---
title: "Signal and Track Switch Repairer"
description: "Install, inspect, test, maintain, or repair electric gate crossings, signals, signal equipment, track switches, section lines, or intercommunications…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/signal-and-track-switch-repairer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Signal and Track Switch Repairer

**Category:** Installation, Maintenance, and Repair · **SOC code:** 49-9097 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 49-9097.00

Install, inspect, test, maintain, or repair electric gate crossings, signals, signal equipment, track switches, section lines, or intercommunications systems within a railroad system.

Also advertised as: Railroad Signal Maintainer; Signal and Communications Maintainer; Signal Inspector; Signal Maintainer; Signal Maintenance Technician; Signal System Testing Maintainer; Signal Technician; Signalman.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $92,460 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $44.45/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $62,610 to $119,550, with the middle half between $79,720 and $99,320
- **Total US employment:** 8,720
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +1.8% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 54/100 — 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 8,720 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $62,610 |
| 25th | $79,720 |
| 50th (median) | $92,460 |
| 75th | $99,320 |
| 90th | $119,550 |
| Mean (average) | $90,410 |

### 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 | $126,440 | $119,557 | 160 |
| WA | $121,710 | $113,734 | 210 |
| MN | $96,780 | $98,133 | 80 |
| AZ | $96,460 | $95,811 | 100 |
| VA | $95,620 | $94,576 | 170 |
| IL | $95,610 | $95,650 | 720 |
| NY | $94,530 | $87,592 | 1,910 |
| MI | $93,060 | $96,719 | 120 |
| IN | $92,200 | $98,790 | 220 |
| MO | $86,300 | $95,026 | 250 |
| WI | $85,440 | $90,802 | 60 |
| TX | $85,020 | $87,598 | 650 |
| CA | $84,670 | $76,472 | 390 |
| CO | $83,930 | $81,444 | 160 |
| KS | $83,550 | $92,763 | 120 |

6 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 21 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/signal-and-track-switch-repairer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/signal-and-track-switch-repairer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 8,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 8,900 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 200 jobs, or +1.8%. Slower than average: 1.8% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 800 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:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-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 |
| --- | --- |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 34.0% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 28.7% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 23.8% |
| Some College Courses | 9.6% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 3.9% |

## What the work involves

- Drive motor vehicles to job sites.
- Record and report information about mileage or track inspected, repairs performed, and equipment requiring replacement.
- Replace defective wiring, broken lenses, or burned-out light bulbs.
- Install, inspect, maintain, and repair various railroad service equipment on the road or in the shop, including railroad signal systems.
- Tighten loose bolts, using wrenches, and test circuits and connections by opening and closing gates.
- Inspect, maintain, and replace batteries as needed.
- Clean lenses of lamps with cloths and solvents.
- Test and repair track circuits.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — 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
- Speaking — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.9 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 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Selection — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Transportation — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Telecommunications — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Flexibility of Closure — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Visualization — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — 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 | 6.49 |
| C — Conventional | 4.46 |
| I — Investigative | 2.64 |
| S — Social | 1.19 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.01 |
| 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 | 91.3 |
| ISTP | 78.2 |
| ISFJ | 75.7 |
| ESTJ | 73.0 |
| INTJ | 68.3 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Electrical and Electronics Repairer, Powerhouse, Substation, and Relay](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-repairer-powerhouse-substation-and-relay) — median $103,020
- [Electrical Power-Line Installer and Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-power-line-installer-and-repairer) — median $95,320
- [Electrical and Electronics Installer and Repairer, Transportation Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-installer-and-repairer-transportation-equipment) — median $84,890
- [Rail Car Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rail-car-repairer) — median $67,530
- [Avionics Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/avionics-technician) — median $82,280
- [Control and Valve Installer and Repairer, Except Mechanical Door](https://nuecareer.com/careers/control-and-valve-installer-and-repairer) — median $74,340
- [Lighting Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/lighting-technician) — median $68,060
- [Electrical and Electronics Repairer, Commercial and Industrial Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-repairer-commercial-and-industrial-equipment) — median $74,090
- [Electric Motor, Power Tool, and Related Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electric-motor-power-tool-and-related-repairer) — median $56,210
- [Power Distributor and Dispatcher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-distributor-and-dispatcher) — median $106,730

## 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/
- **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/signal-and-track-switch-repairer