What I've Learned as an Engineer

Taking the Engineer program has, if nothing else, made me much more aware of certain things, even as a Conductor. It has also changed my attitude on getting freight over the road. So, I thought I would put together an informal list of some of the things I have learned. Not all are entirely related to railroading, and not all are entirely related to taking the Engineer program. Without further delay, here is the list, in no particular order at all. It is by no means a comprehensive list.

• Slow is not always bad. When running with a heavy or unresponsive train, it is a whole lot less stressful to take your time, especially when coming to a stop. It is much better to take up two or three miles for a nice, controlled stop, than to come flying up to a stop and then try to come screeching to a halt in the last half mile. And most trains are running so far behind their "scheduled" time anyway that there is no hope to ever make it up.
• Skunks eat skunks. When skunks, or raccoons for that matter, become railroadkill, it seems that other skunks and raccoons come along to snack on the carcasses  and we end up killing more of them. I would call it the circle of life, but it seems more like a dead end to me. Seriously, if you want a coonskin hat, or entire rug, there are about a dozen lying between the rails at MP 40.
• Patience is not a widespread virtue in the human race. I laughed pretty hard back in December as I was coming through Miles City with a train that was only about 1,200 feet long. We got to the first crossing, near the tank car clean out place, and saw a vehicle making about a five point turn, to get away from the crossing and go somewhere else to cross. As we continued west, we saw the very same vehicle at the next crossing, by the grocery store, again trying to turn around. Presumably after two failed attempts at beating the train, the driver chose the underpass. However, had they just waited at the first crossing, we would have been out of their way in less time than it took for them to get to the second crossing. We see something like this almost every time we go to work. In Forsyth one night, we saw someone turn around at the east crossing, and start heading into town to cross at 10th Street. The street is parallel to the tracks there, and about halfway into town, there is a big dip in the road, where a drainage ditch crosses the road. Apparently the driver forgot about that, because we saw a shower of sparks spray out from under the vehicle. They got to the 10th Street crossing just as the gates lit up, and surprisingly, they stopped. Of course, we got a one fingered wave as we went by.
• You run a train by the seat of your pants. Before I took the Engineer program, I really had no idea how the Engineers knew where all the hills and valleys were on the railroad. I could not see them, the track all looked flat to me, and I certainly could not feel them. I figured the Engineers I worked with must have just been around so long that they knew. Turns out the train tells you everything it is doing, you just have to pay attention to how the seat feels on your rear end. If the train is going downhill, it responds a bit differently than when going uphill, and that can be felt if you are paying attention. The seat also tells you if the couplers are bunched or stretched, if the brakes have released throughout the train, or if they are applying throughout. All the information that the seat conveys to your pants affects how you run. If you're not paying attention, sooner or later the train will give you a good whack, to wake you up. Strangely, when I am not running, I cannot feel most of the subtle changes in the seat.
• Don't rush the signal. I used to hate it when Engineers would creep up to a stop signal, especially at night. At night, when I am tired, I want to get stopped as soon as possible, so I can take a nap, which is why I hated creeping to signals--it was cutting into my nap time! Now I have exactly the opposite attitude. I would rather creep up to a signal and know I will not go by it. This is especially true when I am tired, because when I am exhausted I am not necessarily operating at peak performance.
• If you don't hear the dispatcher, they'll call again. I used to worry that if I did not respond right away when the dispatcher called, I might get in trouble. While it might annoy the dispatcher a bit, ultimately they will call back again, because they have to get the train moving. Likewise, in Centralized Traffic Control, where the dispatcher directly controls the signals, if you do not respond to a signal right away, the dispatcher will eventually call to find out why. And if you do happen to fall into a deep sleep for like four hours, because you have been at work all night, the dispatcher might be a bit annoyed, but they will learn to deal with it.
• Running a train is a brain game. Running a train is 99% a mental activity. You spend most of the day planning ahead several miles, and very little of it actually performing any physical work. You can tell if you were successful or not by how the train responds to your plans as you put them into action. It is a lot more of a mental task than I could have imagined before I took the program. But for now at least, all that extra thinking helps me stay awake on long nights.

I have learned a lot more as an Engineer, and working for the railroad, but these are just some of the highlights. Most importantly though, I still enjoy my job on most days, which is good because I still have more than three decades until I can retire! Regardless of the pay or benefits, railroading is hard to do if you do not like it at least a little, because the schedule is unpredictable, and the lifestyle is a little crazy.