What opportunities exist for people to get certified as an engineer for railroad preservation/museum/tourist railroad work if they're already cemented in a job/lifestyle/vocation that isn't railroading?

Say a museum or tourist operation needs engineers, but no one is qualified to operate trains or is unable to start an entirely new career to fill the void? Not every operation is heavily populated with "real" railroaders, and there are a few who operate trains but don't have licensed engineers (!).

What alternatives exist out there to learn how to keep things moving?

KL

Volunteer! Find an operation such as you mentioned and tell them the same thing you told us. Many tourist/short line/preservation systems rely on volunteers. Find one that is in easy commuting distance for you and plan on the process taking a few years. Full time apprentice programs are also available.

Robin,

I've been an active member in several organizations for most of my life, most of them within commuting distance and some very far outside it! What I'm talking about is a bonafide, FRA-recognized certification. Many of these places don't have them, nor do they have programs to train them, and if they do, their ranks are low. What happens when a place has no more engineers? Where or to whom can people in these organizations go?

Yes, volunteer at your most convenient place, or even some place far from home, if you have time.

Here at the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum, in the San Diego area, we are ALL volunteers. We do have a couple of "rails" among our volunteers, but even they got their initial railroad experience volunteering with us. A number of our former volunteers have gone on to regular short line, Class I and AMTRAK careers.

We start with training crew volunteers (we have volunteers in several non-operating areas, too) as brakemen and speeder operators. Once experienced as brakemen, they can get trained as conductors. Then, after several years, as engineers, per the requirements of our FRA-submitted training program. However, we do limit the number of active engineers, because we only operate on weekends. Since we operate only 8 to 10 days per month, we limit the number of active engineers to 10 or 12. That gives all the engineers the opportunity to operate about once a month. Operating less than that makes for "rusty" engineers. You could plan on being a regular volunteer tor 4 or 5 years at our operation before getting the chance to get certified as an engineer.

Some places, such as the Nevada Northern, in Ely, NV, are a long ways from anywhere. But they rely heavily on volunteers, again both for operating positions, and other work that is required to keep a railroad running. A long ways to go for a day or two, so go spend a week or two. I did that last year, and will do the same later this year.

Where do you volunteer? Out organization has an FRA instructor - even through we are not FRA. He teaches a course or two a year.

I'm suprised more groups aren't F.R.A. We are fully compliant and have passed F.R.A. inspection. Our resident F.R.A. Nazi wen't so far as having our program approved by the F.R.A. Before they even knew who we were.
I don't know how close you are to Northern Ohio but your more than welcome here.

Just chyming in to confirm what others have said. All of our engineers are volunteers. We have a "chief" engineeer who trains and certifies others. We are also FRA compliant. We also have a training prgrams for brakemen, cunductors, etc.
As others have posted here...join, get involved, let them know you're interested and go from there. However, don't expect to just walk in the door and say, "I want to be an engineer" and have it happen right away.

Kelly, I know you have been very active in preservation. What do you plan to do as a career, if it is other than railroading? Do you intend to further your education? Sometimes successful business or technical people can do well as volunteers because of their specific skills or knowledge in fields not specifically railroad, but related technically. Just my opinion.

I'm having problems finding people with the interest and availability to work weekdays on an operating tourist railroad in paying jobs. I recently lost a great employee to health problems, and another quit with no notice to drive a beer truck.

Another wants to now work half days, and lets me know that AM he will be leaving that afternoon.

Where's the commitment?

The door's open - give me a call.

dave

> I'm having problems finding people with the interest and
> availability to work weekdays on an operating tourist railroad
> in paying jobs. I recently lost a great employee to health
> problems, and another quit with no notice to drive a beer truck.

Said in a kindly way, unless the beer company pays $20 per hour and all the suds you can drink, it sounds like you may not be paying a wage that somebody can afford to live on. You have to compete with other employers for good employees.

I realize there are plenty of good reasons for that. Thomas not-withstanding, tourist railroading is not a get rich quick scheme. I know you'd probably love to pay more if you could.

Here's the problem... Having "been there and done that", I know full well how hard it is to try and make a career it tourist railroading. The typical wages aren't that high to start with. Then to add to the problem, it's seasonal work. How do you make a living do that and support your family.

I finally quit the full time tourist railway biz when I had to buy a new car. I wasn't shopping for Lexus or BMW's, I was buying a basic Subaru, back when they had the motto "Inexpensive and built to stay that way." (They dropped that one like a hot rock quite a while back...) I simply could not afford a reasonable car payment, food and rent, even though I was still single. After the usual mid-winter shut-down, I said enough is enough.

I'm quite certain many others here can tell pretty much the same tale. Now I work a "day job" and do the tourist railway stuff on weekends etc. It's the only way I can afford it.

No, I don't have any good answers for how to solve the problem. Training and keeping good employees is expensive. So is hiring news ones each year and starting from scratch. I wish there was a better answer.

As for the Mt Rainier Scenic, we're fully FRA compliant. We do the full program and certify the engineers of course. We've had several engineers (4 or 5 come to mind, but there's probably more) leave our railroad and go to work for either a Class 1 or shortline.