Author Topic: Anyone here work for the railroad?  (Read 4458 times)

Offline SimmerinLightning

  • Top Active Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 106
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Anyone here work for the railroad?
« on: September 06, 2016, 06:06:19 PM »
My best friend's husband works for NS, and he said they are hiring in the area. They both think I am all but guaranteed a job, because I am a veteran and not a moron, felon nor druggie. I think I am unlikely to be hired because I have no related experience, and especially because of my age: I will be 48 soon. I know that no company would ever admit to passing over a candidate because of age, but if anyone here could help with some insight I will be eternally grateful. I will apply anyway but don't want to spend hours sitting by the phone waiting for a call that will never come, so to speak.

I don't think I am too old to WORK for the railroad, just perhaps too old to be HIRED.

Offline Kent Shootwell

  • Top Active Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 779
  • Got whiskey, will stumble.
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 22
Re: Anyone here work for the railroad?
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2016, 06:58:43 PM »
I did, hired for a pipe fitter job in the round house. I knew how to weld and never needed that on the job. I'm a vet and was 23 years old. In the service I was a air traffic controller. Go for it!
Little powder much lead shoots far kills dead.
Member, whiskey livers
AKA Phil Coffins, AKA Oliver Sudden

Offline SimmerinLightning

  • Top Active Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 106
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Anyone here work for the railroad?
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2016, 07:27:29 PM »
I was an electronics technician in the navy and a truck driver in the Army. I would be applying to be a conductor, which according to their little recruiting video involves alot of walking and climbing, and some heavy lifting, all of which I can do. There is, if I correctly recall, a two-month training program.

Advertising

  • Guest
Re: Anyone here work for the railroad?
« Reply #3 on: Today at 03:11:48 PM »

Offline Coffinmaker

  • Top Active Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 7605
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 125
Re: Anyone here work for the railroad?
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2016, 03:36:03 PM »
I been Working on the Railroad ..... All the live long Day ...... I been Working ...........  no. 

I just wanted to sing.  BUT

I have several friends and acquaintances who worked for and retired from ...... a/the/some Railroad.  All agreed.  When they were hired on, they didn't know squat about the railroad.  The railroads don't expect you to know anything about the railroad.  In today's market, if
you'll just show up regular and stay all day, your a leg up.

What's the worst that can happen??  GO FOR IT!!

Coffinmaker

Offline Trailrider

  • CAS-L Ghost Rider
  • Top Active Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2366
    • Gunfighter Zone
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Anyone here work for the railroad?
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2016, 04:58:36 PM »
Not sure what kind of conductor they are looking for. Since Amtrak handles all the passenger trains, it must be a freight conductor.  In the old days, before knuckle couplers became mandatory on all the railroads (as last as the 1910's, even though they'd been invented earlier), railroads connected freight cars by link-and-pin coupling.  To lift the free end of the link, a brakeman had to step between the cars and lift the free end of the link so it would line up with the clevis while the engineer backed the train up. Many brakemen lost fingers, hands and even their lives trying to make the connection.  :o  When a man came in for an interview for the brakeman's job, and claimed to have experience, the interviewer would ask to see his hands.  If he had all his fingers, the interviewer knew the prospect was lying about having "experience"!  :o   ::)  Just FYI.... :P
Ride to the sound of the guns, but watch out for bushwhackers! Godspeed to all in harm's way in the defense of Freedom! God Bless America!

Your obedient servant,
Trailrider,
Bvt. Lt. Col. Commanding,
Southern District
Dept. of the Platte, GAF

Offline Baltimore Ed

  • Top Active Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 1850
  • SASS #: 11754
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 189
Re: Anyone here work for the railroad?
« Reply #5 on: September 13, 2016, 08:38:48 PM »
I worked for Texasgulf Sulfer which became Elf Aquitane which became PCS Phosphate in eastern NC for 40 years. I drove trackmobiles at first and then yard engines, threw switches too. Always enjoyed it, except when the track fell apart and we derailed.
"Give'em hell, Pike"
 There is no horse so dead that you cannot continue to beat it.

Offline Chev. William

  • Top Active Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 492
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Anyone here work for the railroad?
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2016, 11:20:45 AM »
I spent a few Years Volunteering at a Operating Rail Museum here in Southern California.  My Work experience was as an Electronics Technician and Associate Electronics Engineer.
I was TRAINED by the Museum in Railroad Operating Rules and Regulations, THEN in actual RR and Street Car operating Techniques and basic Safety Inspections.  I eventually Qualified a s Conductor, Motorman on Street Cars and Brakeman and Hostler on Freight Engines.
My Recommendation is "Go for The Job", You WILL be Trained Before You are allowed To work "on the Job" because of Safety Requirements.
The Days of "On The Job" only Training are Long Gone.  First You classroom Training now!

Best Regards,
Chev. William
   
"Been there, But no 'Tee Shirt' survived.

Offline Major 2

  • "Still running against the wind"
  • Deputy Marshal
  • Top Active Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 15832
  • NCOWS #: 3032
  • GAF #: 785
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 415
Re: Anyone here work for the railroad?
« Reply #7 on: November 06, 2016, 12:39:29 PM »
I never did ...but I knew a gent that did

He told me of the time he was a Gandy Dancer ....he had a little cadence song , the crew would shove on the... ''huh" aligning the rails.
this was before WW2 .... Mr. Silk  served in the Pacific.... came home to no job or prospects  .... worked as janitor in a movie theatre in his final years.
  

Up and down these rails we'd go
Skipping and dodging the 44's
Hey man won't you line 'um...huh
Hey won't you line 'um...huh
Hey won't you line 'um...huh
Hey won't you line 'um...huh
when planets align...do the deal !

Offline Trader Dan

  • Very Active Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 95
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Anyone here work for the railroad?
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2016, 12:31:22 AM »
I think that unless you are not in good health, they cannot discriminate against you because of your age. I got a job as a maintenance tech at age 57. Railroads are tough to get on with but once you are hired, it is tough to get fired.
 

 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk

© 1995 - 2023 CAScity.com