Norfolk Southern Training Center has been the railroad's 'front door' for 50 years
12/20/2024
By Julie Sneider, Senior Editor
The current generation of railroaders attending classes at the Norfolk Southern Training Center (NSTC) in McDonough, Georgia, are a lot different than the first enrollees when the center opened in December 1974.
Back then, those who enrolled in the training center’s classes were primarily young men who, shortly after graduating from high school, embarked on what would become a lifelong career at the railroad.
“Today, we’re a lot less homogenous in a very good way,” says Jason Myers, the NSTC’s director of training.
The center’s students come from a range of ages and backgrounds: Many enrollees are middle-aged career changers and military retirees.
While the center still serves students entering the railroad industry right after high school, it also currently serves younger future railroaders who have some technical and/or four-year college education under their belts.
One thing that hasn’t changed? The McDonough center remains the “front door” to the railroad, NS officials say. Today, all new hires for the railroad’s craft positions start their careers there before advancing to on-the-job training somewhere in the Class I’s 22-state network.
“That’s one of the cool parts about having stewardship over the training center,” says Myers, who completed his own training at the center nearly 20 years ago after joining NS. “When you say ‘McDonough,’ it’s not just a city in Georgia. It’s a place where people have some specific memories and where camaraderie and relationships were built because we are the first piece of the railroad that people actually set foot onto.”
NS predecessor Southern Railway opened the facility as a mechanical training center, but Southern’s leaders quickly realized they could train more than railroad mechanics, according to Myers. (NS was created when Southern Railway and Norfolk and Western Railway merged in 1982.)
As a result, the center’s footprint has expanded beyond its original building, which remains in use and mimics a rail shop with classrooms built around it and a support rail yard on the side. Today, the footprint encompasses 18.75 acres and five buildings with a combined 75,000 square feet.
Two buildings are part of the original campus; two more — to house simulators for training locomotive engineers and a welding lab — were opened in 1990; and the fifth building, containing classroom space, opened in 2015, according to Myers.
The NSTC staff consists of 50 trainers who are experienced and certified in the craft they are teaching.
“The trainers not only live and breathe the training programs, but they also know the lifestyle associated with those jobs,” says Myers. “They’re able to give the students the technical expertise but also the personal expertise to say, ‘I was in your shoes; here’s what worked well.’”
About 3,500 NS employees complete the center’s training program each year. How much time each worker spends at the center varies depending on the job he or she was hired for. The shortest program runs about 13 weeks while the longest — for apprenticeships — can take over a year to complete.
‘Learn, see and do’
The center’s teachings rely on theories that apply to all crafts, Myers says. Having a central point of initial training breeds a consistency needed in each craft, he adds.
“We operate on a ‘Learn, See, Do’ model,” he says.
Students start with some pre-learning activities on computers prior to classroom instruction. Then they begin their field activities, which they observe and then perform at the center’s four-track yard, a mainline, a siding and other areas specific to individual crafts.
For example, the center now features an operating signal system that’s used only for training purposes. In the field, instructors demonstrate tasks that railroaders regularly use — applying and releasing a handbrake is one example — then the students repeat those tasks.
Once students complete their education at the center, they advance to hands-on training specific to their job duties and location.
“We have a standard for operating practices that help keep us safe no matter where we're at, and we're going to keep that information tight by geography and by craft so our car inspectors get relatively the same flavor of information that our conductors, our signal maintainers and that everyone gets across the board,” says Myers.
Sharing best practices
Safe practices are integrated throughout training at the center and at the job site, he adds. The center’s programs are updated to keep up with job-specific skills, technology and regulations. Also, NS’ technical training teams meet quarterly with teams from other Class Is to share best practices.
“There are aspects of our best training practices that we’ve benchmarked and adopted from other railroads and vice versa,” Myers says.
Moreover, best practices have been exchanged with industries outside the rail sector. In 2022 and 2023, NSTC staff met with the Delta Airlines TechOps team, which maintains, repairs, overhauls and supports the airline’s massive fleet.
“There are some parallels with maintaining rail equipment and maintaining air equipment,” says Myers. “What we learned is the airline industry is adept at virtual reality and simulator-based training, and we were able to take some lessons from them. On the flip side, they told us we were more advanced at immersive training or having pieces of equipment on site for [trainees] to put their hands on and learn from.”
Although NS officials aren’t exactly sure how many trainees have completed the center’s programs — their digital records don’t stretch as far back as 50 years — well over 50,000 people have been trained in McDonough, Myers estimates.
“We’re not just a city in Georgia that [new hires] come to for a couple of weeks,” he says. “We’re the foundation for a successful rail career.”
