What is the consist of a typical steam engineer exam?

How many pages? Whats the format? fill in the blank, true/false, etc?

adofmsu@aol.com

> What is the consist of a typical steam
> engineer exam?

> How many pages? Whats the format? fill in
> the blank, true/false, etc?

I saw one from CPR (i think it was CPR) from the "old days". It was fill-in the blank and covered several hundred questions.

If you use a really good search engine such as google, dodpile or alltheweb, I think there's a few online

superheater@beer.com

Currently there isn't any FRA sanctioned steam engineer exam. If there are exams it would be up to each railroad using steam to include it in their own qualification process. For instance, Grand Canyon probably does more than the basic 240 requirements and has some type of steam examination.

> What is the consist of a typical steam
> engineer exam?

> How many pages? Whats the format? fill in
> the blank, true/false, etc?

On the Cumbres & Toltec we used the D&RGW's progressive exam that they developed in the 1950's. It was four-year program with an annual exam each year. We simly removed the stuff about stokers, feedwater heaters and so forth.

Later I added a fifth "Final Exam" based on a Santa Fe final engineer's exam I found a copy of. The ATSF one was killer, over 600 question - all essay questions. It covered both steam and diesel, coal and oil. Obviously I did some serious editing on that too. I think I got it trimmed down to about 75 questions. In true/false, fill-in-the-blank and essay format.

One thing for sure was when one of my guys passed the final, he knew how to get 'em over the road and fix it out in the sticks when it broke....

An important thing to remember is that when you give a test or exam you are trying to assess someoneÂ’s knowledge about a given topic. The best types of questions for this type of assessment are short answer or essay questions. Often they are not even questions at all in a grammatical sense. A good example would be:

Explain the difference between saturated and superheated steam.

Explain why a safety valve pops open.

List three code regulations related to gauge glasses and explain reasons each regulation needs to exist within the code.

When you supply an answer to any of the above questions you are demonstrating your knowledge about the topic. These types of questions might be difficult and unpopular but they are straightforward and are not measuring someoneÂ’s ability to guess or deduce the best answer.

As a general guideline to assess someone I always go with questions that include the words define, compare and contrast, or explain. These are the best way to demonstrate true understanding. I am a certified teacher in the steam-engineering field and would be happy to help with training or testing related to boilers and related theory.


tom@forgottendelaware.com