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I now have my 5 year olds dream job

So in the minor victory thread I posted I got a job as a railroad switchman, today was my official first day of work, and after doing all the paperwork I was informed that I was in fact NOT a railroad switchman (which is good, that is hard work out in the elements the whole shift rain, shine, snow, etc) but they wanted me to be a train engineer now which is awesome because who didn't like trains as a kid and want to drive one when they grew up? While it's not my dream job, it is still an awesome job that I wanted to be when I was little and that my son wants to be now and when I told him his eyes lit up and he was all happy that his dad was an engineer on a train and wanted to know if he could drive the train with me, etc, etc. (I broke his heart when I told him no, he was too little).

edit: wow having database issues today and apparently I think now is spelled know (but I fixed it)

Driving that train, high on cocaine, Crimsy Jones you betta, watch yo' speed
Trouble ahead, trouble behind, donchu know that notion, just crossed my mind...

Unfortunately with the database errors I can't edit my post and change know to now

Sometimes, late at night,
You can hear the whistle wail
With a spooky, screechy sound
Like a wheel gone off the rail;
And up in the smoky clouds,
You can almost recognize
The ghost of a crazy engineer
With fiery cinder eyes.

Is that from Hey, Arnold! ?

Yes.

ohhhhhhhhhhhh your poor son!!!! It was definitely a dream come true when I got to ride in the locomotive engine on a train westbound in Oregon as part of a scenic tour line back in.. oh, 1988 or 1989? The engineer even let me speed up the train and blow the whistle! It was really awesome!

How does one apply for such a position and what are the requirements?

Crimson, that's awesome news. You should really try and find a way to take your kid to work for a day. At that age it'd be so neat for him and he'd have some awesome stories to share with his friends.

Vagoo: That ep of Hey, Arnold! is probably one of my favorites. I see you and raise the Ghost Train triptych by Eric Whitacre.

Matt² said:

ohhhhhhhhhhhh your poor son!!!! It was definitely a dream come true when I got to ride in the locomotive engine on a train westbound in Oregon as part of a scenic tour line back in.. oh, 1988 or 1989? The engineer even let me speed up the train and blow the whistle! It was really awesome!

How does one apply for such a position and what are the requirements?

Click to expand...

Usually you start out as a switchman/brakeman (grunt work) and you work your way up to an engineer position. When I saw the ad in the paper the position was for a switchman but on my first day I guess they were short on engineers for a job that was getting ready to start so they put me straight into that position. today I got my "learners permit" it's a card that basically gives me permission to be in the cab and operate the controls (under an experienced operators guidance). but there's a lot of regulations from the FRA that goes into it, I still have four tests and 80 hours of training in the cab before I get the certification to operate it by myself. after tomorrow I'll have like 50 hours left on my time. So far it's a blast, my very first time coupling up to a rail car I had what I felt was a hard couple (hitting the rail car fast) but the guy in the cab with me said he hit it harder than that before, and next time if I know I'm going to hit it hard turn the chair around so that you have the cushion of the chair to take the impact lol.

---------- Post added at 08:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:05 PM ----------

Oh, like a month and a half before I hired on one of the switchman (guy on the ground) got caught between two rail cars and his body was squeezed through a space about a long as a writing pen and fucked him up real bad as in he's going to be in the hospital for the next year and after he gets released he's going to have to learn how to walk again

Holy shit. O_O

Baerdog said:

Holy shit. O_O

Click to expand...

And because of that we don't get our quarterly 500 dollar bonus for a year

CrimsonSoul;404526][QUOTE=Matt² said:

ohhhhhhhhhhhh your poor son!!!! It was definitely a dream come true when I got to ride in the locomotive engine on a train westbound in Oregon as part of a scenic tour line back in.. oh, 1988 or 1989? The engineer even let me speed up the train and blow the whistle! It was really awesome!

How does one apply for such a position and what are the requirements?

Click to expand...

Usually you start out as a switchman/brakeman (grunt work) and you work your way up to an engineer position. When I saw the ad in the paper the position was for a switchman but on my first day I guess they were short on engineers for a job that was getting ready to start so they put me straight into that position. today I got my "learners permit" it's a card that basically gives me permission to be in the cab and operate the controls (under an experienced operators guidance). but there's a lot of regulations from the FRA that goes into it, I still have four tests and 80 hours of training in the cab before I get the certification to operate it by myself. after tomorrow I'll have like 50 hours left on my time. So far it's a blast, my very first time coupling up to a rail car I had what I felt was a hard couple (hitting the rail car fast) but the guy in the cab with me said he hit it harder than that before, and next time if I know I'm going to hit it hard turn the chair around so that you have the cushion of the chair to take the impact lol.

---------- Post added at 08:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:05 PM ----------

Oh, like a month and a half before I hired on one of the switchman (guy on the ground) got caught between two rail cars and his body was squeezed through a space about a long as a writing pen and fucked him up real bad as in he's going to be in the hospital for the next year and after he gets released he's going to have to learn how to walk again[/QUOTE]

That's awesome. I ride Amtrak everyday and got to know a couple of the engineers on my morning train. To this day I don't know how you guys memorize all those wacky rail code words and phrases. I guess that's where that 80 hours of training kicks in. Good luck!

Chazwozel said:

That's awesome. I ride Amtrak everyday and got to know a couple of the engineers on my morning train. To this day I don't know how you guys memorize all those wacky rail code words and phrases. I guess that's where that 80 hours of training kicks in. Good luck!

Click to expand...

that and before I get certified I have to take a test on the FRA rules and my companies rules, and a test over how the airbrakes work as well as the on the job training learning how to change out the brake pads, check the oil, engine miles, etc once a day (on the day shift). What struck me as interesting, you can't be an engineer on a train if you don't have a drivers license (if you don't have one, it's suspended, etc). I'm ready to get certified but kinda nervous at the same time because my first time driving the train (today) I was coupling up to some cars and wasn't going slow enough so I had a hard couple and it was a hard bump for me lol our fan fell on the ground and all kinds of fun stuff. The guy training me says he's seen worse and basically "shit happens and it'll happen again, gatta do it to learn" kinda thing and didn't make a big deal about it so that helped my second couple wasn't nearly as bad but I was still nervous because of the first one.

Watch out for those pesky Final Fantasy Characters.....

Sweet gig. Also, I counter your ghost trains with the Devil's own: