Some of you engine men tell us about your day.Normal or otherwise. Like a blow by blow account from start to finish.Do you or are you required to keep hours total etc.?Where do you start from Etc.?Do you converse(talk) to other passing crews?
ill respond after i get in from a shift… way to much to type out in the short amount of time i have befor i got to go tonight
csx engineer
Will unusual hours be on the top of the list?
I can’t imagine so…
I thought trains only ran during the day?
well…befor i can realy give you that nuts and bolts of an engineers day from start to finsh…i need to know this…what kind of day do you want…a road day…or a yard day… big diffrance between the 2 of them
csx engineer
Yeah, big difference between road and yard… my last road trip we hit a 6-point buck at 60mph, and in the yard we run over a raccoon at 4mph. Guess what??? Raccoons act just like chickens do when they are decapitated, something I really, really, really didn’t want to learn first hand.
ok…ill start off with a yard day… since im in yard service for the time being…and when i get a few mins later today ill try and come back and give you the lowdown on a road day
i leave for work around 2200 hours…and drive to be at work by 2300…i arrive at the yard…and park the car…go inside the office…put my grip down out of the way…take my coat off… and grab a cup of coffiee…i go over to the computer and check to see where other people i work with are…and what trains and jobs are out working…then i sit down…and drink my coffiee… and when the carman comes in…or another engineer that i know…we sit down and play Gin and talk shop and just poke fun at eveyone in the office…and b&$@h about the yard master not getting our lists to us by 2300…about 2310 or so…i go into the yard masters office and see if my train bullitins came over the printer yet…if they didnt…i call the dispatcher to get a set issued…and i look over the yard masters shoulder to see how the lists look…
then i go back to the crew room if i have the messages…and play more Gin while waiting for the switchlists…if the train messages didnt come yet…and after i call…i hang out in the YM office untill they are done printing…between hands of Gin… i look over my train messages…remembering if anything on them pretains to what im going to be doing…around 2340 or sometime till 0001 the yard master will come over to the crew room with the switch lists…and gives a job brieffing and a power assinment to the engineers…after the job brieffing…i gather up my stuff…and head out to my power…once on it…i fill out the required paper work like a calinader day inspection and the locomotive work report and airbrake slip…knock off the hand brakes…and i sit and wait for the forman to come out…when he gets on…we head into the yard…
once in the yard… its stop…back up…3 step…releace 3 step…give me a strech…go west any number of cars…stop…back up 4 to a pin…k
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98
ok…ill start off with a yard day… since im in yard service for the time being…and when i get a few mins later today ill try and come back and give you the lowdown on a road day
i leave for work around 2200 hours…and drive to be at work by 2300…i arrive at the yard…and park the car…go inside the office…put my grip down out of the way…take my coat off… and grab a cup of coffiee…i go over to the computer and check to see where other people i work with are…and what trains and jobs are out working…then i sit down…and drink my coffiee… and when the carman comes in…or another engineer that i know…we sit down and play Gin and talk shop and just poke fun at eveyone in the office…and b&$@h about the yard master not getting our lists to us by 2300…about 2310 or so…i go into the yard masters office and see if my train bullitins came over the printer yet…if they didnt…i call the dispatcher to get a set issued…and i look over the yard masters shoulder to see how the lists look…
then i go back to the crew room if i have the messages…and play more Gin while waiting for the switchlists…if the train messages didnt come yet…and after i call…i hang out in the YM office untill they are done printing…between hands of Gin… i look over my train messages…remembering if anything on them pretains to what im going to be doing…around 2340 or sometime till 0001 the yard master will come over to the crew room with the switch lists…and gives a job brieffing and a power assinment to the engineers…after the job brieffing…i gather up my stuff…and head out to my power…once on it…i fill out the required paper work like a calinader day inspection and the locomotive work report and airbrake slip…knock off the hand brakes…and i sit and wait for the forman to come out…when he gets on…we head into the yard…
once in the yard… its stop…back up…3 step…releace 3 step…give me a
CSXENG: do you have speed restrictions on certain cars,certain places? Do you have a cellphone?who contacts shipper/reciever to open gates etc.at certain locations,you or yard personnel?You mentioned a foremann,i take that to mean the yard foreman,now what does the conductor/switchman do while all this is going on.I understand that it seems hum-drum too you.I know when i was driving i thought man this is so boring,but looking back it really had its good points which certainly out wieghed the bad. Anyway thanks all,.Jim
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QUOTE: Originally posted by macguy
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98
ok…ill start off with a yard day… since im in yard service for the time being…and when i get a few mins later today ill try and come back and give you the lowdown on a road day
i leave for work around 2200 hours…and drive to be at work by 2300…i arrive at the yard…and park the car…go inside the office…put my grip down out of the way…take my coat off… and grab a cup of coffiee…i go over to the computer and check to see where other people i work with are…and what trains and jobs are out working…then i sit down…and drink my coffiee… and when the carman comes in…or another engineer that i know…we sit down and play Gin and talk shop and just poke fun at eveyone in the office…and b&$@h about the yard master not getting our lists to us by 2300…about 2310 or so…i go into the yard masters office and see if my train bullitins came over the printer yet…if they didnt…i call the dispatcher to get a set issued…and i look over the yard masters shoulder to see how the lists look…
then i go back to the crew room if i have the messages…and play more Gin while waiting for the switchlists…if the train messages didnt come yet…and after i call…i hang out in the YM office untill they are done printing…between hands of Gin… i look over my train messages…remembering if anything on them pretains to what im going to be doing…around 2340 or sometime till 0001 the yard master will come over to the crew room with the switch lists…and gives a job brieffing and a power assinment to the engineers…after the job brieffing…i gather up my stuff…and head out to my power…once on it…i fill out the required paper work like a calinader day inspection and the locomotive work report and airbrake slip…knock off the hand brakes…and i sit and wait for the forman to come out…when he gets on…we head into the yard…
once in the yard
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by macguy
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98
ok…ill start off with a yard day… since im in yard service for the time being…and when i get a few mins later today ill try and come back and give you the lowdown on a road day
i leave for work around 2200 hours…and drive to be at work by 2300…i arrive at the yard…and park the car…go inside the office…put my grip down out of the way…take my coat off… and grab a cup of coffiee…i go over to the computer and check to see where other people i work with are…and what trains and jobs are out working…then i sit down…and drink my coffiee… and when the carman comes in…or another engineer that i know…we sit down and play Gin and talk shop and just poke fun at eveyone in the office…and b&$@h about the yard master not getting our lists to us by 2300…about 2310 or so…i go into the yard masters office and see if my train bullitins came over the printer yet…if they didnt…i call the dispatcher to get a set issued…and i look over the yard masters shoulder to see how the lists look…
then i go back to the crew room if i have the messages…and play more Gin while waiting for the switchlists…if the train messages didnt come yet…and after i call…i hang out in the YM office untill they are done printing…between hands of Gin… i look over my train messages…remembering if anything on them pretains to what im going to be doing…around 2340 or sometime till 0001 the yard master will come over to the crew room with the switch lists…and gives a job brieffing and a power assinment to the engineers…after the job brieffing…i gather up my stuff…and head out to my power…once on it…i fill out the required paper work like a calinader day inspection and the locomotive work report and airbrake slip…knock off the hand brakes…and i sit and wait for the forman to come out
only 10mph max alowed on the yard tracks…we dont have cellphones…we have 2 way radios…the yard im at…i dont deliver anything to any customers…we are a switching yard…we take blocks of cars that come in on inbound road trains…switch them to build locals…the locals go out and work the industrys… but most of the time the gates to the industrys are locked with a railroad lock…if they arnt …the conductor or the yard master will call the industry that is going to be worked to tell them we are comeing and unlock the gate…and we also take cars that the locals bring back and switch them out to build blocks of cars that outbound road trains will pick up …thier is no conductor on a yard job…conductors are on road trains and locals…the yard forman is what i mean when i say forman…he runs the yard job… he is a switchman…not a conductor…now thier is another switchman that can be assinded to help you…he is known as a utiltiy man…when he is assined to your crew…he works as part of your crew untill you releace him…the forman and the utility man are lining switchs…make ties…makeing cuts…give kicks… watching shoves…putting on and knocking off hand brakes on cars…they have a switchlist for a track…its called a track list…it has all the cars that should be on that track…when you pull the track to be switched… on this list…thier are notes from the yardmaster that tell you where to put
now ill try and give you a day in the life of a road engineer…
the day starts …lets say…1am…you get a call that wakes you up out of a sound sleep…
its the crew caller…they tell you what train your being called for…and what time…since you get 2 hours to report for duty from the call at 1am…you are called to duty for 3am…i get up…get ready for work…pack a lunch…and pack an overnight grip…since you never know for sure if your going to be taxied back home or have to stay at the away from home terminel…i think hop in the car…and drive to the yard…when i get thier… i go in…and find my train messages on the printer…if they arent their…i call the dispatcher and have a set sent to the printer…i pull them off the printer and start to go over them…making sure first that all my system bullitins and division bullitoins are up to date…if i need any of them…i print the ones i need out…while they are printing up…i go over the train messages…writing the location of where evey slow order and work zone is in relation to the nearest signal as a land mark…i also have a job briefing with the conductor by going over the orders…we both make sure we didnt miss read or miss anything on the messages…then we go over the train profile…makeing sure that the hazmats are in thier propor place…and go over any train restrictions as far as speed or train handleing…i then take the info that us engineers need to run the train off the profile…such as train lenght…how many tons…number of cars…number of total axels… and engin numbers…after we have our job briefing…we then go have one with the yard master…find out where are train is located…and if we have any work to do such as making a double befor we leave the yard…but to make this a little simpler…we are just going to have a get on and go train…after this job briefing…we call for a yard taxi to take us to the train…once thier… i start to fill out the paper work such as the calander