No really...this is actually an update on the blog, not just a lame title crafted at 1:39am!
I am working on a few updates, and adding pages to the blog. I'll try not to published stuff until it is finished, at least enough to make sense, but bear with me if funny stuff happens over the next few weeks. It is a work in progress. Basically, what is happening, is I am combining two sites. I have had this blog for quite a while, and I have had a second website, hosted by Google, and I have decided to put the two together. The main reason for this is because I have thought many times that it would be nice to have a blog with that website, and a website with this blog. Well, I really do not have the time to maintain two sties, as you can see by the infrequency with which I update this blog, so it makes the most sense to just combine them here. Why here? Simple, I like the tools and layout better!
I'll publish a more relevant life update later, hopefully this week. In a nutshell however, things are going well. I still work for the railroad, and I am in training to be an engineer, which means right now I am actually operating freight trains. That has been keeping me pretty busy, and I anticipate it will keep me busy through the rest of the summer and into the fall. I will be done training at the beginning of November. Anyway, because of the late hour, I will talk more about that later.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Living the Dream, and a few Nightmares
If you ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, most will tell you that they want to be a firefighter, police officer, train engineer, or pilot. I was the same way when I was a kid, and most adults will admit to having wanted one of those careers at some point in their lives too. However, most people "grow up" and get "real jobs," sitting in a boring old office in front of a computer screen, which I guess that is fine if they like what they do. But some of us never really grow up, and we go and get the job we wanted as a kid. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a railroader most of the time, although at different times I also wanted to be all of the above, plus a garbage man, doctor, veterinarian, mailman, construction worker, car mechanic, and numerous other things. I still want to be a pilot, although just a recreational one, but that is a different story. As a kid, when I thought about all the various careers I thought I wanted, they all seemed pretty glamorous and interesting. People who worked in those jobs seemed like they really led an interesting life.
As I got older, I began to realize that there was reality besides all the glory. Firefighters, for example, put their life on the line regularly, and really are quite underpaid for their services. That career, as much as I appreciate those that do it, began to look less appealing to me. Doctor and veterinarian seemed nice, except they required more schooling than I could comprehend, and they involved blood. I never have liked either of those! Police officers keep the community safe, but they too take risks to ensure the well being of often ungrateful people who curse about the officer who wrote their last traffic citation. Being the guy everyone hates, but also the guy everyone depends on and expects to help them started to seem less attractive. Being a mechanic still seemed interesting, but more as a hobby. I took a few classes on mechanics in high school and quite enjoyed them, but primarily as a hobby. By high school, working for the post office or sanitation department sounded rather dull, and construction management was what I finally decided to study in college. I still thought railroading and flying sounded interesting, but getting a pilot's license seemed prohibitively expensive.
Twenty years ago, though I said I wanted to work for the railroad, I had a hard time imagining it would ever happen. Actually, I was pretty sure I would never grow up, and that grown ups had never been kids. I never completely believed my dad when he told me stories from his childhood. I was pretty sure he had always been an adult! The stories were good, and I believed them, just not the fact that he had been a kid once! As I got older, I did realize that flying or railroading, as awesome as they seemed as a kid, would still have good days and bad days. Every job is like that. Occasionally, as I see kids wave to me in the engine, I think about when I was quite young, and Dad used to take us to the local railroad yard, or just the tracks at the end of the street, and we would wave to the train crews, who always seemed so friendly up in the cab. Those train crews always seemed to be living the dream.
As life would have it, I ended up in the cab, and now I am the one waving to kids and their dads along the tracks. I am the one "living the dream" now. Some days it really feels like I am living the dream, as I go to work on warm, sunny, summer days, and put my feet up and open the window and get a pleasant breeze through the cab. Other days I wonder what I was dreaming, as I do walking inspections of trains in muddy yards, as the rain falls sideways and a cold wind blows! In any case, I certainly cannot complain that I do the same thing every day! That is one of my favorite things about working for the railroad, every day has new challenges and surprises, and it really never gets boring, even if the weather does get lousy.
I get asked a lot, by my non railroader friends, and often their children, what it is like to work for the railroad. Most of them see me as the guy that does what every kid in the world wants to. In some of the quiet, night time hours, when little is happening and I have a little time to think, I have thought about all the things I could possibly tell them about railroad life. There are so many things that go on besides the "dream" that kids imagine it is. In many ways it is one of the scariest, most stressful jobs I have ever had.
I could tell them what it is like when you are running on some really beat up old track, and the locomotive is rocking rather badly. I could tell them what it is like when that rickety old track finally gives under the weight of a 392,000 pound engine, and it leaves the rails, and the ride really starts to get wild. Even at a low speed, the first thing you think about is how out of control the situation is. You feel completely helpless, because there is no way to stop the engine or control where it goes. The seconds seem like hours, and all you do is wonder when it will stop. When everything does finally stop, and the dust settles, you look around for a second, and then hop off the engine to see what the damage looks like. Even though the engines are still upright and in the track area, something just looks very wrong, kind of like looking at a beached whale. It looks out of place and awkward. The rails are bent and twisted in all sorts of weird angles, making them resemble paperclips more than railroad tracks, and all that is left of ties is a whole lot of splinters. As you take in the situation, you just think how happy you are that it is not your responsibility to clean up the mess!
Derailments are just one of the extras to "living the dream," and fortunately I have managed to miss most of them, and none have been serious at all. A much scarier and more stressful extra involves grade crossings. As the train approaches a crossing, the gates light up and descend across the road, and bells ring. Additionally the horn and bell are sounded on the locomotive. Yet it is relatively commonplace to see vehicles dart around the crossing gates, right in front of an oncoming train. Some dart around as the gates start down, and there is still enough time for them to get by before the train gets to the crossing. Others dart across at the last second. Sometimes larger vehicles surprise you, and dart across the tracks. I could tell people about the time the driver of a tanker truck decided he could make it across the tracks and badly misjudged the timing. The cab of the truck made it across, which is perhaps the only reason he survived, because a 17,000 ton coal train takes well over a mile to stop from 50mph when it is headed downhill. When you see a tanker in the crossing, you think the worst. Fortunately it was full of water. The trailer was hit and split in half, sending the rear two thirds spinning off into a field. The front third, still coupled to the tractor portion went flying and landed in a ditch. Much to everyone's surprise, the driver not only survived, but only had a few minor scratches and bruises. He was one of the lucky ones. It is people like him, and the many others that dart around the gates, that give most train crews regular nightmares about their job, and mostly about crossing incidents.
I could also tell people about the crossing with an elementary school nearby, and about the time we watched in horror as a teacher led her class of about 25 second graders across the tracks after seeing the gates start down. At 30 mph, a train simply does not stop before the crossing once it is close enough to activate the gates. In desperation we did the only things we could do: keep blowing the horn, ringing the bell, shout at them knowing they could not hear us, and go to emergency braking. Fortunately those children were a lot smarter than their teacher and most of them waited, and actually waved to us. We had to stop to pick up cars there anyway, and when we did come to a stop, both the engineer and I had a several choice words for that teacher. She seemed slightly embarrassed about having two people, who looked young enough to be her sons, yelling at her in front of her whole class and a coworker, but otherwise she really did not seem phased by the incident.
When people, especially kids see us, and think we must be living the dream, they never think of the "extras" we get for it. I never thought of it when I was a kid. Sometimes people ask what railroading is like. Usually a few thoughts run through my head on what I could say, but ultimately I tell them it is great. I really enjoy my job, and I usually make that pretty obvious. I mean, they pay me to play with trains! It just does not get much better than that! I encourage kids to pursue it if it is something they really like, and I always fail to mention the "extras." I think it is better to let them keep dreaming. Reality will catch up with them sooner or later anyway.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Six Months
Yeah...it has been a while since I last posted. Sorry. Here is what I have been up to though!
A few days ago, I hit six months working for the railroad. For the last few years, I have been in seasonal work, so this is the longest consecutive time I have worked at the same place for a while now. In that time, here are a few things that I have been involved in:
I could not even make a slightly educated guess as to how many switches I have lined or track warrants I have copied. Both those activities happen numerous times every time I go to work.
A few days ago, I hit six months working for the railroad. For the last few years, I have been in seasonal work, so this is the longest consecutive time I have worked at the same place for a while now. In that time, here are a few things that I have been involved in:
- Traveled 10,291.8 miles by rail
- Moved about 610,000 tons of freight
- Spent approximately 950 hours on trains
- Traveled on 105 different trains
- Handled approximately 12,375 rail cars
- Switched 1 passenger train
- Picked up about 185 cars from customers
- Dropped off about 180 cars to customers
- Dealt with mechanical problems on 3 occasions
- Fixed 1 broken knuckle
- Rode out 1 derailment
I could not even make a slightly educated guess as to how many switches I have lined or track warrants I have copied. Both those activities happen numerous times every time I go to work.
I know I have only been working for the railroad for six months, which really is not very long. While the above statistics seem like a lot, I still feel very new, and I am still learning how everything works. There is a lot more to know than they could possibly cover during the training period, and I continue to learn more every time I go to work.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
On the Job Training
For the last three weeks, I have been doing on the job training. I started out working on the freight trains between Glendive and Forsyth, about 125 miles west of here. That went well. The schedule was a little crazy, but I guess I had better get used to that! I was mostly on either empty or loaded coal trains, depending on the direction I was going. I was on a few other freight trains too though. Empty coal trains are some of the lightest trains we have go through here regularly, and loaded coal trains are among the heaviest. I was on several loaded ones that weighed over 17,000 tons!
Adter spending most of the first week on the road, I was given a different assignment. I was moved to the yard, as a Utility employee. The utility is responsible for moving locomotives around. Glendive has a roundhouse and a service area, so a lot of locomotives come off trains when they get here to be fueled, serviced, or repaired, if needed. Generally we fuel locomotives if they have less than 1,500 gallons in their tanks. Most hold around 5,000 gallons of diesel. Sometimes locomotives also need to have repairs made. In that case, we would also pull them off the train and bring them over to the roundhouse. Before trains go out again, they need to have locomotives added, and the utility crew was also responsible for that. The roundhouse has four tracks, called ready tracks, where they would park locomotives that were ready to go out on trains. We would go over there and pick up locomotives and then run around the yard and put them on the trains they were assigned to. If that was all done, then the crew taking the train did not have to worry about getting their engines before they left. They could get in the train and head out of town right away. That saves them a lot of time. Besides that, utility crew handles a lot of the other odd jobs around the yard area. Sometimes it is as simple as throwing switches for a train that is coming in. Other times it is walking the length of a train to conduct an air test and inspection. Walking trains always takes a while. Most of the trains are over a mile long, and the air test requires an inspection of both sides, so you walk the length of it twice. The first train I had to walk was over 7,000 feet long, because it did not fit in the yard track it was on.
I spent about a week working in the yard, on utility, and then I was supposed to go on the helper locomotives. When our coal trains head east from here, they get a helper locomotives. Some other trains also get a helper, but the coal trains always get one. They go up Beaver Hill, into North Dakota. The helpers push form the rear, and basically just give them some extra horsepower over the hill. Once they are at the top of the hill, the train stops, they uncouple the helper locomotive, and the train continues east, while the helper locomotive returns to Glendive. There was a mix up with that though, and I ended up being put back on the road to Forsyth. I did not get to do the helpers this time around. I spent all of this week running back and forth between Glendive and Forsyth again. This week was a little crazy though. At the beginning of the week, there was a derailment in Idaho, on a different line. That meant that a lot of trains were detoured over this line, while they cleaned up the mess on the other one. Things were busier than normal, which also meant everything went a bit slower than normal. Later in the week, there was a minor derailment in Dickinson, ND, which is on this line. Because of that, nothing could get through, and so everything was quiet for a day and a half while they sorted that out. Those two derailments really made things crazy around here, even if they were not here.
Next week, we go back to the classroom. We will be in the classroom for the next three weeks. In two weeks, we have our first test. It is called the Hostlers Exam. It is a basic exam, going over basic operations, air tests, safety rules, and operation rules. We have two opportunities to pass that, with a 90% or more. If we do not pass it, we continue with training and take it again at the end, with the rest of our exams. If we do pass it, we are licensed as a Hostler. That allows us to operate engines without any cars and perform conductor and brakeman duties around the yard. In three weeks, we take a practice exam. The practice exam does not effect our training or our job, but it gives the training people an idea of how we are doing for the real thing, which will be six weeks later. Ideally, most of us will get a passing grade on it. We will be studying a lot more rules over the next few weeks, and in three weeks, we are doing more on the job training.
So that is my life. I have no schedule anymore. Sometimes I go to work at 11:30pm and work until lunch time. Other days I go to work just after breakfast and work until dinner time. Basically, if I am not at work, I spend most of my time sleeping, so I will be rested enough when the phone rings to go to work again. The classroom will be on a more regular schedule for the next few weeks.
Well, that is all I have to say!
Adter spending most of the first week on the road, I was given a different assignment. I was moved to the yard, as a Utility employee. The utility is responsible for moving locomotives around. Glendive has a roundhouse and a service area, so a lot of locomotives come off trains when they get here to be fueled, serviced, or repaired, if needed. Generally we fuel locomotives if they have less than 1,500 gallons in their tanks. Most hold around 5,000 gallons of diesel. Sometimes locomotives also need to have repairs made. In that case, we would also pull them off the train and bring them over to the roundhouse. Before trains go out again, they need to have locomotives added, and the utility crew was also responsible for that. The roundhouse has four tracks, called ready tracks, where they would park locomotives that were ready to go out on trains. We would go over there and pick up locomotives and then run around the yard and put them on the trains they were assigned to. If that was all done, then the crew taking the train did not have to worry about getting their engines before they left. They could get in the train and head out of town right away. That saves them a lot of time. Besides that, utility crew handles a lot of the other odd jobs around the yard area. Sometimes it is as simple as throwing switches for a train that is coming in. Other times it is walking the length of a train to conduct an air test and inspection. Walking trains always takes a while. Most of the trains are over a mile long, and the air test requires an inspection of both sides, so you walk the length of it twice. The first train I had to walk was over 7,000 feet long, because it did not fit in the yard track it was on.
I spent about a week working in the yard, on utility, and then I was supposed to go on the helper locomotives. When our coal trains head east from here, they get a helper locomotives. Some other trains also get a helper, but the coal trains always get one. They go up Beaver Hill, into North Dakota. The helpers push form the rear, and basically just give them some extra horsepower over the hill. Once they are at the top of the hill, the train stops, they uncouple the helper locomotive, and the train continues east, while the helper locomotive returns to Glendive. There was a mix up with that though, and I ended up being put back on the road to Forsyth. I did not get to do the helpers this time around. I spent all of this week running back and forth between Glendive and Forsyth again. This week was a little crazy though. At the beginning of the week, there was a derailment in Idaho, on a different line. That meant that a lot of trains were detoured over this line, while they cleaned up the mess on the other one. Things were busier than normal, which also meant everything went a bit slower than normal. Later in the week, there was a minor derailment in Dickinson, ND, which is on this line. Because of that, nothing could get through, and so everything was quiet for a day and a half while they sorted that out. Those two derailments really made things crazy around here, even if they were not here.
Next week, we go back to the classroom. We will be in the classroom for the next three weeks. In two weeks, we have our first test. It is called the Hostlers Exam. It is a basic exam, going over basic operations, air tests, safety rules, and operation rules. We have two opportunities to pass that, with a 90% or more. If we do not pass it, we continue with training and take it again at the end, with the rest of our exams. If we do pass it, we are licensed as a Hostler. That allows us to operate engines without any cars and perform conductor and brakeman duties around the yard. In three weeks, we take a practice exam. The practice exam does not effect our training or our job, but it gives the training people an idea of how we are doing for the real thing, which will be six weeks later. Ideally, most of us will get a passing grade on it. We will be studying a lot more rules over the next few weeks, and in three weeks, we are doing more on the job training.
So that is my life. I have no schedule anymore. Sometimes I go to work at 11:30pm and work until lunch time. Other days I go to work just after breakfast and work until dinner time. Basically, if I am not at work, I spend most of my time sleeping, so I will be rested enough when the phone rings to go to work again. The classroom will be on a more regular schedule for the next few weeks.
Well, that is all I have to say!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Switching
This post comes at you from eastern Montana!
Last Saturday, I made the LONG drive from Utah County to Glendive, MT. It took 13 hours, and I covered 927 miles. Along the way I made exactly three fuel/rest stops, in Idaho Falls, ID, Bozeman, MT, and Miles City, MT. It was a very long drive, although shortened a bit by the ability to drive at relatively high speeds for most of it. It started out in the snow, but that only lasted as far as Ogden, UT, which was fortunate. I really did not want to drive in the snow if I did not have to.
On Sunday, I managed to find the ward here, the Glendive Ward, and get to church. The church is located right next to the railroad tracks, so it is actually a pretty noisy place at times. At least it does not shake whenever a train goes by! The ward is well attended, but it also covers a huge area!
On Monday morning, I began my first day at work with the BNSF Railway. Several of us met in a conference room on the second floor of the Glendive station building. The class was supposed to have eight students, however one did not show up, which is a bit odd, because apparently he called our instructor and talked about coming, and he formally accepted the job last week. But when Monday came around, he was missing in action. Since then he has not called or emailed or made any contact. At this point he has lost the job even if he does turn up somewhere. We have covered so much stuff that catching up would be difficult. We began class as normal, despite the absentee. Monday was a lot of very general safety information. We started reviewing the rule book, which is the size of a toddler, and going over safe practices around trains. We learned about the "Eight Deadly." They are eight things that pretty much guarantee a very serious injury or death of you do them. We reviewed a lot of rules, and watched some short safety videos. Most of the stuff we covered on Monday was pretty obvious, and it makes you wonder how stupid someone was to get such a rule in the book!
On Tuesday, the coldest day all week, we decided to go outside. It warmed all the way up to -2. We learned some basic operations such as setting hand brakes on cars and coupling air hoses for the brake system. We also learned how to disassemble the couplers and replace the knuckles if they break. We were probably only outside about an hour, but it doesn't take long to want to somewhere warm when it is that cold! The rest of the day was spent indoors, with more rulebook stuff. Wednesday was even more rule book stuff.
On Thursday things worked out such that we could go outside and actually use a train. Not only that, it was the warmest day all week! The switch engine had a crew, and they had an hour to work with us in between their regular duties, so we all got to work around a moving train. There were three freight cars we found laying around, which were not being used, so we decided to practice coupling the engines to them. Of course, being conductor trainees, we were not be operating the locomotives, but rather spotting for the engineer. We took turns using hand signals to instruct the engineer to pull away from the cars left on the siding, and then we would guide him back to make a joint, or coupling. Once the coupling was made, we would give him a signal to indicate that we would be stepping between the locomotive and car to couple the air hoses. Once that was done, it was the next person's turn to start the process over again. We were also instructed to go to the cab of the locomotive, so we could see the hand signals from the engineer's perspective. We had a pair of locomotives, and so the engineer was sitting well over 100 feet away from the coupling, in the far locomotive. He was also facing away from the coupling, meaning he was watching these hand signals in a small mirror outside his side window. We felt like we were giving huge signals, but from the cab, they did not look quite so huge! We all got to ride back and forth a couple times to get an idea of what he sees and how he reacts up at the head end during such an operation. After about an hour, we all had a chance to do that, and so we headed back inside. The locomotives and cars we were using wandered off with the switch crew, and we picked up where we had left off with rules and practices.
Today was a very short day, but it did involve more rules. We spent a couple hours studying the rules for conducting different types of air brake tests on the trains. Those rules and exceptions and really complex. Not only do we have to know when to conduct such tests, we have to know how. Typically it is the conductor who takes charge of such tests. On Monday we have to be back at work, and we will be putting ourselves on a call board for trains. Starting next week, we will be doing on the job training. We will mark up with a crew and ride the trains with them to get an idea of what operations are like outside of the classroom. We will have three weeks of on the job training before we return to the classroom again. This job is a lot of fun, but I think it will be better in warm weather!
That locomotive above is one of the pair we were using yesterday. I did not take the picture, but it is the actual locomotive that someone else spotted out there.
Last Saturday, I made the LONG drive from Utah County to Glendive, MT. It took 13 hours, and I covered 927 miles. Along the way I made exactly three fuel/rest stops, in Idaho Falls, ID, Bozeman, MT, and Miles City, MT. It was a very long drive, although shortened a bit by the ability to drive at relatively high speeds for most of it. It started out in the snow, but that only lasted as far as Ogden, UT, which was fortunate. I really did not want to drive in the snow if I did not have to.
On Sunday, I managed to find the ward here, the Glendive Ward, and get to church. The church is located right next to the railroad tracks, so it is actually a pretty noisy place at times. At least it does not shake whenever a train goes by! The ward is well attended, but it also covers a huge area!
On Monday morning, I began my first day at work with the BNSF Railway. Several of us met in a conference room on the second floor of the Glendive station building. The class was supposed to have eight students, however one did not show up, which is a bit odd, because apparently he called our instructor and talked about coming, and he formally accepted the job last week. But when Monday came around, he was missing in action. Since then he has not called or emailed or made any contact. At this point he has lost the job even if he does turn up somewhere. We have covered so much stuff that catching up would be difficult. We began class as normal, despite the absentee. Monday was a lot of very general safety information. We started reviewing the rule book, which is the size of a toddler, and going over safe practices around trains. We learned about the "Eight Deadly." They are eight things that pretty much guarantee a very serious injury or death of you do them. We reviewed a lot of rules, and watched some short safety videos. Most of the stuff we covered on Monday was pretty obvious, and it makes you wonder how stupid someone was to get such a rule in the book!
On Tuesday, the coldest day all week, we decided to go outside. It warmed all the way up to -2. We learned some basic operations such as setting hand brakes on cars and coupling air hoses for the brake system. We also learned how to disassemble the couplers and replace the knuckles if they break. We were probably only outside about an hour, but it doesn't take long to want to somewhere warm when it is that cold! The rest of the day was spent indoors, with more rulebook stuff. Wednesday was even more rule book stuff.
 |
| Photo from www.trainpix.com |
Today was a very short day, but it did involve more rules. We spent a couple hours studying the rules for conducting different types of air brake tests on the trains. Those rules and exceptions and really complex. Not only do we have to know when to conduct such tests, we have to know how. Typically it is the conductor who takes charge of such tests. On Monday we have to be back at work, and we will be putting ourselves on a call board for trains. Starting next week, we will be doing on the job training. We will mark up with a crew and ride the trains with them to get an idea of what operations are like outside of the classroom. We will have three weeks of on the job training before we return to the classroom again. This job is a lot of fun, but I think it will be better in warm weather!
That locomotive above is one of the pair we were using yesterday. I did not take the picture, but it is the actual locomotive that someone else spotted out there.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Well I Promised You Updates...
As all of you know, if you have been stalking my blog for more than a few weeks, I had a job interview for a Conductor position with BNSF Railway. Let me update you on that situation. As a reminder, the interview was at the beginning of December, and it was up in Forsyth, Montana. They had positions open in both Forsyth, MT, and Glendive, MT. During the interview process, I told them I would prefer to work in Glendive, if possible. They basically told me to check my email for further updates. I figured that would be the end of the process, but as it turned out, it was just the beginning.
About a week after the interview, I got an email from BNSF, in which they offered me a job in Glendive. The job offer was conditional on me passing quite a few different background checks, in the United States and in Canada. It was also conditional on passing drug and alcohol tests, as well as a physical and vision and hearing exams. Shortly after receiving the job offer, I received several emails containing electronic copies of quite a lot of paperwork. I spent a large part of that week gathering information and filling out paperwork, and forwarding it all back to the railroad. After Christmas they contacted me a couple more times to get additional information for the background checks. The paperwork was not complete until the middle of January. At that point, I received an email from them indicating that the next openings were not until some time in April. They did not give me an official start date, but they let me know when I would likely be starting, pending all the background checks going through.
Last Thursday, a week ago, I received another email from BNSF, again offering me the same job, in Glendive. They let me know all the background check stuff had gone through and I was eligible to work for them. I accepted the job offer. I will start working on Monday, February 28, at 7:00am. Yes, that is just a couple days from now. I got about ten days notice. So now the task at hand is to move myself to Glendive, MT, which is over 800 miles from here. I am packing everything up, and Saturday morning I will stuff everything in the car and make the drive. I estimate that it will take about twelve hours to drive up there, so I plan to leave early in the morning. Once there I have to find a place to stay and get settled. Work is six days a week typically. Monday will mark the beginning of the training period, which will last 15 weeks. Following that, I have to take some exams issued by the Federal Railroad Administration, a division of the Department of Transportation. Upon passing those I will be a certified Conductor for BNSF Railway.
Can you believe that they are going to pay me to ride trains?!
About a week after the interview, I got an email from BNSF, in which they offered me a job in Glendive. The job offer was conditional on me passing quite a few different background checks, in the United States and in Canada. It was also conditional on passing drug and alcohol tests, as well as a physical and vision and hearing exams. Shortly after receiving the job offer, I received several emails containing electronic copies of quite a lot of paperwork. I spent a large part of that week gathering information and filling out paperwork, and forwarding it all back to the railroad. After Christmas they contacted me a couple more times to get additional information for the background checks. The paperwork was not complete until the middle of January. At that point, I received an email from them indicating that the next openings were not until some time in April. They did not give me an official start date, but they let me know when I would likely be starting, pending all the background checks going through.
Last Thursday, a week ago, I received another email from BNSF, again offering me the same job, in Glendive. They let me know all the background check stuff had gone through and I was eligible to work for them. I accepted the job offer. I will start working on Monday, February 28, at 7:00am. Yes, that is just a couple days from now. I got about ten days notice. So now the task at hand is to move myself to Glendive, MT, which is over 800 miles from here. I am packing everything up, and Saturday morning I will stuff everything in the car and make the drive. I estimate that it will take about twelve hours to drive up there, so I plan to leave early in the morning. Once there I have to find a place to stay and get settled. Work is six days a week typically. Monday will mark the beginning of the training period, which will last 15 weeks. Following that, I have to take some exams issued by the Federal Railroad Administration, a division of the Department of Transportation. Upon passing those I will be a certified Conductor for BNSF Railway.
Can you believe that they are going to pay me to ride trains?!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Double Clutch Madness
A few of you blog stalkers have asked about work from time to time. As most of you know, I drive charter buses in Provo, which takes me to a variety of destinations throughout the western United States. The thing that always gets questions is when I mention that some of our older buses have manual transmissions. Needless to say, driving a manual bus is quite different from a car with a manual transmission!
As many of you know, when you drive a car with a manual transmission, you give it a little gas, put it in first, and then let the clutch out to get the car going. As you accelerate, you shift gears by putting the clutch in, moving the shifter the the appropriate gear, and then letting the clutch out. It is all very simple. To explain the exact mechanics behind all this would take a long time, and be pretty boring reading without pictures. If you want all the details, go to www.howstuffworks.com and look it up! (They have pictures!) The reason it works that easily in a car is because of devices on every gear called synchronizers. For the gears to be able to engage, the wheels and internal parts on the transmission must be spinning the same speed. When you change gears, going up, your engine, and there fore transmission, are turning fast. When you push the clutch in to change gears, the engine slows down, but it is no longer connected to the transmission, so the internal parts of the transmission could continue spinning at about the same speed, until they eventually slow down on their own. However, as you stick it in the next gear, the synchronizers slow it down faster, to match the speed of the wheels for the new gear, allowing the gears to line up perfectly. Then you engage the clutch again, and you are off, in a higher gear. Everything I just explained is true in a car, but only kind of true in a bus.
Buses have double clutch transmissions. This means, if you want to get going, it is almost the same. While you are stopped, you push the clutch, and then move the shifter towards first. However, it will not go into gear. There are no synchronizers to help line everything up. Since your engine was turning, the internal parts of the transmission are still turning, until they eventually slow down. They wheels however are not moving, and without the synchronizers, you just have to wait until the transmission parts slow to a stop. Until then, it will not go into gear. But it will make an awful grinding noise while you try to force it! So after a few seconds, you get it into gear. Just like in a car, you let the clutch out slowly and you begin to roll, but then it is time to change gears so you can go faster. This is where things get a little tricky. You push the clutch pedal, and pull it out of first gear. The engine is revved really high, but it has to slow down to get into the next gear. Consequently, the transmission parts are also revved really high, but need to slow down to get into the next gear, but the synchronizers don't exist to help. So, once out of gear and in neutral, you let the gas off, and you let the clutch out for just a second. This slows the transmission down quickly. Then you push the clutch in again and stick it into gear. If you did it right, it goes smoothly into the next gear. If not, it grinds, shakes, lurches, and basically tells you and everyone on board that you did it wrong! This pattern of clutch-shift out of gear-unclutch-clutch-shift into gear-unclutch should last maybe a second, which means you are moving fast. But you have to be gentle, then at least if you do goof it up there will be quieter grinding, less violent shaking, and and minimal lurching.
Down shifting is where things get really tricky. This is partly because there are three pedals on the floor, and you only have two feet, but you really need to be using all three. Since you cannot possibly hit all three pedals just the way you need to at one time, you sort of end up doing a crazy hectic down shifting dance in your seat. As you get to the speed where you need to down shift, you push in the clutch, and pull the shifter out of gear, as usual, and then let the clutch back in. Before you can put it in the lower gear however, everything needs to get going faster, so you rev the engine as fast as it will go. Once it is revved, you step on the clutch and put it in the lower gear, then release the clutch. However, while you are stepping on the gas to rev the engine, you cannot be stepping on the brake to slow down, so hopefully you planned a bit of extra space for this! Once again, if it was done right, and at the proper speed, it is nice and smooth. If not, a few things could happen. If you did it while going too slow, and somehow managed to get into gear anyway, when you let the clutch out, the bus suddenly surges forward. If you were still going too fast, and somehow managed to get it into gear, then it suddenly grabs you and slows you down in a hurry when you let the clutch out. Usually though, it just doesn't go into gear. And then you sit there wondering what to do next because you have slowed down enough that going back to the gear you started in an option. You have to find a gear somewhere. So then you start looking for a gear, but they all grind and shake and nothing seems to be working. Then you wish you had planned that down shift a bit better, but it is too late to think about that. Then, as you are drifting along in no gear, traffic begins to move again, so you have to find a gear to get going. It is either that or coast to a stop in the middle of a busy road!
Why is it this way? Well it all boils down to those little metal pieces called synchronizers. In a car, they make everything go the right speed so you never have to think about it. Buses, and trucks for that matter, simply don't have them. They would have to be so big to be effective that they are not practical, which means the driver is responsible for synchronizing everything. It is a pretty tricky operation when you thing about it. You are trying to get a few little teeth 40 feet away to line up just right, which you cannot see at all. Not only that, they are spinning anywhere from 500 to 2500 rotations every minute!
Now, I am sure you are wondering what exactly happens when you do mess it up, besides the grinding, shaking, and lurching. There are a few ways to fix it. When you are shifting up, if you miss the gear, you can try again, but if you cannot get it into gear within a few seconds, chances are you will not get it in after that. You will lose too much speed. So, if you miss the gear you try again, once, and then you let the clutch back out, rev the engine, and then go back to the gear you started in. You stay there until you are back up to shifting speed, and try again. Some gears are more stubborn than others, and sometimes, even though you nail the speed, it still takes a few tries. If it just will not go, one thing you can do is get off the clutch, and then rev the engine just a little. Then step off the gas, put the clutch in, and quickly stick it into gear. Usually doing that will help it find the gear, but it has to be done very quickly to work. When down shifting, if you mess it up and cannot get it into gear, the first thing you check is your speed. If you are going too fast, your best bet is put it back into the gear you were in and slow down some more. If you are going too slow, you need to step off the gas as you step on the clutch, because the engine will not need to be going as fast. That will allow it to find the gear. It will still make noise, but it will find it. When all else fails, you simply slow down to a crawl until you can stick it back in first and start over. Sure everyone in their cars behind you hates you for it, but they aren't paying as much in taxes to use the road as the bus is, so they can just deal with it!
Some buses are more forgiving than others. Some will let you goof it up a little, and they will no jerk you around as badly for it. Others are not forgiving at all, and if you mess it up, they simply will not even let you have the gear! Basically it is a lot of work and takes a lot of thinking ahead to do it. If it is stop and go traffic, you will probably break a sweat. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that these clutches are so stiff that the only thing that keeps me from standing on them is my seatbelt. Without that, it would take most of my weight to push that pedal down! It is totally a chore, and it really makes you hate the person who darts out in front of you and then slows down. But that is how it all works. If that was not technical enough, do a little research online, and you will get it. www.howstuffworks.com is a good one.
As many of you know, when you drive a car with a manual transmission, you give it a little gas, put it in first, and then let the clutch out to get the car going. As you accelerate, you shift gears by putting the clutch in, moving the shifter the the appropriate gear, and then letting the clutch out. It is all very simple. To explain the exact mechanics behind all this would take a long time, and be pretty boring reading without pictures. If you want all the details, go to www.howstuffworks.com and look it up! (They have pictures!) The reason it works that easily in a car is because of devices on every gear called synchronizers. For the gears to be able to engage, the wheels and internal parts on the transmission must be spinning the same speed. When you change gears, going up, your engine, and there fore transmission, are turning fast. When you push the clutch in to change gears, the engine slows down, but it is no longer connected to the transmission, so the internal parts of the transmission could continue spinning at about the same speed, until they eventually slow down on their own. However, as you stick it in the next gear, the synchronizers slow it down faster, to match the speed of the wheels for the new gear, allowing the gears to line up perfectly. Then you engage the clutch again, and you are off, in a higher gear. Everything I just explained is true in a car, but only kind of true in a bus.
Buses have double clutch transmissions. This means, if you want to get going, it is almost the same. While you are stopped, you push the clutch, and then move the shifter towards first. However, it will not go into gear. There are no synchronizers to help line everything up. Since your engine was turning, the internal parts of the transmission are still turning, until they eventually slow down. They wheels however are not moving, and without the synchronizers, you just have to wait until the transmission parts slow to a stop. Until then, it will not go into gear. But it will make an awful grinding noise while you try to force it! So after a few seconds, you get it into gear. Just like in a car, you let the clutch out slowly and you begin to roll, but then it is time to change gears so you can go faster. This is where things get a little tricky. You push the clutch pedal, and pull it out of first gear. The engine is revved really high, but it has to slow down to get into the next gear. Consequently, the transmission parts are also revved really high, but need to slow down to get into the next gear, but the synchronizers don't exist to help. So, once out of gear and in neutral, you let the gas off, and you let the clutch out for just a second. This slows the transmission down quickly. Then you push the clutch in again and stick it into gear. If you did it right, it goes smoothly into the next gear. If not, it grinds, shakes, lurches, and basically tells you and everyone on board that you did it wrong! This pattern of clutch-shift out of gear-unclutch-clutch-shift into gear-unclutch should last maybe a second, which means you are moving fast. But you have to be gentle, then at least if you do goof it up there will be quieter grinding, less violent shaking, and and minimal lurching.
Down shifting is where things get really tricky. This is partly because there are three pedals on the floor, and you only have two feet, but you really need to be using all three. Since you cannot possibly hit all three pedals just the way you need to at one time, you sort of end up doing a crazy hectic down shifting dance in your seat. As you get to the speed where you need to down shift, you push in the clutch, and pull the shifter out of gear, as usual, and then let the clutch back in. Before you can put it in the lower gear however, everything needs to get going faster, so you rev the engine as fast as it will go. Once it is revved, you step on the clutch and put it in the lower gear, then release the clutch. However, while you are stepping on the gas to rev the engine, you cannot be stepping on the brake to slow down, so hopefully you planned a bit of extra space for this! Once again, if it was done right, and at the proper speed, it is nice and smooth. If not, a few things could happen. If you did it while going too slow, and somehow managed to get into gear anyway, when you let the clutch out, the bus suddenly surges forward. If you were still going too fast, and somehow managed to get it into gear, then it suddenly grabs you and slows you down in a hurry when you let the clutch out. Usually though, it just doesn't go into gear. And then you sit there wondering what to do next because you have slowed down enough that going back to the gear you started in an option. You have to find a gear somewhere. So then you start looking for a gear, but they all grind and shake and nothing seems to be working. Then you wish you had planned that down shift a bit better, but it is too late to think about that. Then, as you are drifting along in no gear, traffic begins to move again, so you have to find a gear to get going. It is either that or coast to a stop in the middle of a busy road!
Why is it this way? Well it all boils down to those little metal pieces called synchronizers. In a car, they make everything go the right speed so you never have to think about it. Buses, and trucks for that matter, simply don't have them. They would have to be so big to be effective that they are not practical, which means the driver is responsible for synchronizing everything. It is a pretty tricky operation when you thing about it. You are trying to get a few little teeth 40 feet away to line up just right, which you cannot see at all. Not only that, they are spinning anywhere from 500 to 2500 rotations every minute!
Now, I am sure you are wondering what exactly happens when you do mess it up, besides the grinding, shaking, and lurching. There are a few ways to fix it. When you are shifting up, if you miss the gear, you can try again, but if you cannot get it into gear within a few seconds, chances are you will not get it in after that. You will lose too much speed. So, if you miss the gear you try again, once, and then you let the clutch back out, rev the engine, and then go back to the gear you started in. You stay there until you are back up to shifting speed, and try again. Some gears are more stubborn than others, and sometimes, even though you nail the speed, it still takes a few tries. If it just will not go, one thing you can do is get off the clutch, and then rev the engine just a little. Then step off the gas, put the clutch in, and quickly stick it into gear. Usually doing that will help it find the gear, but it has to be done very quickly to work. When down shifting, if you mess it up and cannot get it into gear, the first thing you check is your speed. If you are going too fast, your best bet is put it back into the gear you were in and slow down some more. If you are going too slow, you need to step off the gas as you step on the clutch, because the engine will not need to be going as fast. That will allow it to find the gear. It will still make noise, but it will find it. When all else fails, you simply slow down to a crawl until you can stick it back in first and start over. Sure everyone in their cars behind you hates you for it, but they aren't paying as much in taxes to use the road as the bus is, so they can just deal with it!
Some buses are more forgiving than others. Some will let you goof it up a little, and they will no jerk you around as badly for it. Others are not forgiving at all, and if you mess it up, they simply will not even let you have the gear! Basically it is a lot of work and takes a lot of thinking ahead to do it. If it is stop and go traffic, you will probably break a sweat. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that these clutches are so stiff that the only thing that keeps me from standing on them is my seatbelt. Without that, it would take most of my weight to push that pedal down! It is totally a chore, and it really makes you hate the person who darts out in front of you and then slows down. But that is how it all works. If that was not technical enough, do a little research online, and you will get it. www.howstuffworks.com is a good one.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Coming at You at 80mph!
For the first time ever, I am writing a post from a moving train. Gotta love technology! According to the GPS on my iPhone, the train is moving at 80.2 mph, which sounds about right. I am on Amtrak's California Zephyr, in eastern Iowa, heading west to Salt Lake City, UT. The train is scheduled to arrive there tomorrow evening.
The holidays have been fun and exciting, as always. I left Utah on Christmas Eve, just before midnight, and flew overnight to Kennedy Airport in New York. I arrived there early in the morning on Christmas Day. The weather was good, and I got out to my grandparents' house without a hitch. Everything was pretty quiet since it was Christmas, but being New York, it was not entirely dead, the way most cities are. Transit still ran every half hour, some stores and restaurants were open, and things generally moved, although slower than usual.
After Christmas, it began to snow. Steven and Michael were scheduled to take the train from Boston to New York, and got on without any problems. It was barely snowing when they started out, 250 miles away. As they traveled, and as the day progressed, the snow continued to fall, and continued to fall harder. Tim and I kept shoveling the driveway to stay ahead of the storm. We were anticipating that we would have to go out to pick up Steven and Michael, when they arrived at the Mineola station. We figured it would be easier to shovel a little snow several times, rather than a lot all at once.
Steven and Michael arrived in Penn Station, in New York, without any problems. Their train had been delayed only about ten minutes by the weather. They got ready to catch the Long Island Rail Road to Mineola as planned. By this point, over a foot of snow had fallen. By my standards, that is not a lot, but in New York, it is a ton! Just as Steven and Michael went to catch their train, it was announced that all service on the Long Island Rail Road had been suspended due to the weather. No trains would be running until further notice, and no one knew when further notice would be.
Fortunately, Steven and Michael are usually pretty resourceful. The New York subways were still running, at least where they operate underground. A neighborhood in Queens, called Jamaica, is the main hub for the railroad, and the subway operates underground out to there. Steven and Michael hopped on a subway, in hopes that once in Jamaica they could catch one of the last operating Long Island Rail Road trains. Unfortunately when they got to Jamaica, they found that the situation was the same. They were less than ten miles from their destination, yet they couldn't get any trains there. Next they began looking into taking the bus, which is slower, but not out of the question. As they went looking for a bus, they found several stuck in the unplowed streets. No plows had been around at all, and the buses were simply abandoned where they had gotten stuck. It seemed that they were not going any farther soon.
Steven and Michael kept me posted on their progress, which was great until they got to the Big Apple. There it simply stopped. They elected to remain in Jamaica, since the station was warm and sheltered. They found a piece of floor that looked comfortable and went to sleep. There was nothing else to be done. The next morning, we all awoke to another foot of snow on the ground. Tim and I looked out the window in Garden City and found that the streets had been cleared. Although a lot of snow had fallen, driving was not a problem. Steven and Michael reported a different situation though. In Queens, the snow was still all over the streets. Buses were still stuck and nothing was running. The Long Island Rail Road had made no announcements on an anticipated start time or date. Everything was just silent as far as the railroad was concerned. In Mineola, where Tim and I were, buses were running and things were getting going again. There were delays, but things were starting to move. Again, Steven and Michael reported the opposite. They waited there most of the day, hoping for something, and seeing very little activity. Eventually, i got a phone call from them, to let me know they had found a bus going to Mineola. It was one of just two that were able to get through the still buried Queens streets. I met them at the Mineola station, where the buses drop off. It took them a record 27:30 to travel about 250 miles between Nashua, NH, and Garden City, NY!
The next day, the Long Island Rail Road announced that it was operating again, although on a very limited schedule. A couple of lines would be running hourly trains to Manhattan. We all went down to the station, because we were scheduled to take the train back to Boston, to go to Nashua for a few days. We waited at the Mineola station for two hours. When the train finally came, we could no longer feel our noses or ears or toes, but we were happy to be going somewhere. People on the platform clapped and cheered as the train pulled in. From there, things operated pretty smoothly. There were minor delays here and there, but once we were on the train to New York, things ran pretty well. The Amtrak trip went smoothly all the way to Boston. Once in Boston, we took the train to Lowell, MA, where we were met by my mom. She drove the bunch of us up to Nashua, and we spent the next couple days in that area.
Over the next few days we had some fun adventures. We would have like to get up to Montreal, but time really did not allow for that. We did go up to Vermont to visit the Joseph Smith birthplace. That was quite nice, although rather cold and windy. We also spent a day in Boston. We saw the Old North Church, and Copps Hill Burial Ground, both of which predate the American Revolution. Copps Hill Burial Ground was founded in 1659. Two people buried there were actually born in the 1590's! Some of the newer graves in there are from the early 1800's. The Old North Church is near the Paul Revere Home. Paul Revere made his midnight ride from Boston to Lexington and Concord, to warn the residents that the British were coming. He went by horseback in the middle of the night. At the same time as he was riding out to those towns, a signal was shown for a few minutes from the steeple of the Old North Church. There would be one lantern if the British went by land, and two if they went by sea. Two were shown, indicating that they were going by sea. This was to warn people in those towns in the event that Paul Revere was caught. He would have been arrested for breaking a curfew imposed by the soldiers in Boston at the time. The next day the fighting broke out between the British and the colonists in Lexington.
After spending some time there, we went over to Haymarket for some pizza. Michael showed us around the North End. He is most familiar with that area, as he will be going to school there in a few weeks. From there we went over to the Charlestown Navy Yard, on the other side of the Charles River. There we went aboard the U.S.S. Constitution. That ship is an old wooden Frigate, built in 1797. It is the oldest ship afloat in the world, and it is the oldest commissioned naval vessel in the world. She is known as, "Old Ironsides," because of her ability to stop cannon balls during the War of 1812. Today she is the flagship of the American Naval Fleet, even at 213 years old!
On Saturday we decided to visit my Memere, in Sanford, ME. Rather than drive, as we usually would, Tim rented a plane and we flew up there. It is normally a drive of just under two hours. It was a flight of thirty minutes. Memere met us at the airport, and then we visited with her for a couple hours. Mom decided last minute to come along and surprise her mother. It had been a while since we all visited together, and it was quite nice. When we left Sanford, we could have flown straight back to Nashua, but we decided to do a little flightseeing along the Maine coast. There are lots of lighthouses we wanted to see, so we flew east from Sanford, and then followed the coast south for a ways. Since we were over the Atlantic Ocean, we did not have to be very high. We got up close to the lighthouses to get a good view. This did get a little attention from people walking on the beaches. I guess they were not used to having an airplane fly over just 500 feet above them! It really was a beautiful trip back from Maine. That evening we visited with some the Davises, some other friends in the area.
Yesterday afternoon, we boarded the Lake Shore Limited in Boston. That train got us to Chicago five minutes ahead of schedule this morning. In Chicago we went to the top of the former Sears Tower, now known as the Willis Tower. We also got ourselves a Chicago style, deep dish pizza, much to the envy of some of the other passengers, and crew, on this train. Now, as I write this, I am sitting on the California Zephyr, racing west across Iowa. Tomorrow we will the end the trip, in Utah.
The holidays have been fun and exciting, as always. I left Utah on Christmas Eve, just before midnight, and flew overnight to Kennedy Airport in New York. I arrived there early in the morning on Christmas Day. The weather was good, and I got out to my grandparents' house without a hitch. Everything was pretty quiet since it was Christmas, but being New York, it was not entirely dead, the way most cities are. Transit still ran every half hour, some stores and restaurants were open, and things generally moved, although slower than usual.
After Christmas, it began to snow. Steven and Michael were scheduled to take the train from Boston to New York, and got on without any problems. It was barely snowing when they started out, 250 miles away. As they traveled, and as the day progressed, the snow continued to fall, and continued to fall harder. Tim and I kept shoveling the driveway to stay ahead of the storm. We were anticipating that we would have to go out to pick up Steven and Michael, when they arrived at the Mineola station. We figured it would be easier to shovel a little snow several times, rather than a lot all at once.
Steven and Michael arrived in Penn Station, in New York, without any problems. Their train had been delayed only about ten minutes by the weather. They got ready to catch the Long Island Rail Road to Mineola as planned. By this point, over a foot of snow had fallen. By my standards, that is not a lot, but in New York, it is a ton! Just as Steven and Michael went to catch their train, it was announced that all service on the Long Island Rail Road had been suspended due to the weather. No trains would be running until further notice, and no one knew when further notice would be.
Fortunately, Steven and Michael are usually pretty resourceful. The New York subways were still running, at least where they operate underground. A neighborhood in Queens, called Jamaica, is the main hub for the railroad, and the subway operates underground out to there. Steven and Michael hopped on a subway, in hopes that once in Jamaica they could catch one of the last operating Long Island Rail Road trains. Unfortunately when they got to Jamaica, they found that the situation was the same. They were less than ten miles from their destination, yet they couldn't get any trains there. Next they began looking into taking the bus, which is slower, but not out of the question. As they went looking for a bus, they found several stuck in the unplowed streets. No plows had been around at all, and the buses were simply abandoned where they had gotten stuck. It seemed that they were not going any farther soon.
Steven and Michael kept me posted on their progress, which was great until they got to the Big Apple. There it simply stopped. They elected to remain in Jamaica, since the station was warm and sheltered. They found a piece of floor that looked comfortable and went to sleep. There was nothing else to be done. The next morning, we all awoke to another foot of snow on the ground. Tim and I looked out the window in Garden City and found that the streets had been cleared. Although a lot of snow had fallen, driving was not a problem. Steven and Michael reported a different situation though. In Queens, the snow was still all over the streets. Buses were still stuck and nothing was running. The Long Island Rail Road had made no announcements on an anticipated start time or date. Everything was just silent as far as the railroad was concerned. In Mineola, where Tim and I were, buses were running and things were getting going again. There were delays, but things were starting to move. Again, Steven and Michael reported the opposite. They waited there most of the day, hoping for something, and seeing very little activity. Eventually, i got a phone call from them, to let me know they had found a bus going to Mineola. It was one of just two that were able to get through the still buried Queens streets. I met them at the Mineola station, where the buses drop off. It took them a record 27:30 to travel about 250 miles between Nashua, NH, and Garden City, NY!
The next day, the Long Island Rail Road announced that it was operating again, although on a very limited schedule. A couple of lines would be running hourly trains to Manhattan. We all went down to the station, because we were scheduled to take the train back to Boston, to go to Nashua for a few days. We waited at the Mineola station for two hours. When the train finally came, we could no longer feel our noses or ears or toes, but we were happy to be going somewhere. People on the platform clapped and cheered as the train pulled in. From there, things operated pretty smoothly. There were minor delays here and there, but once we were on the train to New York, things ran pretty well. The Amtrak trip went smoothly all the way to Boston. Once in Boston, we took the train to Lowell, MA, where we were met by my mom. She drove the bunch of us up to Nashua, and we spent the next couple days in that area.
Over the next few days we had some fun adventures. We would have like to get up to Montreal, but time really did not allow for that. We did go up to Vermont to visit the Joseph Smith birthplace. That was quite nice, although rather cold and windy. We also spent a day in Boston. We saw the Old North Church, and Copps Hill Burial Ground, both of which predate the American Revolution. Copps Hill Burial Ground was founded in 1659. Two people buried there were actually born in the 1590's! Some of the newer graves in there are from the early 1800's. The Old North Church is near the Paul Revere Home. Paul Revere made his midnight ride from Boston to Lexington and Concord, to warn the residents that the British were coming. He went by horseback in the middle of the night. At the same time as he was riding out to those towns, a signal was shown for a few minutes from the steeple of the Old North Church. There would be one lantern if the British went by land, and two if they went by sea. Two were shown, indicating that they were going by sea. This was to warn people in those towns in the event that Paul Revere was caught. He would have been arrested for breaking a curfew imposed by the soldiers in Boston at the time. The next day the fighting broke out between the British and the colonists in Lexington.
After spending some time there, we went over to Haymarket for some pizza. Michael showed us around the North End. He is most familiar with that area, as he will be going to school there in a few weeks. From there we went over to the Charlestown Navy Yard, on the other side of the Charles River. There we went aboard the U.S.S. Constitution. That ship is an old wooden Frigate, built in 1797. It is the oldest ship afloat in the world, and it is the oldest commissioned naval vessel in the world. She is known as, "Old Ironsides," because of her ability to stop cannon balls during the War of 1812. Today she is the flagship of the American Naval Fleet, even at 213 years old!
On Saturday we decided to visit my Memere, in Sanford, ME. Rather than drive, as we usually would, Tim rented a plane and we flew up there. It is normally a drive of just under two hours. It was a flight of thirty minutes. Memere met us at the airport, and then we visited with her for a couple hours. Mom decided last minute to come along and surprise her mother. It had been a while since we all visited together, and it was quite nice. When we left Sanford, we could have flown straight back to Nashua, but we decided to do a little flightseeing along the Maine coast. There are lots of lighthouses we wanted to see, so we flew east from Sanford, and then followed the coast south for a ways. Since we were over the Atlantic Ocean, we did not have to be very high. We got up close to the lighthouses to get a good view. This did get a little attention from people walking on the beaches. I guess they were not used to having an airplane fly over just 500 feet above them! It really was a beautiful trip back from Maine. That evening we visited with some the Davises, some other friends in the area.
Yesterday afternoon, we boarded the Lake Shore Limited in Boston. That train got us to Chicago five minutes ahead of schedule this morning. In Chicago we went to the top of the former Sears Tower, now known as the Willis Tower. We also got ourselves a Chicago style, deep dish pizza, much to the envy of some of the other passengers, and crew, on this train. Now, as I write this, I am sitting on the California Zephyr, racing west across Iowa. Tomorrow we will the end the trip, in Utah.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
A Little Life Update
As promised, I am going to update all of you, my faithful stalkers, on how things are going with the potential job, and other aspects of my life. As you know, about two weeks ago, I had a job interview with BNSF Railway for the position of Conductor Trainee in Glendive, MT, and Forsyth, MT. I have heard back from BNSF about that. Actually, I heard back from them about a few things. I had also applied to similar positions around the same time, in other locations. The first email I got from them after the interview was to let me know I was not being considered further for the position. I was a bit disappointed, but it happens. Maybe I need to read these emails more carefully, because about an hour after that I got another email from BNSF extending a conditional offer of employment for the Glendive, MT, position! I went back and checked on the other email, because I was confused at first, and I think it was Great Falls that sent me the rejection letter. But it is okay, because they want me in Glendive! The offer is conditional on me passing all the background checks, TSA checks, Coast Guard checks, Canadian background checks, a previous employer check, a previous address verification, a drug and alcohol test, a fitness test, a physical, and me accepting the offer. Just one or two little things. Actually, I have spent the better part of a week filling out, turning in, and mailing paperwork for all of that! I am done with the paperwork at this point, and my fitness test and physical have both been scheduled. I have the fitness test tomorrow and the physical on Tuesday. The drug test has probably gone through because I turned in the hair sample for that when I interviewed. If I pass all of that stuff, basically I have a job. Once all of that goes through, they will let me know what my start date is, which could be as early as January 17. That is when the first group will be starting Conductor class. The training period is fifteen weeks long, and is a combination of on the job training and classroom training. At the end of training is the test, which we get two attempts at. Passing grades are above a 90%, and upon passing that, everyone in the class is a real life Conductor. So I am still in the middle of that whole process. I will continue to keep you posted on that.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Life is a Highway
Lately I have done quite a lot of driving. Maybe some of you faithful followers, or stalkers as the case may be, are not very surprised about that because you know I drive buses for a living. Well, this is more driving than usual. There have been good reasons for it though.
Last week I got called into work and I rode down to Scipio, UT, where I spent the night. The next morning, I work up, crossed the highway, and picked up a bus load of kids from American Fork High School and Lone Peak High School. From there, just 90 miles south of Provo, I drove them to West Covina, CA. I had never been there before, but I had a map. I think their leaders did not believe me when I told them I had never driven to southern California before! But they asked! I made it down there without any problems, and without getting lost. I had always heard people complain about Los Angeles traffic. Honestly, I was quite surprised at how good it was. Driving there was simple. The roads are crowded, but generally people are pretty sensible drivers there.
I stayed with that same group of high school students for the next few days during their activities in the Los Angeles area. They were down there primarily for a regional cross country meet. The day after we arrived, I drove them over to Mount San Antonio College, in Walnut, CA, for them to practice and to see the track they would be running on. They spent the morning over there, and then wanted to go to the beach. It had been below freezing in Utah, so even though it was the dead of winter to many of the locals, it was nice and warm to all of us! It was in the 70's, and quite pleasant. We drove down to Newport Beach, and parked over by the Balboa Pier. Most of the kids went swimming. Some buried their friends in the sand. Others went to lunch. We spent a couple of hours there, and even got to see some dolphins swimming offshore. I thought the water was awfully cold to swim in, at just about 60 degrees. The water in Maine is quite a bit warmer!
The next day was the actual day of the competition. I again drove the teams over to the college, in Walnut, and they ran their races. As I understand, those went pretty well for them. After the races were over, they had a chance to go back to the hotel, shower, and change. In the afternoon, we went to Anaheim, CA, to visit Disneyland. I had never been to Disneyland, and I figured I would just sit out in the parking lot and take a nap for several hours. I did not want to pay the high admission price to go in alone! Well, one of the other bus drivers had managed to get his hands on some o the extra tickets from his group, and he gave one to me. Since it was free, I happily went into Disneyland! I had no idea what to expect, and was quite lost at first. It sure was easy to lose touch with reality in there though!
I spent a couple hours in Disneyland before I was completely exhausted. I was a little disappointed honestly. Some of the rides were really neat, but the lines were outrageously long! Basically you wait to get into the park, and once you do get in, you spend all your time standing around waiting some more. Some of the rides were nice, but really were not unique to Disneyland. I really enjoyed the Disney themed rides, most of which had either been made from movies, or had been made into movies. I thought those were the ones worth seeing. The park was large, and easy to get lost in. It was very crowded. The thing that really bothered me is how so many people save money to bring their kids there. Some families save for years to do that, and when they get there, they spend most of the day standing in line and hoping that their kids, who are bored, don't start causing too much trouble. It would be nice if something were done to help speed the lines up so these families who put so much into it get more out of it. It is not fair to them to make them pay so much to stand in line. For me it was a little different, and I did not really care if I had to stand in line. My ticket had been free and I was getting paid to be there. (Some job, huh!)
The next morning, we got up early and began the trip north again. We got a later start than we would have liked, because some of the kids dawdled about getting out of Disneyland the night before. Since we started later, the coach and I decided that we would stop for fuel in Barstow, CA, and then drive until the kids started complaining or until we got to Cedar City, UT, whichever came first. The distance between those cities is 320 miles, or about five hours driving on a good day. Usually three hours is about as far as you can go in a stretch without a break, especially with a group of kids. These kids were pretty quiet though, and we warned them that it would be a while before we stopped again. I was completely blown away because they made it all the way to Cedar City! At that point we had to stop and drop a few people off anyway, and I would not have made it much farther either! That was a long push, but I was content to just keep driving until Cedar City, and I was quite happy that we did not have to stop anywhere else. We caught up to the other buses too. We had left the hotel, in West Covina, about an hour behind the other buses, and in Cedar City we were fifteen minutes behind them. They had all made other stops. The rest of the trip to Scipio went well, and another driver took over at that point and I was driven back to Provo.
I had just a couple days in Utah before I hit the highway again, also for work, although less directly. I was not driving a bus, and I was going farther. I got in my car yesterday and drove 747 miles to Forsyth, MT, which is about an hour and a half east of Billings. Now, this trip was not paid, unlike the one to California. The purpose of this one was to chase a job and a dream. The BNSF Railway is hiring Conductors in Forsyth and Glendive, Montana. Today they had a practical introduction meeting, testing, and interviews for the available positions. I was invited to participate in this, and so I drove to Montana for it.
BNSF get thousands of applicants when these positions open, so just the fact that I was invited was impressive. About 100 people showed up for this meeting. It started off with an introduction to the job. They talked about the pay, the benefits, and the retirement package. Then they talked about the lifestyle. They wanted everyone to realize what they would be getting themselves into if they got the job, and they wanted to filter out those who could not, or did not want to live such a lifestyle. Being in the transportation industry, things move all the time. It is the nature of the job that Conductors and Engineers are on call 24 hours a day, every single day of the year. Just because a shift starts at 2:00am one day does not mean it will start any time even close to that the next. There is very little regularity to the schedule, and it is likely that holidays, anniversaries, birthdays, and other important events will be missed. The railroad never stops moving stuff, and someone has to be there to make it move.
That introduction meeting lasted about two hours. They had some time for questions, and then they invited everyone who felt like this is not for them to leave. When the next part of the process began, 79 people were left. The next part was a test. The test reviewed basic reading comprehension and workplace practices. It took about three hours. It was not particularly difficult, but it was long! Those who passed the test would be allowed to interview. As people finished the test, they went for the drug test. Hair samples were collected. They will only be tested for drug use if an offer for employment is accepted.
Out of the 79 people that took the test, 56 people passed, if I remember correctly. I was one of them. Everyone went on to interviews next, which were also scheduled for today. The interviews were to be short, just fifteen to twenty minutes. They were trying to get as many done as possible, so they were short out of necessity. I think mine went well, but it is hard to tell. It ended with them telling me to check my email. If I am to go any farther with this, they will notify me by email. They are looking for 30 new Conductors for Glendive and Forsyth. Just looking at the numbers, it seems that I have a good chance at getting a position. I suppose I will find out for sure soon.
Tomorrow I hit the road again and drive back to Provo. When I arrive in Provo, I will have driven 3,000 miles in just one week. That is a lot of driving, even for a driver!
I will keep you, all my fans, posted on what comes of this job selection process with BNSF. I would love to have one of those Conductor positions, and I know I would enjoy it a lot. We will see what they decide though.
Last week I got called into work and I rode down to Scipio, UT, where I spent the night. The next morning, I work up, crossed the highway, and picked up a bus load of kids from American Fork High School and Lone Peak High School. From there, just 90 miles south of Provo, I drove them to West Covina, CA. I had never been there before, but I had a map. I think their leaders did not believe me when I told them I had never driven to southern California before! But they asked! I made it down there without any problems, and without getting lost. I had always heard people complain about Los Angeles traffic. Honestly, I was quite surprised at how good it was. Driving there was simple. The roads are crowded, but generally people are pretty sensible drivers there.
I stayed with that same group of high school students for the next few days during their activities in the Los Angeles area. They were down there primarily for a regional cross country meet. The day after we arrived, I drove them over to Mount San Antonio College, in Walnut, CA, for them to practice and to see the track they would be running on. They spent the morning over there, and then wanted to go to the beach. It had been below freezing in Utah, so even though it was the dead of winter to many of the locals, it was nice and warm to all of us! It was in the 70's, and quite pleasant. We drove down to Newport Beach, and parked over by the Balboa Pier. Most of the kids went swimming. Some buried their friends in the sand. Others went to lunch. We spent a couple of hours there, and even got to see some dolphins swimming offshore. I thought the water was awfully cold to swim in, at just about 60 degrees. The water in Maine is quite a bit warmer!
The next day was the actual day of the competition. I again drove the teams over to the college, in Walnut, and they ran their races. As I understand, those went pretty well for them. After the races were over, they had a chance to go back to the hotel, shower, and change. In the afternoon, we went to Anaheim, CA, to visit Disneyland. I had never been to Disneyland, and I figured I would just sit out in the parking lot and take a nap for several hours. I did not want to pay the high admission price to go in alone! Well, one of the other bus drivers had managed to get his hands on some o the extra tickets from his group, and he gave one to me. Since it was free, I happily went into Disneyland! I had no idea what to expect, and was quite lost at first. It sure was easy to lose touch with reality in there though!
I spent a couple hours in Disneyland before I was completely exhausted. I was a little disappointed honestly. Some of the rides were really neat, but the lines were outrageously long! Basically you wait to get into the park, and once you do get in, you spend all your time standing around waiting some more. Some of the rides were nice, but really were not unique to Disneyland. I really enjoyed the Disney themed rides, most of which had either been made from movies, or had been made into movies. I thought those were the ones worth seeing. The park was large, and easy to get lost in. It was very crowded. The thing that really bothered me is how so many people save money to bring their kids there. Some families save for years to do that, and when they get there, they spend most of the day standing in line and hoping that their kids, who are bored, don't start causing too much trouble. It would be nice if something were done to help speed the lines up so these families who put so much into it get more out of it. It is not fair to them to make them pay so much to stand in line. For me it was a little different, and I did not really care if I had to stand in line. My ticket had been free and I was getting paid to be there. (Some job, huh!)
The next morning, we got up early and began the trip north again. We got a later start than we would have liked, because some of the kids dawdled about getting out of Disneyland the night before. Since we started later, the coach and I decided that we would stop for fuel in Barstow, CA, and then drive until the kids started complaining or until we got to Cedar City, UT, whichever came first. The distance between those cities is 320 miles, or about five hours driving on a good day. Usually three hours is about as far as you can go in a stretch without a break, especially with a group of kids. These kids were pretty quiet though, and we warned them that it would be a while before we stopped again. I was completely blown away because they made it all the way to Cedar City! At that point we had to stop and drop a few people off anyway, and I would not have made it much farther either! That was a long push, but I was content to just keep driving until Cedar City, and I was quite happy that we did not have to stop anywhere else. We caught up to the other buses too. We had left the hotel, in West Covina, about an hour behind the other buses, and in Cedar City we were fifteen minutes behind them. They had all made other stops. The rest of the trip to Scipio went well, and another driver took over at that point and I was driven back to Provo.
I had just a couple days in Utah before I hit the highway again, also for work, although less directly. I was not driving a bus, and I was going farther. I got in my car yesterday and drove 747 miles to Forsyth, MT, which is about an hour and a half east of Billings. Now, this trip was not paid, unlike the one to California. The purpose of this one was to chase a job and a dream. The BNSF Railway is hiring Conductors in Forsyth and Glendive, Montana. Today they had a practical introduction meeting, testing, and interviews for the available positions. I was invited to participate in this, and so I drove to Montana for it.
BNSF get thousands of applicants when these positions open, so just the fact that I was invited was impressive. About 100 people showed up for this meeting. It started off with an introduction to the job. They talked about the pay, the benefits, and the retirement package. Then they talked about the lifestyle. They wanted everyone to realize what they would be getting themselves into if they got the job, and they wanted to filter out those who could not, or did not want to live such a lifestyle. Being in the transportation industry, things move all the time. It is the nature of the job that Conductors and Engineers are on call 24 hours a day, every single day of the year. Just because a shift starts at 2:00am one day does not mean it will start any time even close to that the next. There is very little regularity to the schedule, and it is likely that holidays, anniversaries, birthdays, and other important events will be missed. The railroad never stops moving stuff, and someone has to be there to make it move.
That introduction meeting lasted about two hours. They had some time for questions, and then they invited everyone who felt like this is not for them to leave. When the next part of the process began, 79 people were left. The next part was a test. The test reviewed basic reading comprehension and workplace practices. It took about three hours. It was not particularly difficult, but it was long! Those who passed the test would be allowed to interview. As people finished the test, they went for the drug test. Hair samples were collected. They will only be tested for drug use if an offer for employment is accepted.
Out of the 79 people that took the test, 56 people passed, if I remember correctly. I was one of them. Everyone went on to interviews next, which were also scheduled for today. The interviews were to be short, just fifteen to twenty minutes. They were trying to get as many done as possible, so they were short out of necessity. I think mine went well, but it is hard to tell. It ended with them telling me to check my email. If I am to go any farther with this, they will notify me by email. They are looking for 30 new Conductors for Glendive and Forsyth. Just looking at the numbers, it seems that I have a good chance at getting a position. I suppose I will find out for sure soon.
Tomorrow I hit the road again and drive back to Provo. When I arrive in Provo, I will have driven 3,000 miles in just one week. That is a lot of driving, even for a driver!
I will keep you, all my fans, posted on what comes of this job selection process with BNSF. I would love to have one of those Conductor positions, and I know I would enjoy it a lot. We will see what they decide though.
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