***Does anybody work for the railroad?***

[Munson]

Or do you know anybody that works for them? Do they like working for them, or do they hate it? I'm looking to get into a different line of work since I quit my job at UPS. I'm about to apply for a few different railroad jobs that sound interesting, such as:

diesel engine mechanic
diesel engine electrician
conductor
freight car repairman

All of these are entry level railroad jobs, which would be good for me. They include minimal classroom training, with plenty of on the job training. I think the conductors have to spend more time in the classroom than the others. Out of these four jobs, I like the conductor and diesel engine mechanic the best.

I'm also considering applying for a management position at BNSF. It pays the most, but it also comes with the most initial classroom training(huge negative for me) and the most headaches(unions). And from what I understand, you can't really pick the location you'd like to work at, but I could be wrong. But you also get bonuses, and I think you get an allowance for relocation.

Any comments or advice?


And for anybody looking for a job, there are tons of railroad jobs available all over the country, whether you have experience or not. Here are the sites I've been looking at...

BNSF
CSX
Union Pacific
Norfolk Southern - you'll have to register to see the available jobs
KC Southern

[LiveSteam]

I got pig iron, I got pig iron, I got ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL pig iron. Now I tell ya where im going boys

[MagicHef]

Originally Posted by Munson

Or do you know anybody that works for them? Do they like working for them, or do they hate it? I'm looking to get into a different line of work since I quit my job at UPS. I'm about to apply for a few different railroad jobs that sound interesting, such as:

diesel engine mechanic
diesel engine electrician
conductor
freight car repairman

All of these are entry level railroad jobs, which would be good for me. They include minimal classroom training, with plenty of on the job training. I think the conductors have to spend more time in the classroom than the others. Out of these four jobs, I like the conductor and diesel engine mechanic the best.

I'm also considering applying for a management position at BNSF. It pays the most, but it also comes with the most initial classroom training(huge negative for me) and the most headaches(unions). And from what I understand, you can't really pick the location you'd like to work at, but I could be wrong. But you also get bonuses, and I think you get an allowance for relocation.

Any comments or advice?


And for anybody looking for a job, there are tons of railroad jobs available all over the country, whether you have experience or not. Here are the sites I've been looking at...

BNSF
CSX
Union Pacific
Norfolk Southern - you'll have to register to see the available jobs
KC Southern

I was very recently a carman for BNSF. I was fired for essentially being a threat to my bosses' job security. I don't know how similar BNSF is to the rest of the industry, but here are some of my observations:

-If you have any type of college degree and decide to go into a craft (non-management), do not let anyone know that you have said degree.

-Go into managment if you enjoy being chewed out regularly and working with peers that are entirely incompetent. You will be encouraged to learn as little as possible about what it is that the workers you are supervising actually do. I literally saw a new supervisor get in trouble for trying to learn about what the carmen he was overseeing did.

-Craftsmen have stress-free, easy, somewhat interesting jobs, make time and a half for overtime, and 2.5x time on holidays. None of those things are true of management jobs.

[LiveSteam]

Big Notorious Shit Fest is the last railroad I would ever work for.
I would work for this railroad.
Were a great big rolling railroad. One that everybody knows. we were born of gold & silver strikes a 100 years ago. Were a million miles of history shining in the sun. We are the Union Pacific & our story has just begun. wooo,wooo... woo. wooo./wooo,wooo... woo. wooo.

[AndChiefs]

Be on the lookout for children in boxcars. Don't want any injuries.

[FAX]

When I was 10 years old, I once hopped a KATY boxcar with a friend. We wound up in Cherryvale, KS with no way to get back home.

My mother was very proud that day, I can tell you.

FAX

[Buehler445]

My BIL is a conductor for UP. Conductor is the pathway to become an engineer.

My understanding is the money is outstanding, the work I not difficult. But there are some union things that are annoying

[Buehler445]

Sorry guys. Couldn't come up with any train jokes.

[vailpass]

You quit your job at UPS? A person in your line of work? Without already having another job lined up?

[outhega]

I work for the Union Pacific railroad as a conductor. Is there anything specific you would like to know? The RRs a good job but they are so big everything is different according to terminal and local union contract.

[Munson]

It took a while, but I actually got some serious answers.

Originally Posted by MagicHef

I was very recently a carman for BNSF. I was fired for essentially being a threat to my bosses' job security. I don't know how similar BNSF is to the rest of the industry, but here are some of my observations:

-If you have any type of college degree and decide to go into a craft (non-management), do not let anyone know that you have said degree.

-Go into managment if you enjoy being chewed out regularly and working with peers that are entirely incompetent. You will be encouraged to learn as little as possible about what it is that the workers you are supervising actually do. I literally saw a new supervisor get in trouble for trying to learn about what the carmen he was overseeing did.

-Craftsmen have stress-free, easy, somewhat interesting jobs, make time and a half for overtime, and 2.5x time on holidays. None of those things are true of management jobs.

Sorry to hear that you were fired. So what you're saying is that the craftsman jobs are what I should go for? Is BNSF a shitty company to work for? Or is it more of an isolated thing because of an asshole boss?

Originally Posted by vailpass

You quit your job at UPS? A person in your line of work? Without already having another job lined up?

Yeah. I was a supervisor, and had worked there for almost 10 years. I finally got sick of all the stupidity of upper management and got the hell out of there. Also, I wanted to become a delivery driver instead, but they refused. So I really had no reason to stay. As far as I was concerned, it was a dead end for me.

Originally Posted by outhega

I work for the Union Pacific railroad as a conductor. Is there anything specific you would like to know? The RRs a good job but they are so big everything is different according to terminal and local union contract.

From what I understand with Union Pacific, you can't start out as a conductor. Instead you have to work your way up starting as a switchperson/brakeperson. Is that correct? How do you like being a conductor? Would you recommend it over a craftsman's job?

[outhega]

Conductor and engineer are considered operations "crafts". In the class one RRs brakemen and switch men are relegated to yard jobs since they did away with five man crews. In the yard there is a foreman and switch an and the engineer runs the engine. Yard jobs typically pay less and you are outside rain or shine building trains and delivering cars to industry. Sooo on the UP conductors are qualified brakemen/switch men and fill in doing whatever is needed depending on what their seniority will allow them to hold.

Road conductors generally get on a train at the home terminal take the train to the away terminal, get rested, then take another train home. You don't have to work your way up to do this but most of the young conductors can't hold this type of job because it pays more, there is less "work" involved like setting out and switching, just get on and get off.

Where I work it is eighty percent road jobs so the pay is good and the work is easy. The con for any conductor job is there is no set schedule. It is almost all "board" work. You get put on a board, or list of other conductors, and wait for you name to go to the top. Then your phone rings and you get assigned a job and you go to work. Road work only gives you five personal days a year. No holidays or weekends off. Yard work gives you two days off a week and holidays but no personal days.

And the last thing you should know is new hires start at seventy five percent pay and increase five
Percent a year for five years before you are making one hundred percent pay. That is specific to UP. The last three years UP have been furloughing conductors pretty regularly, so there is a chance by the time you pass your classroom and ojt trading periods there might not be enough business for them to keep you around. Sounds shitty but it happened in 2008 and 2009. They hire a ton of new guys then cut them all off after they were trained.

Hope that helps. As for liking it I like it alright. It is a job.

[vailpass]

Any talk of the railroad union being broken?

[Bump]

I know a guy who does, makes 100K a year. He says he just gets a call, goes to some town and takes naps and practically does nothing. His dad got him in, I think he took a 6 week course too. It sounds like a good deal.

[outhega]

Originally Posted by vailpass

Any talk of the railroad union being broken?

Every craft has their own union. Signal men, Carmen, MOW, conductors, engineers, dispatchers, telecomm, etc. So they cant break the "railroad" union, but they are trying to do away with certain crafts by replacing them with newer tech. The conductor position especially they have been trying to get rid of. It will be years down the road until they can eliminate the position though. There are just to many variables to run one man crews any time soon.

[Munson]

Originally Posted by outhega

Conductor and engineer are considered operations "crafts". In the class one RRs brakemen and switch men are relegated to yard jobs since they did away with five man crews. In the yard there is a foreman and switch an and the engineer runs the engine. Yard jobs typically pay less and you are outside rain or shine building trains and delivering cars to industry. Sooo on the UP conductors are qualified brakemen/switch men and fill in doing whatever is needed depending on what their seniority will allow them to hold.

Road conductors generally get on a train at the home terminal take the train to the away terminal, get rested, then take another train home. You don't have to work your way up to do this but most of the young conductors can't hold this type of job because it pays more, there is less "work" involved like setting out and switching, just get on and get off.

Where I work it is eighty percent road jobs so the pay is good and the work is easy. The con for any conductor job is there is no set schedule. It is almost all "board" work. You get put on a board, or list of other conductors, and wait for you name to go to the top. Then your phone rings and you get assigned a job and you go to work. Road work only gives you five personal days a year. No holidays or weekends off. Yard work gives you two days off a week and holidays but no personal days.

And the last thing you should know is new hires start at seventy five percent pay and increase five
Percent a year for five years before you are making one hundred percent pay. That is specific to UP. The last three years UP have been furloughing conductors pretty regularly, so there is a chance by the time you pass your classroom and ojt trading periods there might not be enough business for them to keep you around. Sounds shitty but it happened in 2008 and 2009. They hire a ton of new guys then cut them all off after they were trained.

Hope that helps. As for liking it I like it alright. It is a job.

Even though you work according to the board, do you generally work 40+ hours a week? About how many hours a week would a newbie conductor get? I would hate to become one, be on call 24/7, only to work something ridiculous like 20 hours a week.