Hi.It would be great to hear from any fellow driver’s out there.Im based in the U.K and I work for Virgin Trains driving the class 390 tilting Pendolino train.If anyone has any question’s then I’ll try and answer them.
All the best from the U.K
Engineer for the BNSF in Illinois pull everything from coal to general manifest trains. I have been a engineer fro 2 years now, was scared to death my first solo run, but fell much better now.
Rodney
Hi Joe here,
I am only 16 and someday would like to be an engineer for the BNSF railway. What do you mean by solo run? And any tips on how to become an engineer?
Thanks, Joe
I’m not an engineer/driver but I do have a question.
When driving those 390’s at 100 plus mph do you wear seat belts?
Steam engineer checking in. I operate a narrow gauge 4-4-0 for the J&CB tourist railroad. Might move on to the big companies someday, on either the mgt or ops side, but as of now I like what I’m doing.
No,No seat belt’s.
Engineer for the BNSF in Illinois pull everything from coal to general manifest trains. I have been a engineer fro 2 years now, was scared to death my first solo run, but fell much better now.
I know what you mean.You could cook an egg on my seat when I did my first run on my own about 5 year’s ago now.Are you away from home a lot with some of your job’s?We are quite lucky over her in the passenger train driving as we are home every night.Some of the freight driver’s stay out once or twice a week but obviously you will probably travel greater distance’s than we do.
Engineer since 1973, ran passenger (suburban) and freight. Left the railroad in '92.
I fire a couple of 4-4-0’s. Tell me this - how do you shovel propane?
dd
VERY carefully!
Word of warning when shoveling propane - NO SMOKING !
Oh, you guys!
The locomotive was built as a wood burner, and somewhere we still have the grates to do it, but the big Crown engines were mostly all converted. The benefit of propane over bunker C is that we don’t have to have an atomizer. Plus, with all the chicken farms around here, there’s a lot of competition in the propane market, and we generally get the large discount afforded to Tyson.
Just about everything else about the locomotive is prototypical. We use Penberthy lifting injectors (no electric pumps/feedwater heaters) and we have a Westinghouse steam-powered air compressor.
DD - thanks for the email; no worries.
One other advantage is that you may not need an external boiler to preheat the engine and tender to the point that the atomizer will work. The Golden Spike replica engines were originally built as oil burners and then back-converted to burn wood and coal as originally designed. Pulling the external boiler/preheating equipment out of the engine house after that conversion gave us sufficient room for the machine shop.
Besides, shoveling propane sounds a lot easier than shoveling coal.
dd
Man, having an engine shop is just a pipe dream for us. We don’t even have a pit. All our work on the train has to occur outside, and changing out burners or pulling the belly plugs on the boiler require taking off the brake gear and wedging yourself underneath the engine.
About a year ago, we lost the bolt on one of the eccentric straps and had to get under there in the middle of the woods…NOT fun.
You’re right, propane negates the need for an external boiler (or, alternately, showing up at 4am to light waste and pre-heat with wood.) Just turn on a valve and light it up. We do have to keep the gas regulator pretty low until there’s enough pressure to run the blower, though. The firebox is so small (3x3x3) that those big fires don’t get enough O2 without the blower.
One nice thing is that the propane arrangement allows us to get away with a 2 man crew; engineer in the cab, conductor on the train doing the tour guide stuff and switching. Coming out of the station, the engineer sets the gas to 60-90PSI and the fire pretty much takes care of itself. When we can, we run with a fireman, but post 9-11 economics generally don’t give us the luxury of another crew member on payroll. Volunteers are a big help.
Im afraid you have completley lost me on this one being a diesel and electric man but one word I did pick up on is westinghouse.On the older electric’s I drove ( class 86 and 87 ) and the current class 57 I drive , the brake controller is made by westinghouse too.
How did you become an engineer? Did you have to go to college?
Hi U.K. no collage I just have a ged I got my ged while I was in the United States Navy. I hired out 5 years ago as a conductor and bid in to engine service spent 6 months doing training, had a 100 qusetion mech test, a 150 question air brake train handleing test and a 150 question gcor test along with 2 sim runs above 90%. Every since I have been set up as a engineer I have had a lot of funn running trains, and learn more with every trip I get.
Rodney
I did a 15 month training course,then did 225 hours driving with an instructor.With many assessments in that time I thankfully was passed to drive.Each engine or train has a course too.I think the pendolino one was 5 weeks but i might be wrong.How long are your shifts?Do you stay out anytime in the week?Ive been on night’s this week ,shunting in the depot,taking train’s through the wash etc.On the London run next week.
Generally, US railroading isn’t so much “shift” work (save operators, dispatchers, yard jobs, and such) but, rather, by “job”. If the engineer gets called for Train Q625, he’ll work it a) until he reaches the train’s terminal or the next crew change or b) until 12 hours on duty elapses. Once an engineer and conductor have been on duty for 12 hours, they go “dead on the law”. The federal government regulates that; once a crew is dead on their hours of service, they cannot operate their train one inch. A relief crew would have to be called and driven to wherever the train is.
The law says the crew must then take an 8 hour rest period, although that’s not 8 hours of actual rest/sleep. It takes X amount of time for the crew to get home or the motel, then X amount of time to eat, shower, and get ready for bed. Then, they are called 2 hours before they are required to be on-duty, so during busy periods there’s not a lot of real “rest” involved. Hours can be very screwy. If I got called at 10am today to report for duty at 12pm, the railroad could work me until 12 midnight. Then I might get called for an 8am train, or I might sit on my thumbs until midnight and get a call to report at 2am. Depends on what seniority one holds and what board one is on. Low-seniority extra-board guys tend to get the crap jobs.
In most cases, if a crew gets their train from point A to point B in, say, 6 hours, they’d get an early quit. They get paid for the whole day (their “job” is completed) but are off duty early.
I believe there is some proposed legislation in congress to re-examine the hours of service/rest law, but I don’t know much about it.
After I got my degree I had a job opportunity with the management side of KCS, but decided against it for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that management isn
[quote user=“BlakeTyner”]
Generally, US railroading isn’t so much “shift” work (save operators, dispatchers, yard jobs, and such) but, rather, by “job”. If the engineer gets called for Train Q625, he’ll work it a) until he reaches the train’s terminal or the next crew change or b) until 12 hours on duty elapses. Once an engineer and conductor have been on duty for 12 hours, they go “dead on the law”. The federal government regulates that; once a crew is dead on their hours of service, they cannot operate their train one inch. A relief crew would have to be called and driven to wherever the train is.
The law says the crew must then take an 8 hour rest period, although that’s not 8 hours of actual rest/sleep. It takes X amount of time for the crew to get home or the motel, then X amount of time to eat, shower, and get ready for bed. Then, they are called 2 hours before they are required to be on-duty, so during busy periods there’s not a lot of real “rest” involved. Hours can be very screwy. If I got called at 10am today to report for duty at 12pm, the railroad could work me until 12 midnight. Then I might get called for an 8am train, or I might sit on my thumbs until midnight and get a call to report at 2am. Depends on what seniority one holds and what board one is on. Low-seniority extra-board guys tend to get the crap jobs.
In most cases, if a crew gets their train from point A to point B in, say, 6 hours, they’d get an early quit. They get paid for the whole day (their “job” is completed) but are off duty early.
I believe there is some proposed legislation in congress to re-examine the hours of service/rest law, but I don’t know much about it.
After I got my degree I had a job opportunity with the management side of KCS, but decided against it for a lot of reasons, not the least of which