Extremely toxic culture. I recall the superintendent using slurs and my coach using slurs, sexual innuendo, gestures and other profanity.
Training is not reflective of actual work. Alot of my in-class training was hardly applicable to real life scenarios. Coach's will let you know this too, and will constantly berate management for it. If you have no previous railroading experience, prepare to feel lost.. alot.
Very bad work life balance. You'll be required to be on call, 24/7, 365 days a year. You will have your phone glued to you at all times, and once you're at work, you shut it off and so on.
Women's bathrooms have special locks on them in the bunkhouses. I guess there's a predator problem or women not feeling safe? Huge red flag. Men's are not locked at all.
Most of what this job is from Calgary is going from Calgary to Red Deer or Calgary to Field, BC. Call out signals, do your paperwork, go to bed.
Don't dare look at your phone while on duty or in class... ever. You'll be terminated.
Seniority - Good luck getting a good schedule in the first five years. You'll be working nights in the dead of winter until the tops retire.
Starting out, you'll be on the breakman spare board. Chances are you'll be filling in for people when they're sick doing random jobs in Alyth, Ogden or on the road. There will be low consistency.
I'm told the pass rate for conductors is about 2 in 100 applicants, and 1 in 2 of those leave the company. Always have your backup job ready.
The campus is a railyard, leave early and get there early. If you're late for class more than three times, you're out, even if you call in or have a reason, you're out. They don't care.
Just a personal thing, I didn't feel welcome. My coaches spoke with me because they were paid too, most engineers ignored me or spoke badly of management, the union or anything else. It's incredibly lonely.
