Amtrak Engine School Failure Rate

drewg350 wrote:That'd be one way to get rid of senor guys and bring in new blood (LOL).

This is your comment. Not that good of a joke. I just stated you aren't even on the railroad. Amtrak doesn't force anyone to engine service one must be a certified locomotive engineer on a class 1 RR for at least one full year just to apply. Wether they allow conductors or asst.conductors who have been with Amtrak for a while to become engineers I haven't a clue. I figure there is enough certified LE's willing to transfer from other railroads.

Rick Rowlands wrote:Locomotive engineers should have an in depth knowledge of how a locomotive works. OK, well maybe you don't have to know how many ft. lbs. of torques is needed on the head bolts but you should be able to identify all of the components and give their function. Earn that engineer's certificate! (BTW I was a certified engineer, and before doing that I've worked on EMD and Alco diesels at a rail museum so the mechanical portion of the training was a breeze.)

I earned my card and proved I should keep it. Running 12,000 ton junk trains smooth and efficiently, as well as not tearing them in half and keeping them behind all the red signals speaks for itself. No rules violations or decertifications to date - freight or Amtrak. And it's not because I knew about cylinder liners and rocker arms. I had no problem passing Amtrak's class and had straight 100% scores until the half way point, falling only to a 97% total average by the end of the 8 weeks. And believe me, a 97% average in no way means you have any idea of Railroading...

COEN, Please accept my apologies for my bad attempt at humor. I did not intend to offend anyone. In these bad economic times, with many large companies downsizing, I can understand how my joke may be offensive to some long time working vet's, especially if they lost their job. Peace !!! Drew g

drewg350 wrote:COEN, Please accept my apologies for my bad attempt at humor. I did not intend to offend anyone. In these bad economic times, with many large companies downsizing, I can understand how my joke may be offensive to some long time working vet's, especially if they lost their job. Peace !!! Drew g

Long term veterans better known as "oldheads" are just fine. Class 1 railroads are union and seniority is everything. It's those just hiring out that go through the difficult times till they gain seniority especially in these rough economic times. A lot people were hired on in 2007-early 2008 when railroads where in a hiring frenzy just to end up getting furloughed. They ended up in the street till last year. I'm sure a high percentage didn't return to the railroad.

COEN77 wrote:

drewg350 wrote:Wether they allow conductors or asst.conductors who have been with Amtrak for a while to become engineers I haven't a clue. I figure there is enough certified LE's willing to transfer from other railroads.

Yes they do allow internal "trainmen" to apply for transfer a into engine service. However, each base has it's own needs and based upon the number of eligible and potential retirees, the amount of time it takes to train each engineer, they may only hire from within, as those trainmen can fall back on their seniority/go back to the suit whereas a re-entry engineer may be cut-off. This alleviates the potential for a cut-off engineer from having to transfer out of said crew base or find employment elsewhere and not return.