Railway Section Repairer (88T)
- Enlisted
- Active Duty
- Army Reserve
Transporting ammunition and supplies to Army ports for deployment overseas is absolutely vital to our national defense. Members of the Army railway team, such as the Railway Section Repairer, play an integral role in the operation and maintenance of the Army’s railway operating battalions.
Railway Section Repairers are primarily responsible for performing maintenance on railway tracks, roadbeds, switches, fences and other railway facilities. Some of your duties as a Railway Section Repairer may include:
- Operating and maintaining track motor cars
- Performing repair and maintenance of track, associated rail facilities and adjoining structures
- Repairing roadbeds, signals and switches
- Gauging tracks, properly spacing ties and checking degree of elevation or curvature of tracks undergoing repairs
- Making repairs to fences, crossing gates and sign posts
Training:
Job training for a Railway Section Repairer consists of nine weeks of Basic Training, where you’ll learn basic Soldiering skills, and five weeks of Advanced Individual Training. Part of this time is spent in the classroom and part in the field.
Helpful Skills:
Helpful attributes include:
- A preference for physical work
- An interest in railways
- An interest in troubleshooting and repairing rail problems
- An interest in operating heavy construction equipment
- A preference for working outdoors
Advanced Responsibilities:
Advanced level Railway Section Repairers supervise and train other Soldiers within the same discipline. As an advanced level Railway Section Repairer, you may be involved in:
- Supervising a track maintenance repair crew
- Providing technical expertise to subordinates performing their duties
- Consulting timetables and trains dispatchers in order to determine train movements.
- Employing standard signals to warn operating crews of dangers.
- Determining need for construction machinery and arranging for its movement to the repair site
- Outlining repair work and coordinating with other repair units
- Supervising clearance of obstructions and combustible materials from track and surrounding areas
- Supervising the installation and repair of power supply third rails
