While watching NS switching yesterday in Maumee Ohio i saw my first female trainperson.It was a nice break from the men. And to her credit she was out in the rain bending the iron! GO AHEAD GIRL!
When women frist hired into the steel mills in the Chicago area one of the lowest paying jobs is the person who walks the ground with a crane attaching the hook to the load. Up until then this job was known as the “hooker”. Very quickly it got changed to “Crane assist person”.
i should hope.
wow, a female brake-um uh women? hmm… kinda odd dident know that girls liked trains, (Scientific anomaly?) i wonder if theres more out there.
Yeah, they’re scattered around there…perhaps one day you’ll also realize your dream and see one of these ‘Ladies of Steel’ [;)]
Female train crew are not that unusual anymore. I have seen female conductors on Metra, Amtrak, and Metro North, female engineers on a variety of roads, etc.
I just recalled that in the late eighties I talked with a woman engineer at Summit, California about to take a train down Cajon pass. She was being held up by a brush fire for awhile. I believe it was a UP train.
I do remember Trains having articles in the 80s about woman in train service out west. This was the first in Ohio i have seen. Although when i was working a lot of the clerks and tower ops were woman.
I’ve worked with several women conductors.
I’ve also worked with and trained a few women Engineers.
Most done a very good job,and with the added paper work since the NS’s CYO garbage took affect,they handled the paper work better than most men.
There is several out of Bellvue,Ohio,Portsmouth,Ohio and out of Williamson,WVa on the NS.
The NS employs some women dispatchers in the Bluefield dispatch center also .
Theres a female conductor up here as well…She works at the paper mill up in Brokaw Wi…She was riding a boxcar…
Well seeing that it didn’t let me edit my last post to add this other pic…Here is one more…“Jordan here is the switcher up in Brokaw” (if ya haven’t seen it already that is)
Ack… not a good place to ride a boxcar! She even has her foot on the coupler… shakes head
When the C.S.S. & S.B. Passenger service began hiring women at collector, conductors, motoroperators. Then were happy, until they found out they ahd to go out on service trains for maintenance.
Then they screamed it was not a job a woman should be doing. Also when they became pregnant. They wanted a man take over for them so they could rest.
this is off topic but, why is there a michigan city in IN?
For the same reason there is a “Chicago” in Illinois.
For the same reason you have Arkansas City, TX; Kansas City, MO; and Virginia City, NV.
Shame on you, and your sexist sentiments.
I realize there are not many women who work for the railroad. I am one of only 3 in our conductor school.(Approx. 75 students all together) It is not a genetic anamoly that we love trains as well. Women can do the same jobs as men do, and we do them just as good as men. Maybe the entire concept of social conditioning and gender roles reinforced early in life have a lot to do with why we dont see more females with an active interest in trains…how many of you guys had sisters that got cool train sets for x mas? I know I never did. In fact, I threw my barbie doll under a train, since I grew up next to a factory spur.
Once I get hired ( not for a while, so don’t hold your breath ) I’ll be sure to post pictures and make a big deal out of the fact that women are working on the railroad, too. I personally think it’s far more rare to find a girl who dorks out with model trains than to find one out there bending steel.
this is off topic but, why is there a michigan city in IN?
Because Michigan doesn’t have one?
ANything you can do I can do better…yadda yadda yadda. First off its nothing new to see women firefighters,cops truck drivers,construction workers, etc etc. Does it mean they can do the job to the level needed? Depends on the person honestly. so dont get your nose out of joint until you know you can do the job you want to do to the standards needed.
I know a few lady conductors that can one arm some switches here just like us big burly neanderthal ogres.I also know guys who need to get a run up the lead before they can budge the same switch.
Let me make an obvious statement. Men and women are DIFFERENT! We have our own strengths and weaknes’es.Women dont have upper body strength like a man, UNLESS they work out the specific muscles to gain the same amount of upper body strength.
Now before you start bashing me, my wife not only drives a semi ( I taught her and she does great thanks)but is also a volunteer firefighter.The reason she does this is not to prove a point or say I am woman hear me roar.But because she wanted too and succeded at it.If she COULD NOT have done it she never would have pursued it,or wanted special treatment to give her a place where she didnt belong.
Well it just might have to do with the fact that Michigan City is on the shore of a big lake. Guess what the name of the lake is?
I sat on the train and listen to these EQUAL PAY women do the complaining when they were ordered to do the JOB they hired on to do.
I do give equal respect to the few who did the required work. I do not mind when they (like I did and most others) commented about the hard work but did it.
Some are still working, Some quit because they could not handle it.