In the past, railroads hired these employees (otherwise known as agreement or unionized workers) "off the street" or promoted within the ranks sending the applicants to railroad run classes. During this training period, the railroad companies paid salaries and provided health and retirement benefits to these trainees. Since that time, however, railroads have developed new cost cutting policies designed to increase profits and stock values. These new policies encourage a person who desires a high paying railroad job to attend a private institution and pay between five and eight  thousand dollars  to learn the same material that railroads pay that person to learn. Since these courses must be attended full time the student is usually required to quit his or her job to attend classes adding even more to the cost of job training.

Couple this to the fact that no jobs are guaranteed after graduation, the railroads and cooperating institutions of higher learning have left the student who desires to put him or herself through such a rigorous course of study with no job commitment after graduation (we will not attempt to discuss the additional barriers of hiring quotas and the preferential hiring of relatives and employee offspring).

Once hired by a railroad, the student who graduates from these expensive technical courses must, due to labor/management agreements, begin working as a brakeman or apprentice craftsman for 70 to 75% of the salary earned by a full time employee. It may take as long as six frustrating years for the new employee to reach the hourly rate of full time employees performing the same duties as the new hire. The graduate must also be indoctrinated into the methods and policies of the hiring railroad and may be subject to displacement by senior employees, change of work location, or layoff even before starting work.

Eastern Lackawanna County Agricultural and Technical University is a member of a nationwide consortium consisting of thirteen railroads, thirteen community colleges, and four 4-year colleges organized to provide the curriculum and  training required by the railroad industry. The purpose of the School of Railroad Crafts Technology is to offer prospective employees the skills and knowledge sought by the railroad industry for entry-level employment and provides railroad employees opportunities to broaden and update their skills. The curriculum will not compete with individual railroads' training programs or four-year institutions producing management trainees.

For those of you who are still intent on entering the exciting and rewarding field of railroad employment and are willing to ignore the aforementioned deprecating treatment by future employers and their union lackeys, and, not in small part, because the railroads have given the University large grants in aid to develop this curriculum, the Eastern Lackawanna County Agricultural and Technical University, in cooperation with the Lackawanna Terminal Railway, offers the following courses in Railroad Technology:

Locomotive Engineer Operator's Certificate
Trainman and Conductor Training Program
Dispatcher Training Program
Signal Maintenance Training Program
Freight and Passenger car repair Training Program

Some courses may be taken on campus or through our Division of Distance Learning depending on the class and subject matter. Some courses must be taken on the ELCA&TU campus or at the Lackawanna Terminal Railway facilities. Click on each craft's title to see the course requirements. Once students have successfully completed the career enhancing course of their choice they will receive a large, colorful Certificate of Achievement suitable for framing. Graduates must attend the graduation ceremony to receive their Certificate of Achievement. Certificates will not be mailed to the graduate.

To obtain more information about the courses offered at the School of Railroad Crafts Technology or job opportunities in the railroad industry, please contact the following people or the human resources department of the railroad of your choice.

Gabrielle Botchalewsky
Human Resources Director
Lackawanna Terminal Railway
1 Lackawanna Plaza
Scranton, Pennsylvania 18503
Tel: (717) 555-6537

Office of the Dean of Admission
Eastern Lackawanna County Agricultural and Technical University
Scranton, Pennsylvania 18503
Tel: (717) 555-7400, ex. 565