much you can earn, and what the next steps are.
