<Below is an except from the above web link…note that the week of training is $3,000…has anyone here taken this course or can comment on it?..thanks >
Tuition, including Student Association and lab fees, is approximately $5,500. The cost of books and supplies, including personal protection clothing, is approximately $600. In addition, there is an intensive, week-long railway experience, the cost of which is estimated to be $3,000.
Courses
RAIL1004 Performing Inspections RAIL1016 Switching and Marshalling RAIL1013 Rules and Regulations RAIL1017 Authorities and Record Keeping RAIL1018 Transportation of Dangerous Goods RAIL1014 Creating a Safety Culture RAIL1105 Practicum
i will take a stabe at this the first thing you ask is how many make it past thier derail? not sure what you mean here because a derail is a hunk of metal on top of the rail to derail a car or as the officials say it protect a switch. a good railroader wont derail anything it makes managment mad.
2)well on the ns the ones i work with are clercks promoted to dispatchers when they did away with their jobs, 1 atc ( we are still trying to figure what planet this guy is from) and several old guys left over from well!!! its hard to say the walkers they use are older than me.
3)well all i can say is i ask them how do you like your job, the answer is … it sucks go figure.
yes they train them on multiple areas that way the company knows they can call them at any time to work certain areas. and this is also how they would know which jobs dont suck as bad.
sorta they dont want to have you retire when in training, they want some use out of you.
Its great to have a college degree but don’t forget the most important factor. Do you have a heart or a passion for your job. I know people with college degrees and failed their job duties. I also seen people without the education background and they perform 100% effective.
There is a screaming railroad industry shortage of civil engineering grads. right now. UP and BNSF will hire 3-4 dozen each in the next few years. The last AREMA Civil Engineering career day looked like a feeding frenzy in a shark tank with all the Class 1’s and some consultants trolling for future fodder.
Michigan Tech (currently the most agressive) and Kentucky (USC, DU and Purdue at the graduate level)…these folks get something of a head start, but railroads are wise to keep a good mix of folks from various schools and a few that have come up through the crafts. The railroads are paying a dear price for the “dumbsisizing” of the 90’s. There is a huge age gap that has made itself apparent after the low number of entry level civil engineers that came onboard in the last 15 years. The survivors are retiring in droves and there is virtually nobody in the training pipeline to replace them.
Shortsided operating management that for years had the “use 'em up and discard 'em” mentality is now finding out that you cannot just hire replacements off the street and just plug them in. The race is definately on to get people on board and trained (a college deg
I think you and Railway Man have hit the spike squarely on the head.
I didn’t mean to suggest that formal education programs would necessarily produce people ready to hit the ground running. No doubt very good companies understand that they need to do more than just fill the ranks with warm bodies, but I would bet that formal OJT development is spotty at best.
By itself, downsizing sets up a trap. With a large pool of layed off people, it is fairly easy to find a well qualified person to fill the occasional vacancy. The recruiter is on a gravy train and neither he nor the head of HR is about to suggest money be spent to deal with a potential problem. That is especially true when the year after next is viewed as some time in the 25th Century.
I first became aware of the growing shortage of experienced railroad civil engineers about a year ago. Not my problem, but I asked around a bit. A friend in the acedemic field noted that there was an awarness, but little action to mitigate the problem. He did note that Tom Hoback at the Indiana Rail Road had started an intern program for engineering undergraduates. (Probably just one spot at a time.) I didn’t get a sense that any of the Class 1’s had such a program going, but it is one way to fairly quickly build the talent pool.
(Now having offered my high level executive type solution to a problem, I will now take the rest of the day off and spend part of my retirement check.)
Well I use my class as an example, I assume it would be about the same for all. My class had 14 people in it, 8 of which were conductors, then 1 engineer, 1 crew caller, 1 MOW forman, 1 mechanical, 1 clerk, and 1 hired off the street. Of the 14 people, 1 did not make it out of class, 5 went back on their senority and 8 are still at it. To mark up you must be qualified on at least two desks, and you mark up as soon as you are able to. An extra board person will be qualified on around 3 to 4 desks until he/she gets a regular job. The company does not like for you to be qualified on more than 4, I think 3 should be the limit.