Just got an offer to go to AMDG conductor school for CSX. The class starts in January and I need to decide in the near future. I know the hours and the working conditions are lousy but this is something I always wanted to try. I am 50 and my time is running out to do this. I have a good paying easy job and am
married which are the two major hangups. Put my son thru college and he now hows a good job so I dont have to worry about children.
My wife supports me but isnt crazy about it. Any comments, suggestions, opinions about any of this is appreciated. Thanks .
Wow! Go for it! You don’t want to be 75 years old, look back and say “I wish I would have tried for it!”.
Pray about it and if you feel in your heart that this is a good career for you and your wonderful wife supports it then pursue it. LIke all good careers it’s tough and rewarding. God speed to you! Maybe I’ll be out on
Oops! Forgot to fini***he thought. Maybe I’ll be out on a Florida mainline taking photos a year from now and see you cruise by in an SD70 with your crew! I always wave and give a thumbs up!
well, what kind of job did you have befor you desided that you wanted to go to csx choo choo U? most of the people that have worked with that where in thier 50s and came from reguler 9-5 jobs, dont make it past the first year… the hours suck…the work isnt all its cracked up to be, and with the way csx right now, youll spend the next 5 years as summer help on an extra board, oncall 24/7 6 days a week…you get 1 off day,…extra board pay is only 75% of the contracted rate of pay, so to many any real money, you have to work like a dog off the extra board, or work like a dog on a pool turn, but either way, your the rail roads female dog…and be layed off from january till june…RR unemplyeement is only 250 a week… not to mention your going to get bumped all around too…you might work 1 day at one place or one job.only to be bumped to another termial or job the next day… the only thing that might be your saving graces is…the age of the average man where youll be working, if they are all in the late 50s…early 60s with only a few years to go…youll be migth be able to hold a nice job by the time your 60 also…but i if you already have a good job…FOR GOD SAKES MAN…DONT DO IT!!!..tif you realy want to know what its like to rail road… find a tourest line near by…and volenteer on the weekends…the modern rail road is a job…its not the fun it was back befor rick gates…
csx engineer
Hey CSX Engineer, at least with the time off you can build lots of styrofoam mountains on the layout. HOHOHO!!!
CSX Engineer 98,
I understand the extra board, but what is the pool turn and how does it work? Also, they told me that under the new agreement that if I get hired before July 1st that I would be at the 100% rate. After July 1st new hires go back to the 75% rate. Is this correct?
John
John–
The way a pool generally works is that crews are assigned on a first-in-first-out basis between a particular pair of terminals. Your crew takes a train from Point A to Point B. Then you lay over at Point B until the other crews ahead of yours in the pool get assigned to take trains from Point B back to Point A.
There is the possibility of plenty of time at the away-from-home terminal, but also the potential for lots of income if the pool is busy.
–John
dan.
i live for foam…don needs to get about 10 more cubic yards for my christmas gift…
csx engineer
john
the extra board is to cover the pool turns,yard jobs,helpers, road switchers. switch tenders, releaf service everthing and anything, and john said it best about the pool turns,…thats how pools work… now im not 100% on what the UTU agreement is for conductors on the % of wages… but from what the post 86 trainmen tell me, with the UTU agreement,…the 100% comes into play under the trip rates, but extra board pay will still be at a 75% of the pre 86 emplyees rate of pay… also…under the flow back agrement for us engineers…should we go back on the ground when things get lean for us as engineers…we will only get 75% of the rate of pay …regardless if we are at 100% as engineers or not
csx engineer
john
i also forget to mention in my first posting,… their is alot of memorization that is required…not only in the choo choo U school…but even more when you get out of the classroom and on the road…you are requireed to fill yourhead with so much knowledged in such a short preiod of time, it is overwhelming… and then at the end of your OJT part spit it all back at a train master for a quailfications test… some are writin…some are oral… .all depending on the train master or mentor giveing the tests…
csx engineer
The hours suck only if you let them. i prefer to work on call. as far as flow back goes the rate of pay is what ever you are at. csx engineer if you have your 6 years in. you are at 100% on the ground. you step rate keeps on going even though you are in another class of service . the only advice i can give you is if you hate athourity and like a set way of life. then dont go to the railroad. if you dont mind doing things differant everytime you wake up. then go for it. nothing is rutine on the railroad.
Dan and CSX Engineer: Thanks, I now understand pool turn.
Wabash, What do you mean hating authority, arn’t you pretty much on your own out there on the road?
As far as working goes yes. as far as someone watching you work no. trust me on this one, at least 2 times a week you will be watched by a trainmaster or a roadforman. their job … to fire you. it seems you are a liability and this has to end. they will torment you dictate to you ( sorta like having your wife at work with you) everytime you get a new trainmaster his ideas and the way to do things are differant than the previous. his way of disapline is differant. as a engineer i dont see many of the trainmasters anymore. but as a conductor you have a bulls eye on your back and will be watched … it is a never endng cycle.
Listen, it’s like this, if you go out and you do what you’re supposed to and you follow every little rule to the letter, regardless of how absurd you might think it is and you take your time, you’ll be ok. In fact, for several years now, I’ve thought that if it just looks like you’re doing something, that is sufficient.
On pool freight jobs, there’s less likelihood of them catching you doing anything wrong because you’re riding a lot but you might have to yard the train or set out or pick-up enroute, so do it by the book.
Much more opportunity to catch you when you’re working locals or yard engines. Also, don’t know where CSX engineer is but not everyone everywhere is watched twice a week, can’t be, I don’t hardly think we are where I’m at. They’ve (both NS and CSX) have cut management so thin and there aren’t as many to watch as constantly.
Oh, I’ve done this for a little while, better than 30 years, so I think I’ve got a little bit of experience. It’s not the easiest way to live and I had one retired state trooper who always wanted to work for the railroad (father was an engineer but wouldn’t let him hire out on the RR so he did it after retiring from the state police) tell me that it was a lot more involved than what he thought it’d be and it wasn’t as easy as he thought it’d be. He only stuck around about three years, too. So, it’d be challenging and not an easy way to live and your wife isn’t going to like it at all but. . .well, how understanding is she???
Valleyx and Wabash Thanks,
The more information I can get about railroading will help with my decision.
John
vallyx,
you also go to spend years working the rails as a flagman and a brakeman and a fireman befor you where promotied to conductor or engineer, … the “new” rail road is not like that…they want to cram as much informatin in to your brain as it can hold… rules, company polices…safty… how to fill out paperwork…learning the the teritory… learning all the yards… all the jobs…locals…yard jobs…road jobs…eveything… and do it all in about 90+days
take a quaifications test…and being stamped “conductor” and told to mark up and your the boss of the train… we where not givein the time that you got … i went to a csx choo choo U school…i spent 5 weeks learning the rule book… 1 week at a field training location…where they teach the basics…how to read a switchlist…how to put on and take off handbrakes…how to proplrly throw a switch…how to change a knuckle… and how to cuple and uncuple cars saftly… then it was on to my working districe…90days as a TT (trainman trainee) then into the train masters office for my promation test, and boom…i was a new conductor… with all the rights and disaplin that goes along with it if i mess up… and then to top it off… i was then told to report to engineers school in about 2 weeks after being “promoted” … i was then agin “promoted” to engineers school…
but the point i was makeing… i didnt have years of riding the headend or a caboose to learn the job…i had weeks
now as far as haveing someone hiding in the weeds evey 2 days like someone else said…its not evey 2 days being watched… im on the road so i only get “watched” from a yard office window as i go by…or when the boss is watching yard crew and i go by…now where im at…they watch yard crews more then road crews becouse thier are more chances to brake rules when yard switching then when your get on and go from point A to point B…
csx engineer
Amen, CSX, you are absolutely correct with what you say, I did spend several years in train service before going to engine service. I was a promoted conductor 2 1/2 years after I hired out, which was pretty quick back then, where I was, anyway, but I wasn’t used as a conductor for nearly a year after I was promoted and then only sporadically from then until I went to engine service.
As for being promoted to engineer, NS has required at least a year of service before sending anyone to engine school for the last several years, and I don’t know where they’ve made any exceptions to that, but I’m sure there might be someone on here to tell me of some.
Most engineers that I know will try to help a young conductor all they can, there are always exceptions and then sometimes, there is that know-it-all who just ends up irritating everyone and shows with his attitude that he can get himself into trouble without help from anyone else, so his co-workers let him show his ignorance but I’m sure this holds true in any profession
Valleyx and CSX Engineer 98:
Were you? Are you married? And if so how did / does your wife deal with it? Cause Problems?
jrw,
im also in PA…yes i am married, and have a child, she makes do the best she can when im away, its not so bad when im gone maybe a day, or so…but when your away for 2 or 3 days…and it has happend from time to time, it can be trying for her…the biggest problem it has caused is not haveing a life…not knowing when i am going to be going to work… i live by the beeper… so its hard for her and i to just find a sitter and go out and just watch a movie without me haveing to mark off of work and lose big bucks from peniltys for marking off on an extra board… but you have to pick your battles… be on call… and work for a while…but you also have to spend time with the family…and in my book…the faimly comes first…rail road be damned…
csx engineer
CSX Engineer, Can you explain what you mean by penelities for marking off the extra board? Do they care how much you mark off, or is that frowned upon? Thanks for all your helpful information.
BTW, What area of PA are you from? I’m in the New Castle(Pittsburgh) area.