Permit RR Laborer to Heavy Haul CDL-A, yes or no?

Now you’ve heard the good.
The bad is after you’ve been up all day doing whatever and just lie down, the phone rings and it’s 2300, you’ve got to be somewhere 500 miles away to clean up a rail wreck.
Gotta go load the trailer and go.

Are you prepared?

 

That's Truckin. HOS every driver has the option of saying no Im too tired , out of hours. No one can make you drive when your not safe to do so, no saying there's no concequences, there is, but none worse than being dead, or killing someone. Every driver has the choice.

 

Doesn't appear as if there is a shortage of derailments.
And with a bad economy the cleanup will just be less cars..lol

 

Thats not how railroads work, the worse economy tends to make them try and do MORE cars

 

Twas a joke.
I dont believe a derailment is dependent on car #s or length.

 

Mostly its maintenance, but length and weight do play quite a role because of how they affect the driveability and braking.

East palestine for instance, before they even got to ohio from st louis, one of the couplers just broke on relatively flat land in indiana...

But the whole thing was weighted heavy in the rear, and it was a 120ish car length.

What happened though? Well, the brakes caught fire, again, yes thats maintenance. And before they had even applied the brakes, the train broke apart again.

Yes its more a maintenance failure. But more and heavier cars in the rear certainly didnt help

 

I answered yes to the OP about taking the job. I see these types of mitigation jobs occasionally here in MN.
Good opportunity to get experience on all types of equipment besides a truck.

I started my driving career in the early 70s with the DM&IR and Soo line railroads.
Definitely a better route to a CDL than a mega school imho.

 

Definitely do it.

My buddy does the exact job, working for a RR. He is one of the few operators with a CDL-A and currently is assigned to a signal crew. However, his multi-discipline abilities gives him a lot of advantages, as far as different types of work, on different crews. He can bounce around, depending on what he feels like doing (like derailments, for instance). He’s six-figures, with the whole benefit package, in his early 30’s. If you can get on with a RR, you’ll retire well. If you’ve been around crews employed by the RR, you know how they work; the more equipment you can run, the less strenuous the work.

 

Job security!

 

No way I could handle all that physical labor at my age, but if I were a couple of hundred years younger, I'd "jump in it", with my tiny giraffe and all!