> I'm confused. Does the above mean that
> students
> can't handle trains?

As others mentioned, a student engineer can handle a train, but they have to be issued a student engineer's license prior to doing so. In addition, they must also be under the supervision of a fully licensed engineer. The FRA does issue guidelines to the carriers on what a prospective engineer needs to know before being issued their student license. In addition, a physical exam and review of the engineer candidate's driver's license abstract must also be performed before the student license can be issued. If either one of those two items result in problems, the student license can't be approved. Those two items are critical, as they safeguard against individuals with known health issues (heart problems or drug usage), or a history of DWI's out of the seat. In my own engineer's class, one of the trainee candidates passed all of his written examinations, but couldn't be given his student license because of past DWI's on his driver's license. As a result, his seniority was held at the date he started class, but was returned to working in train service until his driver's license was clear of any DWI's for a specified amount of time.

As far as "Engineer for an Hour" programs go, I strongly suspect the FRA views, and regulates, them more along the lines of Hostler trainees than actual engineers...

Fiv4HghStk@aol.com