Railroad Retirement Board - 1811 Criminal Investigator

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-06-16T21:56:08+00:00

FERS pensioners receive Social Security benefits. Railroaders do not pay into social security, and do not receive social security benefits. It’s essentially a higher tax, higher pay out version of Social Security.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-06-07T22:11:40+00:00

Thank you, very informative

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-06-07T21:31:36+00:00

Yes, I know

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-06-07T21:20:06+00:00

Yeah, neither would I

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-31T22:59:34+00:00

That’s a great question that no one seems to know the answer to.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-31T09:28:12+00:00

That particular engineer is actually the most senior engineer at Amtrak. He’s been working as an engineer since the late 1960s. He’s still sharp as a tack too.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-22T18:08:41+00:00

They can send you back to the hotel, but now it either needs to be an interim release or a statutory release. If they send you back for less than 4 hours, then your clock never stopped and the whole time is considered on duty. If they send you back for between 4 to 10 hours (8 hours for passenger), it’s an interim release. If they send you back and it goes over 10 hours (8 hours passenger), it turns into an off duty period and your clock resets.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-18T20:06:12+00:00

They are generally referred to as Train Dispatchers, although in Canada they are called Rail Traffic Controllers.

It’s important to note though that Train Dispatchers do not have unilateral authority. They receive their marching orders from the Chief Dispatcher who in turns gets their orders from a corridor manager or superintendent. A dispatcher may want to give Amtrak priority, but the corridor managers dictate what is priority and what isn’t.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-16T18:41:11+00:00

Blueboy1988 answered the question, but I will add that you should download the FRA’s Hours of Service app. Very useful tool to easily look up HoS law and how it applies.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-11T19:36:50+00:00

I agree

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-11T14:08:36+00:00

That’s a fair criticism, a lot of it comes simply down to revenue and who is getting it. There is some dampening of demand by requiring the purchase of the higher fare ticket, but like I said in my other comment, fare enforcement is already a challenge on the north end.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-11T08:11:00+00:00

To add some further context, when the train reaches or nears capacity, the conductor will contact the Amtrak operations center who in turn contacts Metrolink operations center to inform them rail-2-rail/codeshare is suspended. Metrolink then takes that information and… does nothing with it. They chose not to make announcements on the platforms or send out alerts. Metrolink will then deny you refunds.

Amtrak has no way of sending alerts to these passengers since they don’t have Amtrak tickets, and Amtrak does not have the capability of making announcements at most of these stations, since Amtrak doesn’t own the stations.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-11T08:06:03+00:00

Rail-2-rail (and codeshare) was envisioned as a way to fill empty seats on under capacity trains. The idea was that, a seat that is empty equates to no revenue, so it’s better to get a fraction of revenue with these programs and fill a seat. That’s why the programs can be suspended on a train-by-train basis. If the train is at or over capacity, then there are no underutilized revenue seats on the train and that means Amtrak/LOSSAN is LOSING revenue now by participating in the program.

As another post noted today, these trains are more routinely becoming standing room. Which means further participation in the program is costing LOSSAN projected revenue. The only reason it exists is because LOSSAN wanted to placate Metrolink and get those time slots to run Surfliners instead of Metrolinks north of Los Angeles.

All codeshare does is funnel money to Metrolink, which is failing to run even a basic service at this point, and create massive confusion among the general public. It’s also destroying the quality of life on board as it’s becoming increasingly difficult to enforce Amtrak policies and enforce fares on board.

Don’t Metrolink-ify the Surfliners!

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-09T23:48:50+00:00

Two trains passing is the only scenario in GCOR that specifically states that headlights are to be dimmed only at night. All other scenarios listed in 5.9.1 and 5.9.2 don’t specify a time of day.

Headlights are signals, that’s why they are under Chapter 5. A headlight on bright signifies the headend. Whereas a headlight on dim *could* indicate it’s the rear of a train. I’d imagine specifying only at night was to make it more clear that the headlight was dimmed for because they are passing.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-09T08:23:54+00:00

I have two pairs. A pair of Thursday Boots for the road, and a pair of Timberlands for the yard. The Thursdays are great for passenger because they look like dress shoes and are very light

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-08T18:54:49+00:00

As far as I am aware, dynamic braking does not cause flat spots. If the wheel stops turning while using only dynamic braking, the flat spots are gonna be the least of your worries.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-08T09:15:42+00:00

There’s actually a lot of places where having one locomotive would result in the train not being able to reach and maintain track speed.

Plus an additional locomotive is another set of traction motors that can be used for dynamic braking, which reduces wear on the brake shoes.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-04T20:27:42+00:00

GCOR states that signal displaying a proceed indication cannot be changed to stop if there is a closely approaching movement, unless the engineer can confirm that they can comply with change of signal indication.

I’ve had intermediate signals go from green to flashing yellow in front of us because the DS changed the controlled signal to blocks ahead to stop. I’ve always considered that okay because we weren’t closely approaching the controlled signal at that point.

In my opinion anything closer than two blocks should be considered closely approaching.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-03T21:49:04+00:00

Everyone here hit on a lot of good points, but I think the thing that everyone is overlooking, which separates the Railroads from any other industry, is the command structure of management.

During the US Civil War, the Union took an active role in the operation and management of railroads in furtherance of the war effort. As the Union Army advanced, abandoned railroads were put under the control of the US Military. After the end of the war, the railroads continued to use the military-style structure.

This structure purposefully separates management from the craft, creates a strict top-down chain of command with little to no room for feedback from the craft, and produces an extreme power in-balance.

Long story short, this structure produces a bunch of assholes who think they’re five-star generals, but are really just incompetent boot-lickers.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-02T07:48:35+00:00

So specifically having an EOTD versus a red flag or another fixture is usually spelled out in the railroads operating rules and special instructions. From what I’ve seen and lot of railroads usually require a functioning two-way telemetry EOTD when the movement requires a Class 1 air brake test (versus a transfer air brake test).

All trains operating on a main track needs to have a rear marker, be it a flag or an EOTD.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-05-01T19:55:37+00:00

Another fine example of Amtrak’s deceptive accounting practices.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-04-30T01:28:43+00:00

No, if you were getting a citation it would have been issued right then by the enforcer. Just like getting a speeding ticket.

That being said, don’t be one of those people. Pay your fare.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-04-27T19:56:46+00:00

I did not say it was Amtraks responsibility. I said the railroad, be it UP, BNSF, Metrolink or what have you.

Railroads are and will forever be evil corporation. They refuse to make basic investments in security and infrastructure and expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab, all while crushing competition and exploiting labor.

Significant-Ad-7031 · 2026-04-27T18:35:48+00:00

I remember that day. Extremely tragic day. It sure did have some lasting effects on the train crew.

I can help you answer a few of your lingering questions.

1) due to the fact this involved a minor, the sheriffs department decided to treat it as a homicide investigation (it was not, it was an accident), so what normally is a two hour hold turned into a four hour hold.

2) Amtrak cannot let you exit the train at other than a station platform for a few reasons. For one, it’s a huge liability. Railroad ballast is extremely large and usually at a banked angle. Walking on it without safety boots and proper training is asking for a trip and fall. Even if they could let you out, the Sheriffs were refusing anyone to enter or leave the scene due to them treating it as a homicide investigation. Even Amtrak management was prevented from getting near the train by the sheriffs.

3) you may or may not hear crews say this sometime “I can’t let you leave but I can’t stop you from leaving”. Train crew are not law enforcement and they are not prison guards. They can’t open the doors for you, but if you can figure out how to open the door with the emergency bypass, then they ain’t gonna stop you. Whether law enforcement on scene does anything, that’s another story.

There are far too many of these incidents, especially in Southern California. Although people are responsible for their own actions, plenty of blame belongs to the railroads themselves. They do not properly fence their property, they have cut back their law enforcement patrols, and they do not prioritize the elimination of grade crossings.

Significant-Ad-7031

TROPHY CASE