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Tomorow is my first official day at my new job, which im hoping will be my career. The place is C.P Rail, my Father and Uncle have both worked there for close to 30 years driving freight trains. My uncle works in the yard and my Dad works freight and is the engineer. First i will start off as a conductor there in the yard and work my way up to freight.

This is the job i have wanted since i was a kid, i have always loved freight trains, so this is my opportunity to make a career out of it.

The first 6 months there is training, done on site by the company, starting wage as your a trainee is $17.80 an hour, once i complete training i go onto a salary pay for the first year and it goes on from there. I just wanted to share this, as i am very excited and nervous at the same time with this job, its going to be an all call job but has great pay and benefits with it also.

Good luck with the new job! I have a friend who works for BSNF (I think) and he has nothing but good things to say about working for the railroad industry).

thank you. So for everyone i have talked to loves the job except the ones a few years away from retirement because they are just tired of working lol

(_UnLiMiTeD_ @ Mar. 23 2008,15:23)QUOTETomorow is my first official day at my new job, which im hoping will be my career. The place is C.P Rail, my Father and Uncle have both worked there for close to 30 years driving freight trains. My uncle works in the yard and my Dad works freight and is the engineer. First i will start off as a conductor there in the yard and work my way up to freight.

This is the job i have wanted since i was a kid, i have always loved freight trains, so this is my opportunity to make a career out of it.

The first 6 months there is training, done on site by the company, starting wage as your a trainee is $17.80 an hour, once i complete training i go onto a salary pay for the first year and it goes on from there. I just wanted to share this, as i am very excited and nervous at the same time with this job, its going to be an all call job but has great pay and benefits with it also.
Congratulations! I hope all goes well! What exactly is an all call job?

It means i wont have a schedual, theres a line up you can check up online that gives you an idea of when you may end up going.

Theres a train line up, which they call a pool. with about 10 people in it at a time and you see how far you are in the pool, if you are 8 times out then you check the train schedual and see when the 8th train is schedualed to leave and you get a general idea of when you are called. Of course, people booking off, train delays anything like that will effect when you are called, could be earlier or later. They will call you 2 hours in advance and tell you when your called, who your with and what type of trip it is and thats when you go.

On call isnt for most people because you cant plan anything in advance because you never know when your working, but it always pays 80-90 grand a year with nice tax right offs for away from home expenses.

There are slow times also, like right now because of the u.s economy falling and Canada getting lots of resources from the U.S, work is very slow right now, on average you go out 3-4 times a week, right now, your lucky to get out 2 times because theres not much going out.

congrats on the new job, sounds like it would be fun to be a conductor. I loved watching trains as a kid but now that I am driving sucks when u get stuck waiting for them.. lol I was always curious what kind of hours they work and how long they are away from home.

Grats on the new career bro! And 80-90 G's a year is nothing to sneeze at. Nice!

(_UnLiMiTeD_ @ Mar. 23 2008,18:05)QUOTEIt means i wont have a schedual, theres a line up you can check up online that gives you an idea of when you may end up going.

Theres a train line up, which they call a pool. with about 10 people in it at a time and you see how far you are in the pool, if you are 8 times out then you check the train schedual and see when the 8th train is schedualed to leave and you get a general idea of when you are called. Of course, people booking off, train delays anything like that will effect when you are called, could be earlier or later. They will call you 2 hours in advance and tell you when your called, who your with and what type of trip it is and thats when you go.

On call isnt for most people because you cant plan anything in advance because you never know when your working, but it always pays 80-90 grand a year with nice tax right offs for away from home expenses.

There are slow times also, like right now because of the u.s economy falling and Canada getting lots of resources from the U.S, work is very slow right now, on average you go out 3-4 times a week, right now, your lucky to get out 2 times because theres not much going out.
Oh, on call. Gotcha! Hope all goes well!

(95Z26beretta @ Mar. 23 2008,18:29)QUOTEcongrats on the new job, sounds like it would be fun to be a conductor. I loved watching trains as a kid but now that I am driving sucks when u get stuck waiting for them.. lol I was always curious what kind of hours they work and how long they are away from home.

from 12-24 hours, all depends if you book rest when you arrive at your stop and if there is any delays and such. And we are on call 24/7, could be 4 am or 4 pm

But thanks guys!

man...lots and lots of rules, which also = lots of homework!!

Im gonne get some pics for tomorow, better picture of what i do

Alright here are a few photos i got, would have got more but i started at 9 pm so it was of course dark out, so i took some this afternoon when i arrived back at the yard, very long day, i was called for 8 pm and i arrived home at 5:20 pm the next day:



One of the very old trains:

My jeep in the parking lot:

Beleive it or not, this is one of our smallest trains:

Control panel inside:

The room each person on freight is assigned to sleep in:

Now that sounds like my kind of job.  I'd love to do that.  Good luck sir!  Thanks for the pics, I'm posting this on my car club's website for a guy that loves trains here.

Thank you. If you can handle being on call and long hours, its a great job, great pay, and not no boring desk job.

Congrats on the new job!!
I've always liked hearing the train go by my place....
Thank god for Tim Horton's eh!
80-90k a year is pretty damn good to have a real life train set in your hands...

Ill admit...Im a train freak....but I couldnt do it. I have frinds who worked for the rail roads, but I think I will stay as a fan with my Lionel trains, and a camera!

Good Luck!