Hey all,
About a year and a half ago I posted a thread here inquiring about employment on the UP as a conductor in either Oakland or Fresno. Give it a read if you haven't already: LINK

I just wanted to give an update on the events that have transpired since then, as well as my experience with the railroad, as I feel enough time has passed that I can safely disclose a lot of it.

First off, UP refused to consider me, but I also had applications for conductor vacancies on the BNSF in both Richmond and Fresno. I never got a response regarding Fresno, but I was invited to a testing and interview session for Richmond. We were told to report to the testing location early in the morning either 7 or 8am, I don't remember. Once it was time to start, they closed the doors and stopped letting people in, even if they were one minute late, which I thought was kind of harsh. Little did I know at it the time, but that was just a sign of many things to come. The Superintendent of Operations for the area was there, as were several Traimasters (low level managers directly in charge of conductors and switchmen). They were accompanied by a woman from corporate HQ in Ft Worth who would be proctoring the whole thing. They all started by giving speeches about what the job would entail, what switching was what a conductor was, how he was different from an engineer, the hours, pay and benefits yada yada. Most of the guys there didnt seem to know a thing about trains. Luckily I've been a railfan for years, so I knew more about what was being discussed than the others. After the speeches, they answered any questions candidates might have, then it was time for the testing. There was more testing than I expected. Lots of reading, math and problem solving. Afterwards we were sent outside while the tests were graded and a notice was placed on the door about a half hour later listing the names of those who passed and the time to report for their interview. I was scheduled about an hour away. I went to grab lunch and returned for my interview, which was conducted by two of the Trainmasters.. They asked me many of the usual job interview questions. Where do you see yourself in five years? What makes you a good worker? etc.

A few weeks later I was informed that I had passed the interview and was given a date to take a physical and a strength test. During the same time frame a background check was performed. Once that was all over with, I was given a date to start training. I was in! Our first day was a Monday, in which were to report to the Richmond railyard at 6am, in a classroom in the yard office building. Training would consist of two weeks classroom training, six weeks of yard/local training in Richmond, Oakland, and Pittsburg, one week in the classroom, three weeks on the road working thru freight, and one last week classroom training. At the end of the last week was the final exam. There were about ten of us in the class. We were all issued our orange vests, safety glasses, switch keys, lanterns, and rule books. Those rule books are huge! I never had to learn so many things in my life! I could only imagine what it would be like for the others who knew less about trains than me! Like I said, our first two weeks were in the classroom, although we did go outside on some days to learn how to lace the air, change knuckles and whatnot. We even got to work with a yard crew to practice making joints and separations. Also, every morning we had to all stand up and practice hand and lantern signals. One thing I definitely wasn't expecting was the amount of homework. We practically had to write essays on the rules! I was glad when field training started.

We then went into yard/local training. I was excited, finally getting to work my dream job. I couldn't be more wrong. It was hectic! There was so much going on in that yard my head was spinning! Between the mountains of switch lists and constant other movements in the yard, it was hard to keep up. I didnt know how these guys seemed to know when to put cars sideways vs switching them, kicking vs shoving etc. Furthermore, the crews really tore into me when I messed up! I know they were trying to help, but they should be nicer about it. One week I had a yard foreman(yard conductor) who was also a railfan. I thought he would understand me more, but I was checking out this unpatched WP hopper in our train once and he started barking at me because we shoved a car too deep! He didnt even seem to care about that hopper either! Working the locals weren't much better. I was on a local that switches to North Bay intermodal facility once, with another conductor who was also a railfan mind you. We had this sweet blue and yellow ex-ATSF GP60 leading, and I was excited since it was my first time riding the cab out on the main. I didnt even get to enjoy it, since he was quizzing me the whole time. He also wanted me to call out signals, and kept demanding that I call them by their proper name, like "approach" instead of "yellow". He seemed disappointed that I didnt know the speed and verbatim associated with the signals. I was only five weeks in! What did he expect? He claimed that my non-railfan classmates knew the signals already and that he would think I would too, especially since I was a "foamer". We were in the shanty afterwards and he helped me practice taking track warrants, but he would restart the whole thing if I even got one word wrong. I had a few similar experiences with other conductors that I wont get into, but I was actually glad to get back to the classroom.

There was even more classwork and homework this time around. There were so many rules about rules in dark territory, ABS, CTC, etc that it was easy to get mixed up! The little "essays" we had to write for homework were even longer! We had to write a whole page on restricted speed one night! I was so overwhelmed towards the end of the week that I just skipped out on the homework one night. The local union rep of all people ripped me a new one the next day because of that. I really don't know how he thought writing would make me a better conductor, but he was sure upset. I will say though, other than that, I think that week went pretty well.... until the midterm exam. I forget my exact score, but it was far from perfect. There were just so many things to remember! I was, however assured that it was alright as the midterm was not graded and was only used to show progress and that there would be more time to study before the final. I was informed, however that I was below average.

Next it was time for road training! There are two runs out of Richmond: a double ended "long pool" to Fresno shared with Fresno crews, and a single ended "short pool" to Stockton with all Richmond based crews (it mostly handles the Oakland stack trains though). I was to work the long run to Fresno for the first two weeks, followed by the Oakland-Stockton run for the last week. As much as I enjoyed cruising along the high iron at speed, most of the consisted of both the conductor and the engineer constantly quizzing. Also, they seemed very unreasonable with the hours. I had to work during the daytime one day, and at night the very next night! All of this with very little warning, just a phone call! Don't get me wrong though, I did enjoy working the road.

Now, my very last road trip before the last week of classroom training was supposed to be very simple: Take a baretable out of Oakland to Stockton, run the power around the train so it could head north, hand it off to a Stockton crew to take it north up the FRC, van back to Oakland. I arrived at Oakland around midnight to meet my crew. That conductor I had on the local? Yup, it was him, he had bumped to a pool turn. Furthermore, unbeknownst to me, the yard foreman I had the WP car incident with was actually an engineer working the ground at the time. Guess who our hoghead was? Yup.
They were actually very friendly towards me at first, and we even talked about railfanning Tehachapi for a bit. Once we got on the train though, the started quizzing me again. When I couldn't answer a lot of there questions, they started to get angry about how my training was almost over and I should know this stuff already and that the rest of my class was lightyears ahead of me. The engineer seemed particularly furious that I was giving a bad name for "foamers" working in the industry. I was still brand new! I didn't know why everyone was expecting me to know everything while at the same time blowing up at knew guys who DID seem to know everything for being "know-it-alls". When running the power around the train at Stockton, the conductor had so much of a problem with my car counts and relaying signals to the engineer that he took over everything and wouldn't let me do anything at all!

We then went in for our last week of class, and then it was time for the final at last. A 90% or better was required to pass. Mind you, in any learning institution a "B" is considered good, but apparently BNSF considers it failing... which I did. I honestly don't know how anyone can absorb that much material in so little time, much less a non-enthusiast who knows nothing but trains, but somehow my entire class passed except me and one other guy! All was not lost though, as the two of us were sent to the main training center in Overland Park, KS for one more week of classroom training and a second, and final, and chance at the test. Much to my disappointment, I failed again. I was out of a job. To make matters worse, the other guy, a non-railfan passed (although I later learned that he was fired before his probation period for union protection was up).

To conclude, I am very grateful for the experience and I was able to find good, steady, decent paying work elsewhere. Although, it really troubled me to see how anti-railfan a lot of the workforce was, including from other railfans. Again, it was a good experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything but the job sure isn't for everyone.