Glass on the hitch – to the holiday
14.08.2014
Best in Profession-2014 Competition
Hitching is the coupling of a locomotive with cars, which is an integral part of the work of rolling stock operators. They carry out this procedure several times during a shift. However, once per year the process, which is ordinary for the railroad people in Bogatyr Loading and Transportation Department of Bogatyr Coal LLP, transforms. If there appears a glass full of water on the hitch, it is a true sigh that soon there will be professional holidays: Railroad People Day and Miner’s Day and the Best in Profession competition devoted to them.
Like in the past, the participants of the competition this year were the OPE-1 traction unit operators and TEM-2 diesel locomotive operators from Stepnaya Rolling Stock Depot and PE2M(U) traction unit operators of Udarnaya Rolling Stock Depot.
On July 18, on the first day of the competitions, the competition battles started among 17 operators from Stepnaya Rolling Stock Depot. Traditionally the Best in Profession competition started from the theoretical part, in which correctness of answers and speed of test passing were evaluated.
The practical skills were demonstrated by the operators on the rail tracks near the locomotive depot. They had to make a coupling of a locomotive to show who is fastest. The smoothness of coupling guaranteeing maximum scores was determined by a glass of water set on a traction unit coupling device. A glass should not fall and break, ideally – no water should be spilled out of it. Unfortunately, not all the participants could have overcome it.
As a result, Aleksandr Prokopenko became the third one among OPE-1 operators, Aleksandr Dolzhenko – the second one, Akhmedia Imantaev – the first one. The prize winners among the young traction unit operators under 29 were the following - the third one was Maxim Pikov, the representative of Bogatyr labor dynasty of the Pikovs, the second place was taken by the 22-year-old Evgeny Repnikov (the youngest competition participant) and the winner of the competition was Aleksandr Golovlin. As for the diesel locomotive operators – Aleksandr Gorzhankin was the third one, Vladimir Zakharov was the second one, and the winner of the competition was Andrey Butrov.
A week later 8 PE2M(U) operators from Udarnaya Rolling Stock Depot participated in the similar battle. Most of them were competition debutants. There were some failures there. However, as Aleksandr Grigoriev, Director of Bogatyr Loading and Transportation Department said, there were no losers in the Best in Profession competition as all the participants learnt about their strong and weak sides, improved their skills.
On that day the victory podium was shared by Dmitry Makushin, Aleksandr Gamalya and Aidyn Shaimerdenov, who took the third, second and first places, accordingly. The cup winner Aidyn Shaimerdenov said that he had already taken the third place in the similar competition. This time probably his 12-year-old son Rustem gave him power to win. The boy as the supporter visited the work place of his father for the first time and was highly impressed by all seen.
- I liked the competition very much. I like my father’s work and the locomotive he works on. Most likely, soon I will become a locomotive operator, like my father, - Rustem said.
The competition winners received valuable presents and gifts of money. The other participants were awarded with incentive gifts. Besides, there was a surprise prepared for the winners: all of them would be getting a mark-up in the volume of 10 thousand tenge to their monthly salary till the end of the calendar year.
According to the Bogatyr Loading and Transportation Department management, the competitions conditions would be probably revised for the following year. That is why, there is a probability that next year it will be held in a different format.
Marina PONKRATOVA
Photo by the author and Yulia VRUBLEVSKAYA
