First week at Selkirk

Do yourself the favor, and stay in the yard, as long as possible. WAY too much stuff to learn, and you won't see it, or learn it, on the road. You have a whole career ahead of you, to get out onto the road, take the time to learn how to do it right, and how to do it safely. Besides, if you can "double-out", or get more than 11 starts in a half, it's all O/T anyways. Read some of the other forums, and see what it's like to be out on the road, with guys who don't have a clue. It's not fun, and definately not safe. You get one chance to learn it, so why not learn it right? Congrats on SK, a great place to work, and good-luck in your new career. Regards

As much as I hate to admit it (because I learned it myself), Golden Arm is right. Get some whiskers in the yard before you get out on the open road. When you're new, EVERYONE wants to do some 70 mph running with green blocks as far as the eye can see. Believe me, all I wanted to do was get right into Engine Service and RUN. Due to various reasons, I was held in the yard about 9 months longer than I wanted, but it was an invaluable lesson about the fundamentals of railroading. We have guys out here who were put right out on the road after rules class and don't have a clue about our yards, how to kick cars, how loads vs. empties behave, etc. etc. They're screwed if for some reason they ever wind up on the switchman's board. I've been on the road now for a few months and it's a satisfying feeling to know what to do when you have to do a setout or a pickup at a yard that the engineer isn't familiar with, and you know all the guys in the yard and who to talk to. Jumping right on the road you get none of that familiarization. Good luck and stay safe.

I agree. New hires in this area don't get to work yard jobs. They start right out on a road extra board. About all they are good for is calling signals if they are awake. They need to be in the yard for a year or two at the least to get that experience

Personally, I liked working the yard. Transfers were definitely nice, and you'd get to learn other roads/yards as well. At the CNW I'd take a road job every now and then, and they were ok and all, but I really preferred the yard. The thing that ticked off some road guys was that a yardman working a road job often made better money than the regulars.

You guys are right. There is alot to learn. We don't start on the road at SK. We stay right in SK getting our basics down. We also studied SK for a week and a half before working a yard job. Right now I'm working one of the hump jobs.

Well, I've been on the hump for almost a week. I ride the engine back from the hump to the receiving yard, line the switches, and bleed the air off and check for hand brakes on the last few cars. Then I get a ride back to the hump and start pulling pins. The conductor I'm working with kind of hangs back and lets me take care of this, but keeps a close watch on me. Basically he's letting me be the conductor, but is giving me advice and making sure I'm not messing thing up. I like his approach.

Next week, I go to the class yard for six weeks, again to work on the basics.

I was assigned to the B&A so at the end of the six weeks in the class yard I'll be on the road, with a conductor for nine weeks, learning the B&A. I will have to take a test on the B&A to become qualified on that route and take a test to become a qualified conductor at the end of the nine weeks.

This is what my 18 weeks of OJT looks like.

NINE WEEKS? Holy s**t, out here on UP we get two round trips to our AFHT and we're officially qualified. That's great that you're getting a good amount of time to learn everything and being tested on it. Keep up the good posts and stay safe.

DJ,
Hey Dude Selkirk is a big place Huh..... There is a lot to learn out there I work the Boston end of the B&A on road jobs and am a Engineer with 8 yrs with the company. Just remember Stay Safe. Its not How much you know its the Quality of the knowledge. Find a Patient Conductor Not a New Guy Someone whos been around for a while that is willing to teach you "Where you are, and what goes on there"

Learn all the Yards: Springfield, Worcester, Framingham and Beacon Park "Take your Maps with you at all times" The "CP"Points and Track speeds will come to you In time. Learn ALL your Signals !!!

Just use your Common Sence out there You will do fine.

PS: Ride the Day Time Freight Jobs Q-420 the ones that set off at All the Yards.

Later

blippo wrote:I agree. New hires in this area don't get to work yard jobs.

Around here it's because all the old heads are on them, for the most part.

Personally I would work the yard as a last choice.

DJ, This new stuff of needing to learn the physical characteristics of the road during your o.j.t. is BS!!! They are doing that so they won't have to pay you to qualify, which sucks because they are basically rushing people and in turn these newbies don't absorb as much.

As CSX Engineer98 said, go with a patient conductor, preferably one with some stripes, which will be rare since most of the Selkirk East conductors are either very new or are experienced but impatient and miserable. Also, it is good to go on the freights like Q420, Q422, Q426 & Q436 so you get exposed to the yards.

Good luck.

Just remember to be a team player and do your best to outlaw whenever you pick-up or set-off at that scab railroad in Brookfield.

what is wrong with you? why do you need to be so negitive about our yard? was your job lost.....NO! so stop your crying, at your age you cant afford to loose your food stamps for retirement. If u would like i can put in a good word for u at our local salvation army thrift store if your concered about our 9 personnel taking your jobs from all of CSXs' 34,000 employees!

No, my job was not lost.....but if I were working in Framingham it may have. The loss of Westboro autos did have a large impact on the work-load of my brothers! I am not whining, just stating the fact that East Brookfield was a big scam in which CSXT took local and yard work away from it's union employees and gave it to non-union, cheaper labor. That's why I am so negative towards "your" yard. OH, and another reason is because I have had a few dangerous situations happen there, which were totally preventable. (I.e. 1)a guy throwing a switch in front of me while doubling-up empties & 2) two clowns running across the tracks while I was making a hitch.)

Not knowing where any of you are talking about, I cannot say if the yard is hard or not, but I can offer this.

I was a switchman in Newton for BNSF and transferred to Needles and Winslow. In Needles we ran to Barstow, CA and in Winslow we ran to Belen, NM. Barstow is a very large yard and Belen is busy, very busy. (Eight main lines with a yard in the middle.) I had on familiarization trip into Belen and three into Barstow.

That being said, here is my advise. You will never go on the ground or screw anything up if you stop and ask for help. Pride has gotten more people in trouble than anything else. If the equipment isn't moving, it isn't running through a switch. I worked in and out of both yars for nearly nine months and I asked more questions on a regular basis than I ever asked in a lifetime.

Remember, no matter how much an official yells about getting things moving, YOU are the person responsible for making safe moves. Just ask the official over the radio if they want you to make a move without you being sure of what you are doing. I guarantee you that every ear on that channel will be listening to the reply.

Working the yard is a great learning experience but often times you are forced to the road. I personally think that BNSF has their training backwards. They need to work more in the yards and less on the road. Anyone and I mean anyone can fill out a signal awareness form. But getting to know the layout of yards you will be working in and out of is a different story.

P.S. You can always demand a yard pilot if you need one. They are their rules after all and they will hang you with them if given half a chance.

first of all what im talking about is this "CSX conductor" telling all of his fellow workers to "outlaw" in our yard so as to hold us up from doing our work is so damn inmuture....how old are you guys that come to our yard that you need to act like children? yes i will admit that we have had some very unsafe inncedints...but as i have stated in other threads is that we are a new yard and shortline with mostly all traincrews that have never worked in the railroad industry and you need to blame inproper training,the workers ARE NOT your enemy! your anger over lost jobs and cheaper labor needs to be directed at the owners of the railroad and managment as they are in control of what happens at the yard. i do work there and "we" as employees would very much like to be in the URU or other union,all we know was that there was a railroad there and they needed help and we needed jobs! why must you constantly harp on us! instead of being negitive about this issue,why dont you help us find problems that you find of concern and help fix them....or are you to proud to help "fellow brothers" in railwork to help?
i have absolutely NO problem with CSX or any of the conductors,engineers or the "chiefs" or disbatchers that i met or talked to scince i have been employed here.also when did these inncedents you speak of happen? many of our guys no longer work there simply because of some of those same problems.also is it wrong for someone to start a privately owned shortline railraod....no..its called capitalism. but i feel that no matter what i can exsplain or say to you will ever take the bitter taste out of you mouth about my yard.....and i am very sorry that you feel the way that you do. lets all just act like adults and remember we all depend on each other to our work and acting like children will never achive this.

thank you for your time.

Bsskng001 wrote:your anger over lost jobs and cheaper labor needs to be directed at the owners of the railroad and managment as they are in control of what happens at the yard.

I understand that. That's one of the reasons why so many crews are out-lawing, because management hasn't tried to improve anything whether it's at East Brookfield or anywhere else. When I told DJ to remember to be sure to out-law, 1st, I was joking, and secondly I did not say to out-law in "your" yard. I never went out of my way to screw you guys. I just do everything by the book when picking-up or setting-off there. For instance if I drop 40 racks there on the Controlled Siding, the rules say that I need to put at least 10% handbrakes on the drag, and since it is on a descending grade possibly more. Another thing that takes time is the fact that these hand-brakes can only be on the north side, which means I might have to walk further. There have been a couple times in which an EBSRR guy has yelled at me because he couldn't get a list of the cars because my engineer pulled the loads by at 30mph after I got off because we were dropping 60 racks and only had 2 hours to work. If we wanted to be immature or block your crew in we would have dragged them by and out-lawed right there, but we didn't.

ok...i appoligize for being i little overreactive..but all we hear is that CSX is angry with us and upset with the "union" thing and all.we set handbrakes on the south side if they are close to the tail or head end,of course that all depends on where we are at the time. but yes you guys do a great job and i never said that you dont,by all means you guys are the "proffesnals" (sorry my spelling sucks). and you being safe is more important than you trying to hurry up and not outlaw....please continue to be safe and do our jobs correctly. if you have any comments to help each other get the job done by all means let us know,we dont mind making your job easier,becuse it makes our job easy too. thanks