Where is this rail yard?

When your assigned to a union pacific rail yard what can you expect work wise?

• no travel in yard? much physical labor? 12 hour work days?

• Answer:

  Rango said it all, but I'll reiterate the clothing part. I used to wear choppers (a leather mitten with a fleece lining) with cotton gloves under them. Your hands get cold first because your always holding cold steel. The footwear that always worked for me was regular work boots, because they're light weight. Important when putting on a couple of miles every shift. Over my boots, I wore zip-up rubber over shoes, again, with the fleece lining. I get cold easily, but this combonation always worked well. I tried Sorrells one year. They are heavily insulated, but they weigh a lot. Had to carry them out to the car one at a time. lol. In a switching yard, it takes time to know where you have to be, and when. But the parts of the puzzle fall into place quickly for nearly everyone. But you'll feel lost the first few shifts. Be sure you never have more train than track. The track lengths are in your daily print-out. Some Yard Masters overlook this too. If the print out states a track a track is 4,215 feet long, and there's already 65 cars in there, and your instructions call for adding another 11 cars, it won't fit. Know the switches. Many people run-through switches at least once in their first year. Not a real big deal as long as the wheels stay on the steel, but it does go in your personel file. Most important. Watch everything. Rail cars often roll silently. With all that said, the yard is a good place to start working. Learning switching first is beneficial. I worked with veteran Conductors who had been on the job for many years, but never worked a yard or a local. And they couldn't switch out a train any better than I could land the space shuttle. I held a yard job for two years. That was among the best times of my railroading. It was challenging and it was fun. And with the right crew, I used to get excited about going to work.