BNSF News

Networked Locomotive Simulator Operations Surpass 5,000 Attendees So Far This Year

2009-10-19

The BNSF Technical Training Center reached a new milestone!

On Oct. 8, this year's 5,000^th locomotive engineer was trained and evaluated using one of the company's 48 networked simulators. Scott Schafer, general director, Railroad Training Services, said, "This is a great accomplishment that can be attributed to the efforts and teamwork put forth by our Locomotive Engineer Training and Simulator Operations teams as well as our thousands of dedicated locomotive engineers."

Locomotive simulators are placed at terminals across the system as well as at the Technical Training Center in Overland Park, Kan. Each locomotive simulator is controlled from the training center by an instructor who evaluates the student's performance. At the completion of the simulation, the instructor provides the engineer with scores and feedback on the completed run.

Use of the locomotive simulators helps improve safety as locomotive engineers practice handling a variety of potential situations. On average, more than half of BNSF's locomotive engineer population attends NetSim training each year. The previous yearly milestone was 4,000, achieved in 2008.

About the photo: Pictured left to right are Ryan Johnson, manager, Simulator Operations; Bryan Asher, manager, Locomotive Engineer Training and Field Simulation; and L.D. Meservey, Kansas City locomotive engineer and the 5,000^th attendee for 2009.

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