They are hiring now, and I am thinking of appliying. They are going to hire engineer trainees, and they say no experience is required.
I would really be leery of that statement. I dont know of any RR that will hire an engineer trainee off the street without first having served as a trainman or some other class/craft. On every RR I know of, the job of engineer is considered a promotion. It could be they will hire someone, train them as a trainman,get qualified and then at some future time place them in engineer training. The "J" is basically a short-haul,low speed operation, much like the BRC. There is a great deal of interchange and industry switching. The BNSF had interchange with them at Eola yard. There is a Y interchange with the BNSF at Eola. The north leg of the Y leads to 2 interchange tracks and the "J" main, The south leg leads only to the main and is sometimes used as a switching lead when jobs are working the east end of the East Yard. The south leg is also the lead that is used for coal trains that are delivered on the BNSF and then a "J" crew and locomotives come down to haul them to their destination on the "J". Sometimes if it is known that there will be a 4hr or more layover of the interchange trains, a "J" carman will come down with a mobile air compressor and connect the train to compressed air to maintain the FRA requirement. Once again Jason, I wish you well in your job quest. I know there is an extra opening on the BNSF....mine! CT
Jasona, We are in the same situation, I am also thinking about starting with the R.R. CSX is hireing Conductor trainees they requirer you to pay 4250 dollars for a 5 week school after you succsessfuly pass you will be hired as a Conductor trainee, they say this position can or should lead to the Engineer. I am trying to see if this sounds reasonable to any active or former R.R. employeess.. Seems to me this could be a start to a great career, however have no real info on the R.R. makes me worry as to if its a for real offer with potential. They claim that the start pay fpr a Conductor is 35-45,000 per year and that the average Engineer makes 110,000 per year, so as you can see if they are for real this could be a good career choice... Any thoughts or oppenions are appreciated.... Jack
On the EJ&E job, I was told they are hiring and was given a phone number by a friend of an employee. After doing some research, I found a webpage that is doing the hiring, and here is one of the jobs "Trainman/Remote Control/Locomotive Engineer Trainee ". So take that for what it's worth. I am still thinking about this. As for BNSF, they did not want to hire me this go round. Charlie, why did you quit? Jackman, I would pass on CSX. I have applied or looked into jobs from NS, BNSF, and now the EJ&E, and none of these places require you to pay anything. Pay on the NS was around $18 an hour to start, and BNSF was looking at an average pay of around $67,000 a year.
