As a trainman wanting to advance to become a yardmaster,does anyone have any tips and or advice on how to learn a yard that you have never worked in as a trainman?
Yup…
Take one of your off days, and go sit in the tower with the yardmaster, listen, watch and take notes.
We train our yardmasters just like that…they get a month of nothing but beinging “trainees” before we mark them up as YMs.
Before that, they have a week of classroom work, a week of round robin day shifts at all of our yards, then back to the classroom for another week to discuss and cuss…then up in a tower to learn the ropes.
Until they feel comfortable at it, the yardmaster trainees are not allowed to to run anything, we introduce them it in small doses, and the yardmaster who trains them can “turn” anyone at anytime he or she decides it’s too much for the trainee.
I work in a yard, and on my meal period, I often go up in the tower to watch and BS with the yardmaster…at 48, I never have had an ulcer, and after watching and seeing the stress level up there, I plan on never getting one…you guys can keep that job.[8D]
Run…Run far away.
The best way to learn a yard, is to ride with a crew. Get out walk the yard, see how the tracks interact. Post with an experianced yardmaster. It’s like learning the yard as a trainman, eventually you’ll get the hang of it.
Looking at your screen name, we’ve probably crossed paths somewhere. CSX just hired two yardmasters in Philly, so you may have a long wait before they hire again. Also you must have a spotless safety record.
Keep an eye on the job postings. Baltimore is usually always looking for yardmasters.
I will say, most T&E people after sitting with me for more then a half hour or so, won’t touch my job. Too much stress, too many whiny crews, too many irrate trainmasters, not to mention dealing with the customers, crew management, and all the clerical work I do.
Nick
Yardmaster is the first line of supervision when it comes to orchastrating the actions necessary to build trains and service customers. In performing the job you must have intimate knowledge of the physical plant for the territory you are responsible for. You must have a ready command of the Operating Plan for your facility - what the scheduled moves are, what the customer commitments are…if you have been a trainman ,for any length of time, in the yard where you going to become qualified as a Yardmaster these things should alread be second nature to you.
The hardest thing for someone with prior experience in the yard where they become a Yardmaster is the change that must take place when dealing with your ‘buddies’. As a Yardmaster - you are no longer ‘one of the guys’…you are ‘The Man’, and your former ‘buddies’ will not think twice about ‘sticking it to The Man’, and laughing about it all the way home, especially since it is YOU!
As a Yardmaster you assign the details of work that are necessary for each crew to perform so that the yard, as a whole, accomplishes it’s portion of your companies overall operating plan (I know, as a trainman, there doesn’t seem to be any plan…but there is). It is the Yardmasters responsibilty to get all the work elements accomplished with the crews that are provided.
While you may become qualified and work as a Yardmaster on a trick by trick basis for some time, you will not truly learn what being a Yardmaster is all about…until you are forced into the situation of having to relieve yourself (and not at the water closet). When a Yardmaster is forced to work a double shift of 16 hours, you quickly find out that all those ‘short cuts’ you took during your first 8 hours were in reality ‘land mines’ for you to stumble over during the
Is a yardmaster usually someone moved up from within the yard he is…mastering(?)
A couple times a yr BNSF puts out general notices on locations that are acceptings bids for ydmstr/ATM trainees. The Santa Fe side no longer has ydmstrs ,but rather asst trnmstrs that are mgmnt positions and a requirement of the job is to do op testing. The BN side still has union ydmstrs that do not have the requirements of ATM’s. There is a ATM @ a former SF yd that was hired directly from the taxi limo service, moved up to division trnmstr for awhile and now is back in the ATM position. ATSF ydmstrs became ATM mgmnt positions in 1988.
Murphy,
Yardmasters usually, but not always come from up from the T&E ranks…a lot depends on the local union contract.
No, they don’t “have” to come from the yard where they once worked.
But they will be required to have a familiarity with any yard they are assigned to.
Every yard has its own pace and peculiarities, all are somewhat different, even on the same road and in the same division or sub.
Their union contract often mirrors the T&E guy’s contract, where seniority runs, the more whiskers you have, the better pick of jobs, or positions you can hold.
Quite often, there will be a General yardmaster, which is in charge of all the yard and responsible for everything, and an assistant yard master, who may handle lesser or out lying yards, or a specific section of the same yard as the general, say the rip track, diesel shop and the trim jobs.
Of course, a lot of that depends on the size of both the yard, and the railroad itself.
My road has a General, and an assistant in the North Yard tower, the General is responsible for North yard and all operation there, the assistant handles the all the north shore industry jobs once they leave the yard and runs our Storage yard down at the docks.
We also have a yardmaster at Pasadena yard, which is about half the size of North Yard, that yardmaster handles all of Pasadena Yard, and all PTRA traffic on the south side of the Houston Ship channel, including all the south side industry jobs.
All of our yardmasters do double duty as “dispatchers” although we run under RTC rules in dark territory at restricted speed.
We still need someone to be “in charge” outside the yards, so to speak, someone who is keeping tabs on all the jobs and their locations, and to make certain decisions about who can go where and when.
[quote user=“Murphy Siding”]
Not all places use General Yardmasters. My terminal has three yards with three yardmaster desks. I report directly to the Terminal Trainmaster. Never having worked with a General Yardmaster, I can’t comment on their usefulness.
For the most part, my Trainmaster let me have free reign - because I’ve proven my ablity. Good news they stay out of hair. Bad news, it’s my private parts on the block when I screw up.
Managing your former crew-mates, can be a difficult transition. One promising prospect, I recruited, declined the job because he felt he couldn’t effectively manage the crews. More difficult, I’ve found, is balancing the, often diametrically opposed, demands of the crews and the Trainmasters.
I’ve noticed a shifting of duties. Slowly, I’ve become involved in crew and power balancing; the direct handling of customer issues; reporting of train delays; tracking dwell and car hire. Things that formerly were Trainmaster responisiblities.
Yardmastering, like dispatching, is truly a “black art”. Great yardmasters are born, not made. Anyone can be taught the mechanics of it. But with out an innate grasp of both Time and Space, you’ll always be reacting to a situation, instead of the situation reacting to you.
It’s like playing chess. Not only must you see the move immediately in front of you, but you need to see four moves ahead. You need to see how your opponent will move, and how you can counter. I firmly believe that one of the reasons I’m so good at what I do is that I am also a skilled chess player.
Nick