Where do locomotive operators sleep?

Conductors do not sleep on trains. As operating personnel they are awake for their entire shift, and can be on duty no more than 12 hours. At crew change points, they stay in hotels that the railroad has arranged for them. The same situation applies to engineers (in other countries, the “driver”).



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Locomotive Engineer employees work varying schedules and travel extensively to accommodate our 24 hours 7 days a week operation, which may include nights, weekends, holidays or on-call for emergency situations. Work may require travel and time away from home.

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In north America, freight locomotives have a toilet in the nose of the cab. This is a rather clean example of such.

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Freight train drivers will usually have to work nights. Train drivers travel to rail depots to start their working day and must live within 45 minutes to an hour of their base depot. They will work on the train until they reach the intended destination. Once there, overnight stays may be necessary at the end of a run.

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While modern trains won't litter the tracks with human excrement, the traditional method did just that. This is what was known as a hopper toilet. It could either be a simple hole in the floor (also known as a drop chute toilet) or a full-flush system.

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Because trains are scheduled to run 24 hours a day, a railroad engineer's salary is often earned by working nights, weekends and holidays; some locomotive engineers work over 50 hours a week.

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Crews are not to listen to music while on duty ... yet many crews bring radios all the time. Just don't get caught.

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Freight train conductors can't listen to music, books on tape, or do anything else that could potentially help them stay awake. Each freight train has two crew members, a conductor and an engineer.

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In the USA, staff were instructed to lock toilets when the train was stopped in a station and unlock them when the train was again underway. Mercifully, new trains no longer dump waste on the tracks. Instead, trains are fitted with chemical holding tanks.

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what do they do to pass the time? Other than a refrigerator/watercooler and a bathroom there are almost zero ammenities on a locomotive. Only way a engineer can go to bathroom is by stopping his train or if the conductor is a certified engineer he could run for while.

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While Amtrak does offer free WiFi, it is not available on all of Amtrak's trains. At time of writing, only the following trains are equipped with WiFi: Acela (service between Boston and Washington, DC)

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Can you go to the toilet on a train when its not moving? As a general rule, people travelling on trains are warned not to flush the on board toilet while it's not moving. That's because most trains don't have sewage tanks, meaning anything in the toilet is dumped straight onto the tracks.

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You can sleep in your berth only from 10 PM to 6 AM. You can't keep your berth up more than this sleeping hours duration. If you do so, your co-passenger with a lower berth can stop you.

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If you fall asleep on Amtrak and your destination is coming up, an Amtrak conductor will wake you up.

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While overnight sleeping in Coach might not measure up to the one-of-a-kind experience of sleeping in a private room, there are some tips and tricks that can turn your overnight trip into an even dreamier, restful experience.

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