RTOPRO

RTOMan is right. I think I got too caught up in the moment discussing the nasty nature of the business. The passion of this place will sometimes make me forget the setting.

The problem ends up being the odds. The more you chance fate the more the odds start running against you and at some point your luck runs out. There are more close encounters on the midnight tour than most are willing to admit, but there seems to be a quiet understanding on both sides that as long as nothing bad happened everyone should keep it moving. I've heard too many stories and yes this place being the rumor mill so you have to take everything with a grain of salt but that does work both ways. Some of that stuff is true and yet doesn't surprise me and no I won't go into details. Even though the other tours tend to be headaches the one thing all sides realize is that the 9-5 suits from system safety are more likely to be watching during the day. The one drawback about the mid tour is the heightened need to stay even more aware. Why? Depending on the line you work you can literally encounter 20+ track gangs. It's no joke! We recently came off a close encounter incident on the A line where a worker attempted to cross the tracks and failed to look almost getting clipped. I talk about that one because a notice was issued division wide. Now that's a known incident. What about the ones that remain unknown?

Yeah the midnight tour is when all the ghosts, phantoms and demons start showing up. Aka rogue track gang with no flagging protection, signals that usually have line ups with no line ups at all around curves and worst of all, the more dangerous drugged up/pissed over drunk passengers. LOL

Ok if you're going to provide a history lesson on how the 3 line used to run R62As then you should give out the full information. Otherwise if it's on the 7 then it's originally from the 7. If it's on the 1 then it's originally from the 1 since I'm certain that no one here is having a discussion about car movements from 10 years ago.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. 2141-2145 is originally from the 1 line. That Red Strip under the car body number stands for 240th Maintenance shop. The 3 line does not own nor does it run any R62As.

They schedule you that way for coverage based on who's available at any given time of the week. Example: Early AM (your Monday) reports. The one thing they always have to factor in is did you have 12 hours off between reports. Well on your Monday they don't have to worry about that at all so you are used to fill the earliest jobs possible, or you will be assigned to an early AM board report. This covers the open slots for those very early jobs and allows them to focus on getting those who have been working the week (middle of their week) assigned to other areas where they can have 12 hours between reports. On the flip side, (your Friday) same thing, they don't have to worry about your reporting back to work the next day so scheduling you to the latest AM job possible. There are no concerns about you needing 12 hours allowing them to more effectively assign those who have to report back the next day.

The supervisors get the keys from school car. Usually a school car TSS hands out the keys. School car keeps the documentation signed and dated by the employee acknowledging the issuance of said keys.

It's the reason why classes stopped as I said before, but also as I stated earlier there are enough crews trained that one could run in service out of the yard and in all honesty the way intervals/crews get shuffled around at Main Street there would be no problem getting one of the many people who are qualified on the next 188 scheduled to leave the station. There is a brand new build set in the yard. 6 cars...when another brand new build set of 5 cars arrives to Corona after finishing it's testing along either the N line or 2 line, they will link up and be prepared for customer service. I'm not brave enough to say a week. I'm brave enough to say within a month and a half, but that's only if those other new 5 cars arrive on a track at Corona within that time frame. Also it has to be understood. The 7 line is slowly but surely losing pieces. The 6 line is also losing pieces and for every piece the 6 line loses on a permanent basis, that piece is replaced with something from the 7 line. But the 6 line also loses a piece on a temporary term basis to 207th shop so they can do the truck overhaul work. Those pieces do come back to the 6 line before going to Kawasaki for conversion but it's still a piece that's not available. And as the 7 continues to lose pieces. Some permanent and some on a long term basis, something is going to have to replace those missing pieces in service at some point. We are slowly getting to that critical point where no choice will be had.

There's also that electromagnetic problems with some of the signals that has yet to be figured out but that may or may not be related. That's just a theory.

Employee health is not in their best interests. A healthier work force is a longer pay out for pensions and health care. Now if they were to find a way to get a contract that relieves them of those obligations then they would be more than happy to provide better health protections to the workforce on their way to find out ways to automate the system more lol!

In all honestly no that's not the reason. If they wanted to they could run the train as a put in out of Corona yard with a qualified crew and back to Main Street or Willets Point with a qualified crew and ship it back to the yard. Here is the reason: The sets that have been used for crew qualifications may or may not need some modifications to get more reliability out of the traction motors. Besides that it has wiring running in between the storm doors almost the length of the train. The strip maps haven't been installed and many of the new features need to be polished off. When more of the brand new deliveries arrive and finish their burn testing on Sea Beach and WPR or when more of the conversions get back and they are made to be service ready then we'll see them in service. In the mean time they are just too many rumors floating around and the Flushing crew qualifications one is a bad one. There is no one willing to risk getting placed on sick control by calling out the number of times it takes to avoid that many rescheduling of classes. And there are no more classes happening right now because the crew office feels they have trained enough people.

The best way to study is to read the material your instructors provide to you everyday and to go over them in the first 10 minutes of class daily until you can't go over it no more.

One big key especially for me is never allowing myself to become content with my operation no may how much time I have under my belt and no matter how good I know I am. I've made trains dance to the tune of 50+ in Joralemon tube. I've made a 6 train fly into 77th n/b & s/b and 96th n/b at 40+ and stopped the train on the mark every time with the smoothness of a cat. I've had some of the best partners out there and fed off of them making the trip as smooth, quick and pleasant as you could ask for. But none of that matters because as we say down here you're only as good as your last move. So I remind myself that yesterday was yesterday and even if I was at my best I try to replicate it but many factors keep that from happening. Different partner, different train, different weather, different mood (you), different passenger load, etc. You'll learn to deal with these various factors. You'll learn quickly how to determine if your train has dead motors and how it compares operating one trip versus the next and it will annoy you to no end when you work the 1 & 6 because you take that train downtown and you take that same train back uptown. Poor performance the whole trip. The key to becoming as some would say a "M/M" as oppose to just a "Train Operator" as some refer because they consider the train teachings today to be cookie cutter compared to the old days, is to pay attention to the details from day one. The key to this job is the details. At first you'll worry about moving the train and hope you're doing it right, then you'll worry about bring it into the station and making it stop as close to the mark as possible and all of this while keeping a strong eye on the signals, then you'll gain confidence and you'll learn how to manipulate the timers to your advantage, but one of the biggest pieces of them all and mind you I'm not mentioning a whole host of other things, is keeping an eye on that road bed for obstructions, especially entering the stations and keeping an eye on the people on the platform. Getting used to those who love to pretend to jump will be humbling for you but as I tell everyone else, you see it you take a brake. Why you ask? You say you know they're only faking right? Well I ask you this. Give me the statistics on the number of people who were faking the jump and for some reason ended up slipping and falling unintentionally in front of and now under the train. Don't have the stats you say? Well that makes sense because if the person is dead how can they tell you their side of the story? So simply put they're a jumper. Details.....this job more than any other you might have had is about the details. Their clues are your keys to surviving 25+ years in the meat grinder.

Guys orientation is going to take it's toll on you so rest well that weekend before reporting for the first day.

^^^^^Exactly^^^^^ Pay attention to every possible detail. It may seem like a lot now but your mind will get wrapped around the idea of absorbing all of the information.

Get your rest and you'll be fine.

No because no division controls the issuance of the keys. Those keys are issued by school car and school car is out which means if a new class were to start today they would have to wait for the back order like everyone else.

They're not using the R142 keys in the new 188s or the conversions. They are using the R160 keys because an additional function of the key has been added for the 188s that did not exist on the 142s on the console itself and that's special charge.

As I recommend to everyone else. The employment experience with NYCT is like no other. It's paramilitary so you must follow the rules, be on time, be prepared with all of your tools and ready to work but most importantly you need your rest. Having said that you should probably start determining where you plan to live long term. Even if you're not going to be there right away and you will be living with family you should continue to do your research on what you feel will be the best location for you. Based on that is how I feel people off the OC list should select their divisions if they have the option. School car is one thing but getting used to the different report times once out of school car is a challenge in itself. Don't limit yourself in what your capable of learning by comparing the two divisions. Once you get used to operating a train. "A train is a train" and you will be fully trained on how to move them all. I still say the A division is a bigger challenge. You have to very limited time to learn the division, line ups, rules and procedures, signals, rolling stock and operating in 4 months. (I'm purposely not including the yard posting time because you are posting during that time)

His list number remained the same. You have three chances accept a call to drug test and interview and two times to add yourself back to the list if you don't accept the original call or if you prefer to defer for whatever reason until a better time. In either case your list number remains the same. When you do add yourself back to the list and depending on your number and in Justin's case I doubt anyone else with a number that good is adding themselves back at this point in the game, your name will be the first called for all matters relating to the list number such as pick process for division. Justin will have the number one overall selection in the draft. As it relates to graduating from school car he will have the most senior file number of the entire class regardless of division. The file number is the seniority number that once again relates to the pick process, but this time for picking what job on what line as well as vacation and pay location. However his file number will not be hire than anyone from any previous classes as file numbers relate to your first day in title. You cannot be more senior than someone with an earlier first day in the same title. It's a good thing he's jumping on board while he can. I'm not sure how far into next year they will continue to select from this list as regularly as they are right now. Retirements are massive and will continue but things will slow up a bit. When that happens the number of new classes will slow down. We are getting into the territory when it may be time to put up a posting for a new test and now that the MTA controls it's own testing they may look to do so sooner rather than later as the fees will be collected by.....the MTA.

They have not been testing them for months yet you keep saying that they are being tested. What would need to be tested for so long. All crews for the 7 line and a sufficient tally of extra list people have to receive familiarization. Things have slowed to a crawl because they ran out of keys and the keys are on back order.

That's understandable but it's not lost yet. The truck work being performed is typical. It's usually done anyway at some mileage marker car equipment determines and the unit is then transferred to the overhaul shop to have it done. When the work is finished these cars will come back to service until it's their turn to go to Kawasaki.

You're jumping the gun. Just because 207th is doing work doesn't mean the cars are going to Kawasaki immediately after. There are other car numbers waiting to go to Kawasaki and this project will continue in car number order from oldest to youngest. That work is actually being performed by 207th and Coney Island. Corona is a maintenance barn. Adding or removing full width cabs is not apart of maintenance. That's overhaul shop work.

207th yard has prioritized the pre-conversion truck work. 7296-7300 is there now. Possibly 7291-7295 as well.

I completely agree with the above statement. It's not a matter of focusing on what everyone else is doing. It's focusing on what you can do to remain safe and keep others around you safe. In regards to the yards. Communicate constantly. It's the key to what you don't know.