Pre-job Intro

Hello friends! (and anyone else who may stumble upon this blog). I’m Jeremie Raimbault, and after being told by a lot of people to write a blog about my upcoming term, I’ve decided to give it a shot.

Why am I starting a blog? Well, for those who don’t know, I am in Civil Engineering at the University of Waterloo. All engineering at waterloo is a co-op program, which means I do 4 months of school, then 4 months of work placement, then 4 of school, and so on until I graduate. I have just finished my 4A school term, which means this upcoming work term from September to December is my last one.

My job is with Canadian Pacific Railway, working on their Track Evaluation Car traveling all over North America testing the tracks. From what I remember from the interview 3 months ago, testing the track is very important for the railroad to ensure it’s all up to par and can carry the trains without derailing them. As derailments are very expensive, CPR puts a lot of money towards track evaluation, maintenance and repair. The evaluation train consists of three cars – an engine, a living quarters car, and the testing car. The testing car is loaded with instruments to measure all sorts of data about the track – location, distance between the rails, horizontal and vertical stiffness, quality of the connectors, etc. This data is all collected real-time as the train is travelling at regular speed. The operators of the evaluation car look at the data, and if it falls outside of allowable limits they flag that area for a repair crew to come in and fix up the track.

My job will be watching the data streaming in and not only notice when the data falls outside acceptable limits, but determine if it’s a glitch, a calibration issue, or if the track actually is unacceptable. This can involve stopping the car and performing manual tests on the track. One of the things being tested is the horizontal stiffness of the track, and to do that they measure the position of the rails, then apply a horizontal force using a bar lowered from the testing car and measure the position again. If there is a switch in the track, this bar can jump the switch, potentially derailing the testing car. So another of my jobs is to watch for switches coming, and if I see one I press a button that raises the applied force, and press another button to lower it back down after the switch has passed. The car also takes pictures of the rail connectors, and crack detection software flags any cracks it sees. The crack could be a blade of grass or a spiders web, so another of my jobs is to look at all the flagged cracks and say if they actually are cracks or not.

Again, this is what I remember from the interview 3 months ago. We’ll see what it’s actually like. But it doesn’t sound like the work itself will be all that riveting. But what will make up for it is the traveling – aside from the view from my office window, every weekend I will be in a random city in North America with a rental car, hotel room, and meal allowance all paid for. The regular crew flies home during the weekend, so I will be left in charge of the train. I will still have duties – cleaning the train, buying groceries, performing any basic maintenance, and being available to unlock the train in case an electrician/mechanic needs to perform more advanced repair. But aside from that I am free to explore whatever city I am in, and see what there is to see.

What I am planning to do with this blog is post what adventures I have had while exploring whatever city I am in, as well as post a couple pictures. I haven’t decided how many to post, or if this is the right place to post lots. I will try and update it once a week, but as there will not be reliable internet while on the train it might be a week behind.

As a reward for reading this, I’m going to allow everyone who wants to guess 2 cities anywhere in North America, and whichever city I get to first for a weekend I will send you a postcard. Here’s the official map of the CP network: (http://www.cpr.ca/en/our-network-and-facilities/Pages/Default.aspx). However, the track evaluation car does test other tracks, so there is a chance I will be in other cities. For example, my start position is likely Saint-Johns, New Brunswick, so if you want you can take a risk and choose somewhere outside the official network. I legitimately have no idea where I will be, so your guess is as good as mine. I will only send one postcard per person though – I’m allowing 2 choices because I won’t be visiting every single city, and I don’t want to make it too unlikely that someone won’t get a postcard. It’s still a lottery though – no guarantees! So you can comment on this blog (hopefully – this is my first shot at blogs), or email me (jeremie.raimbault@gmail.com) or facebook. Don’t forget to give me your address as well!

I start on the 27^th of August, likely in Saint-John, New Brunswick. Travel details are still being worked out, but I will have a flight paid for me. I will likely post again after my first week.

As this is my first time blog writing, I appreciate all feedback! If you want to hear more or I’m rambling too much, if you want more or less pictures, etc. I’m doing this for you guys, so let me know what you want!

Anyways, enough rambling. Bye for now!