Union Pacific?

Question

I have a question about this railroad company and others. If you get a job at this company or any other railroad company being a locomotice and coming up to being a locomotive. Do u have the oppurtintys to spend time at home with your family or go to your family gathers and things like that while being a locomotive for this railroad company and other railroad companies

Answer 1

Are you asking about being a locomotive engineer?

sometimes it feels as if the railroad owns your life, while that is not necessarly true there is no way you can plan things, for instance, you will have a day or two off this week but you wont know about it until it is over.

You cannot say to someone, yes, I will be off next tuesday and we can have a family gathering.

Most railroad jobs are like this, from one company to the next, that doesnt change much. there are a few predictable scheduled jobs but not many.

If you need structure and a predictable schedule, railroading might not be a good career choice

Answer 2

If you really want to know more about being a Locomotive Engineer, you should really check out Skidderback's Blog Pages.  

Andy and I keep telling him he needs to write a formal book.  He is probably getting tired of hearing it, but I can say that I will be the first in line next to Andy to buy copy!!!!!!!!

Some of the stories are serious, but most of them are filled with some great railroading humor.  Like one that, Skidderback enlightened us on about some Kentucky Fried Chicken Dinners out of Redding, CA.

Amtrak and KFC, now there is a sales pitch if ever there was one!  

But the truth of the matter is this.  Before you accept a job doing Train Service, you had better have all of your ducks in a row.  

I have just applied to Union Pacific out of Milpitas, CA for just such a position.  The wife is not happy about it, but the simple matter of the fact is I cannot beat the benefit package, without submitting myself to another 4 years of school.  Even then, the jobs with those benefit packages almost require the same level of sacrafice from your family.  So this choice was pretty simple to me.  I love trains, and I cannot think of a better way to provide a secure future for my wife.

It was a matter of swallowing a sour pill that would set my plans for our future backwards an additional 4 years.  Being that I am 36, I decided that it was time to make a stand and go for it.

My wife and I don't have children, so it made that decision easier.  

However, the life of a railroader is not all romancing the rails and giving your camera a workout from the cab of the locomotive.  As Skidderback points out, its an incredibly responsible job.  You as the Engineer and your partner as the Freight Conductor, are responsible for the ENTIRE train, its contents, safe movement, and safe arrival.  Plus you are also responsible for some things that are out of your control.  Like people circumventing the Grade Crossing Safety Equipment.  

Though if you have all of your I's dotted and you T's crossed, you will probably not be disciplined or charged with anything.  But the legal stuff is not the point.  Its the moral feelings you have about knowing that you did everything right and still killed someone or severely injured them, (maybe for the rest of their life).  Personally, people who trespass on Railroad Property and get injured or killed, probably got what they deserved.  But that is just my opinion.

But the question is this.  Can you live with and accept that responsibility?  

I did not say guilt.  Mainly because, from the cab of a locomotive moving at any speed, there is very little you can do.  What can you do, sound your horn and bell, cut the throttle, and apply the brakes.  Then hang on for the ride.

Not trying to disuade you from your decision, just trying to let you know that its not as romantic as movies and books make it seem.  I guess, that is why I like Skidderback's and Andy F's stories so much.  Its because they are told from actual life experience.

If you want to lean more about trains, and have an opportunity to work around them before taking a job with the railroads, then I suggest that you do what I have been doing for the past 4 years.

www.ncry.org

Join our club and become a part of the operations/restoration crew(s), and you are going to have a new found respect for their jobs.  Though we are a volunteer organization, virtually all of the project managers are former , BNSF, SP, NW, UP, WP, SF and BN employees.  Everything from Signal Electricians, Maintenance of Way, Locomotive Mechanics, Boilermakers, Pipefitters, Car Maintenance, Engineers, Line Inspectors, Yardmasters, Hump Yard Operators, and retired Interlocking Tower Operators.  Then there is the bulk portion of the club membership like me.  HO Scale Foamers who love trains, and decided to get involved with this club to learn more about the real thing.  Boy did I learn, and still am learning!

I hope, though long winded, this answers your question.  Its not only a matter of you getting to spend time with your family, its a matter of your mindset and your acceptance of the responsibilities that will be pressured upon you.

In any event, I wish you the best of luck in your new adventure, and with the knowledge that you too will be what I consider one of America's Unsung Heros of the Rails!

Answer 3

No.

Over every tunnel portal on the UP are the words, "Arbeit Macht Frei."

Personal life practically ceases.  It can vary a bit from place to place amongst all the carriers, but your rump belongs to them.  

IT DOESN'T NEED TO BE THAT WAY.  

Companies like the UP will run boards as if "skeleton crews," with so few men all are working to the point of exhaustion, CONSTANTLY.  Check out the last 3/4s of UP posted profits at $400 MILLION a quarter, yet they will not hire enough people to run the trains without being driven like slaves with the threat of discipline always looming.

Since the SP began UA testing for drugs in 1984, with the rest of the nations carriers soon following, the people running trains through your towns have been clean and sober.  The problem is, THEY ARE EXHAUSTED!  Performance levels in this state are even MORE compromised than by use of some drugs..

I've been screaming about this for years.  A ballot initiative can and will raise national concern.  The ballot box CAN be used, as it was in 1964, when a VOTE OF THE PEOPLE did away with the position of "fireman," under what was referred to as the "Featherbedding Initiative."

Someone offered up some very kind words the other day, suggesting that the nation's railroaders are "unsung heroes."  I agree and not because I WAS. one.  I have nothing to gain from these words, but the public does.  "Sing" the railroaders song, if you really want to help not only the men and women who move this nation, but approached as a safety matter as well.  Contact your representatives.

I have been running, seeing the railroad coming at me, never take my eyes off it, and the next thing I knew my chin is boucing off my chest, while I didn't even know I was gone.  Believe me when I tell you that there are zombies running these rolling disasters tonight, with or without an "alerter".  "Micro-sleep" happens in short duration, far shorter than when an alerter is cycling properly.  It only takes a few seconds to miss a signal, in some instances.

How far do you live from the tracks?  How about elevation?  Most of the nasty stuff we carry is heavier than air, so in a spill, if you live below the level of the tracks...

Even all that having been said, even if you could have some time off, you can't schedule anything for next Wdnesday, for example, because you'll have no way of knowing where you'll be next Wednesday, but rule of thumb, you'll be outta town.  Nothing you can do about that. It has always been a part of the job.  It just gets filed under "rigors of the service."

And, make no mistake, it is service, with a high degree of responsibility.  It is also equally well a calling.  Not for everyone.  Most can learn the job, but, you must ask yourself if you really want to be miserable in your work for the next 30 years.

Addendum:  Lest there be misunderstanding, for me, it was worth it, because that is what I wanted to do...

Answer 4

There's not much i can add to the answers you have already except to learn to say maybe.You'll be saying it a lot in response to questions like lets go to dinner on Friday or hey we're getting together to suck down beers Saturday are you coming? I average 60 hours at home between trips but i've been there almost 32 years so i work the old head run. It all depends where and what assignment your working as to how much free time off you get. Personally i like the weird hours but it's not for everyone.