Trains article on Railroading as a career

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I will assume most, if not all, have read the lead article in the current issue (Trains October 2008).

While the overall subject was discussed fairly well, I have a quibble with the primary focus.

There are more jobs than just the Operating Department. Yes, I know, there were mentions of Signal and Track positions among others, but the author spent his year and a half on the railroad running trains.

Granted, being in the cab watching the engineer control a train over a demanding territory in bad weather is cause for great respect. I seriously doubt I would be able to do it well enough.

But visit my world sometime. I’m responsible for everything from the top of rail down and all of the people and equipment needed to give that engineer the best chance at a safe run.

I do it, and have been for 35+ years, because it is FUN! Sure there are ups and downs, terrible bosses, bad weather, calls in the middle of the night to go to a derailment, long hours, etc. But every job has it’s own variations on those themes. The secret is finding what makes it enjoyable in spite of all of that.

For me, it is the ability to take the, sometimes meager, resources being provided and getting the job done safely and on time anyway. That is the challenge. That means you have to get others to see how can we get this done as opposed to telling you why it can’t be done.

It is rebuilding the railroad in the summer of 93 and watching the faces on your people when the flood repair work they have just completed is wiped out by the next record flood two weeks later and marveling at their willingsness to go right back and rebuild it again. It is developing a partnership relation with a construction company who first helps you solve the problem of a pier dropping 17" as you build new piers without causing a slow order, before asking for more money. It is being able to point to 30 or 40 new bridges you have built and watching trains run over them. It is seeing the frui

2

Right on, my brother. For some reason we are the redheaded stepchildren of the railroad. I don’t understand it, but we sure are the forgotten railroaders. They sure aren’t going to run their trains without us.

3

Kind of like building a skyscraper. When they “top out” nobody remembers the people who handled the foundation, either.

4

The article struck me the same way. I spent my time getting business to put on the track. It was a tremendous joy to work for the railroad.

5

It sounds like you have found the secret to happiness in your career…it is called a passion and enjoyment for what you do.

ed

6

Besides the enginer,conductor,and the other jobs in the article what about the workers in the yards getting these trains put together,maintaning the locomotives,fixing badorder cars,and shop jobs.

Some of this jobs might be for me but not for others who want to be on the mainline. I’m going to apply for this jobs in the next couple of months. I would like to be running the mainline but do not want to be away from home for days or weeks at a time.

Every one has there dreams working for the railroad but for diffirent areas of the job.

7

I’m just as baffled as the rest of you why all articles on “working for the railroad” promote the idea that the only good jobs are in TY&E service. I have spent an entire career in marketing, engineering, mechanical, strategic planning, service design, and dispatching, and am looking forward to at least another decade before old age catches me. I’m not taking away from our brothers and sisters who work the rotten hours to guide the pointy end of the train and switch the sidings, but there are other ways to have just as much (or more) fun.

RWM

8

Because the public perceives the “railroader” as the guys they see waving at the crossing.

They rarely if ever interact with a MOW crew, nor do they often see them at work, and if they do manage to get a glimpse, it is in passing only.

Same applies to air traffic…you look up and see a 747 flying over, and think about the pilot and the stews…but you never think about the fuel truck guys, or the baggage handlers, or the ground crew, because you never meet and rarely see them.

Take a ship at sea…if you see one moving, you think of the captain, maybe some of the bridge crew…but who thinks about the poor guy down in engineering who is trying to get the port side rudder hydraulics to work as well as the starboard side, or the ships cook trying to feed a crew?

Signal maintainer?

How often does Joe Public even see a wayside signal?

The only signals he ever sees are the ones at crossings.

Model railroaders are just as biased…how often do they model a tie gang pulling spikes and humping in replacement ties, or a signal maintainer up a signal mast?

Never, because they rarely see these parts of railroading in real life.

Dispatching is something the public has no clue about.

Unlike air traffic controls operators, who do get some small press coverage, railroad dispatchers never get in the press as it were…

I would bet real money that the next time you go into a restaurant, if you were to ask the first ten people you meet what a railroad dispatcher is, eight of them would have no idea what a dispatcher or control point operator is or does…and out of the two who have heard of this job only one of them would have a vague idea about how its done or how much it affects all of us.

Take my job, a yard snake…I am a switchman foreman at a terminal railroad…now, outside of the railroaders on this forum, how many of the rail fans here really know what I do for a living?

But just

9

It was a good article - but it is just scratching the surface of railroad careers. Maybe we can implore her eminance, the reining photography queen, to start with a spike maul and uncover the world of the track gang and civil engineering with the same finess.

I love our track gang. All we ask them to do at Golden Spike is to take 58 lb rail, on undersized, historically correct, untreated ties; with no tie plates and make it act like 133 lb continuous rail. Oh, and the government purchasing person does not know ballast from round rocks (and ordered the latter.)

dd

10

I see a whole series here - MOW, marketing, maintenance, dispatching, everything else everyone has mentioned. Just because the article in question wasn’t touted as “first of a series” doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to be.

11

Ed, your post doesnt make sense. Your points are msotly correct, however why wouldnt a national and probably international magazine like TRAINS use this opportunity to expand railfans horizons and give them a glimpse inside the other world of railroading. Or dont you think railfans would buy a magazine about that? If not them, who? If not now, when?

12

I’d have to disagree with you there. Maybe I’m an oddball, but my interest in railroads is a lot deeper than seeing the smiling engineer operating the shiny locomotive. I find something interesting in nearly all facets of railroads and their operations.

Granted, not everyone would read an article about railroad surveyors, or selecting the best kind of ballast, but I would. But then again, I’m the guy sitting at a wedding, staring at the ceiling, and wondering what size bolts they used to connect the beams together. OK, I’m an oddball. But, there are a lot of us oddballs around.

Maybe this is just the first installment in a series by Trains Magazine?[8D]

13

Corborn,

Simple, because Trains isn’t an industry based magazine…it is a fan based magazine.

They form and shape the magazine around what the rail fan wants to read about…and for the most part, fans haven’t asked about the mentioned careers.

I am not slamming Trains, quite the opposite…they are a smart bunch of folks who are selling a product, and doing it quite well.

They have identified a target group, railfans, and are selling to that group.

Ever notice how many photographs appear in Trains?

Grap a copy of Railway Age…big difference in content and the number of pictures.

Why the difference?

Because the target group for Trains likes photos of trains and locomotives…they are simply taking their trackside viewing back home with them.

Railway Age is for the guy in the industry who is buying equipment, or looking for people or a company to employee to work on his railroad.

Think about this…

How many subscribers are there to Trains magazine?

100,000?

But how many of them are forum members, even though the magazine promotes the forum a lot?

Not even a quarter of the subscribers are here on the forum…

Why would that be?

We discuss everything from track elevation, type of ballast, difference in rail weight; even yellow thingies…in fact, pick almost any subject related to railroading, and in all of the careers that can encompass…yet the majority of the readers of Trains are not here.

Because their focus is the trains…the visual appeal of the locomotive and the supposed romantic lifestyle of the T&E employees…

No one, or at least not enough subscribers, have yet requested in depth and detailed articles about the other railroad careers, and those that are interested in such things are here on the forum already.

Trains Magazine isn’t going to change its content or style until or unless enough subscribers ask for a change…and from what I read a

14

Murphy,

I too am an oddball, but the Murphys and Eds are few and far between…

I happen to be interested in all the different aspect of railroading also…and like you, I look at things and wonder how it’s put together, the “how did they do that?” mentality.

But that interest is not shared by all fans, or all railroaders for that matter…most carmen would have no clue what a flashing yellow wayside signal meant, and most conductors could care less how a axel bearing is changed, and none of us are interested in collapsing circuits and how they activate crossing signals…all we worry about is that the signals come on when the train is this far away from the crossing, the why it works part doesn’t matter…its very rare for interest to cross craft lines.

Part of that is because we are trained to do the same thing over and over, almost by rote and because each of our jobs involves such different rules and different skills that there is no time to explore the other crafts.

We had a group of MOW guys who transferred into T&E service as switchmen trainees…and most left simply because it was nothing like what they had imagined it to be…I actually had one of them tell me it was too hard a job…this is from a guy who spent all day pounding spikes and digging rock!

But the rules we switchmen have to follow overwhelmed him…it didn’t make sense to him that we do some things the way we do because if the needs of the road crews…

And as I pointed out in my last post…the above average railfan who does have an interest in something besides the locomotive is already here on the forum…imaging trying to cover all the different subject threads in the forum in print form…never happen.

[quote user=“Murphy Siding”]

[quote user=“edblysard”]

So why would we expect a magazine devoted to the rail fan to offer anything beyond what the public knows about?

Even though those of us in the business already know that for every trai

15

As a Carman I think I have the greatest job in the world , I get to spend my days or Nights climbing in , over and under trains , fixing the wear and tear of the miles racked up , plus I get payed to watch trains roll by , considering as a kid I spent hours watching trains , it was good practice for what I do now .

16

Ed, Murph -

Methinks that an article about trackworkers, f’rinstance, could well have a “I didn’t know that” quality if properly written. Granted, some of us do know, but even then, we gain the satisfaction of knowing that we already possess the knowledge.

An article could include several of the “hidden” jobs - PR, claims adjuster, maintenance scheduler, Carl, etc.

Another could be a day with Ed (or someone like him), outlining the high points and the low points, the usual and the unusual of working in an almost totally yard environment.

Articles in the past have touched on some of these concepts indirectly. An article about a container car manufacturer comes to mind. This series has possibilities.

17

You guys crack me up sometimes!

Personally, I’d love to hang with a track or tie gang for a while and see how they do what they do. Maybe even try my hand with a spike maul? 'Course, that reminds me of a day several months ago when I was attending a meeting. Afterward, a couple of my friends mentioned they needed to move some cars at their museum nearby and asked if the rest of us wanted to come along. I’m never one to turn down an opportunity like that, so we went. While there, I mentioned that I’d never thrown a switch and wondered what that was like. Sure as anything, they found me a switch at the museum to throw.

I knew it’d be heavy, but it surprised me some nonetheless. Mostly, I guess, I figured gravity would take over sooner than it did. When the switch did finally move easier, I landed right on my backside. Thank God no one with a camera on the engine caught that! In fairness, though, I was wearing heels at the time. Next time I’ll be better prepared: My boots now stay in my truck 24/7, just in case.

But anyway, we’ll talk around here and consider doing a series of articles on working for the railroad. Ed is right in saying that the majority of our readers are most fascinated by the TY&E jobs, but I believe they also love railroading enough that they’d appreciate learning more about it overall. Will it be enough to compel them to start fantripping the marketing team? Not likely. But they might gain a better appreciation for what it takes to fill those cars trailing behind the engine.

Thanks for your thoughts! They’re always appreciated.

Kat

18

It is fine for Trains to market to the popular interests of their fan base, but those interests only exist in the first place because they are relatively accessible to fans. Part of the marketing mission ought to be to teach rather than just reflect. Trains could help broaden their market base by teaching about what fans might find interesting if they were aware of it, rather than polling fans about their interests, and then just reflecting those interests.

19

So many lessons learned in your short visit to the museum.

Switch probably needed adjustment

People need to be shown how to properly and safely throw a switch

Proper foot wear and other PPE

Could this be a differentiation between a railroader and a railfan? Also a potential source of friction between those groups?

Full disclosure statement: My name is Steve and I am a railfan. In addition to getting paid to do something I love, I have been president of a railroad museum in the past, I look most closely at the power on a train although I always give the whole thing a roll-by inspection, I have a lot of old slides and photos I am trying to get digitized, I take a lot of photos at work of the job going on which often include a train.

The trade magazines provide much of the technical/financial/marketing info about the industry, but the fan magazines and related discussion boards such as this provide another perspective plus an opportunity to share some of the more esoteric knowledge all railroaders have.

20

My vote is for the MOW guys too. But lets not forget a welding career that you can have out here too. I just spent the whole summer keeping up on main line frogs, rail ends, and thermite welding. It always cracks me up when the RR’s are so worried about the ops. dept. going out on strike, but when the MOW thinks about they don’t really care. I just think to myself " How long are you going to be able to run your trains with no MOW or welders around." just my .02 cents

Thanks