---
title: "Rail Car Repairer"
description: "Diagnose, adjust, repair, or overhaul railroad rolling stock, mine cars, or mass transit rail cars."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/rail-car-repairer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Rail Car Repairer

**Category:** Installation, Maintenance, and Repair · **SOC code:** 49-3043 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 49-3043.00

Diagnose, adjust, repair, or overhaul railroad rolling stock, mine cars, or mass transit rail cars.

Also advertised as: Freight Maintenance Specialist; Locomotive Repairman; Rail Car Maintenance Mechanic; Rail Car Mechanic; Rail Car Repairer; Rail Car Repairman; Rail Car Sandblaster; Rail Car Welder.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $67,530 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $32.46/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $46,800 to $95,100, with the middle half between $54,520 and $84,570
- **Total US employment:** 21,350
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.6% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 64/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 21,350 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $46,800 |
| 25th | $54,520 |
| 50th (median) | $67,530 |
| 75th | $84,570 |
| 90th | $95,100 |
| Mean (average) | $70,680 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MA | $108,680 | $102,764 | 770 |
| MD | $89,430 | $85,205 | 560 |
| OR | $87,470 | $84,626 | 230 |
| CO | $86,630 | $84,064 | 250 |
| ID | $85,420 | $89,451 | 110 |
| NY | $84,580 | $78,372 | 1,730 |
| IL | $84,570 | $84,606 | 1,850 |
| UT | $83,980 | $84,945 | 100 |
| VA | $83,720 | $82,806 | 210 |
| AZ | $81,230 | $80,684 | 170 |
| DE | $78,900 | $79,052 | 130 |
| NJ | $78,750 | $72,377 | 410 |
| MN | $77,800 | $78,888 | 170 |
| SD | $71,750 | $80,995 | 90 |
| CA | $68,370 | $61,750 | 700 |

25 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 40 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/rail-car-repairer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/rail-car-repairer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 20,100 in the 2025–2035 base year to 20,600 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 500 jobs, or +2.6%. About as fast as average: 2.6% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,600 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Long-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 61.4% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 37.6% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 1.0% |

## What the work involves

- Inspect components such as bearings, seals, gaskets, wheels, and coupler assemblies to determine if repairs are needed.
- Remove locomotives, car mechanical units, or other components, using pneumatic hoists and jacks, pinch bars, hand tools, and cutting torches.
- Adjust repaired or replaced units as needed to ensure proper operation.
- Record conditions of cars, and repair and maintenance work performed or to be performed.
- Repair or replace defective or worn parts such as bearings, pistons, and gears, using hand tools, torque wrenches, power tools, and welding equipment.
- Repair, fabricate, and install steel or wood fittings, using blueprints, shop sketches, and instruction manuals.
- Test units for operability before and after repairs.
- Perform scheduled maintenance, and clean units and components.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Troubleshooting — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mechanical — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Building and Construction — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 3.87 |
| I — Investigative | 2.77 |
| S — Social | 1.48 |
| A — Artistic | 1.21 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.16 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 88.3 |
| ISTP | 78.6 |
| ISFJ | 72.8 |
| ESTJ | 70.3 |
| INTJ | 67.4 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Bus and Truck Mechanic and Diesel Engine Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bus-and-truck-mechanic-and-diesel-engine-specialist) — median $61,770
- [Automotive Service Technician and Mechanic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/automotive-service-technician-and-mechanic) — median $50,620
- [Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanic, Except Engines](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mobile-heavy-equipment-mechanic) — median $65,510
- [Engine and Other Machine Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/engine-and-other-machine-assembler) — median $53,710
- [Maintenance Worker, Machinery](https://nuecareer.com/careers/maintenance-worker-machinery) — median $60,850
- [Electric Motor, Power Tool, and Related Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electric-motor-power-tool-and-related-repairer) — median $56,210
- [Industrial Machinery Mechanic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-machinery-mechanic) — median $64,520
- [Aircraft Structure, Surface, Rigging, and Systems Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-structure-surface-rigging-and-systems-assembler) — median $65,380
- [Automotive Body and Related Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/automotive-body-and-related-repairer) — median $54,890
- [Aircraft Mechanic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-mechanic) — median $79,870

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/rail-car-repairer