Dewoc19 wrote:It's a promotion in the sense that you don't have to pound The rocks anymore, you make a little bit more of a wage and get a performance bonus at the end of the year, but truth be told it's not really a promotion. When you go to engine school you are usually the oldest conductor, able to hold the best job with weekends off, you go to engine school and go back on the engineer's extraboard making less money with no days off and being on call, it's a terrible "promotion"
The conductor has all the power on the train, the engineer does what the conductor tells him to do until you are physically on the road then the engineer drives the train and has all the power.
As far as a engineer speeding goes all the conductor has on his side of the engine is an emergency brake handle, if he is speeding and won't slow down, they full on expect you to dump the train into emergency
Pay attention to this, he is spot on.
You will be in charge of the train, even being green off the street. Chances are the engineer will have a lot more experience, so pay attention to him, but do not be afraid to let the hierarchy be known if there are issues. The engineer moves the train, but he takes your motions.
If your engineer refuses to stay at or near the speed limit (the FRA allows temporary deviations), pull the plug on the train.