http://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2014/09/03/minnesota-boosts-number-railway-inspectors/15051627/
cajonsummit http://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2014/09/03/minnesota-boosts-number-railway-inspectors/15051627/
Euclid cajonsummit http://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2014/09/03/minnesota-boosts-number-railway-inspectors/15051627/ That seems like an interesting job. How hard can it be?
Apply and find out!
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Apparently, these inspectors are hired by the State of Minnesota to protect the general public from the oil train hazard. The State got the money to hire them from the BSNF and maybe other oil hauling railroads. It seems like these new railroad inspectors in Minnesota only need a one-year apprenticeship.
Euclid Apparently, these inspectors are hired by the State of Minnesota to protect the general public from the oil train hazard. The State got the money to hire them from the BSNF and maybe other oil hauling railroads. It seems like these new railroad inspectors in Minnesota only need a one-year apprenticeship.
Sounds like normal railroad inspectors that many other states have. Ours work for the state utility commission. They were hiring too, but the pay sucks ($40K to start).
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
I don’t know. Starting out at 40K as a state railroad inspector sounds like a plum job to me. I’ll bet it is a day job with weekends off too.
Euclid I don’t know. Starting out at 40K as a state railroad inspector sounds like a plum job to me. I’ll bet it is a day job with weekends off too.
$40K is a joke around here. Think you will get any decent candidates?
I don't know if they will be decent, but they will be grateful.
I have been through inspections with government inspectors (NASA, FAA, etc), and have had both really good inspectors and some, oh! ARRRRRGH! types. I can say that the good ones knew, not only the applicable government mandated rules and regulations, but also knew my company's additions to them and knew them all to the letter. I don't know what they were paid, but some of them were not worth getting a coffee stipend and others were well worth the aggravation I went through to prepare for the inspections.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
zugmann Euclid I don’t know. Starting out at 40K as a state railroad inspector sounds like a plum job to me. I’ll bet it is a day job with weekends off too. $40K is a joke around here. Think you will get any decent candidates?
$40K may be a joke to high rollers and corporate tycoons like you, but pretty good for many folks with little specialized training/education.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
schlimm $40K may be a joke to high rollers and corporate tycoons like you, but pretty good for many folks with little specialized training/education.
I would not want to have someone with little specialized training/education wondering around a rail yard. And telling us how to do our jobs.
But yet...
Euclid I don't know if they will be decent, but they will be grateful.
Who cares if they are grateful. I want competent. I'm not blaming the inspectors for doing their jobs. I just think $40K is a joke for what the job entails... (even if I sometimes question why it exists.)
After Lac Magantic, it has become pretty evident to the public that more inspectors are needed to tell operating and other personnel what to do to enhance safety. You make fun of the MN inspector's starting salary, but the engineer of the MMA train was making more than that (even on a fly-by-night railroad) and yet he clearly needed close monitoring. High salary for labor does not come close to guaranteeing competence and correlates more with having a decent union.
schlimm After Lac Magantic, it has become pretty evident to the public that more inspectors are needed to tell operating and other personnel what to do to enhance safety. You make fun of the MN inspector's starting salary, but the engineer of the MMA train was making more than that (even on a fly-by-night railroad) and yet he clearly needed close monitoring. High salary for labor does not come close to guaranteeing competence and correlates more with having a decent union.
I'm not making fun. Nor was I talking about MN. I have no clue what they pay their inspectors.
I'm saying inspectors in my state make lousy wages. You are reading way too much in my posts. And Lac Magnetic proves nothing. Unless you are suggesting every crew member has a state inspector follow them 24/7. And that happened in Canada, so more US inspectors would be kind of moot.
Low salary + minimal experience = incompetent 'inspector'
In my craft, new hires don't get full pay until after 5 years. $40K + 1 year 'experience' is laughable.
TxDot has a entire crew of guys doing basically the same thing for many years, the TxDot inspector is out at my yard daily.
He inspects tankcars to make sure the industries that release the cars for interchange have done their job properly, in that the placards are correct for the loading, the manway hatches are closed, locked or latched, all intake/discharge valves are properly closed and locked, any required lockout tags are in place and then he does a FRA car defect inspection.
Here in Houston, there is one inspector for the PTRA alone, and three that handle UP, two for BNSF, so that’s 6 inspectors for one city.
By no means is it an easy job, he crawls on top of all of the cars, then under them, checks every single one in every train, all outdoors in the heat or rain.
I work hard, but would not want his job.
While most of what he finds is not a major concern, he does finds some things that are a serious concern, things like improper gaskets or a discharge handle not locked in place, things that have the potential to become major problems quickly.
One of the more obscure but important things he checks are the gaskets used on these cars, I had no clue there were so many different types made from so many different materials, but he has a really good sized book on them, and dings quite a few industries for not using the proper ones.
We have a specific track in our yard to set out these bad ordered cars he finds, and a crew from whatever company that released the car has to come out and repair the defect, if the defect cannot be corrected in the field, we return the car to the industry, and we charge for the return move.
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Ed, Should there not be an inspector at every place which originates such shipments? I wonder about how long it takes to inspect each car.
Johnny
Minnesota is hiring hazmat inspectors and track inspectors. Here is an interesting article on track inspectors:
http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/253060741.html
Apparently, they plan to hire a second track inspector and two car inspectors.
I wonder just how the car inspectors are going to operate. I would think the only time a crude oil train stops in the state is to change crews and possibly refuel. Will the car inspectors just do a drive-by as that is occurring or will they have the authority to blue flag a train so that they can get a close look at valves, hatches or other items of interest?
I would guess each of these plants, Shell, Lubrizol, Phillips and Tenneco and such, would have someone who inspects the cars before releasing them, but I have never seen this person myself.
The TxDot guy also inspects inbound trains from our member lines, and finds some of the same issues there too.
I don’t know how unique this is, but in Minnesota, the state has recently imposed a new tax on railroads just to pay for these new inspectors.
The first part of the referenced article says two people are being hired this year, one of whom is to replace an inspector who is retiring, and that the feds are hiring more than the state.
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
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