Would they hire anybody to work for the railroad company without a college degree as long as they have a good work record? I would like to work for the BNSF or Union Pacific railroad company sometime and I would love to work around them trains.
Go for it !!!
Randy
I have a couple relatives that work for the UP and as far as I know neither has any post HS education. Like Randy says, go for it.
Post HS education is a plus… but not required and you will most likely get a job if you pass all the tests. i.e strength and mental
Although I have a degree, there are plenty of railroaders out there who don’t. Try applying online with BNSF or UP for any job you’re interested in. If you’re unsuccessful, and if you have the money, I would strongly reccomend taking the six week conductor training course at JCCC in Overland Park, KS (assuming you’re interested in a conductor position). Passing the course will all but assure you of a job.
What do you want to do on the railroad? If you want a non-agreement job you will need a college degree.
The vast majority of RR employees in Agreement (union) positions do not need a degree. You can still work your way up into management without a degree if you have a brain…
LC
The kind of work I wanna do is load/unload stuff from the freight cars.
The railroad company that goes through Walla Walla, WA (the town I live in) is the Blue Mountain Railroad Company (formerly Union Pacific).
You’d better go to work in a warehouse with rail service, a coal tipple, or maybe a auto loading/unloading facility, the railroads generally don’t unload or load their own cars, except for maintenance of way, perhaps
Hey LC some officals have the brains but no common sence, i.e. I was running a 6200 foot vechical train with (1) engine it was abiut 1 above zero and was sitting for about 4 hours got the signal and was told that I needed to move now I told them I could not because my brake pipe had not recovered thenext thing I konw the signal gets taken. As soon as the conductor and I are off the train we have to see the trainmaster and explain why I did not move the train I was explaing the delayed departure brake pipe reduction and also about the 5 psi increase at the etd, and flow below 60 cfm. When I was tieing up their was an operations test failure for not responding to signal.
Rodney
Rodney, surely someone would intervene in your behalf. I remember the car foreman from the south who absolutely refused to believe that a train line would (let alone could) freeze up, that actual ice could be in the train line. He got very belligerent with a crew until he saw ice in an air hose. To his credit, he apologized, said he’d spent his entire rr career in the south and had never heard of such a thing.
We have tm’s that have no operational knowlege they think that the air should just snap up in the winter as it does in the summer.
Rodney
so how do you guys take care of the ice in the air line? do you run alcohol through the line and hope it frees up or do you set out the offending car(s) and go on your way?
No doubt about it Rodney, not all officials have a clue. What I’m saying though is if you have a clue as an ordinary employee that there are opportunities to advance into management. I know the NS comes around periodically to test for TM and RFE candidates. That doesn’t mean that officials all have brains or that all come up through the ranks, most don’t. Many are recruited to be ATMs from college.
LC
Please hire out on the UPRR!! Lately they have hired some people with degrees and I am not impressed at all. Good old horse sense is whats needed to work on the railroad !!! That and the ability to stay awake while the trains moving which these college eds don’t seem to be able to do.
6737,
if you do hire out, forget about railfanning while on the job. Concentrate on doing your job and watching out for trains. You can get hurt. A railroader told me it was the trainfan employees who seemed to get killed, apparently because they were fascinated by the action and forgot about the danger.
Jock Ellis
Cumming, GA US of A
Georgia Association of Railroad Passengers
If you get hired, you are no longer a railfan. You are an employee. But it sounds like you wont, if you want to unload freight.
Railroads have other jobs than in train service. You might like to explore a position as a carman. The roundhouse starts people out as laborers who do clean up, fuel and sand locomotives and hostle locomotives around the roundhouse. From there you can apprentice as an electrician, machinist (no lathe work involved, think diesel mechanic), pipefiter or boilermaker (sheet metal worker). None of these positions require a college degree.
You know I have never thought about what would happen if I get distracted by watching the trains go by while I’m supposed to be working, I get distracted fairly easily and maybe working for the railroad company wouldn’t suit me after all, I really appreciate the information that you’ve given me.