I have been pursuing the Conductors school for CSX at Okeefenokee Tech and am waiting to be selected. Now, I see that NS pays the trainees for training as a Conductor. Why the difference? Is one better? Are both worth it? What will you actually start making in your 1st year as a Conductor?
to answer your question, I cnat really give you an answer other than taking the training at tech school will undoubltely move you ahead in the hiring. The railroads were in a real pinch and still are to some degree on that they had not hired anyone for a long time bout 10 years. So to get the many thousands of conductors they needed they payed for training, now they can be a little more selective. If you passs the test at college than you will pass the test when you get hired. As for what you will make in your first year hard to say, depends on the man power needs at your location. For me I hired on in denver with the bnsf and when I got out of class i was on a switchmens board that called for 24 guys and there were 2 of us on there. we could work as much as we wanted, in newton kansas were we are i am now we are somewhat short but there are bout 15 guys in engineer training right now. So yes even a young guy can make a lot of money here for the time being. As far as what you should expect to make, here the switchmans board gaurantee is 2400 every two weeks, and new hires make 75% of that, every year you gain 5% till you hit 100%. brakemans boards and conductors boards make more, and some locals, and long runs make even more. depends on the contracts in the area
I wanted to be a loco crewmember badly when I graduated HS in 1975. Couldn’t find work so joined Marines and made it a career. Sometimes I wonder how differently things would have been had I been an engineer. I’d probably be a lot wealthier than I am on my small enlisted retirement.
There wasn’t much work around on the RR in those days. I had a similar experience later in that decade. If you didn’t have family on the RR you weren’t gonna have a chance.
After college and professional school and a career or so, I came back to the RR and hired out. It is still possible. There are retired military and teachers and others who go into T&E on the RRs all the time. When I hired out we had a retired guy from the phone company and a retired teacher in my group.
LC
Well CSX likes to be different from every other class one out there, they want their conductor hiries to go through a school known as AMDG, before they are selected as a conductor. The school costs about 4500 bucks. The classes last about five weeks, then within the fifth week, they conduct inerviews, it is then a person finds out weather or not they have a job with CSX. Then after you are hired you are considered to be a conductor traninee and are faced to go through at least 6 months of conductor training at you home yard, w/ pay.
CSX simply thinks they can save money and get a more motivated employee if they force you to pay for training up front. Kind of a reverse incentive. NS, on the other hand, is more old fashioned and simply beats you into shape, more like USMC boot camp…
LC
Wonder what the figures are for retention. Does CSX retain more new-hire conductors because they sunk money into tuition and hate to think of the lost money if they quit? Or does NS retain more new-hires? Seems like a lot of new-hire conductors disappears within two or three years of hre date, to say nothing of those who quit before finishing the training period. I just wonder what it’s like over at the competition.