Very wise statement!
So, keep your options open. Might be worth pursuing some post-HS education so that you have something to fall back on if it turns out train service is not for you.
As Zug pointed out, the older you are in service time, the better the job you can bid on.
Everything is based on the day you hired out; the longer you have been there, the more seniority you have.
Let’s say you hired out last year, and you bid on a yard switching job as foreman….and a guy who hired out 2 years ago also bids on that job…the guy with 2 years in get the job.
Extra boards and pool service work on the first in/ first out basis, as soon as you have made your Federal rest time your name will go on the top of a list to be called to fill in vacancies, or make up an extra crew to move excess trains.
(by the way, they are called “boards” because this list used to be posted on a big chalk board at the terminal so guys headed home could see at a glance how far away from being call they were, nowdays you call a computer on your phone)
At a busy terminal, you may find you are called out for two job starts in a 24 hour period, when that happens, the second call or job is paid all at overtime rates.
And because we work under a national contract, overtime is accrued based on an 8 hour work day, so once you have 8 hours in the rest of the day is at overtime, regardless of how many hours or days in a week you worked.
We have guys out here with a 40 hour straight pay week and 30 to 40 hours overtime in that same week, big bucks if you are not married.
Extra board guys can rake in the cash, but they pay for it with zero home life.
Your seniority date is your hire date, so the sooner you get on, the sooner you begin to acquire seniority, and the sooner you
Again I would like to thank you all for all of the helpful advice and answers. I just have a few more questions though[8-|] How long does it take for a new hire to get used to the job? I ask that because I understand that it is a career that has to be taken seriously and any slip up could be catastrophic. A lot of railroaders on other forums that I’ve seen say its all about common sense on the railroad. When you do gain some seniority will you still be away from family a lot? I would like to one day start a family but I do realize that that is no easy task on the railroad.
What jobs your seniority will make available to you is directly dependent upon what kinds of jobs your seniority district protects. In some areas there are a high number of yard switching jobs that sort cars in the yard or perform industrial service in a terminal area as well as line of road through freight jobs moving between terminals. The seniority district may include locals at outlying points that service customers surrounding that outlying point.
Each seniority district on a Class I carrier will be made up each of these kinds of jobs in some proportion. A ‘line of road’ seniority district on the BNSF in Montana may be primarily point to point through freight jobs with a few locals to service one or two customers and practically no yard jobs. By contract, a seniority district headquarted in a major metropolitan area may have a high number of yard jobs to do both yard switching in building and breaking up trains as well as yard jobs that perform industrial service in switching customers. That seniority district may also supply personnel to a number of outly
Wow. So you want to be hog? Lots of good advice given so far but one consideration about lifestyle has not been mentioned yet (i think, i did not read all the posts here).
There are one of two choices here. Choose to work the road or choose to work the yard. The road will give you a better pay check but the yard will give you better lifestyle. At first you wont have much choice, but after about 5 years you will get some choice. I choose the yard. I have a fixed time that I go to work 5 days a week and i know which 2 days i will be off every week. The days off are not always the weekend, but they are two days off.
Go to college. If you ever want to be in management, then that is your ticket in.
Some railroads have gone to larger seniority districts. (The BNSF has system seniority over part of their railroad for at least one of the TE&Y crafts.) I don’t know about CSX, but you could hire out where you live, but not be able to hold a job there. The only place you might be able to hold at first could be a couple hundred miles away. It could take some time to be able to hold where you currently live. I live in central Iowa, but I grew up and lived in eastern Iowa before the railroad. They actually have a yard and jobs I might’ve been able, and now could hold where I used to live. Still I would’ve moved anyway. That terminal didn’t have road jobs and I like working the road.
(Even when I was 15 and knew that I wanted to become a locomotive engineer, I knew it meant moving especially to work the area that I would’ve liked. It’s just I expected to have to move to the Quad Cities area, not central Iowa.)
Railroading has been everything I’ve expected. But I also expected the hardships and the unattractive aspects, too. When I was your age I was able to get to know a bunch of Class 1 railroaders and to see how it worked from the inside in ways that in this day and age are no longer possible. My mark (expected time to go to work) tonight the last time I checked) was for about 230AM. When I tied up it was for 4AM and I’ll keep watch because it could move again either way. Although I’d rather go to work at a different time, I accept that’s the way the assignment I chose works. (Freight pool, AKA by some as the Chain Gang. Right now I’m alternating between a daylight round trip, then a nightime round trip.)
Most others are worried that you might find actual railroading unattractive and then what. While that’s a possiblity, I’m more worried that you’ll be like me at 15. You know what you want
Are there usually more applicants than positions available or is it the opposite? I’ve read that some railroads have had trouble recruiting qualified people…
For sure. I love airplanes as much as or more than trains. Have yet to come to work unhappy even in the crappiest places in the world.
Adrianspeeder
Usually way more applicants than positions. When I attended a hiring session for NS there were about 250 of us there trying to get a job. The number of interviews to be conducted that day, 50. The number hired, 20. The rr has people lining up out the door and down the block trying to get in.
Ok I know its a little early to be talking about this but If I do hire on at CSX and I complete my training at REDI(CSX’s training facility) When would I start working ?
I would imagine as soon as you get back from Redi.
Well that’s always a positive sign! We haven’t had that on the trucking side in some 20 years. Hiring lines to get in…unheard of.
It also depends on where you’re at and the local economic situation. Back before the economic downturn, the UP wasn’t getting the numbers of applicants it used to in certain areas. They still usually had more applicants than openings, but more along the lines of 2 or 3 for every opening instead of 9 or 10.
Jeff
Trainfan25:
I just finished surfing through this Thread. It contains some very grounded and sound advice. The only piece of advice I saw that I would question is JohnWR’s above(the" Ignore it" omment.) JohnWR is absolutely entitled to his advicve and opinion, as is everyone else here!
Early on it was mentioned that you might consider getting your college under your belt. At your age 17>18 that is a prett
I’m not really interested in management…
Yeah, but you’re young yet.
Many people start out saying that, but change their minds later. I’ve known a guy that went into management because his terminal was losing a lot of jobs, so it was either go into management or be laid off. One of those options will help pay the bills, the other not so much so.
You’re 15 - you don’t have to worry about what to do with your railroad career right now. Just focus on your schoolwork and see what subjects interest you in the next year or 2. You may be surprised - it might just take one teacher in one subject to completely change your mind on how you perceive school.
Or not.
Hell, I’m almost 30 and still haven’t decided if this RR thing is what I want to do the rest of my life.
When I was fifteen, I thought that the best thing ever was to be a railroad conductor, particularly in passenger service. Three years later, after I had finished high school, two of my brothers (both college graduates) told me that I was going to go to college–which I did, with help from one of them. I ended up in the semiconductor manufacturing industry, and enjoyed most of my time there–and have not lost my desire to know more about railroading nor my desire to travel by train.
It may be that you will achieve your current desire–and, again, you will find a different direction in your life, Whichever, I hope that you will enjoy learning about railroading and when you reach my age (76), you will be able to give younger people knowledge of how it was 50-60 years ago. Who knows–you may even, when traveling by train, meet a woman who shares your love of railroading (my wife and I met on the City of Portland in April of 1971).
Me neither. However, being a trainmaster is much more hands-on than it used to be. Especially with EHH coming over to CP, the trainmasters are not behind the desk too much anymore.
I have a question for all of the engineers here. Is running a locomotive like rocket science? Is it something that you get used to doing after a while or is it really hard? Is it fun for lack of better words?
Rocket science, lol. I always tell my crew members that railroading is NOT rocket science. At first being an engineer was difficult. There is a lot multitasking going on and there are a lot of considerations when trying to operate a train smoothly. I remember i was always thinking about what i was doing and planning my next move. By the end of a shift I would be exhausted. Now I am always thinking, but I have noticed that I am thinking of the same things over and over again. It has become routine.
The most important thing I teach new engineers is to plan your next move. How are you going to get from a to b and more importantly, how are you going to get stopped. What are your restrictions? Do you have room for error? I like it when we shove a cut of cars into a clear track with lots of room. I can open her up and let her go, it doesn’t matter if I go a car length or two too far. On the other hand, if we are shoving to a derail or a switch against us, I am going pretty slow with enough automatic to get me stopped within about 10 feet.
“Reduce your risk” is my common saying. Keep out of trouble.