When Michael Patchen trained to be a BART train operator, lessons involved mimeographed handouts, lots of lectures, and taking turns at “seat time,” learning to drive a real train in the overnight hours. “It was a lot more primitive than what we have now,” said Patchen, who is a trainer instructing operators how to drive the new Fleet of the Future trains, expected to start carrying passengers around Thanksgiving. Today, train operators are learning on a sophisticated simulator, a machine that c