Is becoming a norfolk southern railroad conductor a good move for me?

Question

I have been working in the automotive industry for the past 5 years of my life. I make great money and enjoy what I do. But as we all know the automotive industry isn't one of the most secure jobs. And also I will be on night shift for the rest of my career. I have a interview in a couple of days for the conductor position and wondering if it would be a good switch. I know it will be a pay cut, but thats ok. Do you ever have time off or are you on call everyday? Will there be some months where you hardly work? Eventually once you have established senority will you ever have a somewhat set/normal schedule? Is the pay by the hour or by the day? Do you ever know of days that you will be off or do you just have to hope u dont get called in? And what is the average time that you are away from home on a trip? Any help would be great and I really appreciate your time..

Answer 1

Wow, good question and to be honest, after 35 years of railroading I dont know if I can answer you.

For me it was a good move, but it sounds like you have a pretty good job so you are looking at it through a different set of eyes than I did.

The answer to every one of your questions is . . . . . maybe., probably, sorta.

A lot of it depends on your location. some have primarily road assignements and as you must already know, trains run 24/7.

You can expect to be on call around the clock unless you take time off, that is not likely to change.

However some locations have a lot of jobs with quite a few postitions that have assigned shift starts, primarily these will either be local service or switching jobs, these are what we usually call "part time" or 40 hour weeks.

Again as for being laid off, I know people that never were furloughed a day in their life, I am not one of those.

Railroad retirement is pretty lucrative, if you have put in your time, it does not give you credit for your previous social security contributions.

To be honest, I cant tell you where I will be day after tomorrow, if I need to be somewhere, I have to schedule time off.

If you can be spontaneous and dont need to have a set schedule in your life, it can be good. If you or your family need structure . . . . . . . it can be a tough grind.

If you like working mostly on your own with primarily one or two crew members, being outside, or at least not in one location, being responsible for your job and not having someone looking over your shoulder it can be a good job.

I wish I could give a definitive answer but there is none. We have a fair turnover in the first 5 years of employment from people that cant handle the lifestyle, after that people tend to stay.

good Luck with it!

Answer 2

When you first start out on the railroad you normally work an extra board.They are on call 24/7 unless they call and mark off the board.Most of them pretty much work every day.We have guys where i'm at with 4 years in that are working the regular pool jobs.Those usually are gone from home for 2 days then home for 2 days.There have been some young guys get cut off when it gets slow.That's the way the rail industry goes til you get a few years in.Your life as a rail is never a set schedule unless you work a regular yard job.It can be hard on family life.It takes an understanding woman to live with the railroad.One good thing is that if you really don't feel like going to work you can call them and mark off the board.The pay and benefits are good.Here starting conductors average about 50k a year.We get paid by the mile.Be aware that most railroads require you to take promotion to engineer.One bad thing about that is if you start training as an engineer and don't make it your out of a job.They don't let you go back to being a conductor if you fail as an engineer.I work for the Union Pacific so i don't know if the NS works the same way or not,but most Class 1 railroads are pretty much the same.You might want to ask someone that works there how the NS handles that.There is no doubt that rail life is unique but if your a flexible person that doesn't need a set schedule in your life it can be a good job.I'm going on 33 years and if i had to do it over again,i would.The railroad has provided me a good life.Oh and we work a lot of nights too.Hope this helps you a bit.