A day in the life of an Amtrak conductor

[Music] as a conductor damn track this this train is yours from the minute it leaves its initial terminal till the time it gets to its final terminal we're actually responsible along you know along with the engineer for the safety of the train as paramount to everything else that we do we can collect tickets when time comes but we are responsible for knowing the territory our train goes on we have to know every square mile of that territory we have to know the speed limits we have to know when we're gonna change tracks and if the trains gonna get bumpy because our job is to make sure that everybody on this train has a safe first and then comfortable ride once we get done with the safety aspects of the Train yes we are in charge of the revenue accountability we are in charge of collecting the tickets and of course the fun part going around and greeting everybody who rides the train at one point or another we do have to meet each and every one of them which is a lot of fun the conductor is also responsible for handling anything out of the ordinary that comes up in the operating world that means that the train has to stop and conductor is required to hand line a switch that is normally thrown automatically and they will have to get put their gloves on and get off on the ground go up unlock a switch throw it so that the tracks actually change from one direction to another to allow different routing the Train it's a shopping cart or some debris of some sort the conductor along with the assistant conductor would be required to repair to the extent they can any damage that was caused so that that train can continue to move when you consider a career with Amtrak as an assistant conductor and ultimately a conductor it starts with the online application process online assessments some physical strength testing ultimately an interview and medical exam and if you're successful in getting through that hiring process and we bring you on board you start with nine weeks of essentially basic training if you will in Wilmington Delaware which is where our national trainings that are is located the training to become an assistant conductor is very intense you're away from your family for eight to 12 weeks depending on where you're gonna work how many votes you have to learn you do have to memorize a lot of material and a short amount of time if they teach you all that smallest aspects all the safety things the basic things about railroading that are going to be the foundation for everything that you do is you work at Amtrak as time goes by they focus a lot on train handling and the physical aspects and then they also do of course your customer service your revenue collection and things like that but I will say that the Wilmington Delaware training was it was extremely important everything that you learned there in time you will use when you come to work here at the railroad the instructors there are very seasoned they understand all the aspects of customer relations from problem customers to happy customers they have seen some of the things that have gone wrong and have a lot of life's lessons to teach you when you go to the class we also have to know the signal systems for every railroad that your train goes on my train for instance goes across two different railroads which means I have to know the signal systems for both when you test on signal systems it's 100 percent there's no 99.9 percent it is 100 percent if you miss one signal you do not qualify if you do not qualify you can't be a conductor and you won't whale to work at Amtrak so your ability to grasp and cling on to these things and to maintain it throughout your Amtrak career is very important when you begin working as an assistant conductor or or conductor typically based on seniority you will likely work the extra board which means you're on call 24 hours a day roughly six days a week you're going to get a phone call two to three hours before your assignment and you have to show up you don't know when these calls are going to come you're not gonna have the luxury of planning things with your families you're gonna miss a lot of holidays you're gonna be working along Thanksgiving Christmas your birthday things like that and you're also not gonna have the best schedule you're gonna work odd hours overnight weekends depending on the assignment your responsibilities vary many of our assignments are Road assignments as we call them which means you work a passenger train from one point to another you may work the assignment in the same day and return to your home crew base or you may stay overnight at a crew hotel and work a train back the next day there are also yard assignments that are not necessarily associated with passengers on a passenger train you can definitely wake up at different time kind of bounce around everywhere which is also another great aspect that I enjoy about the extra ward is that its diversity different parts of the territories that being on the extra board is great because you become very first not only in all the routes for your particular crew base but you also learn a lot of railroading skills that again when things kind of go awry on when you're out on the Main Line it's it's the things that goes little skills that you pick up as far as switching and hooking up air hoses and all the different mechanical things that can happen become invaluable what you do finally have the seniority to hold a train on your own as a conductor at Amtrak there there are various physical requirements nothing overly strenuous but it is a lot of continuous work for instance each of our cars are 85 foot long I only work a four to five car set some of our trains we work out here 14 15 cars but as the conductor you typically walk that entire train upstairs and downstairs at between every single station sometimes twice three times depending on what's going on so you really do need to be able to walk a lot you need good shoes you need good socks a good care of your feet you're gonna have to carry heavy objects you're gonna have to help people with luggage things like that I would say if you can handle 50 pounds you could do anything we do here as a conductor so some of the characteristics that is gonna make you successful conductor number one is punctuality you have to be on time you have to be neat you're the face of the company you want to project a neat clean appearance being organized and having attention to detail is critical you also have to be a strong leader and employee crew resource management principles that you'll be taught in order to lead your crew it is very important understand how important teamwork is here at Amtrak everything we do is meticulous safety focus it's about paying attention little things and it's about teamwork and you also have to be sympathetic and empathetic you're going to be dealing with people from all walks of life you're going to be in stressful situations and you have to maintain you he'll attitude at all times so some of the exciting parts about being a conductor is that you meet so many people from so many different walks of life on the train you know you do get an opportunity to talk to people and get to know one it's very interesting and fun the type of people that you meet also the benefits are great you know you're paid well you do get to travel for free and it's every day is it is a different day you know every day you learn something new and experience something I love working in the yard change getting to use more mechanical aspects of our job I enjoy the the teams the crews that I work with my managers are a lot of fun as well but the passengers really being able to especially when you get those children on the train it's that first train trip ever maybe on their way to Disneyland or someplace fun like that you get to get to be a part of something that's it's gonna be something they remember a lot of times for the rest of their lives because I always going to talk about that first train trip if you're planning on hiring out the damn track take that chance it's a great career it's different but it's challenging and rewarding at the same time I feel and it really is what you make of it and I really like it if you're somebody who likes to have a lot of pride in what you do and likes to be a part of something much bigger than yourself with a lot of team members that all work together to make something really fun happen Amtrak is the place to be [Music]

Channel: AmtrakCareers

Views: 416,931

Keywords: Amtrak, Amtrakjobs, AmtrakCareers, jobs, careers, railroad

Id: n1clZI-RZGc

Length: 9min 11sec (551 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2019