After three six-month deployments to the Persian Gulf for the U.S. Navy, Brandon Rusk needed a change.
The 27-year-old Texan gave up life aboard a gigantic aircraft carrier for a different kind of adventure: barreling down the tracks on a freight train from Fort Worth to Oklahoma City.
“I don’t know anybody who doesn’t think trains are pretty cool,” said one of the newest conductors for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.
Former military personnel such as Mr. Rusk make up an increasing number of new workers at the Fort Worth-based company, which has embarked on a hiring binge unlike any other in recent memory.
Last year, the railroad hired more than 4,800 people. That comes on top of adding 7,500 in 2004 and 2005, and this year, it anticipates welcoming 4,000 more.
“Our projection is that it’s going to be at this level for a number of years,” said Jeanne Michalski, Burlington Northern’s vice president of human resources and medical.
Retiring baby boomers and growing demand for railroad services sparked the hiring boom. The railroad estimates that 41 percent of its more than 40,000 employees will be eligible for retirement over the next 10 years.
The challenge for Burlington Northern: Integrate a massive number of new employees while gracefully coping with the exodus of thousands of others.
The hurdle also looms in other growth industries with lots of retiring baby boomers. That’s why thousands of openings exist for oil and gas engineers, electric utility linemen and truck drivers.
But the demand for new rail workers stands out.
Only in the last three years has the total number of rail workers increased, reversing decades of falling employment as railroads shrank their networks and struggled to become more efficient.
Today the industry is prospering, thanks to a tidal wave of imports from China that are moved across the country by rail.
Last year, total freight volume and revenue hit anothe