I have worked as a conductor on Class 1 and shortlines with Class 1 trackage rights, and as a shortline engineer over Class 1 track - but it has been a few years. Going on duty, you check your track bulletins and switchlists, confirm you have any needed haz-mat bills, and always remember what your main track authority is and any slow orders or Form Bs. And anything else that gets thrown at you. I once had a conductor who started to explain every move he was going to make switching the yard. I told him I just needed to know which direction and how fast, when to stop, and what I had hold of. Switch moves change all the time, and if I saw something I thought was wrong I will inquire.

I have been looking over some more recent UP and BNSF rules, and am beginning to wonder why the GCOR even works nowadays with all the variations and modifications made by the special instructions. IIRC - ATSF already had a signal form, and the FRA issued an emergency order requiring the switch position awarness form. Now both BNSF and UP seem to require the conductor note the train's speed at every instance of a signal, track flag, restriction and end of limits. And UP has a "cab red zone" that must be declared and noted, and something about a job briefing notebook.

My question for those old heads still working in train and engine service - Is all this paperwork actually improving awareness and safety, or just something to make it easy for a manager to review and fire someone? With event recorders, live GPS, cab cameras, signal equipment recordings and pending PTC - isn't this all redundant since a large part of this information seems to only exist to support accident variations and enforcement? If the railroads get their wish for engineer only - how can the engineer run the engine and record all this? Maybe the road conductor's job will go to "big brother"?

Has anyone ever clearly defined what actually constitutes a legal "job briefing"? (Maybe the FRA needs a 12 page rule on this.) If you mentioned that to someone on a train crew 30 years ago they wouldn't know what you were talking about.