Pocket Watches For Sale

Do they offer pension plans for rail road conductor?

2. What kind of training, test/examination, and education is required?
3. How competitive is it to be a rail road conductor and are there a lot of openings?

Yeah good pension plan if you have 30 or more years (if you or your body can stand it that long) and retire at 60. The amount you receive at retirement is usually based on how much you made your last five years of service.

You hire out as a brakeman and work your way up, on most roads now it's 2nd year conductors test, 3rd year engineer test. I've been told on the NS, if you fail the conductor or engineers test more than twice your fired! Gives new meaning to the term "Three strikes and your out" .. sorry Charlie!

They want people that can work all three positions, used to be a guy could work as a brakeman, conductor etc his entire career and retire, sadly not that way anymore, thats modern railroading for you. But I guess being qualified in all three positions does break up the monotony.

Starting out, be ready to work all kinds of hours and in all kinds of weather, rain or shine, day or night, hot and cold. Working the extra board, that call at 3 am is them wanting you again and you haven't slept even 4 hours. Well because when you called the crew caller they told you that you were 6 times out, but in the mean time Joe blow marked off for the day, plus they (the railroad) needed to run an "extra" and it moved you up the board!

I don't know if you are all that familiar with railroding or not but if you like to do illegal drugs, this is not the career for you, 0% tolerance these days for drugs and or alcohol. Sure it's competitive they love to hire college graduates over someone with just a high school diploma, one problem, a lot of college graduates, once they find out whats all involved with this kind of work, say the hell with this lifestyle and boogie on down the road.

But thats ok, because it leaves the door wide open to those that just have a high school diploma or GED that could use a good paying job, but as stated, it's only after the railroad spent how many thousands of dollars training the college graduate, only to have them eventually quit and head for greener pastures ie. better paying job. ie. office job with hot babes around making the same if not more money.

There are a lot of railroads right now that simply don't have enough people in transportation and are short of crews in all positions. Some are experiencing a shortage of qualified engineers at this time, which is why you may see a train sitting in the hole somewhere for hours or even days sometimes.

So yeah, now is a real good time to hire on if you want to work for a railroad. Oh and despite what some may think they know, not all railroad jobs are UNION. A lot of shortlines are nonunion but can be just as good to work for rather than a class 1 railroad. Mainly because shortlines tend to actually have in some cases better working hours.

I have 15 years in railroading, it used to actually be a fun job when I first started, not that it can't be fun, it still is at times. But now with all the new rules and regulations the last few years by the companies and the government agencies (FRA) in some cases you can be fined personally up to 10,000 dollars for a willful violation of some rule's. Railroading, it's a real pain in the a$$ anymore, in my opinion anyway.

And the average person on the street thinks working for the railroad is like a state job. lol And don't listen to the armchair railroaders either, a lot of them don't have a clue as to what it takes to do what we do for a living.

Let's also not forget the entertainment you'll get everyday at any given grade crossing on your district or territory. Yes the " I just can't wait for this train" type of people, yes in some cases they fly in front of you so close you can actually see that they are pretending they don't see or hear you! At first it'll scare the crap out of you, but after the first couple hundred times, you'll just say most likely in a mundane voice ... look at this idiot.

Sorry for the rant, but if you do get hired with some outfit and you get a few years under your belt. You'll probably find that you will aquire the ability to b!tch about anything and everything. lol Oh and before I forget, good luck and when in doubt, take the safest course of action!

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