If you were to work for a railroad, which one would it be and what position?


Boris said:
Absolutely, I agree. 42 Years is enough.
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I worked for the Penn Central and then Amtrak for 39 years. Working in the M of E section I had steady work, regular 5 day shifts and same hours of work. Might of missed a few holidays along the way whether because of my days of work which could of been because we were a 5day work week with some jobs having different relief days because the operation was 7 days a week or I wanted to work overtime. I have to agree that a retired RR employee is the best after that time.
 
I once worked for the CNW for exactly 56 days back in the mid 1980's. Me and several other young guys got hired to work on a ribbon rail gang in north central Iowa. We all got laid off at the end of 56 days because if we had made it to 60 days, we would have been eligible to join the R.R. union.

That experience pretty much cured me of railroading, both full-sized and model-sized, for a good 10~12 years or so. Finally, I slowly started to get back into railroading, but model railroading only. I had sworn off any more full-sized railroading by that time.
 
I hired out in 1979, one of the last to start out as a "fireman" on Conrail before they stopped hiring firemen in 1980 (and the craft largely disappeared).

Got promoted, ran trains for Conrail, Amtrak, even a little on Metro-North (I also was one of the now-gone "forever firemen" on MN in 1983, when it was a brand-new RR).

Spent 32 years, some of that switching back and forth between CR and AMT once or twice a year (I had seniority on both railroads).

Finally stayed put with Amtrak in 1991, and worked there until retiring in early 2012.
 
J.Albert said:
I hired out in 1979, one of the last to start out as a "fireman" on Conrail before they stopped hiring firemen in 1980 (and the craft largely disappeared).
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Yeah, what does a "fireman" do after 1959? I mean the position is still listed in my software and a crew caller could call someone to it, but without fire what did you do. Watch the locomotive gauges, flag the front of the train?
 
Iron Horseman said:
Yeah, what does a "fireman" do after 1959? I mean the position is still listed in my software and a crew caller could call someone to it, but without fire what did you do. Watch the locomotive gauges, flag the front of the train?
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Some of the things on the interwebs have him working with the engineer to maintain safe operation of the train.
Didn't seem like I could get a straight answer. 30 seconds into it, I bailed. :)
 
The New England Central Railroad (subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming) was just hiring for a dispatcher. I had applied, and made it through their first round of evaluations, but had found another job in the meantime that wouldn't require I work weekends and holidays.
 
"what does a "fireman" do after 1959?"

On the commuter trains from Danbury (CT) to New York City, the fireman kept the steam heat going in the winter. I must have lost a little bit of hearing going back in those FL-9's to check the boilers a few times each trip.

In winter, there was also a "steam heat job" at Danbury, keeping the boilers running all night, and keeping the water tanks full. Could be a tough job on freezing nights working with the water pipes.

Firemen also handled the hostling jobs for Amtrak at New Haven Motor Storage.

So, yes... there WERE specific jobs the fireman still did going right into the 1980's...
 
I would be happy being a conductor riding in a caboose on the NYSW. Wouldn’t do it for long, a month or so but long enough to be able to say I did it.
 
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