To Kansas!

Well folks, much to my surprise actually, I did make it into the next engineer training class.  I was surprised because I had been watching the bids, and it seemed that I was one number on the seniority roster short of making the class.  About three days after bid closed however, I got a call from the Road Foreman of Engines, in Glendive, to let me know that I had in fact made the class.  He gave me an overview of what the schedule would be, and what I would need to do before starting class, and told me to look for paperwork in the mail in the next few days.

A few days later, a fat envelope arrived from the railroad with a small pile of paperwork.  I had to get my vision and hearing tested again, just as I had had to for the Conductor program.  It seems that my vision and hearing are the same as they were just over a year ago.  In the packet of information, it also had our schedule.  BNSF has a training facility in Overland Park, KS, just outside of Kansas City.  While I have not yet been to the facility, I understand it has classrooms, locomotive simulators, and even a gift shop.  I am scheduled to begin training in Overland Park in a week and a half, on June 25th.  I will spend three weeks there, doing mostly classroom work, and learning the operating rules and procedures for engineers.  After the three weeks there, I will return to Montana for on the job training, for just over three months.

My training location is to be Forsyth, so I will have a lot of training trips to make out of there.  Forsyth is in the same seniority district as Glendive, and so I plan to mark to Glendive jobs as soon as my training is over. The Road Foreman said he wanted me to be fully qualified in Glendive too, so I will so a portion of my training in Glendive as well.  Since my training is officially in Forsyth, it just means I will have to go there for the next three years, if they are short on engineers, and if I am not working as an engineer somewhere else at the time.

After my on the job training, at the end of October, I head back to the training center, in Overland Park, for a final review, simulator testing, and written testing.  That trip will be a little bot shorter, only about two weeks.  When I get back here, if I have passed all the tests, the Road Foreman goes on a ride as a final check.  If I pass that too, I will have earned my Engineers' card.

When I first interviewed for the Conductor job, we were all told that it would be a minimum of three to five years before we would be able to go through the engineer program.  Of course, that was a loose estimate, based on the then current need for engineers.  Some people ahead of me in seniority have decided to pass up the engineer program, which has been part of the reason I have gotten it so soon.  Additionally, due to some retirements and an increase in traffic, more engineers have been needed than could have been anticipated at the end of 2010, when I interviewed.  Needless to say, tings change at the railroad!