Women on the roads

[txcracker]

I have been listening to railroadradio.net and I hear a lot of female voices. Most are dispatchers or detectors, but some appear to be from the train cabs. Are there many women operating the trains?

[Anonymous]

In my experience working out of several different terminals, the current ratio seems to be about 1 woman to 50 men. It may be different elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

I don't have any figures but while trainspotting at the UP's Tucson yard we saw many crew changes. One pair stood out - the conductor was about 5'5" and the engineer topped 6'. SHE checked all the units in a four engine consist, settled into the right hand seat and proceeded to wind 'em up westbound. That was the only instance of a female engineer in about two hours but there was no doubt as to her professionalism.
[:D]

[BaltACD]

Women are not the rareity in the operating crafts that they were 20/30 years ago. At my location women make up 10 to 15 percent of the work force and that percentage is increasing as retirements occur as the new hire percentage is between 25/30 percent female. Amongst Train & Enginemen women make up about 10 percent and the percentage is also increasing as more retirements occur.

Defect Detector voices are artificial.