Hi,I'm considering volunteering to work on a local railroad and I was curious about what that involves.Naturally I'm hoping to work with the trains themselves (as opposed to selling tickets or something like that), but I don't think I have any skills in that area.Are there generally some sort of unskilled tasks (i.e. cleaning the cars or unskilled mechanical work), or should I try to learn something before volunterring ?I'd also appreciate any information on how volunteering has worked out for anybody with that experience.Thanks.dl
Some short line tourist train operations are ran solely by volunteers. The only answer to your question is, go ask the railroad you're interested in working for and see if they need volunteer help.
If you're talking about a main line railroad, forget it -- paid, trained employees only allowed on the premises.
Its how I started out. Start out cleaning the locomotive cabs, washing stuff, etc and oay attention, and you will pick up stuff, and soon enough you will pass your GCOR test.
Mechanical Department "No no that's fine shove that 20 pound set all around the yard... those shoes aren't hell and a half to change..."
The Missabe Road: Safety First
cacole wrote:The only answer to your question is, go ask the railroad you're interested in working for and see if they need volunteer help.
The only answer to your question is, go ask the railroad you're interested in working for and see if they need volunteer help.
Thanks, I'm definitely going to do that.
coborn35 wrote:Its how I started out. Start out cleaning the locomotive cabs, washing stuff, etc and oay attention, and you will pick up stuff, and soon enough you will pass your GCOR test.
That's encouraging! Is GCOR something you can get while volunteering?
I'm not looking to make a job out of it (I would like to, but its not practical at this point). Is GCOR something I should still look into taking?
Actually my eager friend the GCOR is just the General Code of Operating Rules. Check with the railroad you would like to volunteer for. Have no fear just drop in and ask whoevers in charge.
For a good base pick up a GCOR on ebay ( pick a road) or at a railroad paper sale.It will give you some idea how the rule book looks.
Dont get discouraged some places will toss you right out to the wolves so to speak.( WHAT???? I am supposed to run this thing lol) and others have more involved safety rules to follow and learn.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Yes we are on time but this is yesterdays train
Route_rock,
Thanks for the explanation. That was sort of what I thought it would be, but I wan't sure because it seems like the automatic gates would handle that kind of thing. Anyway, its a start, and I'm looking forward to it
dlund wrote: Route_rock,Thanks for the explanation. That was sort of what I thought it would be, but I wan't sure because it seems like the automatic gates would handle that kind of thing. Anyway, its a start, and I'm looking forward to it
Have fun, If you stick to it you will get a better job latter on.
dlund wrote:I have tentative plans to "flag railroad crossings" (I'm not sure what that means). I'm waiting for more information, but my understanding is that it doesn't take any training. Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to it, whatever it is.
a story from some co-workers some time back that one of our trains had to stop and flag a crossing.. well some (explitive deleted) ignored the conductor flagging it and almost hit the conductor... he got (explitive deleted) and chucked the flag at the vehical..and broke the side window out... needless to say the train was stoped for alittle longer on the crossing becouse the vehical stoped and the dirver and conductor had a little face to face till the cops showed up..the driver was sighted with a ticket for failing to stop and from what i understand..the conductor got off for haveing to pay for the window..
so just be carefull out there...
csx engineer