To the engineers out there...

[Anonymous]

In my French class at school, we've been given an assignment to do a presentation on a career of our choice (in French, of course). Not necessarily a career that we actually want to have, but just one that interests us. Since I'm a railfan and have knowledge of the occupation already, I decided to do my presentation on being a locomotive engineer. One of the requirements of the assignment is that we do an interview with someone who has that occupation. Not a bad idea, although I think it would be just a bit difficult to find an interviewee if someone chose to do an astronaut or a CIA agent. Anyway, I was hoping that some of our members who happen to be engineers could help me out by answering some questions. And no, you don't have to answer them in French! Here they are:

1. Why did you choose to become a locomotive engineer?

2. Give a description of what you did in order to become an engineer.

3. What do you enjoy about your job?

4. What don't you like about your job?

5. If you had the opportunity to go back in time and choose a different occupation, would you still become an engineer?

6. Would you recommend becoming an engineer to people who are choosing a career?

7. Are there any misconceptions that you feel people may have about being a locomotive engineer that you would care to address?

8. Is there anything else that you haven't mentioned yet that you would care to tell?

Thank you to everyone who responds! This should be fun and we'll probably learn a thing or two about some of our members.

[edblysard]

They become engineers because you dont get to use the mirror when you on the ground switching.....


Ed[:D]

[arbfbe]

1. It wasn't by plan. I worked as a brakeman summers while in college. I came from a railroad family so I knew many of the people I would be working with. Graduation from college in 1976 during a recession. Realized I didn't like being poor and took a job as a brakeman on the coal lines out of Wyoming where business was booming. I realized I didn't like working in the rain and took a promotion to engineer.

2 Forty five months as a switchman, brakeman and switch foreman. Six months is all that is required now if they need engineers badly.

3 Nice scenery, work away from the office. Some flexibility about how you do your work. That flexibility is now being restricted through closer supervision (Monday morning quarterbacking) by officials through closer observation of train event recorders and stricter Federal regulations

4 Way too many hours at work. I probably haven't had more than a dozen weeks in the last two an a half years where I have had less than 70 hrs on duty. Some weeks as much as 90 hours on duty. Week after week, month after month. The company expects nothing less. Railroads are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards act and they do not have ot pay overtime after 40 hours so it is cheaper for them to use the employees they have as much as they can. This does not include the time spent in the motels away from home. Irregular hours are not as problematic as extremely poor line ups predicting when you might go to work. These can easily be off the mark by 12 hours either way.

5 I like the job, I don't like the way it is being managed these days. It was a lot nicer in the 1970's. I should have had more foresight in college and spent more time with computer science as a major. But back then it was all machine language and PCs were still just a dream. I would either be out of work or a Microsoft millionaire by now.

6 Recommend? No. You really have to think it over before you commit 30 to 40 years to this industry. One of the big advantages has been the pay which has been industrial grade. This is a job that cannot be outsourced and railroads feel put upon that they still have to pay wages and benefits that other industries like steel and coal have been able to escape. New methods of calculating pay have come about and pay rates are falling in the industry. I expect that to continue for some time to come. If you decide to come on board I will work with you all I can to make the experience worthwhile, someone will have to do the job. Give it a lot of thought before you make the leap. Set a deadline ( 5 years would be reasonable) to make the final decision and try to have an out plan if it is not working for you.

7 The bigest misconception is that engineers have a life and time to themselves. Even railroad management seems to think that we get plenty of time to ourselves since they always want you to find your own time to come down and take a rules exam. Musn't miss a trip at work to do this required task. Your friends will never quite understand why you cannot tell them on Thursday if you can make their picnic on Saturday.

8 You are not working for people who will communicate with you except when they think you may have done wrong. They don't understand the rules you work under and don't mind if you stretch the ones that are inconvenient to them to make a train move until something goes wrong and then, of course, you are easy to pin the blame on.

It hasn't been as bad as this may seem. It is not getting any better, though. I get to work in an air conditioned locomotive though. Otherwise, there has not been anything the railroad has done since 1969 when I started that has made my job easier. Portable radios? Well, that has cost me two crew members and added to the likelyhood that I will be disciplined for forgetting a required ID, over or out.

[Randy Stahl]

Well....being an adult film star was out of the question !
Randy

[jeaton]

Randy,
Was that after the end of your career as a child film star?

Jay

[csxengineer98]

1....it was a boy hood dream that when i had the chance to work for the railroad..i jumped at it...since i had to come up through the ranks to be an engineer... i had to start out on the ground as a conductor first
2... after i went to conductors school..and became a quified conductor...i got a letter to report to the engineers school ...the school is 5 weeks of learning about locomotives...the air systems..the cooling systems..the electrical systems..as well as train handleing rules...
after passing the 5 weeks of class...i then want into the engineer training program where i was paired up with an engineer and when he worked..i worked... he showed me how to run a train on the territory and how to do it safly..... after doing this training for i think it was 6 months..i had to take a writen test and have a quiflying trip with a road form.. and i was on my own.... a quified engineer
3....the money is a big like.... commordary is good too..once you get into the fold with alot of the guys... when you first come out of the training...it takes a while for conductors to warm up to you...being that your still "wet behind the ears"...and they are a little nervouse ..and could you blame them.... with the consept of joint responsibilty...if i screw up..and get fired...he goes down with me....and its not monotiance...you might be going on the same run day after day after day...it is never the same...the trains handel differnt each trip..most of the time you have someone differnt working with you... it might be morning..it might be night... i have seen alot of very nice sunrises and sunsets from the cab of a train... ..and i like the power trip that being in controll of millions of dollors worth of hardware and goods.... to be able to handle the worlds biggest land vehical and to do it safly every trip is a rush...
4.....the long long hours and time away from home..... as well as the lack of a socail life...becoues you cant plan anything for sure most of the time..becouse you never know if your going to be home for it or not..unless you mark off sick..or burn personal days..or vacation time...
5.....this is a hard one.... i went to college for CADD..and found out that i cant sit in an office for 8+ hours a day... and factory work would drive me mad...so transportation or some kind of contracting field is more then likey where i would end up agin if i didnt become an engineer...or if i had to do it over agin...
6...no...not unless they do some major resurch into the job...this job is not just get on trains and go..thier is alot of the behind the senes stuff that people dont think about when they see a train go by and are like..wow..that looks like an easy job... and when i say resurch..i mean talk to some engineers...in person... ask them point blank questions.... to get an idea of what the "typical" day at work is.... remember that being an engineer is not so much physical work as it is mental....you always have to be thinking 5miles head of your train..and 2 miles behind
7....yes....the biggest one is....we just dont get on and go...the behind the cenes stuff agin... thier is constaint rule updates...and rule changes.... going over your paper work befor each trip to make sure you train is built legal befor you leave the yard... go over your orders..know where your slow orders are..know where ..and if..anyone is working on the track that day..and what time they start work..... and its not always ride off into the sunset..we do ALOT of sitting around waiting for traffice to clear up or for a yard to make room for you to yard your train in...
8......nothing more to add at the moment....but im sure i will soon..

csx engineer

[feltonhill]

I noticed you were from Canada, so you may have a pretty good command of french already. The only suggestion I would offer is that the french railroad vocabulary is as peculiar as it's english counterpart. Should be an interesting endeavor.

[Anonymous]

OK, here goes...

1. Like CSX Eng it was a boyhood dream. Tried to hire out on Conrail after high school, but they weren't hiring at the time. Gave up for a time. Ended up hiring out years later, after graduating law school and practicing for seven plus years. My wife calls it a midlife crisis, I call it coming home (when I have a midlife crisis, I have her measurements all picked out...LOL)

2. Hired out as a trainman, went to trainman's class in South Philly. Worked as a brakeman and conductor for three years. Attended LETS (Locomotive Engineer Training School) at Conway, PA for seven weeks. Returned to my home district and trained as an Engineer Trainee for 9 months and was promoted to Engineer.

3. Running along the river on the long pools in the early morning when the steam rises from the water. Bald Eagles sometimes circle overhead and we see a lot of deer and an occasional bear or big cat (lynx I'm told). Pretty amazing when you consider all this is within 100 miles of a major metro area. Sharing stories with friends on the crew. Running the engine up a good grade or even down. Learning something new about railroading every day. Earning a good living for my family. Being able to afford a car I can stretch out and sleep in at the rest area on my hour and a half drive home...

4. Being watched by supervisors who's job it is to get one into trouble. Banner tests (never failed one yet). Stupid company rules concerning pay and vacations. The crew caller calling me at 2 or 3 in the morning.

5. Yes.

6. Depends upon the person.

7. A lot of the time it is terrible boring, mind numbing work, punctuated by a few seconds of screaming emergency. On the railroad you are always tired and you have very little family life. You have to fight for time with your family.

8. No.

LC

[AntonioFP45]

Limited Clear or anyone,

What are Banner Tests?

[ValleyX]

Tests designed to check that an engineer is complying with the restricted speed rule. Banners are erected across the track that generally stand four or five feet high, strung out between two poles, one side attached to each rail. On them, they say STOP OBSTRUCTION BANNER and are put up where an engineer is required to operate at restricted speed. This would be in a yard, within yard limits on a non-signalled main, or on a main or passing track governed by signals where the train has received permission to pass a stop signal or has received a restricting signal. If you fail to stop short of the banner, you're going to be on the street for awhile.

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much to all who have responded! You have been a big help with my project!

[csxengineer98]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ValleyX

Tests designed to check that an engineer is complying with the restricted speed rule. Banners are erected across the track that generally stand four or five feet high, strung out between two poles, one side attached to each rail. On them, they say STOP OBSTRUCTION BANNER and are put up where an engineer is required to operate at restricted speed. This would be in a yard, within yard limits on a non-signalled main, or on a main or passing track governed by signals where the train has received permission to pass a stop signal or has received a restricting signal. If you fail to stop short of the banner, you're going to be on the street for awhile.

you know...i always thought it was fail the banner test and your suspended...come to find out from an old RFE..that if you fail the banner test..your not fired...you get one hell of an *** chewing and a black mark on your record..but not outright fired....now how true this is..i dont know..and im not wanting to be the first one to find out for sure...
csx engineer

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Randy Stahl

Well....being an adult film star was out of the question !
Randy

FOFLMAO...

I swear, my friends in the mechanical departments of the world always have the best one liners...

LC

[csxengineer98]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

QUOTE: Originally posted by Randy Stahl

Well....being an adult film star was out of the question !
Randy

FOFLMAO...

I swear, my friends in the mechanical departments of the world always have the best one liners...

LC

its never out of the question for me..im just trying to figer out where i can get some start up capital to pay the "actresses" from the local colleges....
csx engineer

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98

and its not always ride off into the sunset..we do ALOT of sitting around waiting for traffice to clear up or for a yard to make room for you to yard your train in...

I was once talking to a crew in 1998. They were stopped because they died on the law, about 1.5 from where they went on duty. If I remember correctly, they "died" a few hours before I was talking with them. No relief crew. To make matters worse, they weren't in a siding, although they were at the end of a double track main. There was no derailment either.

[ValleyX]

It might get you chewed out on CSX (even now that Ingram's there?) but on the other big carrier of the East, it'll get you fired or at least thirty days to serve. I've never heard of any less for running through a banner.

[arbfbe]

Busting the banner is a failure of a signal test and is decertifiable under FRA rules. At least 30 days and two years probation.

[csxengineer98]

hey.. just telling what i have heard.... like i said..i dont know how true it realy is...
csx engineer

[ValleyX]

Oh, what the heck. I don't think I'll be testing the theory but you could, if you wish. Nothing like firsthand experience. ;-)

[csxengineer98]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ValleyX

Oh, what the heck. I don't think I'll be testing the theory but you could, if you wish. Nothing like firsthand experience. ;-)

well..im not going to willing try i out..but hey..even if i do screw up and it turns out i do hit the streets for a month...no real biggie...ill make more money sitting at home suspended then i will working...with the railroad unemplyeement and my job insurance payments.....
pack up the car babe..we are taking a nice vacation!!! lol
csx engineer

[ACBeaver]

1. Why did you choose to become a locomotive engineer? 

It was a family thing. I was 3rd generation Engineer and 4th generation Railroader.

2. Give a description of what you did in order to become an engineer. 

I went to Conrail Locomotive Engineering Program at Conway, PA. It was like doing 36 College Credits in less then 7 weeks.

3. What do you enjoy about your job? 

I like the views of nature that you see out on the rail.

4. What don't you like about your job? 

Working 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

5. If you had the opportunity to go back in time and choose a different occupation, would you still become an engineer? 

Yea, I would become an Architectural Engineer. I might still do that?

6. Would you recommend becoming an engineer to people who are choosing a career? 

Hell no!!! You have NO "0" family life. Don't do it.

7. Are there any misconceptions that you feel people may have about being a locomotive engineer that you would care to address? 

It is a very hard life. You have no time for children, family or your comunity. Remember, I am 4th generation Railroader, and my father was not there for me and you will not be there for your family.

 

8. Is there anything else that you haven't mentioned yet that you would care to tell? 

I would not be the person I am today if I would not have been a Locomotive Engineer. Remember, I have a degree in Locomotive Engineering, and trouble-shooting problematic systems was my specialty. I was published at the age of 19 in hybrid technologies and did advanced research before I was 20. Also, was personally featured in 23 railroading magazines for my families’ involvement in the railroad.

 

[groomer man]

Heck that sounds just like being a long haul trucker except I think you guys get more respect. Everybody thinks we are all crazed drug addicts

[seppburgh2]

Thanks everyone for sharing the view from inside the cab.  Good luck with your paper.  And, if you want to see the last of French steam, watch the movie  "The Train."  Filmed in 1964, it is set in 1944 as the Germans try to ship stolen art work back, the French Resistance puts the derail to the plans. Burt Lancaster plans a resistance fighter enginer.  A good movie to watch after you give your paper.  Hint, the derail of an 0-6-0 resulting in one heck of a shot was all dueto an afterthough camera placement.  You'll know the shot when you see.  Good luck!