Watched this video a few times now. I'm in Chattanooga right now for training and tomorrow we are starting to learn our track authorities so i figured this would be good to refresh my memory a little. Thanks again for the videos.
nice vid... i was a chicago and northwestern condr back in the early 90s... copied MANY track warrants, nice to see that the other roads warrants are very similar in nature... a tricky aspect of railroading is moving over foreign roads and having to communicate with say in your case a CSX dispatcher... it's good to have those communications and warrants the same all across the board... i remember we had a job that traveled over the CPs river sub to winona minn... well on the CP they have flashing signals and on the cnw we didn't have any flashing signals on my part of the railroad... trust me, the LAST LAST thing you wanna do is go on somebody elses's railroad and take a SH** and F*** something up... (been there done that)
Love the content Joey. I've got sad news, I unfortunately failed my final exam today with a 78. I started over thinking it before I hit submit and started changing my answers, especially on the definitions of the signals. If you need any new insight on how they're conducting operations in mcdonough recently just let me know. Thanks for your help, I was encouraged to reapply but not sure how I feel about it since those 3 weeks in McDonough were filled with constant stress with studying due to how they arranged schedules, yesterday I was looking forward to my next 10-20 years at NS and today I'm pretty lost on what the next move is. All in all it was a great experience for someone like myself who has been self employed for the last 8 years while meeting some life long buddies.
Hate to hear that Tyler, those 3 weeks are very stressful. I would love for you to shoot me an email man if you don’t mind. Railroadtalk@gmail.com no rush just whenever you get a chance.
Just found your channel, have been watching your vids all day. Have a second, live interview for CSX, Friday, for CT in my hometown, that serves a small subdivision, all coal, it's my lifelong dream, I'm nervous AH
Haha That was funny! Enjoyed the dispatcher w/ the wig, classie👍 Does the NS really talk that slow? At the CP, all them dispatchers rapid fire em and we all rapid fire em back. Also enjoy the little differences from one company to another. (I always struggle dealing with the UP haha.)
Lol, hey Eddie! Glad you liked it 😂. We had a dispatcher by the name of Dave I dealt with everyday while I was on a local and he would spit them out so fast.. thankfully.. our work between was always the same everyday. So all I had to do was make sure the time was right lol. Most of the time they were fast but not to crazy and if they were I would ask them to repeat it cause I didn’t want to get anything wrong or it was my job 😂.
AWD, ARW, I always tried to be just a bit faster on the read back. I imagined they always had a mile long list of callers waiting so I tried to not take up their time anymore than necessary. Always correct.
I think they call it TA 1.1 But they're the same thing. I have only herd EC-1 on the CSX channel when we had to get on their track to climb the mountain to Chattanooga.
Hey supreme! That’s one of the conductors jobs. That goofy clip of me bouncing between characters is pretty accurate how everything goes down believe it or not. The conductor will give the dispatcher their current location via Mile post and the dispatcher will take it from there, and the conductor will repeat the track authority given twice to ensure everything is correct before proceeding. With PTC (positive train control) heavily involved now there are a few more steps now vs when I first started. Videos coming soon about PTC. Should be back on a locomotive sometime next week if all goes as planned. Thank you for your comment!
I’m about to start conductor school in a few weeks so I’ll probably know the answer soon, but is it possible to prep part of the TA by writing your locomotive number and direction since you already know that info, so it’s one less thing to keep up with writing while the dispatch is talking as fast as an air traffic control is?
by the book NO, you can not have anything prewritten in the book if a trainmaster was to find that he could potentially fire you or pull you out of service. Now when you're moving does it happen? Yes, I would go ahead and write my engine number and the direction we were going. That is still technically breaking the rules so do this at your own risk lol. I will have another video on this as I know I can do it better looking back lol
@@Railroad_TalkNOutdoors that was fast lol. I’m practicing listening to recorded dispatch audio and filling out blank practice track authorities. That’s a bummer since I can barely keep up. But thank you for that information! I love your channel and look forward to more videos and streams!
Good news I'm head to Georgia for training on April 18th!. I'm excited and nervous,track authorities sound very confusing any advice in general will be helpful.
It’s very intimidating, but you may get lucky and never need them on your territory. Some require them and some don’t.. but if you do need to learn them. When you get to OTJ training listen to a few and ask if you can do the next one. Let the dispatcher know it’s your first one and they will typically slow everything down for you.
@@Railroad_TalkNOutdoors I asked because I m having trouble logging in,I spoke to IT and they weren't able to help me me because its my personal device
It was a lot simpler on the SCL cause I got called to work many BV jobs . Like*****BV dispatcher would say "1805 entering the yard limits at welcome can have the line to Edison.over"
I'm about to take a twc examination. I'm having a bit of trouble when to include or not include a (switch milepost or rr marker) can you give me any tips?
@@Railroad_TalkNOutdoors My house is 350 feet from the U.P. line,I get blocked in my driveway by people waiting on the train,it's frustrating,but I know it can't be helped.
@@bdp1966 it can be helped but with PSR (precision scheduling railroad) which has caused way longer trains and lack of man power it keeps a lot of people sitting and waiting for room to get into the yard or out of a siding. It’s not the crews fault, we hate blocked crossings lol.
@@bdp1966 I used to live about 275 feet (i think i measured accurately via google maps) from the up tracks, triple track mainline at a train station that also serves passenger trains with only two exits that emptied to the main street. To make matters worse, the apartment building behind my building had a parking lot next to the lot for my building and, was connected to another street (actual escape route) but, the lots were not connected to each other. furthermore, to add insult to injury, that same company is the one i work for and, i could possibly get blocked by the very same train id be working on that day. The people in the apartments across the street from my apartment had it easier because their side of the street would be clear of vehicles because that side of the street the traffic flow is driving away from the railroad tracks. Now that was frustrating.
Yes they are on the final exam, they also have practice topic reviews about it. Make sure when you go down there that you do each of those topic reviews a handful of times. George, Adrian and Tre are also great instructors. Jerome is a very nice dude is well.
Up to and including first siding switch used to confuse the he🏒🏒 outta me or hold main track at last name point or clear main track at last name point.
It kinda is now a days, the dispatcher will send a track auth to PTC, you and the engineer both acknowledge the limits given in said track authority and carry on. Automation, automation, automation lol
@@ArmyPL1981 Thanks for the reply. That would be really cool to see a video on but it's probably against the rules to show us the display in the train.
Watched this video a few times now. I'm in Chattanooga right now for training and tomorrow we are starting to learn our track authorities so i figured this would be good to refresh my memory a little. Thanks again for the videos.
hey Kyle! I know I am late, how was training!? Chattanooga is a monster yard lol. Hope all went well my friend
nice vid... i was a chicago and northwestern condr back in the early 90s... copied MANY track warrants, nice to see that the other roads warrants are very similar in nature... a tricky aspect of railroading is moving over foreign roads and having to communicate with say in your case a CSX dispatcher... it's good to have those communications and warrants the same all across the board... i remember we had a job that traveled over the CPs river sub to winona minn... well on the CP they have flashing signals and on the cnw we didn't have any flashing signals on my part of the railroad... trust me, the LAST LAST thing you wanna do is go on somebody elses's railroad and take a SH** and F*** something up... (been there done that)
Record 10 hours of this so I can listen to radio chatter asmr to sleep.
I use to fall asleep to it daily while moving 🤣
Love the content Joey. I've got sad news, I unfortunately failed my final exam today with a 78. I started over thinking it before I hit submit and started changing my answers, especially on the definitions of the signals. If you need any new insight on how they're conducting operations in mcdonough recently just let me know. Thanks for your help, I was encouraged to reapply but not sure how I feel about it since those 3 weeks in McDonough were filled with constant stress with studying due to how they arranged schedules, yesterday I was looking forward to my next 10-20 years at NS and today I'm pretty lost on what the next move is. All in all it was a great experience for someone like myself who has been self employed for the last 8 years while meeting some life long buddies.
Hate to hear that Tyler, those 3 weeks are very stressful. I would love for you to shoot me an email man if you don’t mind. Railroadtalk@gmail.com no rush just whenever you get a chance.
Just found your channel, have been watching your vids all day. Have a second, live interview for CSX, Friday, for CT in my hometown, that serves a small subdivision, all coal, it's my lifelong dream, I'm nervous AH
Haha That was funny! Enjoyed the dispatcher w/ the wig, classie👍
Does the NS really talk that slow? At the CP, all them dispatchers rapid fire em and we all rapid fire em back. Also enjoy the little differences from one company to another. (I always struggle dealing with the UP haha.)
Lol, hey Eddie! Glad you liked it 😂. We had a dispatcher by the name of Dave I dealt with everyday while I was on a local and he would spit them out so fast.. thankfully.. our work between was always the same everyday. So all I had to do was make sure the time was right lol. Most of the time they were fast but not to crazy and if they were I would ask them to repeat it cause I didn’t want to get anything wrong or it was my job 😂.
AWD, ARW, I always tried to be just a bit faster on the read back. I imagined they always had a mile long list of callers waiting so I tried to not take up their time anymore than necessary. Always correct.
Do yourself the favor and just like & subscribe if you’re in the comments
🤣🤣. Thank you Brian
This was pretty helpful. Thanks for sharing.
Like that tutorial!!! Question, does SOUTHERN use EC-1 Track Authority?
I think they call it TA 1.1 But they're the same thing. I have only herd EC-1 on the CSX channel when we had to get on their track to climb the mountain to Chattanooga.
Does the Conductor Or Engineer initiate Track Authority?
Hey supreme! That’s one of the conductors jobs. That goofy clip of me bouncing between characters is pretty accurate how everything goes down believe it or not. The conductor will
give the dispatcher their current location via Mile post and the dispatcher will take it from there, and the conductor will repeat the track authority given twice to ensure everything is correct before proceeding. With PTC (positive train control) heavily involved now there are a few more steps now vs when I first started. Videos coming soon about PTC. Should be back on a locomotive sometime next week if all goes as planned.
Thank you for your comment!
Thank you for your help, I just got hired on to bnsf and unfortunately no one helps you to learn how to do this.
I’m about to start conductor school in a few weeks so I’ll probably know the answer soon, but is it possible to prep part of the TA by writing your locomotive number and direction since you already know that info, so it’s one less thing to keep up with writing while the dispatch is talking as fast as an air traffic control is?
by the book NO, you can not have anything prewritten in the book if a trainmaster was to find that he could potentially fire you or pull you out of service. Now when you're moving does it happen? Yes, I would go ahead and write my engine number and the direction we were going. That is still technically breaking the rules so do this at your own risk lol. I will have another video on this as I know I can do it better looking back lol
@@Railroad_TalkNOutdoors that was fast lol. I’m practicing listening to recorded dispatch audio and filling out blank practice track authorities. That’s a bummer since I can barely keep up. But thank you for that information! I love your channel and look forward to more videos and streams!
Commenting for the algo because this is excellent content !
Good news I'm head to Georgia for training on April 18th!. I'm excited and nervous,track authorities sound very confusing any advice in general will be helpful.
It’s very intimidating, but you may get lucky and never need them on your territory. Some require them and some don’t.. but if you do need to learn them. When you get to OTJ training listen to a few and ask if you can do the next one. Let the dispatcher know it’s your first one and they will typically slow everything down for you.
Congrats btw Michael! I’m sure you will do fine and you can always reach out if you have any questions
@@Railroad_TalkNOutdoors Do you have to be on NS's device to access the ERC?
@@michaelvickery5753 no, you can access it at home or on your phone.
@@Railroad_TalkNOutdoors I asked because I m having trouble logging in,I spoke to IT and they weren't able to help me me because its my personal device
Sheesh, I thought asking for permission to set switches on hand and to pass a stop signal at the T was complicated. Is this typical on all railroads?
Lol, it’s not as bad as it seems. You’ll deal with these in dark territory .
It was a lot simpler on the SCL cause I got called to work many BV jobs . Like*****BV dispatcher would say "1805 entering the yard limits at welcome can have the line to Edison.over"
Great info! Who's the guy riding the train at 6:30 in the video? He looks out of place. Lol
Never noticed that before lol, no telling this is some stock footage I found online just to keep the video interesting
@@Railroad_TalkNOutdoors police agent maybe? He looks like a military type. He's got knee pads and laced up boots.
@@trainstrucksguns8294 very well could be lol. Wouldn’t surprise me 🤣
Wow thanks for the great information!
I'm about to take a twc examination. I'm having a bit of trouble when to include or not include a (switch milepost or rr marker) can you give me any tips?
A lot of people have no idea what goes on behind the scenes,they think trains stop and start whenever they feel like it.
I preach to people all the time Barry down here where I live. They’re so quick to jump down the crews throat and they just don’t understand
@@Railroad_TalkNOutdoors My house is 350 feet from the U.P. line,I get blocked in my driveway by people waiting on the train,it's frustrating,but I know it can't be helped.
@@bdp1966 it can be helped but with PSR (precision scheduling railroad) which has caused way longer trains and lack of man power it keeps a lot of people sitting and waiting for room to get into the yard or out of a siding. It’s not the crews fault, we hate blocked crossings lol.
@@bdp1966 I used to live about 275 feet (i think i measured accurately via google maps) from the up tracks, triple track mainline at a train station that also serves passenger trains with only two exits that emptied to the main street. To make matters worse, the apartment building behind my building had a parking lot next to the lot for my building and, was connected to another street (actual escape route) but, the lots were not connected to each other. furthermore, to add insult to injury, that same company is the one i work for and, i could possibly get blocked by the very same train id be working on that day. The people in the apartments across the street from my apartment had it easier because their side of the street would be clear of vehicles because that side of the street the traffic flow is driving away from the railroad tracks. Now that was frustrating.
What about voiding a track authority?
Good question, I can make a video on this.
I live in UP land. They call them Track Warrants.
Thats right, all of our old heads called them that also lol.
I worked for a shortline as a conductor and could do track authorities in my sleep
Oh yeah, once you do a few of them there is nothing to it.
Add to ur question/statement on track authority; not necessarily true about only track worker crews... Unless they changed that recently..??
No, I may have made a mistake, we used them everyday in Florence to travel to Memphis and to Chat due to it being dark territory
@@Railroad_TalkNOutdoors ok.... Gottcha
😂😂 how have I not seen this one
Are these on the test?
Yes they are on the final exam, they also have practice topic reviews about it. Make sure when you go down there that you do each of those topic reviews a handful of times. George, Adrian and Tre are also great instructors. Jerome is a very nice dude is well.
Still waiting on how to clear a track authority lol
Up to and including first siding switch used to confuse the he🏒🏒 outta me or hold main track at last name point or clear main track at last name point.
You trying out for BNSF aren’t you? This is a demo tape
Lol no way, there isn’t a carrier that could pull me back onto those tracks 🤣.
Super old video lol.
You would think they would just do this by text message.
It kinda is now a days, the dispatcher will send a track auth to PTC, you and the engineer both acknowledge the limits given in said track authority and carry on.
Automation, automation, automation lol
@@Railroad_TalkNOutdoors Haha, yep automation is great when it works.
It's all PTC now. No comms with dispatcher for track authority.
@@ArmyPL1981 Thanks for the reply. That would be really cool to see a video on but it's probably against the rules to show us the display in the train.
You pretty much have to forget English 😂😂😂
Very true lol, I remember when I first started trying to copy my first few track authorities was roughhhhh