diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/models/trainer.py b/pytorch_lightning/models/trainer.py
index 110bea5acd..8e89863e39 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/models/trainer.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/models/trainer.py
@@ -164,9 +164,6 @@ class Trainer(TrainerIO):
         model.zero_grad()
         model.eval()
 
-        # set the model step
-        model.step_split = 'val'
-
         # disable gradients to save memory
         torch.set_grad_enabled(False)
 
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/root_module/root_module.py b/pytorch_lightning/root_module/root_module.py
index b9a6cb4d8e..890dc96c43 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/root_module/root_module.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/root_module/root_module.py
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@ class RootModule(GradInformation, ModelIO, OptimizerConfig, ModelHooks):
         self.gradient_clip = hparams.gradient_clip
         self.num = 2
         self.trainer = None
-        self.step_split = 'train'
 
         # track if gpu was requested for checkpointing
         self.on_gpu = False
@@ -52,12 +51,10 @@ class RootModule(GradInformation, ModelIO, OptimizerConfig, ModelHooks):
         """
 
         # route the forward call to the correct step type
-        if self.step_split == 'train':
+        if self.training:
             return self.training_step(*args, **kwargs)
-        elif self.step_split == 'val':
-            return self.validation_step(*args, **kwargs)
         else:
-            raise NotImplementedError
+            return self.validation_step(*args, **kwargs)
 
     def validation_step(self, data_batch, batch_nb):
         """