BNSF Railway is a North American freight transportation company with over 32,000 miles of routes. BNSF hauls agricultural, consumer, industrial products, and coal. BNSF puts safety above everything else it does, including productivity. BNSF recognizes that safety is based on having well-trained employees who share BNSF’s vision for an injury- and accident-free workplace and who are willing to look out for one another. Thanks to our employees’ commitment, a carefully maintained network and equipment, and well-prepared communities, BNSF is a safety leader in the rail industry. Approaching Others About Safety (AOAS) is a training program for all BNSF Railway employees. The goal of the program is for BNSF employees to be confident about giving feedback to each other about safe behavior and avoiding unsafe situations. Employees need to learn the value of providing feedback when they see unsafe behavior or situations, including positively recognizing when someone is working safely or correcting them when they perceive another employee is at risk. Training should focus on the types of exposures that tend to result in most injuries, including walking/path of travel around trains, rails, and equipment, pinch points between the railway cars, and climbing or descending locomotives and railway cars.
Exercise Tasks:
i. Describe the different types of instructional characteristics that this program should have for learning and transfer to occur resulting in a decrease in injuries and accident.
ii. Would these characteristics vary depending on who was attending the program (e.g., managers, train crew, employees who maintain track, structures, or signals)? If so, how would they vary?
Answers
Chemical weathering typically increases as temperatures rise and rain falls, which means rocks in hot and wet climates experience faster rates of chemical weathering than do rocks in cold, dry climates.
Physical weathering occurs more often in cold climates, because the different minerals within rocks expand and contract at different rates when they are heated and cooled. Repeated heating and cooling cycles eventually cause rocks to fracture. Desert and mountain climates experience a wide range of temperatures from low to high during a day and night, which accounts for the breakdown of rocks known as physical weathering.
Biological weathering occurs when living organisms break up rocks. Tree roots, for example, can fracture rocks in the same way they buckle pavement. Warm, humid climates are most favorable to life. Contrast the rich diversity of life in a rainforest, for example, with the scarcity of life in the dry Sahara or the frigid Antarctic. Consequently, rates of biological weathering are most rapid in warm humid climates like those in tropical regions.
II Answer: There are numerous positions in the BNSF Railway along with many other American railroads. The main position, Engineer, is the driver of a locomotive. Their seat in a locomotive cab is always on the left (facing the front). they maintain appropriate speeds on the rails and control almost all controls. The Conductor is the second position on a train. The conductor's job is to observe the locomotive/railcars, communicate via radio to dispatchers/other crews, etc., and throw switches. The conductor would also (back then) be in a caboose on a freight train and inspect the railcars of the train from the caboose and send radio controls from the cabooses. Although cabooses aren't seen on mainline through-freights, they are still used in industrial railroads and some tourist railroads. The conductor would also take control of a locomotive in case of an accident with the engineer. The Brakeman (optional) is a member of a crew that mainly sets switches and sets controls manual brakes of locomotives and railcars. The brakeman is not on every train, and is mostly in a crew switching a yard, in an industry, or on a shortline. A Dispatcher is one of the most important roles of an railroad. A dispatcher is the brain of the railroad, who controls trains, changes signals, and controls remote-controlled locomotives and switches. The dispatcher also commands train crews to stop their train, speed up, or slow down. another important position is the station master. A station master is always in a active rail station, and usually controls signals and switches nearby the station. the station master also has radio contact with the train crews and dispatchers.