Are we allowed to talk about trains here? Let's talk about trains

Hey engineer bro, which railroad?
BNSF Mechanical here.

UP conductor reporting in

I work for CP on the Canadian side in the mountains. It's amazing how slow the main line is lately here. Some terminals have guys with 7 years in getting laid off.

It's a good job if you don't mind not having a schedule and don't have kids.

Ah sweet, I saw the red paint on the nose in your pic but couldn't place it.

Yeah we had about 4,000 TY&E furloughed at BNSF last I knew and they told us that we were keeping afloat better than most of the other Class 1's. We just put 100 Dash 9's back in service last week so we're hoping that's a sign that the worst is over. How do you like mainline work? I would love the scenery, but weekends and holidays guaranteed off in our shop is hard to beat.

I don't know much about trucking, but I do know a few truckers that became conductors/engineers and said they'd never go back. You'd probably be home a lot more than otr trucking. We only go about 200 miles before turning home.

The terminal I'm at (as well as a few others) had time pools mandated by the government a while back. Being on call only 12 hours a day makes a huge difference. Money is great but you spend a lot of time in the hotel/bunkhouse. I don't mind lying in bed getting paid to shitpost, but I can see how it's hard on guys with kids and families.

You guys have crazy amounts of rules for flagging protection on shop tracks too? Mechanical guy forgot to put a fire extinguisher on our unit the other day and had to call everyone on staff to make sure they were clear and blue flag the track before he could give us one. Seemed kinda ridiculous.

I don't know if it's just a U.S. thing, but we have RSIA that says you must have 10 hours off prior to being involved in a covered locomotive movement and if you do make a move your time on duty cannot exceed 12 hours. I've heard train crew work can really tear families apart.

Honestly the actual blue flag rules are pretty ridiculous, but they don't always get obeyed to a t. We have to lock out tracks and derails and flag up on a unit before you can do anything to it or get on it, but the move crew doesn't have to and can get on any unit any time. It's not uncommon for someone to 'attach' themselves to the move crew for a minute to do something without flagging up. Also people leave their tags on units all the time and go hide somewhere else on the property. The move crew comes along and needs to move it but can't find the guys.. Fast forward to a supervisor yelling out names and throwing tags on the ground when there's no reply.

In Canada we can tell the RTC we'do like to be off in ten hours but if you do so you no longer get the fixed rate of pay if it applies for the trip. Otherwise they can hold you for twelve. If you give notice to be off in ten hours and they hold you for 10.25, the company owes you an $80 penalty payment. If you go off and on at the away terminal or book short rest, your combined time between the two shifts is limited to 18 hours and you have to take 8 hours rest afterwards to reset that clock.

The mechanical guys / car men seem to have it worse around here than T&E right now. Managers are so scared to delay trains that aside from listening in on the radio they leave us alone. One nice thing about working the road is that once you leave the yard the managers more or less leave you alone. It drove me nuts when I was forced to the yard when I hired on as a conductor how the trainmasters were always right over your shoulder asking for updates every fifteen minutes.

Is it true that you have to pass a personality test to drive trains in Canada? If it's true, do you remember the questions or what you answered? Mainly questions that ask about teamwork, etc.

Appreciate trains, however, they are not AUTOMOBILES.

Please go to .

Trains are fine in Veeky Forums because they're fuckin badass
/n/ is for faggy forms of transportation like bicycles and shit

...

Are GE trains good?

The AC4400 and related locomotives are pretty comfortable and quiet to ride in. They're almost all we use for large cross country trains after they've been built.

They give you an aptitude test and what they call a "behavioral interview." The behavioral interview was basically asking what you'd do in certain situations to figure out if you'd rather be smart and miserable or dumb and happy. I still have my old email about it when I hired on. It says to use practice questions like the ones here: quintcareers.com/sample_behavioral.html

Is Run8 the most realistic sim out there?

I don't play train sims. I do know that CP has a simulator in their head office to train new engineers and do other tests, and it's built by these guys

railsimulations.com/

GE A SHIT

EMD 4 LYFE

I've always wanted to work on/around trains. Does anyone know if you need certifications out the ass to even get near a train?

Most Class I railroads will hire you with just your grade 12. At CP they'll hire off the street almost any job except signal maintainers.

It's just four weeks in class and 4-5 months on the job training and you're qualified to work on your own as a conductor. You've gotta redo the tests you do in class every three years to keep certified.

Wow I figured it was different being you are handling a huge piece(s) of equipment. I guess it's the same story in trucking as in certain companies hire any old bloke off the street.