Bronco rail train loading is suspended as of today 9/14

[DonB]

Thinking about this, why haven't trains been automated? Why wouldn't it be easier to automate something that is on rails than a car that can go anywhere?
They have set starting points and destinations and while they can switch tracks, that would be easy to automate. They run large swaths of the country in relatively unpopulated areas. The number of variables has to be much smaller.
Seems this would be a lot safer than trying to perfect self driving cars or trucks.
My guess is it doesn't have the same profitability as a consumer product where you can fool the masses.
Hey Elon, solve some real problems for a change instead of providing solutions for problems that don't exist.

Some already are.
Some can't be.

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[KJRR]

AFter working for a railroad subcontractor, I can see that's not as easy as people might think.
Not every train has 50 or 100 cars going to the same place. They have to be put together in a certain order so the rail cars can be delivered in a certain order en route. Cars can be hitched together by banging into each other but someone (the conductor) still has to connect the air brake lines and make sure everything is properly connected, and do it regardless of how hot or cold or how much it's raining or snowing. Where I live I see ads for railroad jobs all the time and it pays $60k a year starting out, problem is you have to go to school in Atlanta for 9 weeks and meals are on your own dime, which for someone who's already out of work isn't a good plan.

Thank you for the insight. Much more of what I was looking for than the other useless posts.
These still sound like solvable problems. At least simpler than the variables of self driving cars. You would still have someone overseeing a lot of functions but not as much hands on.
I was watching rail cars unloading coal into a ship. I saw 2 guys running the whole operation. 1 on the machine dumping the cars and the other on the ship. Could have been more people involved but they only others I saw were sitting at the dock edges looking out at the water.
And the training you mentioned, there is the same issue with school bus drivers. Here in Ohio, they need a couple months of training, possibly unpaid depending on the school district, and the state won't let you make an appointment for testing until you complete training. Then you may wait another 2 months to possibly pass the test. Who can do that for a part-time job?

 

[SigOris]

I was working for Con Rail in 78 but since we were considered a government business did not participate in the strike as the other railroads did. Railroads and airlines are under the Federal Railway act and as such the government can end the strike as soon as it starts, so unless there is some nefarious reason for letting a work stoppage go long term, this shouldn't last long. By the way, we folks living in Illinois are surround by grain, soybeans and corn.

My dad retired as a train dispatcher with Conrail. His original line was PRSL that covered Southern New Jersey

 

[dtech]

Some already are.
Some can't be.

like trucking and the airlines rr are a regulated industry including min level of crews, unions did for decades fight eliminating the fireman position on a train crew, I worked briefly one summer as a fireman and essentially was just collecting a paycheck, but that was back in 70s and unions are far less powerful now.

 

[KJRR]

Actually that's not why they're going on strike. It's over working conditions and the insane amount of overtime they're putting in.
Five years ago I worked as a cab driver for the railroad, picking up and dropping off rail crews at all hours of the day and night for six months. They're on-call 24/7 all the time, as was I. Their max workday as I recall was 14 hours then they get 10 hours off and the dispatchers know when that 10 hours is up and their phone rings telling them to get their ass back to work.
I learned a few things:
1. Being an engineer or conductor sucks.
2. Freight train "schedules" are so F'd up that it's amazing the railroads make any money.
3. I've had a lot of full-time and part-time jobs in my life and working for the railroad was easily the worst job I've ever had by a long shot.

These are exactly the reasons these jobs need automated where they can be.
Computers are amazing at scheduling things. It mostly the human variables that screw them up. Making accommodations for a load that arrives late, last minute changes to destinations, wrong information put into the system and so on.
Many here I'm sure have seen how the auto industry changed with automation, and It's happened in the rail industry too. When is the last time you've seen a caboose on a train? I believe there is more room for automation if people don't want to do the job. Just don't complain when the job is elimated.

 

[dtech]

These are exactly the reasons these jobs need automated where they can be.
Computers are amazing at scheduling things. It mostly the human variables that screw them up. Making accommodations for a load that arrives late, last minute changes to destinations, wrong information put into the system and so on.
Many here I'm sure have seen how the auto industry changed with automation, and It's happened in the rail industry too. When is the last time you've seen a caboose on a train? I believe there is more room for automation if people don't want to do the job. Just don't complain when the job is elimated.

at one time train crews were 5 people - engineer, conductor, firemen and 2 brakemen - today it's usually just 2 crewmen and some trains are more than a mile long, do you really want to eliminate all human involvement with a mass that large . A lot of investment is being made into trucks operating in a driverless mode but they still will have a person on the rig and from the posts on here most are opposed to self driving autos. 2 people operating a freight train that can be several miles long and traveling at 70+ mph seems reasonable to me.

 

[NotBudule]

Now go have a smoke and lighten up Francis. ?

Went out and had me smoke and thought about it, and now I agree with you ! And we are both wrong now ...

 

[dtech]

Went out and had me smoke and thought about it, and now I agree with you ! And we are both wrong now ...

tentative agreement has been reached, averting a strike, time to celebrate with a boilermaker......or smoke some reefer......or better yet do both

 

[Chris M]

How about the brainiacs spend two minutes on Google and learn the background of the strike. Railroads cut nearly 25% staff to increase profits, then implemented a points system, requiring 90 min on call work or you’re docked points, ultimately paid hours.

Railoads want fewer staff, more profit AND want the fewer staff to take less time off AND be immediately available, anytime they’re called.

My employer doesn’t get away with that, does yours?

My employers did when I was a Teamster truck driver for Roadway Express (way back in the day).
I spent years as a "casual" driver, meaning I was on call 24/7. Very stressful time in my life, for sure.

 

[NotBudule]

tentative agreement has been reached, averting a strike, time to celebrate with a boilermaker......or smoke some reefer......or better yet do both

Hard to celebrate when you find out what some members here think about people that have union jobs , leaches, won't work, when they do, MASSIVELY OVERPAID , killing their version of what the country should be ... ehhh , maybe a few won't hurt , I am at "work" at my union job , so it's not like I have anything to do ( I really don't today )

 

[samsd]

My dad retired as a train dispatcher with Conrail. His original line was PRSL that covered Southern New Jersey

And my dad retired as a signal man, Southwest Division , that's the most western reach of Conrail terminating in St Louis. I worked in the track maintenance department fresh out of high school, 9 years. They were good paying jobs then and even better paying jobs now. My mom never had to work a paying job and we did pretty well.

 

[D Fresh]

Hard to celebrate when you find out what some members here think about people that have union jobs , leaches, won't work, when they do, MASSIVELY OVERPAID , killing their version of what the country should be ... ehhh , maybe a few won't hurt , I am at "work" at my union job , so it's not like I have anything to do ( I really don't today )

I can't speak for anybody else but I don't have a problem with union WORKERS. Most unions have their industries locked down enough that folks don't have much of a choice.

My organization work with the CWA and IBEW has shown me that these unions you think have your back are really in cahoots with your employer and leaching off of your hard, maybe, work.

That being said, I still won't have a problem drawing my IUEC pension when the time comes. And I wouldn't begrudge anybody else who gets in where they fit in.

 

[C.moore01]

I’ve been railroading for 13 years now, it’s not about the money so much as quality of life at this point .. we have engineers who can make 150-160k a year but what the general public doesn’t understand is the unethical attendance policy’s .. the company considers a weekend Friday-Sunday, we are allowed one of those days in a 90 day period off, we are allowed 3 weekdays in the same period so more or less one day a month .. I work the road so I take trains 200+ plus away from home and I have to deal with being on call 24/7 with no designated off days except for my 10 hours of rest after a shift .. after that I’m back on call

the reasons behind this is because they refuse to keep guys on a extra board to cover jobs when someone is off, our extra board use to keep 30 people on it, now it’s 8 so the idea is work everyone to the ground .. myself as an example, I was off one Saturday the I was allowed then my grandfather dies 76 days later, they do not provide bereavement for grandparents, I was off Friday-sun for his services and was handled under our work record policy as being out of compliance and his passing wasn’t a good enough reason to be off for 3 days

before everyone jumps to conclusion I ask everyone to do some research, this strike was a potentially over some unpaid sick days and that’s it nothing else

 

[JohnnyO]

These are exactly the reasons these jobs need automated where they can be.
Computers are amazing at scheduling things. It mostly the human variables that screw them up. Making accommodations for a load that arrives late, last minute changes to destinations, wrong information put into the system and so on.
Many here I'm sure have seen how the auto industry changed with automation, and It's happened in the rail industry too. When is the last time you've seen a caboose on a train? I believe there is more room for automation if people don't want to do the job. Just don't complain when the job is elimated.

Stuff will still happen that you can’t account for. A big problem that’s not easily solved is that trains can’t pass each other like trucks on a highway because, you know, they’re on rails. A delay in one place can back up trains as far away as the next state. Switching to the next track is a hassle and not always an option because maybe another train is on that track coming the other way. So that crew and train has to sit for maybe five hours, then the crew times out and JohnnyO’s phone rings at midnight to get his cab (actually a minivan) in western PA and hike out to the middle Ohio to try and find a train in the middle of nowhere (the RR can be lacking in terms of information and location) and take the crew to a hotel or rail yard, depending. And there may or may not be another crew to take to the train. If not, that train will sit until a crew is available, further backing up the system. Being totally automated doesn’t solve that problem, or the problem of switches icing over in the winter and someone has to clear the ice out with a shovel or flamethrower so the train goes on the right track.

 

[AzScorpion]

I’ve been railroading for 13 years now, it’s not about the money so much as quality of life at this point .. we have engineers who can make 150-160k a year but what the general public doesn’t understand is the unethical attendance policy’s .. the company considers a weekend Friday-Sunday, we are allowed one of those days in a 90 day period off, we are allowed 3 weekdays in the same period so more or less one day a month .. I work the road so I take trains 200+ plus away from home and I have to deal with being on call 24/7 with no designated off days except for my 10 hours of rest after a shift .. after that I’m back on call

the reasons behind this is because they refuse to keep guys on a extra board to cover jobs when someone is off, our extra board use to keep 30 people on it, now it’s 8 so the idea is work everyone to the ground .. myself as an example, I was off one Saturday the I was allowed then my grandfather dies 76 days later, they do not provide bereavement for grandparents, I was off Friday-sun for his services and was handled under our work record policy as being out of compliance and his passing wasn’t a good enough reason to be off for 3 days

before everyone jumps to conclusion I ask everyone to do some research, this strike was a potentially over some unpaid sick days and that’s it nothing else

This is actually the main reason for the strike. I think unions had there place years ago but like most things today they've become a cash cow and most (not all) don't represent the people all that well.

***Also some here need to realize just because you don't like a thread/topic doesn't mean it should be shut down. Mentioning the words union or government doesn't make this political but adding in certain news stations, political parties and or names does.

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/looming-railroad-strike-could-cripple-192221729.html

Unions said workers are seeking improvements to working conditions, accusing rail companies of penalizing workers for taking time off for medical reasons. The unions said rail companies are jeopardizing the nation's economy to force a deal.

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