I’ve been at UP for 20 years… I spent most of my career in the yard so I’m a newbie to road operations.. I’m genuinely curious to when did the power start getting so bad ? I wonder what it was like to work for the railroad when a 3 motor consist actually had 3 motors all good for leaders .
32/hr, switch drive switch drive switch rotate. Sort out stuff brought by railroads, spot cars to be worked, consolidate trash ect ect. It’s I want to say 14 tracks, with 2 turning into 1 mains circling everything and 9 working tracks. 24 hour plant so rotate by 8 hours weekly. Just getting kinda burnt out of this place. Update the track check, don’t be stupid and do stupid stuff, ect. I don’t use drugs so don’t care about a drug test. I am home every night/morning/evening. No wife no kids. Would yall leave where you’re at for here if I said we were hiring and told you about it? No union, but verrrrry small number of track guys so you can have a few oopsies. I meant to say OR quit crying, couldn’t edit title
If you can help our brother out, it would be much appreciated. He was diagnosed with Still's disease but he was able to keep working even though he was always in some amount of pain.
Then it was found he needed a back surgery and ended up on medical leave. He was on the books but was canceled due to bloodwork complications. THEN United Healthcare wouldn't cover an important part of the surgery.
After months of working of his health and getting his bloodwork where it needs to be for surgery and battling with the insurance company, Joe finally had his surgery.
He's waiting on company medical to clear him - his doctors already have cleared him to return to work. He's not asking for much, just enough to get him through the next month or two until medical clears him to start his return to work process.
Any bit helps and he would be very much grateful. Thank you.
I worked until 5:30am this morning and then they called me at 9:58am while I was still sleeping to tell me I'm annulled. Anything under 8 hours of them notifying me, I get paid my 8 hour shift. They called exactly 8:02 before I sign up. 10 hours of rest doesn't matter in this scenario?
Hi. It feels bittersweet to be back creeping on your sub as all of what felt like a 2025 year of hell, I was dedicated to researching support for my husband despite my own disagreeing thoughts. So I’m posting it the hopes one of your hard working, crusty bastards can make it to the end of my long ass story and shoot a railwife unbiasedly straight advice.
My husband’s career history includes class 1 railroad and the army, only when he was laid off from the railroad, many times. A bachelor for the majority of it, it’s what he knew, what he liked, what he bitched about, but truthfully I genuinely believe it’s where he grew his purpose. Even with the slow transition of employee focused to the corporate America scheme, he was proud to say he worked for the RR, he was confident in his work.
Fast forward a few years and it’s early 2025, we’ve just had our second kid which involved complications that had me staring death in the face hole. 4 days later we get home with our son and his phone begins dinging….check ins at first but quickly progressed to guilt trips, incessant asks to work (on approved FMLA) and even threats to withhold parental pay. This was the cherry on top of usual bonus shorting, schedules involving working days and nights each week, not backfilling open vacancies, doing the more for less thing and making sure you don’t get a safety violation.
15 years in the RR and I convince my husband to leave what I felt had turned into a shithole lacking respect for employee and for family. He chose to resign out of respect to his colleagues but hindsight educated us that getting fired would have 1000% been the better step. Tried his hand at financial advising and absolutely despised cubicle life. Tried applying elsewhere but a horrible job market and only niche experience humbled the hell out of us. He accepted an effort was had but crawling back to the RR was the next step as I returned to work (wfh) 3 weeks postpartum to help support our sinking titanic.
What followed next I’ll never forget and for reasons that still plague us, the RR rejected every application and surrounding RR contract gigs declined every application, every one. It felt like he was black listed, he called HR and his former boss with radio silence in return. Squeaky clean work record, the dude doesn’t drink or ever dabble in drugs for fear of a random UDS. He resigned out of his honest colleague courtesy and to also avoid termination which he felt would hinder any ability to return, a decision that also precluded us from RR unemployment.
Anyways, he fucking unraveled. I don’t know if it’s a him thing, a dude thing, a dad thing or a RR thing but all of 2025 for us was spent job searching, fretting over money, caring for our 2yo and infant, me working, him resenting and self loathing with each declined application. At the basis of simply being employed, this was an obviously really stupid move for our fresh situation and admittedly a hard lesson well learned and well deserved. I suppose we were just also ignorant in thinking a resignation would ever result in what happened.
2026 thankfully starts with a beacon of light, a major energy company takes a chance on him and he becomes an ops supervisor in a coal plant working with union dudes again doing blue collar dude work. People are treated like people and don’t hate their lives, benefits are great, he’s got a similar salary also with options for OT (weird, I know). He asked for an unplanned day off to attend his daughter’s 3rd bday (didn’t want to initially ask being new) and it was immediately granted no question. Something I know would never have occurred at the RR. His boss even relays to him when other external positions in the company are open and closer to our home, as he does have a decent drive that make long days longer.
An unreal experience following a boss that knowingly harassed him after the birth of his son and now caretaker of a recovering wife. I remember hearing his boss say ‘don’t you have help?’ after my husband told him I wasn’t allowed to even lift my infant son following my complication. I still remember looking at my husband, hearing his phone buzz, and saying his boss was sucking all the fun out of enjoying what was supposed to be a cherished memory with our son as a new family.
Fast forward to last week, he gets a call from RR HR offering a job. A fucking barrage of emotions for me happened, in typical toxic RR fashion, where the fuck were you for the whole last year? Seeing my husband beam knowing he finally got the call he wanted for so long warmed me. But now I don’t know where to sit myself with an impending decision for him. I will forever regret pushing my husband to leave the RR not because it wasn’t the right decision for our family, but because it was the right place for my husband. He’ll get all his benefits back and I’m sure negotiate to a decent salary. While I previously told him if he ever has the opportunity to return, as his wife I will allow and support him with whatever he feels is best. Now recognizing years of his life were spent dedicated to grinding his way up the RR and earning stay and benefits in return. But as a mother, I am torn knowing if he returns it will be forever and it will be for the RR. His purpose in the RR was found when he had nothing else to compare and I worry his reality is skewed with receiving the opportunity he previously thought gone forever. I worry he has more years remembering the enjoyment of being a part of the RR outweighing those he has enjoyed of fatherhood and both of us being completely unaware of what lies ahead with the many irretrievable moments waiting with our 3 and 1yo.
If you’ve made it to the end, thank you, this is all to simply ask:
Looking back, as a father/mother was it worth it for you to stay or return to the RR? Is the financial security and retirement worth what else might suffer? Would you do it again?
I always hear the dispatcher having to ask crews what their fuel is on each unit and the crew seems to need to manually read of off the tanks. Is there no system now that does it via radio or cellular? I figured ETMS would share that these days.
Okay so just had an idea about buying a boxcar and renovating it into a mobile house. Now I’d have to lease the rail space and I know about contacting railroads for travel costs but would it be effective in today’s housing market to renovate a boxcar with living standards, solar panels on the roof for power, and water connections, Or is this just a fool’s dream?
I have a question for the NS signalmen, if there are any, in this group:
There is an opening at Norfolk Southern near me for a Signalman Trainee position and I'm curious about the training, work/life balance, pay, and overall job. I am a career industrial electrician with over 15 years of experience, and am currently my plant's E&I technician. Would I be a good fit and is the job worth applying to? If this post breaks any rules, please delete!
Hi everyone,
I recently applied for the PCT role with Amtrak but I haven't heard anything back. I wanted to know if someone has gone through the program and how long the hiring process/ training took.
I would also love to hear about what the day to day is like as I want to keep my expectations realistic.
Cant find many people talking about it on here is it not a common job?
Please ask any and all questions relating to getting hired, what the job is like, what certain companies/locations are like, etc here.
The derailment of a Southern Railway train on August 13 near Lewes in East Sussex has thrust the safety crisis on Britain’s rail network into the spotlight once again. It comes within two months of the June 19 Bedford crash between two East Midlands Railway (EMR) trains which claimed the life of driver Shaun Burton and left 162 injured.
A routine journey was turned into a terrifying ordeal for the 150 passengers and the train crew on the London Victoria service to Eastbourne. It derailed just before 4pm, leaving three of the rear eight carriages on their side, strewn across the downward slope of the embankment.
I have written a V1.0 instruction manual on controlling an already installed and operational Interlocking for a single track shortline that has a level crossing (diamonds) across a two-main ABS/ATS Light Rail system.
The Light Rail line is protected by derails on either side of it on the single track shortline. One switch machine choosing a route to the diamonds or the other with a track leading to a bump-srop, and the other with a switch machine controlling a split-rail derail.
With the system at rest, the shortline has derails in the normal position allowing Light Rail unfettered access across the diamonds.
To have the shortline cross the diamonds, a call is made over the radio with DTMF codes to request the interlocking to give a stop indication to Light Rail, put the derails in reverse, and give a restricting indication to the shortline.
When the shortline movement is clear of the plant, the derails go normal protecting Light Rail, and they can cross the diamonds once again.
My question is, ....is this still considered an 'Automatic Interlocking' (GCOR 9.12.3)? A question came up today in class where someone said it was a manual Interlocking, but I made the comment, 'But it is controlled by a logical computer that takes a first-come, first-served call'. There are no humans controlling the switches, derails, and signals.
What would your consensus be on the name of this Interlocking?
And thank you for your input.
Any railroad yards here that had their yard master eliminated ? How is that turning out? My yard is getting rid of them soon. So wondering what to expect. Pretty sure a sh*t show for the first 6 months.