Can anyone give me a tip on getting a railroad career started ?I live in Oregon for now. What would be the best avenue to take to get hired. My skills would be in the mechanical areas. I 've seen jobs listed called mechanical laborer, involving fueling, light maintainence and repairs etc... Has anyone out there done this job? I am most interested in mechanical or yard engineer careers and not long distance driving. thanks in advance for any tips.
Railboss, Be sure to make your distinction between careers in mechanical vs. operating crafts. As far as "yard engineer" only, most railroads make no distinction between yard and road engineers. If you get trained and are qualified as one then you are trained and qualified as the other. Now is not a really good time to be looking, either, as the major railroads are in the process of implementing remote control operations and eliminating jobs in favor of giving the RC operations to conductors. Thanks, UTU. I'm glad I voted against the merger now. (not trying to start a flame war) Amtrak has also announced tenative cuts for October that will glut the country with engineers, they plan to eliminate all lon-distance trains unless congress gives them 1.2 bil in subsidies to operate. They say 700 union jobs will be lost, I'd say that is a LOT of T&E people. Good luck in your endeavors. George CN WC Division Engineer
The railroads are in the process of eliminating jobs by either outsourcing work or reducing crew sizes. Also, usually a new engr doesn't have the seniority to hold a yard job thus is forced to work the road where he is away from home a lot more.
Thanks so much for the tips so far everyone!! It would appear that the mechanical end of things would be more stable as of right now, since things still need to be fixed, I'll just have to have TrainSim satisfy my desire to drive for now, but I am still hoping someone out there knows about the mechanical laborer job title. This is a job that UPRR has, and it seems like a way to get into the industry and learn engine maintenance, so hopefully some one out there knows what I am talking about. Maybe the whole industry is too shaky right now,even in the maintenance end ??? Thanks in advance for the tips. steve
Keep your options open Railboss. Believe me, Trainsim has absolutely nothing on the genuine article. You should investigate very closely before you take the plunge into a railroad career though, there's lots of stuff they don't tell you at the hiring sessions. Anything in the operating crafts will involve starting out as a trainman, then progressing into engine service later on. How much later depends on how badly the RR needs engineers. Also as mentioned above, until you roll up some seniority (lots of seniority), you'll work extra lists wherever you can both as a conductor and then again as an engineer. That means you're available 24/7 and you work the road as well as all the locals. There are no 'yard men' as such anymore, you work in the yard only if you're old enough in seniority to hold it. Mechanical dept. jobs are also seniority driven which means you work the night and weekend tricks until you can hang onto a daylight job. No matter which way you go, the junior man is always at the highest risk for being furloughed so to keep eating, you might have to go out of town to work. The upside is that you can make a really good income if you're willing to put up with the insanity. It's a tough life for new hires with low seniority, especially if you've got a family. You miss a lot of things that most people take for granted. The trick is to hang in there until you move up and start to get some better jobs but you have to realize that it may take a lot of years to get off the bottom side of the pile. Believe me, I've only got 26 years to go till I can retire so the low spot on the totem pole is going to be real familiar to me for quite some time yet. Good luck and keep us posted how it's going.
Keep your options open Railboss. Believe me, Trainsim has absolutely nothing on the genuine article. You should investigate very closely before you take the plunge into a railroad career though, there's lots of stuff they don't tell you at the hiring sessions. Anything in the operating crafts will involve starting out as a trainman, then progressing into engine service later on. How much later depends on how badly the RR needs engineers. Also as mentioned above, until you roll up some seniority (lots of seniority), you'll work extra lists wherever you can both as a conductor and then again as an engineer. That means you're available 24/7 and you work the road as well as all the locals. There are no 'yard men' as such anymore, you work in the yard only if you're old enough in seniority to hold it. Mechanical dept. jobs are also seniority driven which means you work the night and weekend tricks until you can hang onto a daylight job. No matter which way you go, the junior man is always at the highest risk for being furloughed so to keep eating, you might have to go out of town to work. The upside is that you can make a really good income if you're willing to put up with the insanity. It's a tough life for new hires with low seniority, especially if you've got a family. You miss a lot of things that most people take for granted. The trick is to hang in there until you move up and start to get some better jobs but you have to realize that it may take a lot of years to get off the bottom side of the pile. Believe me, I've only got 26 years to go till I can retire so the low spot on the totem pole is going to be real familiar to me for quite some time yet. Good luck and keep us posted how it's going.
Thanks for your tips Rule 281. I am fortunate, that I have found TrainBoard so I can get these things thought through. I am no spring chicken ,34, and I need to make wise choices in my career path. I definitely feel that driving is out of the question. I won't sacrifice my home time away, family is more important, especially when we have children. So, my direction must be in the repair area. I am not too sure if this job entails nights and weekends though. Maybe someone out there has been a Mechanical Laborer and tell me what shifts they had to work. Also , what could one expect to receive as a wage doing this job. I suppose its pretty consistent from company to company since it is Union ? thanks in advance. steve
Perhaps you should do what I did and go to work for a shortline. I work for a little railroad called the Reading and Northern. I had some experiance when they hired me, but I have seen them hire a lot of people with no experiance. I am a Conductor and work the extra board, but am home every night. I also sometimes work in the shop to get my hours. I generally know what my work schedule is going to be a day or two ahead of time, but I too work 24/7 in all kinds of weather.
FWIW The BNSF is furloughing trainmen. This is typically a slow time of year since few employees are taking vacation time and most are available to work. This year has been very slow so far and is the slowest I have seen in the last 4 years(at that time I went to another city chasing down a job). The last class of trainees never even marked up on the boards. They finished their qualification trips and then were cut loose. None the less, the company is planning on new classes of trainmen and engineers. Scuttlebutt still has it that things will get better since the carriers expect a lot of people to jump on the new 60/30 bandwagon and retire! While there has been some exodus in the Chicago area of the BNSF, it is not looking like the "flood tide" expected. Good luck in your search, but watch out for that damned "little black box" that the railroads seem to be falling in love with. Mebbe if our operating unions stopped their silly little feud with each other and got together on this front, something positive could be done! Ah yes..... hope springs eternal etc....!
Well, it would appear that the industry is going through many changes. Like the guy on another forum said, "I sure miss steam" I really can't imagine that the R.C. thing will fly. If the BLE doesn't get help and stop it, I can't imagine the public will allow it. Of course, they won't really know about it or care until someone gets run over or hit, and the train just keeps on going like nothing happened. I guess for now I will just apply for the mechanical laborer job, I really need some income and the starting pay is good. The Lord will direct my path ! So I have no worries ! thanks for all the tips. !! steve
