Modoc Railway Acadomy

[AlcoRS11Nut]

Hey,

I'm guessing that the majority of you people subscribe to TRAINS, but anyway....I am wondering how many of you apply for the Modoc Railroad Acadomy/TRAINS Magizine scholership that is beeing offered?

[Anonymous]

No thanks...

lol...

LC

[csxengineer98]

a scholorship to go to a choo choo U school..where was it 7 years ago...i shelled out 5 grand out of my pocket just for the class..not to mention the money i spent on a room and food for 5 weeks...
csx engineer

[AlcoRS11Nut]

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98

a scholorship to go to a choo choo U school..where was it 7 years ago...i shelled out 5 grand out of my pocket just for the class..not to mention the money i spent on a room and food for 5 weeks...
csx engineer

was the school able to really prepare you for CSX/ how hard was it?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98

a scholorship to go to a choo choo U school..where was it 7 years ago...i shelled out 5 grand out of my pocket just for the class..not to mention the money i spent on a room and food for 5 weeks...
csx engineer

5K to go to Chooch U? That's nuts. When I went to the CNW in '69 they gave you a week in class and a lantern. Then ya marked up and got harassed by guys that hired out in 1938. When I went into their locomotive engineers' school (Ingleton Tech because it was at the old Ingleton Depot on the CGW) they payed us, and the rooms and meals were free. On the Milwaukee they just showed us a film and gave us a lantern. Took us over to the caller's office and showed us where our tag would go on the board. Good thing I still had my CNW uniform. On the South Shore Line they payed us to collect tickets for the conductor for a few weeks and gave us an old uniform (good thing I still had a Milwaukee uniform.) When it came time to be promoted to engineer the South Shore gave us a day on airbrakes, a day with the road foreman and 2 cars on the east end, and then we broke in for 6 weeks on regular assignments. Then we got a bag (grip) filled with a hammer, screwdriver, a pliers, a roll of electrical tape, an airbrake rules book, a reverser and an airbrake handle. Then we just marked up. I wouldn't cough up 5K for no railroad.
Mitch

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by artmark

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98

a scholorship to go to a choo choo U school..where was it 7 years ago...i shelled out 5 grand out of my pocket just for the class..not to mention the money i spent on a room and food for 5 weeks...
csx engineer

5K to go to Chooch U? That's nuts. When I went to the CNW in '69 they gave you a week in class and a lantern. Then ya marked up and got harassed by guys that hired out in 1938. When I went into their locomotive engineers' school (Ingleton Tech because it was at the old Ingleton Depot on the CGW) they payed us, and the rooms and meals were free. On the Milwaukee they just showed us a film and gave us a lantern. Took us over to the caller's office and showed us where our tag would go on the board. Good thing I still had my CNW uniform. On the South Shore Line they payed us to collect tickets for the conductor for a few weeks and gave us an old uniform (good thing I still had a Milwaukee uniform.) When it came time to be promoted to engineer the South Shore gave us a day on airbrakes, a day with the road foreman and 2 cars on the east end, and then we broke in for 6 weeks on regular assignments. Then we got a bag (grip) filled with a hammer, screwdriver, a pliers, a roll of electrical tape, an airbrake rules book, a reverser and an airbrake handle. Then we just marked up. I wouldn't cough up 5K for no railroad.
Mitch

Unfortunately, things have changed quite a bit since '69 on the RR. I do agree that the RR should pay to train its own employees.

LC

[Anonymous]

QUOTE:
Unfortunately, things have changed quite a bit since '69 on the RR. I do agree that the RR should pay to train its own employees.

I'm not so sure I agree with that statement.
I can't speak for where you live, but where I am there aren't too many jobs where a high school degree is enough to get hired. (good paying jobs - careers - anyway.)

There is an increasing trend nowadays towards post secondary education. Just look at trade schools.

Nowadays (in my parts) if you want to be a fireman they expect that you have already gone to school to train to be a fireman - they won't even look at you unless you already have the basic training - and who pays for that training? -- The student.

If you want to be a police officer you have to pay for your own schooling - then they will hire you out of the class once you graduate - or you would have had a conditional offer of employment, pending graduation.

If you want to be a plumber or carpenter, it's assumed that you are going to go and pay to go to some sort of trade school before you become an apprentice.

Hell, if you want to be a taxi driver you have to go and take a "Taxi Host" program that you pay for, and get a special drivers license, which you have to pay for.

Not to mention any careers such as doctors or lawyers that require many years of post seconday education.

Doctors and lawyers aside, there aren't too many careers out there anymore where some sort of formal schooling is no longer required, why should the railway be any different?

[Anonymous]

I'm not saying that in the former, we really were well educated to perform our jobs, and in the latter to go out and spend 5K to go to Chooch U you better have a job waiting, and have passed the physical. I know things have changed a l;ot since I first went railroading in '69, and they've changed since I left in '99. I had to pay for my own education as an artist, and I still had to serve an apprenticeship at a commercial art studio so I understand the need to be pre-educated. I believe that years ago one could take a correspondence course at least in the realm of being a locomotive fireman. Just like our old trainmaster used to say, "We're not looking for anyone special, we just want warm bodies." I would just hate to see a guy go out and spend that kind of money just to not get hired. "Iron Mike" Pitauski, of the Milwaukee Road, used to say that when he was hired they didn't ask you how old you were, they just asked if you shaved.
Mitch

[Anonymous]

QUOTE:
I would just hate to see a guy go out and spend that kind of money just to not get hired.

Gotta agree with you on that point.

It would be nice if everyone could get conditional offers of employment before they spent the cash on school, but I suppose it can't always work that way.

....of course regardless of wether or not you qualify for a railroad job, nobody can take away your right to an education, so technically I suppose anyone can show up to school.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by macguy

QUOTE:
I would just hate to see a guy go out and spend that kind of money just to not get hired.

Gotta agree with you on that point.

It would be nice if everyone could get conditional offers of employment before they spent the cash on school, but I suppose it can't always work that way.

....of course regardless of wether or not you qualify for a railroad job, nobody can take away your right to an education, so technically I suppose anyone can show up to school.

If I could get that kinda dough from interested parties, I'd invent Chooch Camp. Five weeks in the summer and you could bant around in an old Passenger Geep, and 7 wooden side boxcars. Wait a minute. Ain't that like a museum?
Merry Christmas! (my ham is burning, gotta go)
Mitch

[Anonymous]

I started in the rr industry about six yrs ago and did not fork out the bucks for rr school. Most of the new hires I have worked with also have hired off the street, began their senority on the first day on the property, received almost three months of paid OJT which consisted classroom/rule book sessions, student trips with yard and road crews.I really have to question if these rr schools are worth what they claim to be but what do I know.

[csxengineer98]

QUOTE: Originally posted by sammythebull

I started in the rr industry about six yrs ago and did not fork out the bucks for rr school. Most of the new hires I have worked with also have hired off the street, began their senority on the first day on the property, received almost three months of paid OJT which consisted classroom/rule book sessions, student trips with yard and road crews.I really have to question if these rr schools are worth what they claim to be but what do I know.

it all depends on what road you hire out on..and how bad they need bodies an an area....on csx....they hire through the choo choo U conductor mill schools.. unless they are realy realy hard up someplace..and they just hire off the street for that area.... which is bull crap..and thier have been law suits filed aginst this hiring practace...just i just havent heard anything more about them for a few years...
now on NS..i know they hire you first...and then start your training ....your schooling is payed for and your also considered an emplyee the first day you step foot in the classroom....
so basicly it all comes down to what that railroad wants to do.... csx has it in their mind that makeing people pay for thier schooling..they are more likey to stick around longer after they hire out... since the person payed for it themselves...unlike when someone like NS pays for it for you...they spend all the time and money to teach house feed...and train you..only to have you quite the first week on your own...BIG waste of money in the long run...
csx engineer

[csxengineer98]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AlcoRS11Nut

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98

a scholorship to go to a choo choo U school..where was it 7 years ago...i shelled out 5 grand out of my pocket just for the class..not to mention the money i spent on a room and food for 5 weeks...
csx engineer

was the school able to really prepare you for CSX/ how hard was it?

first off..i should tell you that i went to the school in philly PA about 7 years go... so i cant tell you for sure extacly what the program at this school is all about...
but if its anything like th eone i went too...its 5 weeks of book of rules class...
they crack the rule book open to litterly page 1 and you start to memorize it....
it is a good class to get you use to the rules that the railroad uses..but as far as hands on...its not good for that...you wont get that untill you get hired and go to a field trainning location...there you get to put to work the rules you spent 5 weeks learning.... as well as the hands on of railroading...like how to use handsignals..how to poropry ues the radio...how to proplrly thorough switchs..couple and uncouple cars... change knuckles... make air hoses... and ride cars...
then after all of that...you get sent to your working loccation for the rest of your OJT....
csx engineer

[Anonymous]

I have always wondered what the % rate is for students who go to rr school and wind up in rr work. Out of 7 condrs in my BNSF hiring class, only 2 came from school. If you have a good work history, no crime history, know people who are employed in the industry (family or freinds) then chances are very, very good you will land a job without having to go to the schooling route. Contacts of mine advised me of what hiring was taking place, what I should then do, used them as a reference and in amatter of weeks, I was hired. This is the most simply and least expensive way to go about. The main thing is to know someone who works in the industry.

[csxengineer98]

QUOTE: Originally posted by sammythebull

I have always wondered what the % rate is for students who go to rr school and wind up in rr work. Out of 7 condrs in my BNSF hiring class, only 2 came from school. If you have a good work history, no crime history, know people who are employed in the industry (family or freinds) then chances are very, very good you will land a job without having to go to the schooling route. Contacts of mine advised me of what hiring was taking place, what I should then do, used them as a reference and in amatter of weeks, I was hired. This is the most simply and least expensive way to go about. The main thing is to know someone who works in the industry.

knowing someone donst have the pull like it did befor...back in the day when the railroad was almost like a family biz it did..but now a days... with the training schools and what not... alot of the school hiring has to do with the railroads that sponser the schooling...you might have only had 2 come out from school where your at...but where im at..anyone that has been hired out in the past 10 years has come out of a school...that is sponcred by csx.... they didnt do any hiring off the streets or any inside track stuff with anyone around here...if you didnt go to school..you dont work here....so...the % of people that went through the schooling where im at is 100%.....the only places that i know of on csx that have hired off the streets at all are the few places where they cant keep a work force...due to lazy emplyees..or just becouse once they get out their they find out the job sucks....and the need someone to take thier place ASAP.....
csx engineer

[Anonymous]

Certainly where I'm from, I've seen a major increase in the number of students being hired from schools, and a major drop of family members being hired, just because they are family.

Not to stereotype, but you usually can tell which conductors/engineers are hired because their dad or uncle worked for the railway, because right off the bat they seem to have this attitude that the railway is there for them so they can have a job and a pention. Unlike a lot of the guys that are hired fresh out of school, that are generally happy that they are going to have a job that will pay the bills and give them a good pention when they are ready for retirement.

It isn't always like that, but more often then not, if you ask the guy in the corner who's complaining about working nights who he knows in the railway, he almost always answers my uncle or dad.

..just something I've noticed over the past few years.

[Anonymous]

I agree with csx_engineer in that the RR schools give you a good background in the rule books and signals, but you get barely any hands on. On the other the amount of hands on given by CSX when I hired on more than compensated for the lack thereof in school. I just kinda wished the school was condensed a little more and throw some of those rules study sessions and test into the OJT part.
In my experience I went to AMDG about a year ago. I spent five weeks in Cincinnati, and of that five weeks I spent two days outside climbing cars, changing knuckles, and all that fun stuff. The rest of it was rules, rules, and basics of railroading. So, then we go to Jacksonville, Cleveland, or Atlanta (now exclusively Atlanta) for 1 week of OJT. We start getting paid in OJT. I went to Jacksonville in February, which was nice, but stayed in the worst, and I mean WORST lodging I have ever seen. I feel bad for CSX guys who stay in Jacksonville. Hookers, Pimps, Gambling, Drugs, Street Roughs, dead bodies from various occurences. So, to say the least, I was very happy to go to OJT second shift. We spent time getting paperwork processed and establishing seniority, which on the B&O Western District I got the shaft because I was the youngest guy there!!! Down in Florida they have a different Union Roster, so they drew straws for seniority, but anywho. Then we did all the same stuff we did at RR school; hanging from a car ladder, switches, knuckles, etc. The second day was learning how to start the SW1500 switch engine and how to properly ride and emergency dismount (which I was scared to death to do). The following day we hooked up air hoses and turned angle cocks and moved cars around and practiced giving hand signals. In the meantime we got a lot of great advice and personal accounts from two old-head conductors and one engineer. And of course safety was preached like none other, but I didn't mind because I came out remembering that no matter how slow I am or that I don't have a clue about switching cars I'd at least do the little I knew how to do safely. After OJT I drove back home and started 12-15 weeks of training at Danville. The first day was classroom where introductions and a tour of the yard and area were given. Then the five of us were assigned to different yard jobs where we did a varying level depending on who was training us. As many of you know, it really depends on who you're with when it comes to learning. Some guys treat you like you're in their way while others actually realize it's important to teach you as much as the can because you'll be working with them in the future. Along with school, this time you must utilize wisely and learn as much as possible because the RR can cut you loose if it looks like you're wasting their time. Just put your best effort in and remember you're learning for yourself. More on this later, gotta give the PC back to the wife....[swg]