Will AI replace Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
4/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 10% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 7% of the work
What the job involves
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.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(2)
- Monitor trains as they go around curves to detect dragging equipment and smoking journal boxes.
- Record numbers of cars available, numbers of cars sent to repair stations, and types of service needed.
Out of reach(23)
- Raise levers to couple and uncouple cars for makeup and breakup of trains.
- Observe train signals along routes and verify their meanings for engineers.
- Signal locomotive engineers to start or stop trains when coupling or uncoupling cars, using hand signals, lanterns, or radio communication.
- Inspect tracks, cars, and engines for defects and to determine service needs, sending engines and cars for repairs as necessary.
- Inspect couplings, air hoses, journal boxes, and handbrakes to ensure that they are securely fastened and functioning properly.
and 18 more
Also called
Locomotive Switch Operator · Switch Operator · Switchman · Diesel Locomotive Firer · Dinkey Engine Firer · Freight Brake Operator · Railroad Brake Operator · Railroad Firer
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics