Fantastic news!

[jackalope]

Shaun, nothing left to do unless I go into management and I'm not in a hurry to do that! They'd move me all over the half of the US we run in!

Mick, it wasn't exactly a walk in the park the while time either.

Painless, thank you very much sir! You should see my rule books. LOL!

[jackalope]

Oh yeah stuff needs to go on trucks for a bit for sure. But here in the US they're trying to make it so long distance trucking is really a thing of the past. We can move more frieght further, cheaper, safer, and with less fuel then trucks can. So it makes perfect sense to load up trains and let us carry stuff coast to coast. We can move over 300 trailers on 1 train from California to Maryland in less then a week! Trucks can't do that! But as I said trucks are still needed for local deliveries from our rail yards to the stores.

[jackalope]

There are 2 different gauges here in the US as well. Narrow gauge was used out west but that was a thing if the past.

The US started out getting locomotives from the UK even started out using the same rules which is why even to this day the engineer sits on the right side of the locomotive just like over in the UK. But transporting them across the Atlantic was VERY costly! So we started building our own! By the end of the steam era the US had the biggest, heaviest, most powerful locomotives in the world.

Not 10 min from where I live is the first electrified railroad! Now it belongs to CSX but it used to be the B&O railroad and it's the longest railroad tunnel east of the Rocky Mountains, the Howard St. tunnel.

Now days however the railroad in the US is a sad joke compared to the rest of the worlds.

[Raminator]

A little late to the party, but many well-deserved congratulations to you Terry. Was there ever any doubt?

I see coal trains passing through the Hunter Valley into Newcastle every day at work; they're enormous machines with three or four locomotives and trains of wagons kilometres long. I've got a huge amount of respect for anyone with the expertise and experience to handle that kind of power, weight and responsibility.

[jackalope]

Thank you sir! With those big coal trains you really need to stay on top of it or they'll get away from you. 22,000 tons moving at 80kph REALLY does not want to stop!



So after I passed everything and I received my license in the mail I went back to being a conductor running the engines by remote control. Yup 2 3000hp a piece remote control toys! Then Thursday I got notified that this week I'm going to be an engineer for the 1st time! Gotta admit little nervous about it but it should be fun. My own train to run with no one standing over my shoulder watching me.

[jarndice]

Oh Jack you just know they will be watching except they wont be in the cab but they sure will be watching. Good luck my good and professional friend.
Shaun.

[jackalope]

Thanks Shaun!