Several weeks ago, we posted a photo of the Alaska Railroad depot, in Anchorage, as our "Photo of the Week." That photo was actually taken just a couple of days before it was posted. I had flown up to Anchorage for a job interview with the Alaska Railroad, and despite it being a very short trip, I did have a little time, after the interview process, to go downtown and see some of the sights.
The interview process at the Alaska Railroad was similar to the BNSF, but far more relaxed. For one thing, there were only nine people there, instead of well over 100. The first thing they had us do was take a reading comprehension test, which took four minutes. After that, there was some down time and the nine of us chatted a bit. The next step was a physical strength test. I was not quite sure what to expect for that, because on BNSF they had sent us to a physical therapy office for that, where they had connected us to machines and had us do different exercises. As it turned it, the Alaska Railroad application of that test was a little more local. They took us out behind the yard office and showed us how to line a switch, then had each of us take a turn at it. They did likewise for tying and untying hand brakes, lacing and unlacing air hoses, and climbing on and off cars. We each had to take turns doing that. They also had us lift and set down a knuckle, and we all had to climb on a car and hang on for ten minutes. Everyone passed the strength test as far as I know, and interviews were scheduled for after lunch. After the interviews, they told us they would be making calls to those who got the job early the following week. At that point, I decided to do a little sightseeing downtown. Early the next day, I flew back to Montana, and went back to work.
The following Monday, my two weeks of vacation started. That was scheduled about six months ago, and my wife and I had forgotten about it for a while, so we had actually not made any vacation plans. As it turned out, that ended up being a good thing. On Tuesday, the Alaska Railroad called back and offered me a job with them as a "Locomotive Engineer/Conductor Trainee." I'll actually be a Brakeman for the first year or so, and then they'll promote me to a Conductor. I accepted the offer, and we started making plans to move to Alaska. Since it is a four day drive from eastern Montana to Anchorage, we decided to leave the following Monday, which gave us less than a week to pack up all of our stuff and load it in a truck. Four days later, on Saturday, we loaded the truck and left our little apartment in Glendive for the last time. We stayed with some friends for the weekend, and early Monday morning, we headed out, bound for Alaska. Ironically, it was snowing when we left, although that did not last long.
On Monday, April 8th, we left Montana and drove to Edmonton, which is about 13 hours away. Starting out, it felt like the trip would never end, we knew that we had four long days of driving to do. It seemed as if we would be driving forever. On Tuesday, we drove to Fort Nelson, which is in the northeastern corner of British Columbia. It is also the northern end of the former BCRail system. Wednesday saw us get to Whitehorse, Yukon. We stayed only about two blocks from the White Pass and Yukon Route depot there, and by then, the end of the drive was in sight. Thursday we drove the final leg, to Anchorage. We were very happy to arrive, and be done with the driving.
We did some apartment shopping over the next couple of days, and actually found something very quickly. This week, I have been doing all my pre-employment exams, which included a physical and a drug test yesterday. Tomorrow I have to do a strength test where they hook my up to machines, like I did with the BNSF a couple of years ago. We have been using our downtime to unpack all the boxes and get settled. I begin training with the Alaska Railroad on Monday, the 22nd.
From what I understand, the Brakeman training program here is four weeks long. It includes two weeks of classroom training, and two weeks of field training. During the field training, the entire class goes out to an online training facility at Fort Richardson, just a few miles north of the Anchorage Yard. The instructors go too, and they teach us what we need to know using are hands-on methods. As far as I know, there is no on the job training portion, where we would go to work with other Brakemen. They did tell me they may send us to Fairbanks for a couple additional weeks of training, to familiarize us with operations there. It sounded like they had not yet determined whether we would do that or not though.
I expect that this change will have minimal impact on our blog, other than the silence of the last couple weeks, during the move. Obviously, there will be fewer BNSF stories now, but I suspect they will be replaced by Alaska Railroad stories. I will, in a sense, be starting at the bottom again, although that does not bother me at all. I am in a place I have wanted to come back to, and a place to which I have some ties. Eastern Montana was nice while it lasted, but when I moved there, it was only intended to be temporary. However, I learned a great deal from my trainers and coworkers in Glendive, and appreciate everything they taught me. I am certain that the experience I gained, and everything I learned, in Glendive helped me get this job in Alaska.
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