Railroad Forums 

  • BNSF Conductor Trainee School

  • General discussion about working in the railroad industry. Industry employers are welcome to post openings here.
General discussion about working in the railroad industry. Industry employers are welcome to post openings here.

Moderator: thebigc

 #609299  by ozmontana
 
I start conductor school on Jan 26th in Whitefish Mt. They said it was a 17 week process, 6 days per week. Can anyone share with me the schedual for the 17 weeks. If it is random... fine. If it is schedualed.... fine. they are just so cloak and dager about information.
 #611110  by conductbud64
 
I copied this from a previous post. I think the guy was training in St Louis. Should be about the same everywhere.

Week 1 : Orientation and basic switching skills, hand signals, kicking cars
Week 2 : Classroom Rules training
Week 3 : OTJ
Week 4 : OTJ
Week 5 : OTJ
Week 6 : OTJ
Week 7 : OTJ
Week 8 : Classroom Rules training
Week 9 : OTJ
Week 10 : OTJ
Week 11 : OTJ
Week 12 : OTJ
Week 13 : RCO/Hostler training and RCO/Hostler test
Week 14 : OTJ
Week 15 : Rules review & Conductor Promotion Test
 #611355  by jz441
 
Ok... here is the deal: We were told yesterday at work that ALL new hire classes were canceled! If you haven't got the notice yet, it's coming. If you gave your current employer a notice, you might want to pull it back while you can.
 #611512  by BlackNova
 
I got the notice last week. I didn't know they cancelled ALL the classes. What a sad state the economy is in. I was counting on this job. I would hope that whenever they start training again they would pick all the same people that had conditional offers.
 #611548  by jz441
 
BlackNova wrote: I would hope that whenever they start training again they would pick all the same people that had conditional offers.
They are counting on 2010 for the economy to be on the upswing... Once that happens, we (BNSF) will need at lest 2000 people overnight.
 #612394  by rfdtexas
 
I was Just Furloughed today in Fort Worth Texas. After 3 years seems I would have been okay.
Even with the economy being bad, most of us who hired out would still have jobs if all the Fruitcakes from California hadn't swarmed in and bumped us off of our jobs.

System wide seniority is to blame for that. Now I have to go somewhere and bump some poor guy from his job. Great job UNION BOYS
 #612522  by jz441
 
rfdtexas wrote:I was Just Furloughed today in Fort Worth Texas. After 3 years seems I would have been okay.
Even with the economy being bad, most of us who hired out would still have jobs if all the Fruitcakes from California hadn't swarmed in and bumped us off of our jobs.
Seniority is a great thing when you have it, and it sucks when you don't! ... :wink:
 #618275  by SantaFeGuy
 
I've been in a class that was canceled before. They put you on a short list and you'll be at the top of the list for call back when they do start hiring. They'll just call out of the blue a year later and ask if you're still interested. Happened for me. The most important thing is, get started as soon as you can where ever there is a class, accept it. Senority is EVERYTHING, and what matters is your senority date. Later you can transfer around.

There is one exception, up on the Northern Lines there are lots of places that are islands. No system wide senority. So in those places you lose you existing senority when you go in and you lose it if you come out. Systemwide, versus local senority, it is like art. If it's currently helping you it's wonderful and the guys don't complain, but if its hurting you, then guys complain. So there is no sure answer. One's as good as the next.
 #618413  by Hawko
 
It is too bad the company got rid of retention boards. Here in La Crosse some of the old heads took advantage of this program. It kept us younger guys working all winter long.
Last edited by Hawko on Thu Jan 08, 2009 12:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
 #618695  by SantaFeGuy
 
No fun being on the furolugh board! They ended all the Retention boards here (Texas) where you got paid. I get the health benefits, but no money. Althought they added a bunch of jobs a few days ago, so it looks like I can bid back on to a yard job. Don't know how long I can hold, but a few weeks is better than nothing. Just filed for my pin for RRR to collect the unemployment. Not too bad being off for the holidays, but now I'm running on empty!
 #621198  by jrb73
 
Does anyone know if you can still work another job and collect RR unemployment too? Have heard so many different stories, and just would like to know.. anyone??? Thanks in advance
 #621206  by qboy
 
jrb73 wrote:Does anyone know if you can still work another job and collect RR unemployment too? Have heard so many different stories, and just would like to know.. anyone??? Thanks in advance
You would be better off getting the info from rrb itself. They can give you straight answer.

http://www.rrb.gov
 #630606  by AZRR08
 
Has anyone heard if these classes have been rescheduled? And/or have any furloughed employees been called back yet?