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Train driver

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way
"Railroad engineer" redirects here. For people who design railway infrastructure, see Railway engineering.
DSB train driver in 1987
DSB train driver in 1987
Czech steam locomotive driver
Czech steam locomotive driver
The cab of a New South Wales Xplorer diesel multiple unit
The cab of a New South Wales Xplorer diesel multiple unit
Inside the train driver's cab of a German ICE train
Inside the train driver's cab of a German ICE train
Women railway shunters, England, c. 1915–1920
Women railway shunters, England, c. 1915–1920

A train driver, engine driver, engineman or locomotive driver, commonly known as an engineer or railroad engineer [1] in the United States and Canada, and also as a locomotive handler, locomotive engineer, locomotive operator, train operator, or motorman, is a person who operates a train, railcar, or other rail transport vehicle. The driver is in charge of and is responsible for the mechanical operation of the train, train speed, and all of the train handling (also known as brake handling). In American English, a hostler (also known as a switcher) moves engines around rail yards, but does not take them out on the main line tracks; the British English equivalent is a shunter.

Train drivers must follow certain guidelines for driving a train safely.[2] For instance, in general, train drivers are encouraged to favour longer stopping distances as this promotes vehicle health, safety, and passenger comfort.[Note 1]

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Train

Train

A train is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives, though some are self-propelled, such as multiple units. Passengers and cargo are carried in railroad cars, also known as wagons. Trains are designed to a certain gauge, or distance between rails. Most trains operate on steel tracks with steel wheels, the low friction of which makes them more efficient than other forms of transport.

Railcar

Railcar

A railcar is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach, with a driver's cab at one or both ends. Some railway companies, such as the Great Western, termed such vehicles "railmotors".

Rail transport

Rail transport

Rail transport is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prepared flat surface, rail vehicles are directionally guided by the tracks on which they run. Tracks usually consist of steel rails.

Rail yard

Rail yard

A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or unused locomotives stored off the main line, so that they do not obstruct the flow of traffic. Cars or wagons are moved around by specially designed yard switchers (US) or shunters, a type of locomotive. Cars or wagons in a yard may be sorted by numerous categories, including railway company, loaded or unloaded, destination, car type, or whether they need repairs. Yards are normally built where there is a need to store rail vehicles while they are not being loaded or unloaded, or are waiting to be assembled into trains. Large yards may have a tower to control operations.

Career progression

For many American railroads, the following career progression is typical: assistant conductor (brakeman), train conductor, and finally the engineer. For many years the fireman was next in line to be an engineer, but that classification has been eliminated. In the US, engineers are required to be certified and must then be re-certified every two to three years.[3]

The traditional career progression in the United Kingdom (for steam locomotives) was engine cleaner, passed engine cleaner (i.e. the employee has passed the assessment for fireman), fireman, passed fireman (i.e. passed assessment for driver), and driver.

In India, a driver starts as a diesel assistant (or electrical assistant for electric locomotives). They then get promoted on a scale: goods, passenger, mail express, and the Rajdhani, Shatabdi, and Duronto express services.[4]

The British transport historian Christian Wolmar wrote in October 2013 that train operators employed by the Rio Tinto Group to transport iron ore across the Australian outback were likely to be the highest-paid members of the occupation in the world at that time.[5]

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Brakeman

Brakeman

A brakeman is a rail transport worker whose original job was to assist the braking of a train by applying brakes on individual wagons. The advent of through brakes, brakes on every wagon which could be controlled by the driver, made this role redundant, although the name lives on, for example, in the United States where brakemen carry out a variety of functions both on the track and within trains.

Rajdhani Express

Rajdhani Express

The Rajdhani Express is a series of passenger train service in India operated by Indian Railways connecting the national capital New Delhi with the capitals or the largest cities of various states. The word Rajdhani has been derived from the Sanskrit language, which means Capital in English. This series of trains regularly gets the highest priority in the Indian Railways and is considered as its most premium train.

Shatabdi Express

Shatabdi Express

Shatabdi Express trains are a series of fast passenger trains operated by Indian Railways to connect important metro cities. Shatabdi Express are day-trains and mostly return to their origin station the same day. The trains were first introduced in 1988 and were named 'Shatabdi', meaning 'century', to commemorate the birth centenary of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Duronto Express

Duronto Express

Duronto Express is a category of long-distance non-stop source to destination trains run by the Indian Railways. Initially these trains did not have any ticketing stops between the origin and the destination, but since January 2016 it is possible to book tickets from those technical stops. "Duronto" means "Speedster" in Bengali. These trains' coaches have characteristic yellow-green livery which contains a bi-meaning signature which are a field full of flower and a river flowing over it, 2nd meaning is a boy is running on the fields which signifies the meaning of Duronto. Duronto Express services connect the several metros and major state capitals of India. As of now, there are currently 24 pairs that are working.

Christian Wolmar

Christian Wolmar

Christian Tage Forter Wolmar is a British journalist, author, railway historian and Labour Party politician. He is known for his commentary on transport, especially as a pundit on Britain's railway industry, and was named Transport Journalist of the Year in the National Transport Awards in 2007. He is an advocate for cycling, and is on the board of the London Cycling Campaign as well as having founded Labour Cycles, which encourages the Labour Party to adopt a pro-cycling agenda.

Outback

Outback

The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a number of climatic zones, including tropical and monsoonal climates in northern areas, arid areas in the "red centre" and semi-arid and temperate climates in southerly regions.

Notable train drivers

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Ben Chifley

Ben Chifley

Joseph Benedict Chifley was an Australian politician who was the 16th prime minister of Australia, from 1945 to 1949. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1945, following the death of John Curtin on 5 July, until his own death in 1951.

Christine Gonzalez

Christine Gonzalez

Christine Gonzalez Aldeis is an American train engineer. She became the first woman to work as an engineer on a Class 1 railroad.

Railroad classes

Railroad classes

In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$504,803,294 for Class I carriers and US$40,384,263 for Class II carriers.

Casey Jones

Casey Jones

John Luther "Casey" Jones was an American railroader who was killed when his passenger train collided with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi.

Illinois Central Railroad

Illinois Central Railroad

The Illinois Central Railroad, sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and thus, the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. A line also connected Chicago west to Sioux City, Iowa (1870). There was a significant branch to Omaha, Nebraska (1899), west of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and another branch reaching Sioux Falls, South Dakota (1877), starting from Cherokee, Iowa.

Source: "Train driver", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, January 27th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_driver.

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Further Reading

Conductor (rail)

Tender (rail)

Train simulator

Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen

Motorman (rail transportation)

Great Train Wreck of 1918

Fireman (steam engine)

Motive power depot

Stéblová train disaster

Brakeman

List of railway industry occupations

Thirroul Railway Depot

20th Century Limited derailment

Charlie H. Hogan
See also
Notes
  1. ^ Exceptions to this include when the train is travelling at speeds slower than 100 km/h (or 60 mph) or when the train is running behind schedule.
References
  1. ^ "What Does a Railroad Engineer Do". learn.org. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  2. ^ McLeod, Ronald W.; Moray, Neville; Walker, Guy H. (2005). "Analysing and modelling train driver performance". Applied Ergonomics. 36 (6): 671–680. doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2005.05.006. PMID 16095554. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  3. ^ "2003 CFR Title 49, Volume 4; Part 240: Qualification and Certification of Locomotive Engineers". Code of Federal Regulations. United States National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved 2007-11-14.
  4. ^ "Railway Operations – I". IRFCA.org. Indian Railways Fan Club. 2010. Train Crew. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  5. ^ Behrmann, Elisabeth (3 October 2013). "Rio Replacing Train Drivers Paid Like U.S. Surgeons". Bloomberg. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  6. ^ Waterson, D.B. Chifley, Joseph Benedict (Ben) (1885–1951). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. Retrieved 2015-09-06.
  7. ^ López, Carlos Andres (14 March 2017). "US' First Woman Train Engineer Speaks in Las Cruces". Las Cruces Sun-News. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
Further reading
  • Huibregtse, Jon R. (2010). American Railroad Labor and the Genesis of the New Deal, 1919–1935. University Press of Florida.
  • Licht, Walter (1983). Working for the Railroad: The Organization of Work in the Nineteenth Century. ISBN 9780691047003.
  • Orr, John W. (2001). Set Up Running: The Life of a Pennsylvania Railroad Engineman, 1904–1949.
  • Tuck, Joseph Hugh (1977). Canadian Railways and the International Brotherhoods: Labour Organizations in the Railway Running Trades in Canada, 1865–1914 (Thesis). Vol. 37. Dissertation Abstracts International. p. 6681.

The following examine the role of the railroad engineer from 1890 to 1919, discussing qualifications for becoming an engineer and typical experiences on the job:

  • White, John H. Jr. (Fall–Winter 2003). "Oh, To Be a Locomotive Engineer, Part 1: Once It Was Every Boy's Ambition". Railroad History. 189 (189): 12–33. JSTOR 43504848.
  • White, John H. Jr. (Spring–Summer 2004). "Oh, To Be a Locomotive Engineer, Part 2: More About the Lives of Eagle-Eyes Famous, Infamous, and Forgotten". Railroad History. 190: 56–77. JSTOR 43524273.

Wilson David C Forward! The Revolution in the Lives of the Footplatemen 1962–1996 Published by Suttons ISBN 0-7509-1144-1

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Railroad engineers.
  • TrainDriver.org – A detailed explanation of what train driving involves, and becoming a train driver in the UK
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