I’ve often seen the job title “Road Foreman of Engines.” What exactly does this position/title require? What are the qualifications? the responsibilities? What are the characteristics of a good Road Foreman of Engines? a bad one? Has the job changed much from steam locomotive days? Where do they hang out? Do they have a secret handshake (ok, just kidding)?
Road forman of engines is the official who is in charge of the engineers and the enforcement of rule for engineers. reading tapes in investigation of engineers the qualifacations is to be hired by a railroad and to hold a engineer certifacation. The differance in a good rfe from a bad rfe. tell us how you like your boss to be. its that simple. and the secrret hand shake it is top secret.
We’ll let Wabbo, LC, our CSX Dispatchers or EdB answer the details, but please don’t confuse those operating guys with the roadmasters. (open season again on mirror jokes?)
(the good ones tend to be in mountain or undulating territories where train-handling is a major issue - I learned a lot from a couple of really good ones in my career)
Road Foreman of Engines is almos defunct in this day and age as Trainmasters pretty well cover all and both Conductor and Engineer are together in the engine. Wabash1 got it all right. On some roads the RFE was equivilant to TM in authority, on other roads there were one in the same person. They worked with the TM (train crews, operators, station agents, dispatchers [but short of Chief Train Dispatcher]. RFE were in charge of all engineers and firemen, rosters, etc. away from the roundhouse. They qualified and otherwise supervised the engine crews, assignments, rosters, etc. There used to be a more militaristic order and chain of command and division of labor on railroads than today where there is a more business/industrial authority by supervisory levels…
Obviously, you don’t work for the same outfit Wabash1 and I do. We’ve got no shortage of RFE’s around here. As for your comments on chain of command, the same goes, you obviously don’t work for this outfit and perhaps you don’t railroad at all.
The position of Road Foreman of Engines, AKA Travelling Engineer, Manager of Operating Practices, or Designated Supervisor of Locomotive Engineers is a long way from being defunct. They still supervise and qualify locomotive engineers.
In some areas on large railroads, especially more remote locations, and on smaller railroads the job could be combined with the trainmasters. When it comes down to it, any company officer has authority when it comes to rules compliance.
Jeff
I don’t know about the other class 1’s, but it is becoming more common at many locations on BNSF for one person to hold two positions as a combined TM/RFE. Each yr a RFE has to give a engr, hostler or RCO operator a check ride. On the road its either 50 miles or two hrs. Not fun when they are riding along but most of them would rather be doing something else than having to ride a train to begin with.
This seems to be true too for CP and NS in the Northeast as well which is why I made my earlier statement. I do realize that there are places where there are both RFE and TM in seperate but equal roles.
The one qualification that a Road Foreman of Engines must posess that most Trainmasters don’t posess is being a Qualified Locomotive Engineer.
On CSX the Road Forman of Engines has higher authority over the Trainmaster, at least on my division Louisviille they do. I found this out when I saw that I was e-tested by a road forman out in the yard. For a long time I though on all railroads the Trainmaster and the Road Forman of Engines had the same “rank”. The road forman on CSX in certain divisions oversees not only the engineers but the RCO qualified conductors as well.