Railroading or Trucking?

In your guys opinions which is better trucking or Railroading I'am Kinda Half n Half heard good and bad of both I'am thinking about going into trucking if railroading dos'nt turn out they way I like to? heres a pic of the the Truck I will be driving if I do go Into trucking of course it's a PETE
Jeremy Smith West Plains,MO
BNSF Thayer Subdivision

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RE: Railroading or Trucking?, bigbadCN_man, Nov-30-04, 04:08 PM, (1) RE: Railroading or Trucking?, SVTS, Nov-30-04, 05:35 PM, (2) RE: Railroading or Trucking?, shadowr434, Nov-30-04, 08:22 PM, (4) RE: Railroading or Trucking?, century242, Nov-30-04, 09:57 PM, (8) RE: Railroading or Trucking?, NewEnglandRailFan, Nov-30-04, 08:01 PM, (3) RE: Railroading or Trucking?, RAILDOG, Nov-30-04, 08:24 PM, (5) RE: Railroading or Trucking?, RAILDOG, Nov-30-04, 08:28 PM, (6) RE: Railroading or Trucking?, NewEnglandRailFan, Nov-30-04, 08:34 PM, (7) RE: Railroading or Trucking?, RAILDOG, Dec-01-04, 10:04 AM, (9) RE: Railroading or Trucking?, NewEnglandRailFan, Dec-01-04, 08:19 PM, (15) RE: Railroading or Trucking?, jay611, Dec-01-04, 02:32 PM, (10) RE: Railroading or Trucking?, NWFreak, Dec-01-04, 04:36 PM, (11) RE: Railroading or Trucking?, jay611, Dec-01-04, 04:45 PM, (12) Railroading, of Course!, LRC_lover_9th, Dec-01-04, 05:30 PM, (13) RE: Railroading, of Course!, adamb, Dec-01-04, 07:13 PM, (14) RE: Railroading, of Course!, GrandTrunkFan, Dec-02-04, 10:01 PM, (16) RE: Railroading or Trucking?, marko bevic, Dec-04-04, 06:01 PM, (17)

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Well, in my opinion, railroading is better for 1 main reason. Take a double stack intermodal train of 100 railcars. That equals 200 intermodal containers, requiring 200 truck cabs to haul those 200 containers. Now with the train, you are using probably no more than 5 (that is a geuss) locomotives,which eqauls probably 10 to 20 (again, an estimate) truck cabs. The train is far more efficiant in my opinion. Cheers, Morgan

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I drove semis for 5 years, and you really have to be careful to make sure you select the right company. Trucking companies recruiters are alot like Army recruiters, they tell you want you want to hear, but then once you get hired and start, you find things are not as they seemed. I drove for Covenant Transport, one of the largest carriers in the south..for 4 weeks. They couldn't find me a load no matter where I was, and the big load they finally put me on, they gave me 5 days to go from Columbus Oh to Minn., and 2 days from there to Seattle...in the winter. I was starving, and sinking furtherinto debt. After demanding that they set up a trade off so that I could quit and get back home, they said they couldn't, so I left thier truck at a truck stop in Wyoming and took a Greyhound home. Horrible company, and almost made me give up trucking all together. But the next comapny I drove for, Landair Transport out of Columbus Oh, they were great. I stayed with them for 2 1/2 years. I could see the winds of change coming, so I left, and sure enough, major changes to the company took place.In a nutshell, you have to have a good head on your shoulders. Regardless of weather you are a company driver or not, you have to be a good planner, know how to read a map very well (including looking for the no-interstate roads that will save you time) and be detailed oriented. If your a sloppy mess with a lackluster attitude, and only want to do certain loads, you won't make money anywhere. Take every load offered, be on time, treat your customers fairly, and keep a upbeat attitude, and you will make money and in time, you'll be able to bargain with your dispatcher for an extra day off here, or something else. Dispatchers know who thier key drivers are, and will often go above and beyond to keep them happy because they know they can count on them.I dorve for 5 years, and had hit all 48 lower states by year 2. I saw some of the greatest parts of this country, and them I saw some not so great parts, like Hunts Point Produce Market in New York (Bronx). Take the good with the bad and always use your head.Chris Bogley
Syracuse New York
http://photobucket.com/albums/v520/CBP/

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>Well, in my opinion, railroading is better for 1 main
>reason. Take a double stack intermodal train of 100
>railcars. That equals 200 intermodal containers, requiring
>200 truck cabs to haul those 200 containers. Now with the
>train, you are using probably no more than 5 (that is a
>geuss) locomotives,which eqauls probably 10 to 20 (again, an
>estimate) truck cabs. The train is far more efficiant in my
>opinion. Cheers, Morgan
Well my friend he was referring to a career in either not what you think is a better industry. Beyond that all those containers that you say are more efficiently pulled by a train,how do you think they get to the final destination. Does that loco jump tracks and haul a container at a time to the warehouse? No. As for a career I say if you can get a job with a railroad go for it. If not trucking is not a bad career. Ive been in it for almost 20 yrs now and I'm pretty happy. I am a local LTL driver now but I did the OTR thing for 4 yrs. I'm home every night now after a 10 hr day and I make around 55,000 a yr now. It starts out hard but will get better after about 10 yrs.

Frank Roberts
P&D Tractor trailer Driver for R&L Carriers
Member of the Middletown Ct Office of Emergency Managment
"Sometimes I dream about being carried off by a big giant squirrel. Does that make me a nut?"

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5 engines? Shoot the 100 plus platform stack trains I run up the Feather River Canyon have three if I am lucky and usually one of them is a SD40-2 (usually the lead unit).Regards,
Erik Pierson
Sacramento, Cawww.sacramentolocomotiveworks.com
You can find information about SLW upcoming releases at the following links
Elvas Tower Forums
3dTrains Forums

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That right there is a beautiful truck.Right now I'm sort of both. I love trains and trucks and I like the mechanical thing most. So as its diesel, turbocharged, and put out a lot of pony's I'm happy.
-Dave

You can e-mail me at davej8010@aol.com -or- hrrc_7324@yahoo.com -or- feel free to aim me.

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This is a beautiful truck too for 110K and it has a Auto Shift....
Jeremy Smith West Plains,MO
BNSF Thayer Subdivision

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As long as it burns diesel and stays on land Im happy Jeremy Smith West Plains,MO
BNSF Thayer Subdivision

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Yeah thats a real good looking truck.Have you ever seen the Peterbuilt on Monster Nation that has a Jet engine on the back and they raced a plane with it and the truck won? That was a cool truck
-Dave

You can e-mail me at davej8010@aol.com -or- hrrc_7324@yahoo.com -or- feel free to aim me.

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Yeah that was bad (in a good way) did you see that episode of Monster Garage were they made a motorcycle useing a engine out of a old pete sounded awesome!!! Jeremy Smith West Plains,MO
BNSF Thayer Subdivision

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>Yeah that was bad (in a good way) did you see that episode
>of Monster Garage were they made a motorcycle useing a
>engine out of a old pete sounded awesome!!! THAT was the coolest episode ever. That is now my goal in life to create a trike oute of a Pete or a Kennworth. We watch that one in school all the time
-Dave

You can e-mail me at davej8010@aol.com -or- hrrc_7324@yahoo.com -or- feel free to aim me.

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You mean Shockwave! I see her every year at the local airshows!Jason Underwood
Virginia railfanALCO, gone but still alive!

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Haha, yes, I see it every year too! It always beats the airplane lol.
Have a nice day
-Mike

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It lost to a F-14 that nearly went supersonic at Oceana Airfoce Base! That same day a F-16 went supersonic and shatterd a few wind shelds. Jason Underwood
Virginia railfanALCO, gone but still alive!

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All reasons considered, RAILROADING FOR SURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-Andy the LRC lover
EMD all the way!!

MLT Lives!

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Visit my website! www.trainweb.org/aussiepix/
Adam, TKW Reskinner, Australia
Proud member of the Trailing CN SD60 Club

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My friends dad is a general foreman for a diesel repair shop, and he keeps telling me that they are having a hard time keeping their diesel mechanics. All of them are being hired by the railroads.

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Ive been truckin for 18 years, & still lovin it.
Seen it all for sure, youll be suprised what you see in 18 years on the road, cant say here, but the life style isnt for everyone, all i can say is, stay off the drugs, dont be a cowboy, and no matter how hard it gets , keep a smile on your face, and youre there. love it.Also my beatiful wife Gayle, rides with me on occaisions, nothing beats a sunrise over the horison with me and her together, sure makes a man feel real good.It must suck being a 'suit', stuffy offices, traffic jams, 9 to 5 !marko

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