Choo-Choo Us (Railroad schools)

I was wondering, since I have yet to see a list made, where are all the railroad schools located, and which ones are worth your money?

I am looking for conductor training, but since we are doing a list, how about also places that train for track workers.

I have heard about a place in Massachusetts, but have heard that it is no good, anyone have experience with this place?

Take care,

Rich

There is a jr. college near Kansas City, Johnson County Community College and others around the country. It seems to be the railroad retirement board or job site has a list. JCCC does training for BNSF and other carriers. I cannot recommend or discourage these types of schools. Before you drop the money into one of these schools, see if you can get a feel on how well they are received from the carriers in your area. Take what the school has to say with this in mind. Education is a business. They have a product to sell and you are the consumer.

Right now there is a hiring boom on. I just marked up for BNSF and there are now several hundred below me. ( You might want to check out my other postings.) At the present time, I am holding a job on a daylight local but anticipate moving to California for the next couple of years in order to work.

The bottom line is that the carrier will pay you to train and pay for the training. Our training was geared to get you past the test and the OJT was adequate. Plus, you will have a pretty good chance of getting on with the carrier that trained you. (This is after all the whoe point to training you.)

Before you go spend several thousand dollars, look into these schools and try to get trained through the carrier. Another way to look at it is like the armed services and their pilots. As a rule, they take people with no experience and teach them to operate multi-million dollar aircraft. They teach you THEIR WAY. They get a known product out. The training for the RR is no different. I would even venture to guess that if you go to RR university, you'll still be required to attend some training with the carrier. We had 8 weeks of OJT that no college could provide.

Good luck.

It all depends on where you live, and which RR you want to work for.

Some RRs will hire you and pay you as a "trainee" while providing you OJT and classroom training.

On the other hand, for candidates with no prior experience, CSX uses outside training providers for a 5-week "Conductor Training Course" which the candidate has to pay for.

The program consists of RR basics, (Safety, signals, operation, etc), and is mostly classroom, except for some time spent with stationary equipment practicing changing knuckles, hanging, crossing over, etc. (I know they do this over in Selkirk from time to time, but am unaware of other locations in the northeast). There are tests on all the subjects, which the candidates have to pass, in order to complete the program.

During the 5-week program, the training providers, (mostly Community Colleges, but I think AMDG is also a training provider - these are listed on CSX's web-site), work with CSX to schedule candidates job interviews, physicals, and strength tests, so that, by the end, candidates know whether they will have a job or not.

Presuming the candidate passes the 5-week course, (aka "Hand Brake High"), and the other required physicals, etc, they are now a Trainman/Conductor Trainee, and they are then given 1 week of actual training in a RR facility, using live equipment.

This is followed by assignment to their seniority district where they spend the next 14-22 weeks training with yard and road crews.

After this time, trainees are required to take the ACE and signals test. At this point, if they pass the required exams, and they haven't gone to the poor house yet, their $4000 and hard work have just bought them a position at/near the bottom of the Conductor's Extra Board!

If I may add, Railroading is a great profession, and it definitely is not for everyone! I would recommend that any of you guys who think you may like doing it, try it, see if it is for you, and if you don't like it, find something else that you do like! (Too many people out there don't like their jobs these days!)

Most importantly, though, if you do choose to go railroading, remember: WORK SAFELY ALWAYS!

Remember your safety rules, keep your mind on your job, and the potential dangers, don't turn your back on equipment while fouling track, expect that any standing equipment will start rolling at any time, and if there is no equipment on the track, expect something to show up, 'just in case'.

Sorry for the long-winded message, I will now get off my soap box.

Good luck!

Gunner

I haven't heard anything bad about the school or schools in the Northeast.

The only thing that is bad is that you have to pay for the school.....correction, pay to get hired.

I've heard some very positive things about Modoc. Like, besides placement assistance, you usually get several offers coming out. I have an interview w/ AMDG next week. My goal is to get into metro-north, but if I want to give csx a try, how do I get assined to the riverline? is it based on where you live?

If you want to hire-out with Metro-North I don't think you should invest money in a school. Go to their web-site.

As for CSXT since you're in Ct they may assign you to train out of either Oak Island in Jersey (River Line) or West Springfield and Cedar Hill. No matter where you do your training, once you are done with training you can exercise your seniority and go anywhere between Boston & Cleveland but at first you won't have alot of choices. Don't delay with AMDG because the waving of the fee will be gone soon and then they will be back to charging $4K.

I've been re-submitting my online application w/ Metro North for almost a year. The skinny I got from my friends in there is that you have to keep your app "on top of the pile" by resubmitting frequently. They get thousands of inquiries. I'm just wondering if going to one of the schools will streamline the process and cut through the b.s. I have an address in northern N.J. not just ct., it seems like I can make better money in freight than at a commuter agency. thanks for your replies, csxconductor. I want to do this right