Depth Perception

In passenger service, you have the unique phenomenon of "speed car signs". Granted, it is not easy to spot a train moving along at anywhere between 40 and 10 mph, while you are still ON it. But you learn, over time. The good, seasoned conductors, will be able to sense about how "hot" the engineer is coming into the station, and will count down cars accordingly. Their "4-3-2-1" might really be "8-6-4-2" but they saw you were coming in a little fast and tried to accomodate. When paired with a good, experienced engineer, it usually works pretty well.

Unfortunately, there is also an ugly side to this technique, which is when UNexperienced conductors attempt to try speed car signs. They get too nervous when you come in too hot, so they start talking really fast, and you grab a big wad of air in response, so it ends up going like this: 4... 3! 2!!!!!!......... one.................. half................................... yeah whatever, anywhere in there will do..... (grumble)

The engineer does not appreciate this, since he has a good idea of where you're trying to stop, but he has to operate on what you're telling him, because - what if you changed your mind at the last minute and didn't have a chance to share that information beforehand? Usually, in time, a certain balance is struck between a crew that works together on a regular enough basis.

Thanks for the feedback... I guess

I work for a class 1 railroad as a craft employee and I haven't had depth perception since I was a kid. They hired me anyway. I told nurse during the physical that I couldn't see which circles were moving and guessed at it all. Nor can I see all of the numbers hidden in the pictures. Nurse told me it was ok. So I've been working for over 10 years with no issues.