Operate locomotives or other rail vehicles
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 4 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or Equipment (4.A.3.a.4) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 4 occupations that perform it.
- Guide and stop cars by switching, applying brakes, or placing scotches, or wooden wedges, between wheels and rails.
- Receive starting signals from conductors and use controls such as throttles or air brakes to drive electric, diesel-electric, steam, or gas turbine-electric locomotives.
- Drive engines within railroad yards or other establishments to couple, uncouple, or switch railroad cars.
- Operate locomotives in emergency situations.
- Operate locomotives to transport freight or passengers between stations or to assemble or disassemble trains within rail yards.
- Apply and release hand brakes.
- Start diesel engines to warm engines before runs.
- Drive locomotives to and from various stations in roundhouses to have locomotives cleaned, serviced, repaired, or supplied.
- Operate and drive locomotives, diesel switch engines, dinkey engines, flatcars, and railcars in train yards and at industrial sites.
- Operate flatcars equipped with derricks or railcars to transport personnel or equipment.
- Ride atop cars that have been shunted, and turn handwheels to control speeds or stop cars at specified positions.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
4 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Operate transportation equipment or vehicles”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.