News

Center works with Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen to Strengthen Signal Maintainer Training

Posted October 2013

Center staff met with the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen’s (BRS) training committee October 18, 2013 to discuss future collaboration on training programs.  The BRS’s Vice President Floyd Mason invited the Center to the meeting to strategize plans to upgrade training at railroad properties where there is very little or no current training.  VP Mason was joined by W. Dan Pickett, BRS President, Dennis Boston VP, Joe Mattingly VP, Mark Ciurej VP, Mike Owens Grand Board of Trustees - Chairman, Mike S. Baldwin, Director of Research, and Tim Tarrant Grand Lodge Representative.

The wide ranging discussion touched on the BRS’s current participation in the National Signals Training Consortium and the applicability of that endeavor to other railroad properties.  At present only transit rail and commuter railroads are participating along with Amtrak.  Signal maintenance is a safety critical occupation requiring a thorough understanding of the discipline.  It is also an occupation that is subject to constant technological change demanding skills upgrades.  Today’s signal systems are highly sophisticated operations that requires signalmen to understand everything from simple electricity to electronics, programmable logic controls to software and more.