Morgan Lirette

Maintain equipment for Southern California Regional Rail Authority / Metrolink

When I first began working for the company I was in Operations. My job consisted of pre-release inspections, of train sets before they left our yard. As well as performing Class 1, Class 2, and Class 1A air tests per FRA guidelines

After a year of working in operations, I became a carman and moved into what we call “Car Shop”, where I performed more in depth and heavy work focused on trail, and cab cars, which included suspension and air brake system overhauls and COT&S. This is where I became SCAT (Single Car Air Test) certified, which included an in depth test on the air brake system, using shop air, “the device” (which is how it is referred to in the railroad instruction), and different gauges to test the efficacy of the air brake system, and the air valves involved, as well as the electrical systems that work with the valves and the sensors for wheel slip, wheel speed, brake pressure, etc.

About 6 months after working in car shop, I decided I wanted to get my Engineer / Conductor license and become an Equipment Operator for our yard. I then went through 2 months of training and OJT, and was awarded my license.

Since achieving my certifications, my job duties include making moves on our yard (since the main line engineers / conductors aren’t authorized to make moves on our yard), and using cars and locomotives to add cars to sets, and to swap out locomotives. We are tasked with orchestrating where we put equipment on our yard so that it may be safely worked by mechanics, and so that we still have room available to make moves, and to add and take out required equipment for more in depth inspection in Car Shop, or our Locomotive Shop.

Myself and my coworker now run the department from 2AM - 6AM, making moves on our yard and releasing equipment for service once it has been worked, cleaned, and serviced. And from 6AM - 10:30AM, we assist the Operations department, working equipment, as well as moving it, and releasing it to the crews for service.

Working for this job I was tasked with driving a pickup with 4 tanks of fuel in the bed, and delivering fuel all over Southern California for the company that contracted us to fuel their generators which was Sunbelt Rentals

I was responsible for filling the tanks with fuel, cleaning up any spills, taking receipts of jobs completed for billing, working with construction crews on times, and amounts needed to efficiently provide them with what they needed. It was my job to maintain the truck I would drive. Check fluids, filters, tire pressure, etc.

As a porter my duties were to move cars around out lot, and to make them look presentable to our customers.

As salesmen would make a sale they would bring us the sold car, we would need to remove stickers, carpet protectors, etc. and we would wash the car and remove any surface impurities, and fuel the car so that it was presentable to our customers.

This also included courtesy washes for returning service customers, as well as providing transportation for customers that were dropping off their cars to be serviced, and giving them a ride home or wherever they were going in one of our vehicles that I would maintain and keep clean for that purpose.

When we would get a shipment of new cars I was in charge of filling out the paperwork, and doing an in depth inspection on the condition of the cars, confirming there was no damage to the cars before we took them. I also needed to communicate with the service advisors, and managers to get work done efficiently, and to maintain the aesthetic of the lot and showroom