This morning I heard the DS ask a crew if they had passed a certain way point. They quickly replied with a milepost, leading me to believe that they had either just passed the milepost, or knew the railroad pretty well.
Which led me to a question, specifically about engineers, but it can also be about conductors:
How many miles of railroad is the typical engineer qualified for? Is there any standard or limitation? I’m referring to a Class 1 or large regional railroad. Obviously an engineer on a 6 mile long shortline is gonna skew the numbers.
As I mulled that over in my mind (probably should have been paying closer attention to my driving, but there was no traffic), another question cropped up:
If an engineer transfers to another area, how long does he (or she) hold the qualification for the “old” stretch of track? If and when they are no longer qualified, what does it take to get it back? A simple check ride or do they start all over?
rules for engineers are set by the fra. i myself are qualified on 345 miles of railroad and with the railroad you dont just transfer . if furlough you may work other places if your senority allows and there is a need. other wise your are out of luck. to train on other districts it takes around 30 days to qualify less time if you have a good memory. once you are qualified you never lose that qualifacation. but you must make a refresher trip once a year to stay current. otherwise if called to run you must either have the roadforman or a qualified engineer to ride with you.
i am “techincaly quified” over 1000 miles or so… through 3 states…but some of it is gone now…and some if it i have been over in a year…and other parts i havent been over in 5 years… we dont have to take a trip evey year to stay quilfied…but if you should have to run over terriroty that you havent been on in 1 year…you can get a pilot for 1 trip… but we do have to have a ride along with a RFE evey calander year at some point for the cerification requerments set up by the FRA…
csx engineer