Hear the whistle?....See the lights?....THEN STOP!!!

[RagingAsian]

LOL nice Mike. Sig worthy right there.

[owequitit]

Learn something new every day. Planes, 99% of the time, are able to stop on a runway that's how long? From what speeds? Isnt like 150+..?

Depends on the plane. A 747 lands at about 150-170MPH depending on weight, and they usually get stopped in about 1-1.5 miles. But, in the air where they don't have the luxury of friction with an asphalt surface, they slow down much more gradually, not to mention the fact that they can be doing anywhere up to about 550MPH, or roughly 7 miles per minute. When something weighs close to 1 million pounds, is going 500+ MPH and has very low drag compared to just about anything, it takes awhile to get them to change speed.

In fact, it is very very difficult to get a 747 to descend and slow down at the same time. They usually slow down and then start the descent. Typically, power has been out on such a plane for at least several minutes prior to descent, and they usually descend at idle power.

But alas, I digress. The real point is that A) large objects moving fast don't APPEAR to be moving as fast as they actually are, and B) people have no clue about the laws of mass, inertia, and force, unless they have to deal with them. The little bubbles that most people live in are quite astounding sometimes.

James, I hope you NEVER have to deal with someone stupid like that, but odds are you will. I guess you just have to be comfortable in the fact that you can only do what you can do, and not let it hang over your head too much if it does actually happen.

[King James]

Id have to say....this is, strangely, probably one of the coolest, most Epic posts ive read in a while. Knowledgeable, funny and just plain "cool". Id like to know more about this, if i could. How many hour do you work per day/week? How does that work? Is it like a flight attendant where you ride to one destination, then catch a train back home? This is fascinating stuff!

Ha thanks.....I love my job....reason why i took a 18 month layoff up the ass and still came back.

Ill give you as much info as you want haha....keep in mind this is from the canadian perspecitve.....but its essentially all the same everywhere....I know guys who have worked down in LA when Union Pacific had a conductor shortage years ago and they were able to make due with our rules.....A common saying among the railway is that our rules are written in blood....and its essentially true because the only reasons the rules are there is because at some point someone fucked up and usually with the railway a fuck up results in a not so nice of an ending.

Theres essentially 2 ways you can be a conductor for the railway....Yard work and road work.....Seniority is the number one rule for railroading....the guys who have been around the longest like the highest paying, easiest jobs (duh)....and since Im the most junior guy in our yard I get the worst....but at the end of the day I dont care what I do....I get to play with trains all day haha

With yard work its my responsibility to either build the trains as per yardmaster (my boss'ish) directions or take them apart by putting them over a hill (called a hump yard lol)....Then the seemingly odd thing is I pull the pin on one car....it rolls down a hill and goes to a specific track for a specific train.....When there are enough cars for a train in a track in the hump yard a pull down crew goes to certain tracks and puts them in whatever order Im told....I put them in a holding track for an outgoing train.....this process is repeated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.....The yard I work in puts around 2000 cars a day over the hump.

The road work is where its really at though.....These guys take the train I just built and haul ass out of town.....and really thats about it haha....Well sorta....if there are customers along the way I have to set out the cars where they need to be....and it sucks if the train brakes apart en route because I have to walk back however far it is to see what happened.....Once I was working a train and I had to walk back 85 cars (average car is 50 feet) to find out there was no problem.....it was the dead of night and I could hear hillbillies partying it up....I called my mom so I wasnt completely alone haha.

Hours worked are different between the 2 as well....in the yard your there for 8 hours....do your job and go home....but that again gets screwy because Im on a spareboard....Im on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.....They give me a call 2 hours before I have to be at work....There are regularly scheduled jobs....but again seniority rules.....I can work anywhere from 16 hours on a slow week to 50+ on a good one....If I can I double as much as possible.

For the road you usually travel around 200ish miles....and depending on traffic, how important of a train you are this trip can take anywhere from 5 hours to 12 hours.....and yes its kinda like a flight attendant where once Im at my destination I wait for a train thats returning back to my home terminal....This is where the road sucks at times....If you get a train that goes to a slower terminal you can be waiting awhile....I once waited 28 hours for a return train....The good thing is I get paid regular rate after 8 hours and after 14 double time.....this is why the senior guys take the road....its where the money is.

I prefer the yard....Once you get used to the random calls its pretty nice to know you only have to work 8 hours.....plus the way we build trains in the larger yards is with remote control locomotives using a system called beltpack....Its a remote control box I wear thats strapped to a vest....Can control a locomotive from up to a mile away....The best way to explain it is its like playing with model trains....just on a larger, more destructive scale haha.

[King James]

Depends on the plane. A 747 lands at about 150-170MPH depending on weight, and they usually get stopped in about 1-1.5 miles. But, in the air where they don't have the luxury of friction with an asphalt surface, they slow down much more gradually, not to mention the fact that they can be doing anywhere up to about 550MPH, or roughly 7 miles per minute. When something weighs close to 1 million pounds, is going 500+ MPH and has very low drag compared to just about anything, it takes awhile to get them to change speed.

In fact, it is very very difficult to get a 747 to descend and slow down at the same time. They usually slow down and then start the descent. Typically, power has been out on such a plane for at least several minutes prior to descent, and they usually descend at idle power.

But alas, I digress. The real point is that A) large objects moving fast don't APPEAR to be moving as fast as they actually are, and B) people have no clue about the laws of mass, inertia, and force, unless they have to deal with them. The little bubbles that most people live in are quite astounding sometimes.

James, I hope you NEVER have to deal with someone stupid like that, but odds are you will. I guess you just have to be comfortable in the fact that you can only do what you can do, and not let it hang over your head too much if it does actually happen.

Thanks scott, I hope so too.....Though I know at some point I likely will....there arent too many railroaders with lots of experience who dont have a horror story or two....but its like you said when its all said and done theres only so much I can do and as long as I do what I can I know it wouldnt be my fault.

Its amazing how much trains and planes have in common in the grand scheme of things.....Completely different....but at the same time they are completely alike.

[King James]

I want to be a Train COnductor one day.

Make sure you really know what your getting into.....Its not for everyone....really it takes a different kind of person to be a conductor....for me it was kinda destiny.....Im a 4th generation railroader so everything just comes naturally....but I work with people all the time who saw the money and thought hey I can do that.....its scary working with some people sometimes.

Not trying to discourage you cuz I love my job....but really Im in the minority.

[MikeW]

That's crazy. Sounds like one of those jobs where at one point you cant believe you're getting to do what you're doing but then other times you hate it, lol.

The best way to explain it is its like playing with model trains....just on a larger, more destructive scale haha.

That's awesome!

[King James]

Yep Im 23 and I get to play with trains for a living so it is pretty sweet.....and not to brag but the money is very awesome....plus I get to retire at 55 with a pension that is better than what most people make while working.

Though the company (CN rail) I work for is kinda like working for the devil....ALL they care about is the bottom dollar.....Understandable but some of the stuff they get is in shit for is just ridiculous....Its strictly to flex the power they have over us.

[Shag Wagon]

I have always wanted to work the rail road and make that hella chedduh but its hard these days.

[King James]

Ya it is hard.....Well its hard if you dont have an in....It was easy for me cuz the railway is a family business.....but if you dont know someone who works for the company already its next to impossible to get hired....Not right but its the way its been since day 1 really.