Brakemen boards

[Anonymous]

Ever since brkmn on mainline through frts were taken off in 1992 it has become mostly, but not totally, rare to find a mainline frt with a brkmn. On BNSF there are still several BN stations which have a brkmn xtra brd. This is mainly for freights which will have scheduled work enroute. The SF side still maintains a brkmn brd at Newton,KS and a handful in CA. What about other carriers? Does anyone else out there have seperate condr & brkmn brds? Where are they? just curious on the issue.

[Anonymous]

I know CP in my area just calls brakemen off the conductor spareboard if they need them, generally brakemen on the locals are low seniority conductors.

I know with CP here there is no option to be just a brakemen, all new hires must train as conductors.

[Anonymous]

Oh, you got me thinking, Southern Railway of British Columbia (shortline) has a separate Brakeman board...

All new hires must be a brakeman for at least 2 years, then they can sign up for conductor training.

They have yard crews of three (brakeman, conductor, engineer) and all freights have a brakeman, conductor and engineer.

Many of the lower seniority conductors have to work as brakemen if they can't hold a conductors job.

[Anonymous]

Here in St. Paul, the CP uses conductors as brakemen. Seniority is usually not the issue. The "older" conductors often take the brakeman position so as to not have to do any paperwork. The conductor foreman gets stuck with the paper for just a couple of bucks more per day. We only see the brakeman jobs in the yard (not all yard jobs by the way) and on some wayfreights. Personally, I prefer the road trips over yard jobs anyhow so I am almost always solo with the engineer. Geoff

[csxengineer98]

csx still has brakemen boards... and on the helpers they dont have conductors..they have brakemen... and to protect those jobs..they have a brakeman extra board...
csx engineer

[Anonymous]

The only brakeman positions in Danville are those that work on the two locals. They are highly valued spots, so only guys with nearly 30 years can hold them.

[enr2099]

QUOTE: Originally posted by macguy

Oh, you got me thinking, Southern Railway of British Columbia (shortline) has a separate Brakeman board...

All new hires must be a brakeman for at least 2 years, then they can sign up for conductor training.

They have yard crews of three (brakeman, conductor, engineer) and all freights have a brakeman, conductor and engineer.

Interesting. The E&N only uses brakemen(from the conductor or engineer boards) on yard crews, when putting trains together or switching the barge, where three people are needed. Out on the road they run with a conductor and an engineer only, same with the passenger train, although switching of the passenger equipment is usually done by the hostler/mechanics in Victoria.

[cmgeorgi]

Forgive me for being, not very knowledgeable, but what is the difference between a Conductor and a Brakeman. One of the locals for NS was picking up from a plant one day, and I heard him call the 3 step for the Conductor and the Brakeman. (With a crew of 3-engineer, conductor and brakeman) I've listened may times to them and this was the first, that I can remember, time I've heard him call them both.
Cheryl

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cmgeorgi

Forgive me for being, not very knowledgeable, but what is the difference between a Conductor and a Brakeman. One of the locals for NS was picking up from a plant one day, and I heard him call the 3 step for the Conductor and the Brakeman. (With a crew of 3-engineer, conductor and brakeman) I've listened may times to them and this was the first, that I can remember, time I've heard him call them both.
Cheryl

Brakemen are usually just a conductors assistant nowadays.

Around here they are only found on local freights, and are needed because the local's serve industry, and quite often a 3rd member of the crew is needed for spotting.

[Mookie]

Can you define the jobs a little?

Mook