Railroad Forums 

  • CR on the Southern Secondary

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey

Moderator: David

 #1583523  by cr9617
 
Bracdude181 wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 12:32 pm I’ve heard that North Jersey Conrail has (surprisingly!) been hiring and training lots of new crews recently, but training all of them to Engineer and Conductor statuses will take a while. Maybe a few months?
They shouldn't need that much training, according to you the new crews stop and ask you how to switch out the customers right? Hopefully you can help them avoid situations like Marjam in the future.
 #1583533  by R&DB
 
Are you assuming these are previously trained railroaders? Learrning the railroad crew trade is much more involved.
 #1583536  by Bracdude181
 
@cr9617 lol me training Conrail crews. Switching lessons start at $50 😂😂😂

@R&DB You are absolutely correct. Even working at Pine Creek there was a lot of stuff you’d need to remember. What to look for on cars during inspection, what to listen for, doing proper brake tests, proper and thorough inspection of the interior and exterior of equipment, journal box oil levels and maintenance, etc.it’s very involved and not at all as simple as it looked. If such thorough safety standards needed to be met at a place that small, then I can hardly imagine what procedures a major common carrier railroad has to follow.
 #1583537  by NJTMonmouthCoastline
 
So I saw on Facebook that a union group from CSX, NS, and UP are planning a major strike due to poor management and other factors.

I'm not sure if it will effect Conrail but I will say that we are lightyears behind on rail infrastructure that other countries already have.
 #1583544  by Bracdude181
 
@NJTMonmouth While the threat of a strike mostly threatens the Class 1s at the moment, I’ve heard that many other railroads may be affected as their workers are also complaining.

I do not know if any Conrail employees will be taking part in this but if it’s over management concerns then I’ll be surprised if Conrail North Jersey isn’t affected one way or another.

The strike may also affect Conrail in a different way. NS and CSX bring trains to Conrails hub yards across their system. A strike could mean a lack of crews to deliver customer shipments to Conrail, which depending on the strike severity could have a MAJOR impact on Conrails ability to bring inbound cars to any railroads/customers that they connect to. Might be lots of empty outbound cars stuck in yards too.

Will be interesting to see what happens. Let’s hope that something good comes out of this somehow.
 #1583552  by David
 
trainfann101 wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 12:49 pm That is not true whatsoever….

Not sure where you get your information, but please stop speculating everything…I think I can speak for quite a few of us on here….thanks.
I do not remember seeing you on here before. (15) comments. If you have another bit of information that proves the speculation wrong, Please let us know--Thank you.
 #1583596  by JohnFromJersey
 
NJTMonmouthCoastline wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 9:32 pm So I saw on Facebook that a union group from CSX, NS, and UP are planning a major strike due to poor management and other factors.

I'm not sure if it will effect Conrail but I will say that we are lightyears behind on rail infrastructure that other countries already have.
American freight rail is the best in the world; many countries come to study it, since the USA moves the largest percent of its freight (~50%) by rail. This is way lower than its peak around a hundred years ago. That being said, Class I's are squandering their infrastructure, something we can see on our own SOUS with its deterioration in the last decade or two.

In terms of passenger/commuter rail, we suck, lol. Amtrak is trying its hardest but it is very difficult to expand operations on a single route, especially when many of the old parallel routes (think the old Camden & Amboy, which is now the disjointed Bordentown Secondary and Heightstown Industrial Track) that could handle overflows are defunct. It will be interesting to watch out Brightline in Florida plays out with their Orlando extension opening next year, and if California's High Speed Rail will be worth the cost overruns and delays.
 #1583605  by GSC
 
A few posts back, it was speculated that with the regular crews back in place, Thursday freights down the Southern might resume. Any word if it's running today?
 #1583610  by OportRailfan
 
Bracdude181 wrote: Thu Oct 28, 2021 2:23 pm Just heard SA31 calling Coast Line. Something about a switch being stuck
Last I heard, they were having problems with Morgan being stuck open, and SA31 getting permission up to the switch on the Church Runner.
 #1583615  by Bracdude181
 
CSX 4405 leading with CSX 4451 trailing

4405 has returned after being damaged by the flooding in Manville several weeks ago. No idea when it got into Browns. Wasn’t there Sunday...
  • 1
  • 739
  • 740
  • 741
  • 742
  • 743
  • 845