---
title: "Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operator and Locomotive Firer"
description: "Operate or monitor railroad track switches or locomotive instruments. May couple or uncouple rolling stock to make up or break up trains. Watch for and…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/railroad-brake-signal-and-switch-operator-and-locomotive-firer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operator and Locomotive Firer

**Category:** Transportation and Material Moving · **SOC code:** 53-4022 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 53-4022.00

Operate or monitor railroad track switches or locomotive instruments. May couple or uncouple rolling stock to make up or break up trains. Watch for and relay traffic signals. May inspect couplings, air hoses, journal boxes, and hand brakes. May watch for dragging equipment or obstacles on rights-of-way.

Also advertised as: Brakeman; Carman; Fireman; Locomotive Switch Operator; Railroad Brakeman; Railroad Switchman; Switch Operator; Switchman.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $68,840 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $33.10/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $45,660 to $86,590, with the middle half between $57,820 and $76,590
- **Total US employment:** 12,400
- **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:** +0.8% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 58/100 — 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 12,400 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $45,660 |
| 25th | $57,820 |
| 50th (median) | $68,840 |
| 75th | $76,590 |
| 90th | $86,590 |
| Mean (average) | $69,030 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $85,140 | $79,560 | 740 |
| NY | $83,530 | $77,399 | 220 |
| IA | $80,910 | $92,193 | 220 |
| MD | $79,180 | $75,439 | 100 |
| IL | $76,290 | $76,322 | 1,210 |
| CO | $76,140 | $73,885 | Not published by BLS |
| GA | $75,540 | $78,448 | 250 |
| NJ | $74,160 | $68,159 | 70 |
| NM | $72,340 | $78,450 | 100 |
| TX | $71,580 | $73,750 | 1,650 |
| OH | $67,770 | $73,048 | 280 |
| MO | $67,110 | $73,896 | 730 |
| KS | $66,990 | $74,377 | 390 |
| MI | $66,970 | $69,603 | 190 |
| IN | $64,530 | $69,142 | 160 |

9 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 24 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/railroad-brake-signal-and-switch-operator-and-locomotive-firer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/railroad-brake-signal-and-switch-operator-and-locomotive-firer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 10,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 10,800 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 100 jobs, or +0.8%. Slower than average: 0.8% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 900 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:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

## What the work involves

- Inspect tracks, cars, and engines for defects and to determine service needs, sending engines and cars for repairs as necessary.
- Raise levers to couple and uncouple cars for makeup and breakup of trains.
- Observe train signals along routes and verify their meanings for engineers.
- Observe tracks from left sides of locomotives to detect obstructions on tracks.
- Signal other workers to set brakes and to throw track switches when switching cars from trains to way stations.
- Conduct brake tests to determine the condition of brakes on trains.
- Inspect couplings, air hoses, journal boxes, and handbrakes to ensure that they are securely fastened and functioning properly.
- Signal locomotive engineers to start or stop trains when coupling or uncoupling cars, using hand signals, lanterns, or radio communication.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.4 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
- Critical Thinking — 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 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.3 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.

- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — 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
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Transportation — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Far Vision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reaction Time — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Response Orientation — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.5 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 | 4.25 |
| I — Investigative | 2.07 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.43 |
| S — Social | 1.22 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### 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 | 89.0 |
| ISTP | 75.8 |
| ISFJ | 74.7 |
| ESTJ | 74.1 |
| INTJ | 64.5 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Locomotive Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/locomotive-engineer) — median $81,410
- [Rail Yard Engineer, Dinkey Operator, and Hostler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rail-yard-engineer-dinkey-operator-and-hostler) — median $60,600
- [Railroad Conductor and Yardmaster](https://nuecareer.com/careers/railroad-conductor-and-yardmaster) — median $78,000
- [Bus and Truck Mechanic and Diesel Engine Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bus-and-truck-mechanic-and-diesel-engine-specialist) — median $61,770
- [Hoist and Winch Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hoist-and-winch-operator) — median $56,450
- [Signal and Track Switch Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/signal-and-track-switch-repairer) — median $92,460
- [Rail Car Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rail-car-repairer) — median $67,530
- [Subway and Streetcar Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/subway-and-streetcar-operator) — median $86,380
- [Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loader](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tank-car-truck-and-ship-loader) — median $58,870
- [Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-truck-and-tractor-operator) — median $46,420

## 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/railroad-brake-signal-and-switch-operator-and-locomotive-firer