beanz

Bro listen I'm about to get a little deep for the people coming in. I lost both of my grandfathers to COVID within 4 months of one another. It gave me such perspective. My OGs came to this country to give us better opportunities and a better life. One of them was a tobacco farmer in DR who worked sun up to sundown 6 days a week to provide for his 9 children in a small rural town, then he came to this country at retirement age to continue working so he can try n bring all of his kids here from over there. Worked in a supermarket kitchen for another 10 years past his retirement age. The other was in the military in DR and then came here to work in factories and grocery stores his whole life well beyond 65 years old because he never had such a thing as a pension. Neither one of them ever saw more than 10 bucks an hour and they busted their asses down to the bone to provide for their kids. Here i am, making 40 an hour to move a train back n forth. Hardest I'll work is doing a put in. If they can both see me now making such a nice living for my daughters while barely exerting myself, and i have the nerve to complain about it, they would shake their heads in embarrassment. The only thing i hate about this job is right now i have to work PMs which sucks because i love to be at home at night with my family, but that's gonna change very shortly. All about perspective like i said.

For me i live close to both Bedford park and 207, so i pick something in the AMs (i regularly work PMs) on my second RDO and just do it while the family is at work n school. No long commute and I'll pick a line i love like the B and the day flies by.

Once u get comfortable operating a train, that time is a breeze. Becomes monotonous and boring because it's so easy. So even though u operating, in a way u are just chillin. The hardest part of this job is the commute to work and the commute home when u don't have any set schedule or location, but once u have the seniority to have some consistency, shit is not hard work in my opinion. I been working days off for some extra Christmas money and leave time and i never did that for any job before. Just come in, bang out your 2 or 3 trips and sign out n go home. Easy breezy. All about perspective. Some people are just a little spoiled and never worked any actual hard jobs before so this seems like a lot but I've done it all from delivering papers to driving 2 hours to Connecticut to deliver frozen foods to standing on my feet 8 hours doing security. This is one of the easiest jobs I've had.

Unless one has some inside info 😉

That's the spirit 😂

My B div classmates all picked jobs after just 1 year as xx. Most of them are at least OK with their pick. They had a lot more choices than they expected.

Lol damn bro/sis if it's that bad u really should consider quitting ASAP. Otherwise you are just giving new hires negativity before they even start. I actually had a conversation with another brand new TO who is xx and they told me the crew office has actually been great to them and their whole class. Nobody has any complaints. So maybe they got it out for u.

That's just terrible. They are so inefficient sometimes.

Yea u don't get immediately fired, but u will have to explain yourself and if u explain yourself wrong u will be fired. So best not to have to go through nervously explaining yourself to a superintendent and just get it right in the first place so they don't have to question u.

Exactly..just to clarify my position, when u are new and have no consistent home line, be very careful around all signals. Knock 5 to 7 off timers and take your time. I'm just saying that they do, for the most part, actually clear on time. So if u knock 3 to 5 off each GT sign, u will be absolutely fine. Just make sure it's actually on time. I've seen ppl hit home signals that they thought were on time and they swore up and down it was on time because it usually is, but it wasn't in that moment because there was traffic ahead. But just be careful and stay focused folks and you'll be ok.

If u get disciplined going the posted speed it's only because they don't believe u and u couldn't prove it. I know people who have hit timers during probation and after probation and they write a g2 and never hear of it again.

If there's a GT anywhere that doesn't clear at the posted speed u should report them. On 8th Ave line they all change at the posted speed with the exception of a couple that i don't trust so I've never tested.

I hear u on wanting to experience it for your own, but that situation u are in sounds so much better. I wish i could trade u cause i do love this job and i hate office work but right now with 2 small kids, flexibility and time at home is everything to me. Even something as simple as summer vacations is no longer a choice with transit until u have the seniority. i love my job but I'd trade places with u in a heartbeat so take that for what it's worth.

I'm comfortable enough to take timers at their posted speed, but that's because i have been on the same 2 lines(A, C) for the better part of a year. I know the timers well and i know which ones not to test. I make up all the time i need to make up by taking gt35s at 35 instead of 28 as is recommended by the majority of the folks down here. With station stops I'm more conservative given my history lol. I don't think coming in at 35 and braking at the CR board saves u that much time, at least not more than taking timers at the speed posted. Even with all that, they just gonna hold u outside the terminal anyway. That's fine with me cause when they gap me i just use it as a pit stop to stretch and drink some water.

Yea and the number 4 TO is a lady that loves to pick the road...she got almost 40 years down here yet somehow looks like she's barely aged. Loves her job i think happiness is the trick to her looks lol.

I took a look at the work program once and i felt like there were more penalty yard n switching jobs in the A than in the B. Just in Utica there are i believe 4 11 hour switching jobs. In the B when i was YX i didn't really make money like that but in the A i kept getting one of those 11 hour switching jobs and i was killing it some weeks lol.

N just wait til they being cbtc to lex...hopefully by then i should be an OG with a switching or yard job like u.

Queens corridor is madness....couldn't find me there even if i bought one of those fancy houses outside of continental 🤣

It's the beginning man everybody feels overwhelmed at first. One of the TSS said something once that stayed with me...this is like a 100 piece puzzle. It isn't complicated and u will figure it out if u apply yourself, but right now u just opened the box and dumped all the pieces on the table in front of u and none of it makes a lick of sense. Give it time and a picture will take shape.

Not everybody's experience is as bad as this person. Try it for yourself before letting someone else already make it miserable for you. I've had rough days here but I've always been grateful to have the job and never felt it was as horrendous as some people make it out to be. There are definitely shitty days but it isn't everyday.

The dropping of the handle is definitely not a big deal at all but i just think it speaks to a lack of familiarity with operating that u should have by the time u get to posting. Not that u should be super familiar but at least comfortable putting the handle to full service without looking down and that kind of thing because u have already moved the train enough times in the yard and during road ops. That's why I question the schedule because i know YX was cut down and that the classes got larger again so if there's less road op days on the calendar, each student isn't operating as much. But yea i have heard of some major incidents too and i just hope people can clean that up because there's no worse feeling than sitting there handing in your tools and pass.

I wonder if people are getting enough operating time with the larger classes and shorter schoolcar schedules. A lot of students have been dropping the handle or pulling it too far and going BIE in service while posting. It's been happening so often a lot of people don't want to take students to avoid the aggravation. Speaks to a lack of familiarity with the master controller because by the time you are road posting you should at least be comfortable with it.

U could always just show up at 180 Livingston and tell them at the front. They can let u in to see the Mac and if all your stuff is in order they can swear u in the same day. When i first had to get a clearance i just showed up without an appointment and was seen.

I wouldn't print it unless they told u explicitly to do so and that they would reimburse u. That's ridiculous.

Gtfoh wow really? That's ridiculous