BNSF engineer gives behind-the-scenes look at life working for the railroad 

all 5 years of it

nice! I’d you don’t mind, what passenger railroad do you work for and are you an engineer?

So the 28 days is paid by the govt, not the employer? Here in USA, benefits are up to the employer so it varies a lot, and i think employers should be required to provide a minimum of 10-15 days PTO. 28 days is pretty good. Our labor laws needs re-work to better the quality of life of employees / sub contractors but our govt is corrupt to the point it's basically unfixable. We're already debt slaves thru fiat currency.

@@Th3M4larky sorry I worded that badly, the 28 days is enforced by the government but paid by the employer and the same goes for the sick days

@@benhawkins4245 Roger that 👍

This garbage has been going on since the Rockefellers were public figures.

Really wish our government cared more about protecting its workforce than protecting Europe.

Damn

Yep. Corporate bigwigs keep cutting and cutting to pad their bottom dollar

Thank you for bringing that to life. Absolute greed

53 years! Wow. I don't have any words for that. Enjoy your retirement. 👍

Congrats ! how old were you when you started and at what age was retirement?

Amen! I'm retired @ Chrysler U.A.W. Local 136

Exactly!

Agree

About as unpredictable as driving truck when your life is run by dispatcher receivers and shippers. Also about as unpredictable as any other job where you are on call 24 7 that is not regulated by mandatory time off between shifts. Don't like what you do find work elsewhere. Don't whine when you make well over 100K a year. It kind of falls on deaf ears to those of us who make half that or less annually and take call 24 7. And I love my job

Railways are allowed to increase staffing so that workers have a higher chance of actually getting the time and consistency needed to sleep between shifts. Instead there's a fatigue-caused accident every 5 minutes and the company gaslights the workers into thinking the accident is their fault when they have 5 hours of sleep in the past 3 days and have experienced terminal jet lag / minimum sleep quality for the past 20 years of their life. You're right that railroading is unpredictable, so it's time that railways actually take the steps to respond accordingly to that unpredictability.

I don’t understand why it’s news… it’s not like these policies weren’t in place prior to getting the job.

You'll spend your life wrestling for a better future that never comes and passes by.

They should work for free

I retired from the BNSF in mid 2021 and up until the late 2010s I would heartily recommend to young people looking for a good career to apply at the railroad it during the last 3 to 4 years I was there the attitude of management change dramatically to the point that everything was all about profits and quality of work life be damned. The railroad made a lot of big talk about inclusivity in its work force but two young women that recommended to apply for engineering jobs in the railroad didn’t even make it through the online automated application process and as a result were never given the chance to do an in person interview to to if they had the potential to do the job. BNSF and all the other big railroads are just a lot of bluster looking for people they can use up and cast aside like trash to make room for the next group of expendables… Profit above all else.

@@pauliedweasel Im 52 now. Too late for me.

Volunteer at a railroad museum instead.

Same

When first hired on with them, how long was the hiring process once you applied?

@ngarrett6313 I got my application acceptance to proceed to an interview, took 2 weeks. Next week I interview and assuming I pass all the other things I'll be offered a position for Conductor Trainee. Not sure the timeline for training.

@KOOLEE88 Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

How is it?

Problems, not "issues."

@@JeffC-fq1be you are correct, big problems

They wanted to have the job

They wanted to have the job

It gets worse. Union Pacific wanted to have 1 person charge of an entire train

Please 🙏🏼 see that as a blessing in disguise. If you are interested in a job with the railroad why don't you consider Amtrak?

​@@Tricia1869I heard that's where a lot of engineers from the freight railroads end up going!

It’s best to apply for Amtrak or Commuter Railroads

Bnsf rejected me 4 times, get UP hired me for conductor my first try in kansas city. Really wierd how bnsf is. I even had a buddy in there vouching for me!

HS diploma worked for BNSF 4 years...then furloughed after the crash in 2009 never went back.....

I always wondered how the heck they got anywhere. Every time I see them they are doing no more than 35 mph. Not only that, I had a guy I talked too about the railroad he worked for for about six months. He said it was go 50 miles and sit for two hours. He said a whole lot of waiting to go fifty more miles.

Especially for railfanners.

Good luck, Brother... Must be the BNSF you hired on at...

As someone in aviation over 23 years. You are on voice recorder up front. There are down times,but all this playing games and blah, blah is not true. You WILL be required to work and ANSWER the radios. Have your eyes peeled for traffic and monitor the weather visually besides radar if need be. You'll have a dispatcher who will be assisting in all this, but it's not hours of guys flat out sleeping. You'll be required to answer and respond to ATC. Failing to do so will get you F-16 escort quickly in the posr 9/11 era. Then, of course, you have the random FAA checkride. He will check that your license is on your person ,you can not operate an aircraft without it. He'll hang out over your shoulder and make sure you're competent in your craft. Then, there is the random drug test. I had surgery once that required me to be out about a month and a half. I was immediately drug tested randomly in the first week and a half back at work. Gotta make sure you're not out there experimenting during your time off. Other than that...your Trans Atlantic and Trans Pacific trips can be sheer boredom at times. 99% of the men and women up front are consumate professionals ,train rigorously throughout the year, and take the profession seriously. If anything, the Unions advocate for safety over profit.

And Airlines are senority too. Vacation. Days off. Where you are based. Will be determined by senority. I did the commuting thing. Lived in Texas. Commuted to Arizona. It will wear you down. Looking at 20+ years if you think you're getting a nice 9-5 in aviation.

To defend your misguided view of Aviation. As someone who works in aviation and has for 25 years from the ramp to the front end , it's not a glamorous job. I worked a 6 on 3 off 10.5 hour shift in all weather with jet fuel, jet blast moving propellers and rude people, and insane schedules, not to mention putting between 10-18000 steps a day. As crew, The "nice hotels" aren't so nice and the perks SUCK as does random drug tests and the stress of flying into airspace like LA, NY, London etc where there's 30 aircraft in the airspace, no room for error and constant stress, especially if you get the "i have a number for you to call" speech That being said, the railroaders at C1s have it WORSE in some cases. most all of do either because we love it, but I can't wait to get out. Respect to railroaders. PS. The biggest thing we have in common is "foamers" aka "spottibois" many (not all) who interrupt operations, get in the way, don't care about security or safety or privacy.

​@CS-np2oo facts...Now days though, been in over 25. Finally had a M-F until the company eliminated the position and put us all back on flightline doing rotating shits (not a typo LOL) and every 3rd weekend off.

I think a van picks them up and drives them to a hotel.

when they outlaw they are not allowed to move the train at all. The crew can wait for a van but if you are in the middle of nowhere I guess you gotta walk out or wait for another train as long as it is not a single track mainline

NS better pay and benefits, I don't work for the railroad I have several people in my family that do.

I did too until I found out how shitty the job is and how poorly the rail companies treat their workers, still love trains, just not enough to deal with all of that!

@@jacksonwhittier3646 agreed

​@riderheslep8717 No it isnt lmao☠️ I work for CSX, we get 100% start pay compared to NFS 80% start pay

Then your life will be more horribke

You're not making $200,000 a year as a conductor....

Thunderbolt1000sirenproductions would like to have a word with you(watch his lac megantic derailment remastered video for more information)

Not necessarily

the vaccine mandates, and when hi-viz got implemented is when a Tsunami of TYE employees left, as well as long furloughs from 2019-2021.

@@artiedelimitros9443 what's wrong with the c19 vaccine?

@@railfandepotproductions the mandates are what’s the problem that caused many employees to quit because they didn’t want to be forced to inject an experimental vaccine “so they say” into their bodies in order to retain employment. This is what happened all around the North American workforce.

Yeah and as the boomers retire theres gonna be greater need for workers and less kids that wanna get dirty even if for 40 50 an hr. 🙄

@@railfandepotproductions Everything is wrong about being threatened with your livelihood if you don’t take some poorly tested crap that was cranked out in less than a year. Everyone has the right to choose what does/doesn’t go into their bodies.

No you don't , trust me.