NYA any good to work for?

How do you become an engineer with the Long Island Railroad? I do not recall ever seeing an advertisement on their page for a Locomotive Engineer trianee. New Jersey Transit however seems to advertise year round.

notonedime wrote:How do you become an engineer with the Long Island Railroad? I do not recall ever seeing an advertisement on their page for a Locomotive Engineer trianee. New Jersey Transit however seems to advertise year round.

nevermind. I see the ad. I guess you just have to hammer their email inbox with resumes until they select you.

I'll agree with what KFC said in it's entirity. I started my railroad career on a shortline freight railroad, and then came over to the LIRR. The experience I gained on the freight railroad was great! I learned so much there! I would definitely recommend anyone looking to get into the railroad industry working for some sort of freight railroad before moving onto passenger. You get a lot of experience because you are participating with the railroad and the equipment directly, where as on a passenger railroad, you will be expected to be more of an on train customer service rep. Working for NY&A you'll be working on the rails of the LIRR, where there are many different rules to apply. I think the LIRR probably has the most variaty of rules combined into one system. You have Manual block/dark territory, automatic block signals, speed control systems, and combinations of all of them all in one system. If you can work on this railroad, you can work anywhere!

Another caveat to remember before signing up with NYAR is their agreement with LIRR regarding hiring practices. Once you join NYAR, should you wish to change your mind and wish to work for LIRR, you will have to quit for two years before LIRR will hire you.

This doesn't stop you from going to another commuter railroad (or Amtrak), just LIRR.

Jay

jayrmli wrote:Another caveat to remember before signing up with NYAR is their agreement with LIRR regarding hiring practices. Once you join NYAR, should you wish to change your mind and wish to work for LIRR, you will have to quit for two years before LIRR will hire you.

This doesn't stop you from going to another commuter railroad (or Amtrak), just LIRR.

Jay

Are you serious? What kind of shit is that, seriously? So you learn the job better, you do a harder job for less money than you'd make working for the LIRR, and you have to quit and possibly be unemployed in the railroad industry for two years before LIRR will consider you?

Yea that makes sense.

The agreement is in place so there isn't a mass exodus of NYA people fleeing to LIRR. Obviously, much better pay and benefits over at the MTA, so there has to be some roadblock in place or else the NYA would become a very transient company to work for (or maybe it already is? )

I can understand that, but what I don't understand is how any candidate with a high school diploma or GED can walk in off the street, apply with MTA LIRR, pass training, and wind up with what appears to be the cake side of rr jobs for an awesome salary versus someone who has worked hands on in the industry on the freight side and learned about a good portion of the LIRR operating rules/procedures/track layout yet they are the ones who can't seek employment for two full years pending termination of employment from NYA.. and let me guess.. if you were to ditch railroad employment during those years, MTA would then negatively point out there is a gap in your railroad career timeline when considering you... lol

You would not have to go unemployed, or out of RR-ing. Just not straight from NYAR to LIRR. This is standard agency agreement stuff that keeps the employee migrations and pilfering down.

notonedime wrote:I can understand that, but what I don't understand is how any candidate with a high school diploma or GED can walk in off the street, apply with MTA LIRR, pass training, and wind up with what appears to be the cake side of rr jobs for an awesome salary versus someone who has worked hands on in the industry on the freight side and learned about a good portion of the LIRR operating rules/procedures/track layout yet they are the ones who can't seek employment for two full years pending termination of employment from NYA.. and let me guess.. if you were to ditch railroad employment during those years, MTA would then negatively point out there is a gap in your railroad career timeline when considering you... lol

Do like I did then. I spent one year with the NY&A, left to go work for Amtrak and now I am with Metro-North. If you really are interested in working for the MTA, Metro-North is alot easier to get into than the LIRR. I know this from experience...

notonedime wrote:I can understand that, but what I don't understand is how any candidate with a high school diploma or GED can walk in off the street, apply with MTA LIRR, pass training, and wind up with what appears to be the cake side of rr jobs for an awesome salary versus someone who has worked hands on in the industry on the freight side and learned about a good portion of the LIRR operating rules/procedures/track layout yet they are the ones who can't seek employment for two full years pending termination of employment from NYA.. and let me guess.. if you were to ditch railroad employment during those years, MTA would then negatively point out there is a gap in your railroad career timeline when considering you... lol

an "no poaching" agreement is a very standard business practice between companies with formal contractual agreements across all industries.

And you don't have to leave railroading just do something different than the NYA. Like go work for another shortline. Then on your resume you point out the variety of railroading experience you have.

I'm just starting to see LIRR or Metro North are better opportunities (financially) than NYA.. you can walk in off the street and become an engineer making nearly twice the salary as an NYA employee which sounds enticing if you ask me.. foundation, rules, regulations are great to have down, but theres no reason to spend 3 years or more learning them through NYA when other railroads will teach them.. i just dont see the need to work for NYA based on what I've read.. although i am still weighing all paths.. thanks

I recently left the NYA and went to work for PATH and could not be happier. i'm not saying the place is horrible but the commuter railroads pay a lot better and the benefits are a lot better. in a few months i'll be a engineer making 35 and hour. and scrap em is right you will be working a lot of nights and lot of cold nights at that. cleaning out switches at 2 in the morning is not what i consider fun. whatever you decide good luck and to all the NYA guys merry christmas and happy new year!!!!

Just to clarify my earlier post... it was not meant to be a personal insult to any LIRR employee. I realise some older guys worked freight. As a matter of fact, I learned most of what I know from ex-LIRR employees. All I mean is that a busy tool stays sharp, and NYA tools (ha ha just kidding) are very busy. Take your average LIRR T&E employee, put him on the NYA for a year, and he too will be better than 90% of his peers. And by the way, those old guys are going fast, and taking their RR knowlege and experience with them. I see it on NJT where I work, too... the results are yard moves that take forever, run through switches galore, guys going OOS for stupid mental mistakes, etc.

Notonedime, good luck whatever you do. If you do get a job with a commuter agency or Amtrak first, you will have to be extremely vigilant for about the first five years after being qualified, as you will be on your own most of the time... and one mistake can mean injury, time off, loss of job, or worse. Statistics show that years 2-5 are when you'll be most likely to screw up, I guess due to overconfidence plus inexperience.

Do not underestimate the joy of standing at a switch watching bees pollinate weeds! Not all compensation is monetary.

Remindes me of the time I threw the swithch at PW for the east leg of the wye once. Under the handle there was a nest of "not to happy" wasps. They got me pretty good!! So I had no choice, but to get back on the engine, find a can of WD40 or something like that, a fusee, and had some BBQ wasp nest before you know it, I got them good

I would like to comment here to Notonedime.

You seem perplexed as to why the LIRR would hire someone off the street instead of NYA employees with all their skill and knowledge.

As SammyRails stated, Transfer Agreement bars NYA employees from working for the LIRR for 2yrs after separating from NYA. NYA wanted this, not the LIRR. That is why there is no similar stipulation for LIRR to NYA.

I worked freight on the Long Island when our trains were routinely 100+ cars in length on a railroad that had far more single track. It's funny how the freight guys then acted like they were the "real railroaders" and not the passenger guys...things never change.

Ok you can open a switch, cut cars and troubleshoot a GP38. So can I, but it was useless on the LIRR I retired from. Everything I learned about running Baldwins, Alcos, manual transition, dutch drops and getting an underpowered 100 car freight up Mount Olivet from a dead start was useless on the later LIRR.