is driving trains a good job?

...to tell you the truth...

:cool: Hello bl4882,

Keep your nose clean whilst in high-school & select a branch of the United States Military of your own choice...there are several...

Don't fear this...it's not all blood & guts, however many have gone to battle for the United States of America & survived!

Service in the military opens doors quickly even if you want a college degree.

The major railroads will hire a young Veteran for train service as quickly as they will hire a college graduate for supervisory positions...visit the websites!

BNSF is actively seeking applicants with military experience.

The command sergeant major of the National Guard and his platoon of veteran co-workers encourage you to jump onboard the “railroad renaissance” with CSX Transportation. View the Military to CSX video

Norfolk Southern Named One of Top 50 Military-Friendly Employers

Some of Union Pacific's first employees were Civil War veterans

You can find out a lot of options & information about life working for the railroads & their lifestyle on these sites & more...

I never served, my draft would have come after my graduation from high-school but the Vietnam conflict ended...

Now I look back & though I have done a lot of living, I see where military service would have added opportunities, discipline & structure to my life.

Good Luck & GodSpeed your choices!
 
If your involved with scouting keep at it and aim for Eagle, their are many doors that are opened by that. Plus if you do join the military its good for an instant advancement in pay grade :).
 
mehhh

backyard said:
:cool: Hello bl4882,

Keep your nose clean whilst in high-school & select a branch of the United States Military of your own choice...there are several...

Don't fear this...it's not all blood & guts, however many have gone to battle for the United States of America & survived!

Service in the military opens doors quickly even if you want a college degree.

The major railroads will hire a young Veteran for train service as quickly as they will hire a college graduate for supervisory positions...visit the websites!

BNSF is actively seeking applicants with military experience.

The command sergeant major of the National Guard and his platoon of veteran co-workers encourage you to jump onboard the “railroad renaissance” with CSX Transportation. View the Military to CSX video

Norfolk Southern Named One of Top 50 Military-Friendly Employers

Some of Union Pacific's first employees were Civil War veterans

You can find out a lot of options & information about life working for the railroads & their lifestyle on these sites & more...

I never served, my draft would have come after my graduation from high-school but the Vietnam conflict ended...

Now I look back & though I have done a lot of living, I see where military service would have added opportunities, discipline & structure to my life.

Good Luck & GodSpeed your choices!
Click to expand...

eww war...peace man!

God it's so different here in Canada! Once your 18, you're off to CP if ya want to! But there is a need for highschool completion.
 
I hope to work for KCS when I get out of High School. I'm friends with one of the top people at the KCS Deramus Yard here.
 
coalguage said:
I hope to work for KCS when I get out of High School. I'm friends with one of the top people at the KCS Deramus Yard here.
Click to expand...

Lucky guy.:wave: You'll be wailing on that K5LA in no time.:cool:

lol I just talk to the random crewman at Mactier...and I even got a 2 GEVO cab tours out of a few!:cool:
 
KCS is different from other railroads. They want people that know alot about locos and how they function. He was even interested about Trainz when I had told him about it.
 
I want to work for the UP, but first I gotta graduate High School and then I hope to go into a community college.

Matt
 
Yes, I'm an Eagle Scout. And with my major in college(computer technology) I can easily end up working in a RR's corporate office. Which might not be so bad actually, but that's for another topic.
 
It can be a good job, but it depends on what railroad you are working for, and what you are doing. Long haul, long distance railroads pay better, but you will be away from home alot. Shortlines, on the other hand, tend to pay less, and require you to do things such as track work, and maintainance, but you will be home almost every night. Emphasis on almost.
 
Putting the Englishman's voice in

Is driving trains a good job?? I should think it would be but being of the age of 14, I have not had the chance to sample it yet.:( :hehe:
I just hope the London Underground does not change too much in the next 2 years of school. Anyway, I'll hand the thread back to the loyal countrymen and woman of the USA and Canada.:hehe: :)
 
Is driving trains a good job? I don't know. Is driving trains an interesting job? Definitely. Having been at the helm of a few, I know that driving them, much less getting paid to do so, is probably the neatest thing you could ever do.

Luckily it's much easier for you guys on the other side of the pond to get a job as an engineer than it is here. I'm trying to get an apprenticeship with Railion as an engineer and, well, let's just say that Germans don't often think outside the box. Nonetheless, as backyard pointed out, having some service in the United States military (go Army, please:p) under your belt will go to your advantage when you're looking for employment as an engineer, in fact, if you take 88U as your MOS, you'll be working with trains anyways.

WileeCoyote:D
 
j99450 said:
Yes, I'm an Eagle Scout. And with my major in college(computer technology) I can easily end up working in a RR's corporate office. Which might not be so bad actually, but that's for another topic.
Click to expand...

Awesome. I'm a Life Scout myself. All I have left are 3 more Eagle required merit badges and my Eagle project.

Matt
 
I run trains at Lakeside Amusement Park. We run both Steam and Diesel around a 1.25 mile line that goes around Lake Rhode in Lakewood, Colorado, just northwest of Downtown Denver.

In this setting, it can sure be an intersting job. and while I have not yet fired our two steam locomotives (2 Cagney Class E's build around 1910 or so) I have heard it makes a hard job harder. The hard part comes from having to watch the passengers the whole time, and prevent them from doing anything stupid. Jumping off, hanging out, running beside the train, smoking, that sort of stuff.

As far as driving a train goes, I like that part. Its fun, for me the challenges change every day, and with the prospect of running a 100 year old steam locomotive, its enough to make me come back next season for sure.

I also am right now doing track maintenance during the winter, so I now have done almost everything to do with our train
 
Hmm.. The amount of Amature posts in here didnt surprise me. Dont expect to jump onto a class 1 right out of highschool. They want people with skills, or with some sort of rank. Like released Military personelle, or people who actually know what their doing. Heres a few things to consider:
1. Find a local museum that operates 1:1 scale equipment and volunteer as much as you can. Become familiar with every piece of rolling equipment and its function, as well as the elder members. They often have much advice for younger folk.
2. NEVER NEVER and i will repeat it a third time, NEVER write in an application for ANY railroad that you've had experience operating virtual trains. Most of the time, the person interviewing you doesnt give a crap and that will be a sure fire sign in their mind that you aren't the person they're looking for. Thats where museums come in.
3. Consider all positions, not just one. You have much more of a chance of picking up another position than just a engineer. Just because you want to be an engineer doesn't always mean your gonna get there from the start. Hell, i joke with the Fingerlakes crews alot on the Excursions I work that i want to work for them, even if i start as a track maitnence worker.

Consider these as you get older. I am a freshman too, and i am heavily active with 2 museums, one uses 1:1 equipment, and another barrows it from an actual shortline.

Oh, about you two guys in Boyscouts..
Troop 43, Rushville NY.;)
Life Rank, 4 merit badges and project away from becoming eagle.
Sean
 
Gonna quote something from train-sim.com here... should be an eye-opener...
(more coming, post is too long for auran...)
Not too long ago a message thread appeared here about getting hired by the railroads.
Someone even posted a web link to a book that "tells you the secrets to getting hired" by the railroad...of course all the website does is asks the questions that the book is supposed to answer, the author doesn't even give a couple of examples to show what the book is about. Usually a "how to" book will give a few examples of what's contained within the covers. I am not even sure the author of that book ever achieved employment from a railroad, because I can't find on the website where it says he did. Maybe I missed it on there somewhere.

Well, I don't think most people would want to spend the 40 dollars for a book like this, so I will share what insight I have on the subject for free.

Let me start off first of all by introducing myself...I am an employee of the Norfolk Southern and have been for six and a half years. I am currently in the final stages of locomotive engineer training, and have previously worked as both a conductor and brakeman on various jobs on my seniority district. Like many of you, I was for lack of a better term a "railfan" for many years before I ever considered employment with the railroad, and in fact, I actually avoided it for a long time because I thought it might affect my interest in railroading if it became a job...and I will say that it has...after awhile, a lot of this become routine and trains are simply not as exciting and interesting as they were when I was just a "civilian". My reasons for coming to the railroad were basically money, and trying to provide a better life for my wife and children, which actually backfired, as she was looking for a way out of the marriage so she could be with someone else and my sudden doubling of income provided here with a perfect out and plenty of child support. With all that said, I shall continue with what I actually came here to say...

Those of you who are interested in finding a job with any of the major railroads do need to know several key pieces of information that could definately prevent you from being hired! It took me over a year of checking the 1-800 number that Norfolk Southern has for their jobline before they even had any hiring sessions in my home state. I actually considered going out of state on one occassion, but in the end didn't. Finally after about a year, they began hiring locally. They'd have a hiring session about once every month or so...and I did miss a couple of them because I forgot to call the 800 line each friday for updates. But in the end, I wound up attending five hiring sessions before I was actually hired, and I was hired out of the fourth of those five.

Norfolk Southern handles their hiring sessions differently in different parts of the country, but in the South East, they usually start by having a recruiter and some officials from the railroad go over the basics of what the job entails and what requirements and so forth are expected. They will tell you a lot of the NEGATIVE things about the job, such as you will be on call 24/7, expected to work nights and weekends the majority of the time, often expected to work on holidays, and that you will probably miss a lot of family and social events in your life...which is all very true. They also tell you that you will be drug and alcohol screened and you WILL be rejected if you show positive for either of these, so if you are a heavy drinker or a drug user, you might as well save yourself the trouble and stay at home. After the first portion of the hiring session, they usually give you about a fifteen minute break. This gives people who weren't aware of the working conditions a chance to quietly leave. At the hiring sessions I attended about 1/4 to 1/3 of the people left after the opening speeches. I have come to call the opening speeches the "ANTI PEP TALK". You'd be amazed how the Anti Pep Talk turns a lot of people off to working for the railroad...even railroad buffs, but moreso the casual job seeker who saw the ad in the paper or was told by a friend where they could get a "good job".

After this first break, they bring you back and you fill out job applications, which I will go into in a bit. At a couple of the hiring sessions I went to, they followed this by giving personality tests and a reading/math comprehension test to everyone who remained, but at one hiring session I went to they went through the applications while everyone was sent for another 15 minute break, then when we returned, they announced 10 names who'd stay for testing.

At the first session I went to, I made it throught testing, and to a personal interview along with about 25-30 other people, but I was not called back for a job. The second one I went to was the one where they anounced 10 names...I was not one of those 10 that day. The third session I went to, I was held up in traffic and arrived late. They will not let you in the room if you arrive 1 minute late, so be there on time, leave 2 or 3 hours early if you have to if you really want a job with the railroad, or do like I did for the 4th hiring session...I checked into a hotel across the street from where it was to be held the night before! The 5th was closer to home, and I just left early for it...it was also the very next day after the 4th session I attended for a different division, but for some reason I was passed over at this one and hired out of the one the day before.

Now back to the job application...you have to be very careful what you do and do not say on the job app. First of all let me explain something...DO NOT make any mention of being a "railfan", "railbuff", "trainbuff", "model railroader", or anything of that nature. The railroad DOES NOT want people who are "crazy about trains". I can not stress this point enough! I believe this is what cost me a callback from the very first session I went to. When asked why I thought I'd make a good RR employee I said something to the effect that I'd always been interested in trains and railroading and had some knowledge of RR operation already. When asked to explain I mentioned having copies of old rulebooks, timetables, and so forth, and reading a lot of books and magazines. This threw up a RED FLAG and I'm certain this is why I didn't get called back.
With this being said, I don't think I should even have to mention this...but at the 5th hiring session I attended I ran into a guy who was waiting in the lobby for the hiring session to begin who was wearing a Norfolk Southern T-shirt. I asked him if he had another shirt in his car and he asked why? I explained he didn't have a shot in hell of getting hired wearing that shirt, and the didn't call his name out that day after testing. Whatever you do leave all your RR apparrel and AT HOME. Don't wear your railroad baseball caps, and damn sure don't wear an engineer's cap. Leave tie pins with train logos at home. No RR t-shirts. Don't even have an inkpen in your pocket with a railroad logo. Present yourself as a complete civilian to the railroad system, unless of course you happen to be a former employee of some other railroad, in which case, this will help you get a job...but if you have never worked at another railroad, play dumb!

Things that WILL help you on the application...first of all if they ask questions such as "Are you willing to travel?"...this should be a NO-BRAINER! Answer YES for goodness sakes! At one hiring session the recruiter even mentioned this question and said if you answer "NO" to this question then "Why are you here?, because this job requires travelling!" If you put down any kind of limitations to work hours...you will not be considered...I guarantee it. The railroad wants people who can answer the phone at any time of the day or night, any day of the week and be ready to go to work in 1.5 to 2 hours, depending on call time in your locale. This means that if they call you at midnight for a 2:00am job, they want you there at 2:00am, not 3:30am. Make sure you show 100% availability if you want a job with the railroad.

If you have previously worked jobs that had odd-ball shifts, long shifts (12 hours or more), shifts where you had to work all weekend, all night, variable shifts, etc...this will HELP you get a job with the railroad. This is the kind of person they are looking for...someone who is willing to work whenever THEY want you to work.
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