As you know, I was laid off from Alaska Railroad back in September. This was an expected, seasonal layoff. There is simply not enough winter traffic on Alaska Railroad to keep the entire work force busy. At the time, I was expecting to be laid off until mid to late April, at which point I was expecting that I would be called back to work as a Brakeman for the summer again. Two weeks ago, my expectations changed. One of the managers called me to tell me that several people senior to me had turned down the Conductor promotion. He wanted to see if I would be willing to take it, since the railroad was really hoping to get eight new Conductors this year. The catch to it was Conductor training would begin ten days later. Normally the railroad is required to give prospective Conductors a minimum of 30 days notice prior to training, and it is not a voluntary promotion. This means if given 30 days notice, a trainman must accept the promotion to continue employment with Alaska Railroad. Despite the short notice, I accepted the position, and on Monday, I went back to work for the railroad.
This week has been classroom training. Another week of classroom training will follow, and by the end of the month, all of us will be doing our on the job training.
Most of training has been a good refresher for me. It is amazing how much you forget when you do not work for the railroad for several months. Besides being a refresher, I have learned a lot of new things as well. Something we did not do as Brakemen, or during my time on BNSF, was handle passengers. Alaska Railroad operates passenger trains all year, and the people who work in freight service are required to be qualified to work in passenger service too. Well, there are a lot of extra things to know about passenger service. Some things are more obvious than others. For example, passenger cars are not allowed to be kicked or dropped during switching operations. Even when they are unoccupied, they contain too many things that can break, like windows and dishes. They also must have the brake pipe coupled and the air cut in to all cars when switching. Freight cars can be switched without air brakes, if the engine is capable of controlling them, but not passenger cars. Other things are not as obvious. For example, when coupling passenger cars, you have to stop approximately one car length short of coupling and make sure the couplers are properly aligned and there are no hoses or cables in the way. Only then can you make the coupling, and when the coupling is made, the couplers must be fully compressed and then fully stretched to verify that is is coupled securely.
Besides passenger rules, we are going over all the rules. As a Brakeman, it was important to be familiar with the rules, but they were summarized more during training, since Brakemen work with Conductors. Conductors on the other hand, have to know and understand the rules a lot more clearly because they are the person in charge of a train. The engineer may operate the controls, but ultimately it is up to the Conductor whether a train moves or not, and where it goes and which cars go with it. With that much responsibility for the train, it is obviously very important to have a thorough knowledge and a clear understanding of the operating rules.
Well that is all that is new with me. Hopefully, I'll have more to talk about now that I am working at the railroad again. Despite the silence, I have been busy with other projects for the blog and site. As many of you know, we have a small, but growing, "Other Resources" section. One major project for that has been to map out passenger rail service in the United States. Eventually, it will be a historical reference, showing how passenger service has evolved in the US over the last century or so. Needless to say, that is a fairly large project, especially for one person. I will continue to add information to that page as it is ready. As always, if there is anything you would like to see added to there or anything you are curious about, let us know.
Some of you have asked when we will get to hear from Steven again. As many of you know, he has been away doing missionary service, and his computer access is highly limited. He will be returning home towards the end of May, at which point, I believe he plans to pick up with writing again. As always, let us know if there is something you want to read about, or if you just have a question. The best way to reach us is to send us an email at ogden.bros.trains@gmail.com.
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