I got hired!

I got hired this week to be a Block Operator for Amtrak! Class will begin on October 3 in Wilmington. Since this isn't the "typical" way to enter railroad service, I'll try to post regularly about training for any who may be interested. I am really looking forward to my new career. Anyone got any helpful hints for me? Cheers!

John

What's a Block Operator?

-r

I know you're probably being sarcastic here, but here's a definition from USDOT's Volpe Center:

http://www.volpe.dot.gov/opsad/cta/glossary.html

Would a Block Operator be pretty much the same as what we in the old days would have called a "Tower Operator"? Except that nowadays there aren't many towers left.......

Affirmative.

n2qmt wrote:I got hired this week to be a Block Operator for Amtrak!

I'm curious, John. Where will you be working? I assume NEC, since I'm not aware of anywhere else Amtrak would have operators.

A long trek from Cheyenne!

LCJ,

Amtrak has Block Operators (or Tower Operators if you will) in a few locations on the Northeast corridor. The locations where I can be assigned are: Union (Rahway), Dock (Newark), NYP, Q Tower and R Tower (Sunnyside Yard), and Pelham Tower. There may be more locations east but I wouldn't assigned there.

NY is home for me and my family. I've been commuting to Cheyenne for a few months now every week so getting back to NY is a great thing! Cheers!

John

Good luck with that.

When I was located in Baltimore for CR ('84 to '87), I was in most of the towers down on the lower end -- from Zoo, Phil at 30th St, Perryville, Edgewood, Bay, Union, BP, Bowie, etc.

I always enjoyed spending time in the towers talking with the operators. Amtrak had quite a few really good ones at that time. Perryville was my favorite hangout. I would often watch our crews there, and catch rides as they went around the wye from the Port Road Branch.

Operators -- a vanishing breed, for sure!

n2qmt wrote:LCJ,

Amtrak has Block Operators (or Tower Operators if you will) in a few locations on the Northeast corridor. The locations where I can be assigned are: Union (Rahway), Dock (Newark), NYP, Q Tower and R Tower (Sunnyside Yard), and Pelham Tower. There may be more locations east...

FYI: All Amtrak lines between Boston & New Haven as well as MBCR's south-side operations are dispatched from CETC @ Boston's South Station, with the exception of South Bay Tower, which controls about 1/2 mile of territory in Southampton Street Yard. Guess you could call him a block operator as opposed to a dispatcher since he is in a trailer with the older style boards instead of the modern computers that are up in the CETC.

There are even a few operators on Amtrak's Harrisburg line. I know of one at Thorn tower (Thorndale) for sure. He controls everything from Glen to W&N Jct.