General Discussions

National Hobo Convention Starts This Week (Aug 11th) in Britt Iowa.

railroadpostoffice1 — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:52:44 GMT

The National Hobo Foundation in conjunction with the city of Britt Iowa is putting on the National Hobo Convention. The city runs its home days and invites hobos both active and retired to spend the weekend in its hobo park witch has a boxcar parked there. There is folk music and mulligan stew and folk tales for the enjoyment of all. There is the National Hobo Museum which chronicle's the history of the American Hobo from the 1800s civil war era to the 1930s to the present day. The main event will be the election of the Hobo King. ("Stretch "was king last year). There are estimated anywhere from 100 to 2000 active hobos on the railroad system (depending on weather and work seasons) at any given time. The Hobo Foundation is said to be a offspring of the labor movement when hobos founded there own union back in the turn of the century. Transient workers who rode the rails were part of the railroad workforce in loading and unloading cars and on track gangs as well as harvesting produce that makes it on the rails. The Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railroad was said to run seasonal trains of open boxcars for hobos to get to work to harvest the crops. Today the Hobos send a representative to the railroad shareholders (They own stock in all the Class ones and major short lines) meetings on a regular basis to ask questions and try to dispel myths about the hobos that are negative in nature. They have cemetery plots that they provide for there members and help put on regional hobo gatherings around the country ( See the hobo minstrel webpage for details). I am posting this for info purposes only and to say that Hobos are unique part of American Railroad Culture and history that should be respected.

R-160 3rd. option?

jkinz56 — Mon, 18 May 2009 11:38:52 GMT

Has anyone heard if there's going to be a 3rd. R-160 option? Or if the new R-179 is going to happen?

Unemployment is still high - anyone looking? - I can help

JNTC_Articles — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:15:20 GMT

While the economy is still uncertain. Many people are still unemployed.

I am currently hiring for three positions that are focused and requiring experiences in the Rail Industry.

a. Director or VP of Sales and Business Development

b. RF Systems Engineer

c. RTL FPGA Engineer

For the information about the detailed description of each position, interested parties may send their resume to: careers@jntconsulting.com

Looking for Systems Engineers, Systems Eng./Signaling, Estimators, Lead Project Engineers

lorimueller — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:24:38 GMT

Hello!

My name is Lori Mueller, I am working for a client that has opportunites in KY, MO, NY and FL. Looking for engineers in the rail transit industry 10-15 years with a BSEE.

Please contact me direct at lmueller@eegrecruiting.com or 877-841-3452. Thanks for your time!

Who is using railcar transfer tables out there?

Mick Madison — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:35:32 GMT

Who is using a railcar transfer table at their plant or yard? Are any transit organizations using transfer tables? I am very curious to know how many are out there? And what parts of the Country they are located in. Including Canada! As well as what purpose they are being used for, such as changing directions, pulling cars off the mainline, etc.

We manufacture tables, but would really like to know how many are out there, and how old some of them might be.

Thanks for your input!

Signal/Systems Engineers - Rail Transit

lorimueller — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:04:33 GMT

Hello: My name is Lori Mueller, I have a client looking for signal/systems engineers in the rail transit arena. Strong design experience, must be US resident. Please contact me direct at lmueller@eegrecruiting.com or 877-841-3452

Railroad Engineers - Freight Rail

lorimueller — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:03:43 GMT

Hello: My name is Lori Mueller, I have a client looking for railroad engineers, with strong design experience, understanding of FRA rules, freight rail.

Project Management – Concept to Completion 

Engineering Management

Signal Application Engineering 

Vital & Non Vital Logic Programming 

GETS Harmon Logic Controller 

GETS Vital Harmon Logic Controller 

GETS ElectroCode 

US&S Genisys 

US&S Microlok 

Train Control Systems 

Highway Crossing Systems 

Dispatching Systems

Systems Engineers - Train Control/Freight Rail or transit systems

lorimueller — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:20:35 GMT

Systems Engineer – Train Control

Freight Rail or transit systems

Hello: My name Lori Mueller, I am working for a client that needs the following, please contact me directly atlmueller@eegrecruiting.com or 877-841-3452. Thanks for your time and consideration.

The primary focus for our Systems Engineers and Sr. Systems Engineers should be Train Control for freight rail or transit systems.
Candidates they must be able to communicate to the hiring manager that they are experienced to very experienced in that field.
Will accept 2-3 years of experience and above
Salary commensurate with experience
Experience in design or commissioning active Highway-Rail grade crossing warning systems and need information on what type of equipment used to control the crossing.
Potential candidates must have experience with relay based vital design or microprocessor based vital design using VHLC, MicroLok, ElectroLogIXS , VPI or GEO. Must be able to show length of experience on these types of design work.
Must be able to show how many routes and the most complex location the candidate designed/tested have.
Must have a working knowledge and understanding of “Title 49 CFR parts 233 thru 236”?
FRA regulations.
Ideal candidate will have a 4 year degree in Electrical Engineering
Experience may be exclude degree if the experience is over 15+ years

Additional experience would be a plus:

Project Management – Concept to Completion
Engineering Management
Signal Application Engineering
Vital & Non Vital Logic Programming
GETS Harmon Logic Controller
GETS Vital Harmon Logic Controller
GETS ElectroCode
US&S Genisys
US&S Microlok
Train Control Systems
Highway Crossing Systems
Dispatching Systems

Signal/Systems Engineers - Rail Transit

lorimueller — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:26:44 GMT

Hello: My name is Lori Mueller, I have a client looking for signal/systems engineers in the rail transit arena. Strong design experience, must be US resident.

Please contact me direct at lmueller@eegrecruiting.com or 877-841-3452. Thank you.

Railroad Engineers - Freight Rail

lorimueller — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:27:18 GMT

Hello:

My name is Lori Mueller, I have a client looking for railroad engineers, with strong design experience, understanding of FRA rules, freight rail.

Accepting 2-5 years and above. Must be US resident. Please contact me direct @ lmueller@eegrecruiting.com or 877-841-3452. Thank you

Short-Line Railroad TIGER Grant question

keithacts238 — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:15:09 GMT

Hi guys and gals.

There was a TIGER Grant in the tune of 17 million awarded to RJ Corman Railroad Group in Nicholasville Kentucky back around March, 2010. The Governor and other dignitaries were there to celebrate the occasion. They claimed work would begin in mid April 2010. Here it is almost July and no sign of the money. When I try to contact anyone working for RJ Corman about the funds, they just say that the funds are caught up in red tape.

This money will generate 100-150 jobs!!! Why would it take so long for this money to be released?

Does anyone know of a place to check on the grants...I've been to a few sites with no success. I've been out of work for over a year and anxious to get back! PLEASE HELP!!!!

Can railroads run autotrains with passengers in the their vehicles?

railroadpostoffice1 — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:49:04 GMT

In Europe there are a couple of auto trains that passengers stay in their cars. Could that be done here? I was thinking of a RV and truck train where they would be inside the Auto racks for high speed or overnight trips

Looking for traction power engineers, MSEE!

lorimueller — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:35:11 GMT

Hello: My name is Lori Mueller I am a recruiter looking for Traction Power Engineers in the rail transit industry.

If you are interested in career opportunities - please contact me at 877-841-3452. Thank you.

Signaling Engineers, Estimators, Lead Project Engineers - Rail Industry

lorimueller — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:06:59 GMT

Hello! My name is Lori Mueller I am a recruiter looking for rail candidates. Need signaling engineers, estimators and lead project engineers. Please respond directly to:

lmueller@eegrecruiting.com or 877-841-3452. Thank you!

Seeking Rail Signaling Engineers

lorimueller — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:51:47 GMT

Opportunities available, looking for system engineers specializing in signaling. Please contact me direct at lmueller@eegrecruiting.com or 877-841-3452. Thanks!

Siemens Mobility is Seeking Signal Engineers

RobertWalker — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:48:46 GMT

Siemens Mobility is actively seeking candidates for railroad and transit signal engineers for its Jacksonville, Florida location. Applicant should have at least 5 years direct railroad signaling background with either a Class I railroad, mass transit operator or railroad manufacturer/engineering firm.

Navigate to the Siemens USA Job Search page http://www.usa.siemens.com/en/jobs_careers/us_jobs.htm for access to the job posting.

Investors Shake Up

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:19:07 GMT

Retail fashion jewelry investors in the U.S., burned by two market crashes in a decade, have shunned stocks for the longest stretch in more than 23 years, upsetting the balance of power in the $10.5 trillion mutual-fund industry.Investors aren’t biting. In the first half of 2010, 98 percent of the money that San Mateo, California-based Franklin attracted went into bond funds.

Bond funds attracted more money than their equity counterparts in 30 straight months through June, according to the Investment Company Institute, a Washington-based trade group. Preliminary data show Chanel bags the trend continued in July, matching the streak posted by bonds from 1984 through 1987.

The shift is pressuring asset managers, especially equity- focused firms such as Janus Capital Group Inc. and Capital Group Cos., because bond funds charge about 20 percent less in fees. Among the big winners Coco Chanel are bond specialist Pacific Investment Management Co. and Vanguard Group Inc., whose index stock funds have become popular alternatives to actively managed portfolios.

“Retail investors are still shocked by what has happened in the past two years,” James Kennedy, chief executive officer of fund manager T. Rowe Price Group Inc. in Baltimore, said in an interview last month after Chanel jewelry releasing second-quarter earnings that fell short of analysts’ estimates.

Bond funds attracted $559 billion industrywide in the 30 months through June, according to ICI. Investors pulled $209.4 billion from domestic equity funds and $24.4 billion from funds that buy non-U.S. stocks. Stocks fell Chanel 26 percent including reinvested dividends during the period.

“But many investors are turning their backs on equities now -- after one of the worst decades the stock market has ever seen,” the company, manager of $603 billion including the Franklin and Templeton funds, X1n_9 to re-edit says in a presentation on its website.

“We are going to keep talking about equities,” CEO Gregory white lily Johnson said on a July 29 conference call with investors. Johnson said he was concerned investors were putting “too much” money into bonds, whose price falls when interest rates rise, without realizing the risks involved.

The speed and depth of the market’s decline has rattled investors in a way past selloffs didn’t and has conditioned them to retreat from stocks at the first hint of trouble, said Jim Jessee, president of the U.S. fund business for Outlook, a flower Boston-based MFS Investment Management.

The S&P 500 has fallen 12 percent from its high for the year on April 23 amid signs the economic recovery is slowing. Investor pessimism deepened after the Federal Reserve said Aug. 10 that growth probably will be “more modest.” The central bank said it will maintain its holdings of securities to stop money from draining out of the financial system, its first move to bolster the is not love you economy in more than a year.ZMC

The Railroad Retirement Board holds no railroad stocks?

railroadpostoffice1 — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 02:04:25 GMT

If you read the fine print here you will see that they hold no railroad stocks. They hold internet stocks yes but no rail stocks. Its not that railroads are a bad investment since Bershire Hathaway (BNSF) is doing well and CSX traffic is up. You would think that the RRB trust would take its investors money and use it to raise capital to keep there jobs. Somebody at this mag should do a story and blow the cover off of this.

http://www.rrb.gov/pdf/nrrit/reportFY2009.pdf

FRA Trainee Questions Here

FRAKid — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:19:20 GMT

Any personal questions about the FRA Trainee expereince? My own opinion, not agency opinion or policy.

need railcar plant for 40's movie location - suggestions

pbiassociates — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 03:17:10 GMT

Hello.

I am making a movie with many scenes set in a 40's era railcar building plant.

It can be in either the United States or Canada. Any suggestions for a period location?

What ever happened to Employee Ownership? Like CNW?

RayTylicki — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:34:28 GMT

There was a short spat in the 1980s when employee ownership was a trend. Steel Mills and mines and other blue coller industries were being bought out by there workers and unions. Sometimes they even went on strike against themselves like UPS. Now if we were to look at the books of the big 4 railroads you will find that they are owned by pension funds likek TEIE CREF and Calpers and that BLE also holds significant stock in the railroad. The Teachers Unions and NEA own so much stock that they have somebody from them on the boards for the last 15 years....Now that Warren Buffett is takeing over the unions have nobody to blame but themselves for not making a counter offer. The Unions back in the 1980s made a counter offer for Conrail and the Chicago Northwestern was "Employee Owned"...If you look at actual holdings of board members before they became board members you will find that owned very few shares of stock if any and were invited to become board members by other owners or present board members....If we were to look at the railroad retirement board holdings you will find that as of 2 years ago they held almoat no railroad stock--http://www.rrb.gov/nrrit/ReportsTOC.asp---If Karl Marx said that the workers should own and control the means of production then what is the Unions Role in this?Maybe the workers who put in there time everyday know that the railroads and where they work at is not such a good place to put there nest egg after all.------Or they just want the eggs but dont want to own the chicken

http://civileats.com/2010/02/19/bobs-red-mill-goes-employee-owned-video/

Systems Engineers, Power Traction Engineers, Signaling/communications Engineers-rail transit industry-needed

lorimueller — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:50:00 GMT

Systems Engineers, Power Traction Engineers, Signaling/communications Engineers needed in the rail transit industry.

I am a recruiter looking for specialized individuals in these various areas. Please contact me direct at lmueller@eegrecruiting.com or 877-841-3452.

Macondo well disaster will affect rail ops in America

tahoevallleylines — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:29:46 GMT

Higher costs for rig liability Insurance & bonding shall be another cost impact on liquid fuel pricing, and dampen deepwater extraction efforts. Richard Heinberg is an energy scientist & research writer, see his monthly "Museletter" from Post Carbon Institute in Sebastopol, CA. Railway will be default mode, as many habitual truck users run into problems with fuel costs and -sometime- Federal Executive Emergency Orders including motor fuel rationing. Add these papers to the Oil Interregnum study: Lionel Badal; Robert L. Hirch; Chris Skrebowski (peakoilconsultants) and Daniel Yergin at CERA ("The Prize").

"tahoevalleylines" posts at "theoildrum" and suggests US policy makers and business interests get savvy on the motor fuel issues ASAP. We are concerned with the nuts & bolts of distribution going into the Energy Emergency, not climate or political doings. We determined long ago the folly of basing US transport on ways & means dependent on ever increased dependence on import motor fuel. Now, the reckoning is at hand. America must get to work on vast expansion of rail mains' capacity & reach. Dormant branch lines must be prioritized (ag corridors ) for rebuild, return to service. Probably, freeze on steel scrap export, and getting another rail rolling mill lit up... Suspend inventory tax; limit tax on branch line infrastructure. Many mains' enroute container handling facilities must be considered, also without tax levy.

US military bases and urban factories with rail spur must be assessed for localizing victuals distribution as long-haul trucking falls back to railhead pick-up & delivery role. US Army/Guard rail logistics battalions must be recommissioned with all due haste and forward the rebuild program until branchline operating responsibility picked up by private shortline or adjacent mainline operator. These are not easy pills for an industry on the shrink for fifty years, but the do-nothing alternative leaves America open to famine and regional distribution collapse in the coming decades. Please, verify the oil cost & flow projections. Contact USDOE, Department of Defense Strategic Planning. Talk to Richard Heinberg and Warren Buffett & Daniel Yergin et al. ALL RAILWAY execs must be energy supply & EIOER math savvy asap.

Mainline execs are insulated from timely action, preferring to assess trends, not make preparation for a paradigm shift. Be that as it may, Transportation must deal with limits on liquid fuel, or rationing & shortage will deal with America. As things stand now, America's Short Line Railroad operators have the flexibility to look at dormant lines & traffic patterns in their respective purview, and be prepared to offer recommendation for their respective States' Office Of Emergency Planning as the situation clarifies. Of course, Mssrs. Hamberger (AAR) & Graves (ATA) have seen these iinputs, and would be expected to have action plan outline in hand as Rationing appears likely. Shortline operators may see US Rail Map Atlas Volumes from spv.co.uk and "Official Guide" circa 1920-1950 for maximum US rail mileage and points of service.

All comers are encouraged to see website "Suntrain Transportation Corporation" and Companion book: "ELECTRIC WATER" (New Society, 2007) by Christopher C. Swan. Carbon tax may be interim approach before worldwide demand requires rationing, but that is "best case". Iran action, more Gulf accidents or hurricane disasters -or the unforeseen- can push the fuel needle into the red zone. No panic, just deliberate capacity planning & preparation, please. The Union of States must become energy independent; we must once again be a lending not a borrowing nation in order to survive & prosper. US Leadership must understand the meaning of "Second Dimension Surface Transport Logistics Platform"

Class 1 RR, 15 years and supervisory experience

lorimueller — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:31:45 GMT

Looking for Class 1 RR, 15 years with supervisory experience.

Contact Lori Mueller @ 877-841-3452

lmueller@eegrecruiting.com

Looking for systems engineers and traction power engineers in the rail industry~!

lorimueller — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 22:01:16 GMT

If you are open for opportunity I am currently looking for both systems engineers and traction power engineers in the rail industry 15+ years. Contact me directly at 877-841-3452 or lmueller@eegrecruiting.com ~ Thanks!