If you had to do it all over again, would you? Or if you have a son, would you encourage him to work the rail?
Railroad Forums
Question for BNSF Engineers and/or Conductors?
- General discussion about working in the railroad industry. Industry employers are welcome to post openings here.
Moderator: thebigc
Any Engineers or Conductors may reply to this question, please. Also what is a good ballpark # of hours worked in a month, please reply, thinking about changing careers from firefighting to conductor w/ bnsf in springfield missouri. Lots of family there and I am very familiar with that area. Any good feedback would be very helpful to me. Thanks in advance.
Sure, I'd do it again. I love my job. I'm a conductor on the NS, which many say is the worst railroad ever, but I don't really care. I show up, do my job and get paid wads of cash. Just open up your pockets and let the money fall in. I have a respectable career and I've made a lot of good friends. I work 70-90 hours a week. But, I'm off 36 hours between runs, so I have a decent home life.
-r
-r
I wish i would have went and became a Marine, helicopter pilot, got out and became a life flight pilot. Ive rode in a chopper twice, the first pilot i flew with was a hotdog, go getter like myself, alot of fun. That was at Mount Rushmore. Second time in Saint Louis, pretty boring, he flew more like alot of engineers run, slow and safe, "i dont want this bird to get out of control" as hes there with a death grip on the controls, and im over there sleeping. If that guy was a life flight pilot he would have had alot of people dying waiting to get picked up. That ride sucked.
"Maybe" if my dad would have sported up some more cash for motocross stuff for me when i was younger i could have been racing side by side with Ricky Carmichael, Chad Reed, and James "Bubba" Stewart. I would have really enjoyed having been a super motocross star. I would have liked to do that insted of working for the UP.
I would have much rather done one of those two things than work around the bunch of idiots i have to deal with somedays, the next best thing for me is being a locomotive engineer. Whether its racing to the battle field, flying threw the sky to save lives, ripping around on the track, or doing 75 MPH on the rails with enough stuff to fill two super Wal-marts, its all about the same for me.
"Maybe" if my dad would have sported up some more cash for motocross stuff for me when i was younger i could have been racing side by side with Ricky Carmichael, Chad Reed, and James "Bubba" Stewart. I would have really enjoyed having been a super motocross star. I would have liked to do that insted of working for the UP.
I would have much rather done one of those two things than work around the bunch of idiots i have to deal with somedays, the next best thing for me is being a locomotive engineer. Whether its racing to the battle field, flying threw the sky to save lives, ripping around on the track, or doing 75 MPH on the rails with enough stuff to fill two super Wal-marts, its all about the same for me.