I am currently going through the New Hire process with BNSF here in Nebraska right now. I have done everything they have ask me for and pass it all with flying colors. Talking about colors, I recently found out that I have a red-green deficiency and now i have to take the farnsworth color blind test this monday. I wanted to know if you or anyone in this forum has ever come across or heard about anyone who has or hasn’t gotten hire because a slight color blind deficiency?
I have no personal direct experience with this, although a few people I used to work with had some color perception problems - including a surveyor’s assistant, now a civil engineering technician who works with AutoCAD and colors all day long . . . [:-^]
Nevertheless, the “Career Questions” section of this website seems to have some very useful insights about the strengths and weaknesses of each of these tests, and tactics for dealing with them, etc.:
Good luck with it !
http://colorvisiontesting.com/color7.htm
- Paul North.
Thank you for your info on my last question. I have some others that I would like to ask. I have read a lot about people talking about receiving 100% or 75% or something like that. What are they talking about when it comes to these numbers. Also I read in one post that you are pretty taking a pay cut in your first yr and then the next year the amount of money you can make is a dramatic difference. What is the pay cut for if there is one?
Do you have trouble differentiating red green and yellow? If so that may be a problem because signals are presented in those colors.
It was not a pay cut, but a graduated pay increase.
Used to be new hires marked up on a 90 probationary period, at 75% of full pay, after the 90 days, it was 75%, after 1 year service went to 80%, 2nd year was 85%, third year was 90%, 4th year was 95% and on your 5th year you went to full pay.
The last national union contract did away with most of that, figure on working your probationary period at the 75% pay (may be more), then going to 100% when you’re training is complete.
Plenty of people are turned down because of this. Being able to distinguish these colors is a requirement of the job, not to mention the danger factor if you cant. Good luck with it.
I understand completely that plenty of people are not hired because of this. if my problem was that serious where i felt like it could actually but the people around in danger than i wouldnt even go through with trying to get this job. I guess the real question is, Of the many colors that are seen in the everyday life of a conductor, are the colors being seen very dominant or could some be lighter than others to the point where someone could really confuse the colors?
From that webpage, apparently color-blindness is not just a ‘black-and-white’ thing (OK, sorry about that pun . . . ).
Instead, it appears to occur in gradations or degrees, and some of the various tests and variations are intended to not unnecessarily disqualify people who have a vision problem, but one that’s still acceptable enough or not severe enough to make them a safety hazard; at the same time, identify those persons where it is serious enough to reject their application.
Might be wise to study up on the various tests and figure out exactly what kind of vision difficulty you have, and which tests which treat you fair, and which won’t. Somewhere on that web page was an account by a person who was rejected by a ‘regular’ doctor, but a vision MD certified that he was OK.
- Paul North.
Yes. We have some yellows that look like reds, some reds that look yellow, and some greens that look teal. Early in the morning when the sun first starts to rise seeing signals is hell because of the sun in you face. Now if you have trouble distinguishing these three colors then I would say that’s serious. Missing a signal gets you killed.
Loose lips sink ships, bad eyes kill guys.
Being red/green color blind and unable to distinguish signal aspects could get people killed, so I think that should be a definite stopper to any railroad job requiring reading of signals.
Most people who have color vision deficiency are not color blind. They see the color, but they don’t see it exactly like normal people do. The shading looks different. For example, fire engine red looks like a lighter shade to them than to normal people. This is where things get tricky. The Ishihara color test (the one where you see numbers in colored dots) is a pass/fail test. If your color vision is not perfect you will fail this test. I have failed it several times yet I can identify red and green colors all day long with no problems. I have difficulty telling the difference between light green and light grey and also between dark green and dark brown if the objects are small. I can tell the difference between red, green, and yellow traffic lights and railroad signals all day long in whatever conditions you can think of. Color vision deficiency runs from very slight to color blindness. My uncle cannot see the color yellow at all. If you hold up a yellow shirt he will say it’s black.
So it really comes down to how bad your color deficiency is. If it’s slight you shouldn’t have any problems with real world work. Take the test and see what they say. Good luck!
dekemd - Thanks much for those thoughtful, detailed, real-world examples. [tup] - PDN.
I had red -green defeicency to and wanted to be an engineer. But they needed MOW track workers and thats where I spent 28 years. It was hard but a good job. SL-SF , BN, BNSF. BRIAN