Cab Ride Chances

B

Bluewater

Member
Hi all!


So I overheard my parents discussing my 18th birthday present (4 years from now) and it was about a possible cab ride with either NS or Amtrak. What are the chances of that happening and what do I need to in order to possibly secure one?


Thanks!

--Bluewater, The Conrail Guru :cool:
 
Well it depends on the RR, like the one I ride on you only have to know someone and sign a weaver, but Amtrak/NS don't usually allow cab rides due to safety reasons
 
If I wanted to get a definitive answer from both RR's, what # should I call? Customer service?

--Bluewater, The Conrail Guru :cool:
 
Personal connections, if a major RR found out, they would laugh, deny you, and fire the engineer ... it would have to be on the "QT", with no one in Corporate knowing !
 
You want to know why it is nearly impossible to get a 'cab ride' with a Class 1 RR nowadays? Read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chatsworth_train_collision

Incidents like this, and the RR personnel involved, are the reason why.

Railroads are a business, first and foremost. A business that involves large, heavy machinery, with a high degree of potential for injury. While we all may love the idea of 'riding in the cab', the railroads do not see themselves in the business of entertaining us, even for one second. Most RR suits bristle at the very thought....
 
Not happening, not with official permission atleast. Go find a museum that will let you run for a hundred dollars or so.
 
Well, I got a cab ride in a Queensland Rail EMU class EMU. By pure chance. It wasn't even pre-arranged.

It was on the Rosewood - Ipswich line, out in the country. The driver and guard were getting into the cab of the 3-carriage train through the rear cab door, not the one on the platform. I asked if I could have a ide in the cab and they let me.

I was able to ride the full line from Rosewood to Ipswich in the cab.

You just need to be in the right place at the right time. It'd be a lot harder to get a ride in a train with a seperate locomotive.

I'm also good friends with the station master at Rosewood. He radios the freight trains as they pass and tells them to blow their horn just outside the station, so I can get a recording. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to put any of the recordings in Trainz, but I'll keep trying next time I'm there. :)

The chances of getting a cab ride on a nation-wide railway company like NS or Amtrak are, however, slim.

Kieran.
 
cascaderailroad said:
It was rumored that several of his text messages, while operating the train, were to a juvenile person, a foamer, a (RR affectionado).
Click to expand...
Not a rumor. It's in the official NSTB transcript. And records they pulled from his cell provider showed that it was not an isolated incident.

I am sure things like this still happen (or at least anecdotal evidence suggests so), but I certainly wouldn't count on it being something that one could just do on a whim. At least not here in the US, in this day and age.
 
Here's a recommendation. Go to your local tourist railroad or Class Three and get a cab ride from them. Class Threes are more lenient than Class Ones but it is not guaranteed that you can get a cab ride.
 
Hi Everybody.
Here in the UK any employee of a transport company whether that be road or rail would be subject to dismissal from his employment on the grounds of gross misconduct for allowing any unauthorised person access to the cab of a vehicle. The reason for the foregoing would be that there is no insurance for persons other than authorised employees to travel in company vehicles either road or rail.

Therefore, management have little alternative when discovering the above offence than to dismiss the employee as any lesser act could well be seen as condoning the employees action and therefore leave the company liable to legal action by the unauthorised passenger or their dependents in the event of an accident either in any current discovery (as with the opening posters for example) or employment discrepancies carried out in the future. I would feel that the same insurance and employment limitations would in all probability apply in the United States and Canada as they do throughout most of Europe. With the foegoing in mind, it certainly would be better not to ask any railway employee for experience trips in any power car as refusal may offend or the employee may decide to take a chance by allowing you to travel and therefore put his job at risk.

As it would be the opening posters eighteenth birthday, perhaps a trip to Europe would be a good suggestion. There he could travel on national, regional and district rail services as well as the London Underground and satisfy is rail curiosity until his heart’s content without putting anyone’s job at risk. Although I travel extensively on the British rail network as part of my work there is still no better sight or sound in my book than travelling through the outer districts of London on an HST service at around 120 mph while watching the line side buildings and road vehicles flash past.

Another great experience of diesel high-speed trains which never leaves you no matter how many times you travel on them is always on leaving the big terminal stations there is only the gentle thud of the power cars as they move slowly away. Then as the driver opens the throttles to gain speed after passing the initial points comes the upward scream of the turbochargers pitched against the lowdown roar of the diesel engines which for me always raises the hairs on the back of your neck.

Now, the foregoing would be a real eighteenth birthday for a genuine rail enthusiasts who has perhaps never travelled on a large passenger network.

Bill.
 
I smile at wholbr's comment not because he is wrong as he is quite correct but I will explain further.

Many years ago as a young man, I was late working in a station here in GB as I couldn't get a dashed entry ticket book to balance (long before computers). I was still in the booking office some 15 minutes after the last train (electric suburban) and had seen the 2 platform porters off home Having missed the last bus near to my home I was going to have a long night walk. Just before I left the phone rang from the signalbox and the signalman was surprised the booking office lights were on as he could see them further along. We had a chat and he said that an empty depot bound electric train was due in a few minutes and he would put a red signal for it to stop at my station and I could see the driver for a lift to my home station 2 along the route. This I duly did and the blacked out train duly stopped and the driver on knowing who I was a staff member had me in the cab and I enjoyed a fast and enjoyable ride home. My only downside was that I had to climb the fence to get out at my station in the dark! For me it was a long ambition since a wee boy to do that.
 
Certainly back in the day (ie. the 1970s) we often got cab rides ('cabbing it'). My local station was a terminus so after the express train from London arrived, it had to back out of the station and run round the coaching stock out on the sidings. We usually asked to 'cab it' and often got our wish, a whole crowd of boys riding out with the driver to the sidings and back again. Usually a class 47, sometimes a class 46 and on one memorable occasion a class 55 'Deltic'. The looks on the faces of the boys when we were invited into the cab for the ride out to the sidings remains engraved on my memory!

Obviously, you couldn't justify that today with our modern health and safety culture, but the past, as they say, is a different country.

Paul
 
The chance of a cab right on any normal service in both Ireland and the UK these days is somewhere between nil and no chance! A driver caught doing so would be fairly likely to lose their job or face a sever disciplinary at least. I'd guess it wouldn't be too different in the US? The alternative, as has been mentioned already, is to find a heritage line, many of which offer a cab ride experience, often with the addition of being able to prep or drive a loco which will add no end to your experience. That's how I started working at a preserved railway and as a result, I'll be taking one of these out for a spin tomorrow morning which is a great buzz!
3723714851_f635d868e0_o.jpg
 
It might be possible, perhaps for a fee, to get a "ride-along" with a US Class I, but the aforementioned "hop aboard while we do a run around" is absolutely forbidden.

IF and that's a big IF the regulations would allow it, you'd have to have special credentials and sign all sorts of wavers I'm sure.

There was a big wreck north of LA a few years ago which involved a texting engineer, and the person they were texting was a railfan. They were setting up a meet down the line where the engineer was going to let this railfan aboard and in the cab. Allegedly he had do this before, and even allowed the railfan to operate the train with a full load of passengers aboard. O_O

It was a MetroLink, so he was the first thing to hit the southbound UP freight he plowed into.
 
frogpipe said:
It might be possible, perhaps for a fee, to get a "ride-along" with a US Class I, but the aforementioned "hop aboard while we do a run around" is absolutely forbidden.

IF and that's a big IF the regulations would allow it, you'd have to have special credentials and sign all sorts of wavers I'm sure.

There was a big wreck north of LA a few years ago which involved a texting engineer.....
Click to expand...
You may have skipped over post #6 in this thread... :-)

Regards,
MSP
 
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