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Anacostia Rail Holdings and its affiliate railroads are committed to actively and purposely recruiting U.S. veterans. Veterans exhibit talents and abilities that Anacostia values in its employees – reliability, self-motivation, leadership, adaptability, and safety.
Veterans make up more than 18% of the Anacostia work force and are represented throughout the railroad, from entry level positions to senior management.
Anacostia’s veteran recruiting initiative utilizes a wide variety of DOD, state and federal government resources, railroad training schools and veteran-focused job boards to develop a deep and diverse veteran candidate pool.
Applying skills developed in the military to a railroad career
Teamwork
You learned to watch out for each other and to work together toward a common goal. You were proud of your organization, enjoyed the camaraderie with your friends and embraced your unit’s culture.
The culture at our short line railroads is based on safety and integrity, and stresses teamwork. Each member of the crew plays a critical role in servicing our customers safely and efficiently.
Highly Trained
No matter what your specialty was, you proved yourself with the ability to learn in an intense training environment. You have excelled in grasping detailed, technical training, and many times mastered multiple skill sets. You were a valuable contributor from day one.
The abilities and study habits that you used to succeed in your specialty will now be adapted to successfully complete our paid training program, which includes classroom as well as on-the-job field training.
Challenging Environments
You have experience performing your duties in adverse, extreme, and remote conditions. You learned to adapt and follow procedures. You are used to being around heavy equipment and transportation operations and you understand the importance of a safety culture.
Railroading is fast-paced and challenging but rewarding. We must deliver our services to the customer on schedule despite adverse conditions, while making safety our main focus for both our employees and the communities we serve.
Mission Oriented
You were drilled with a disciplined and committed way of doing business. With a sense of urgency, you had to continuously embrace challenges and use your ingenuity to safely accomplish your mission, many times in demanding environments.
Our industry is heavily customer-oriented. To be successful, your mission is to provide safe, high-quality rail transportation services to our customers and to protect the communities in which we operate.
Benefits
Our benefits include medical and dental coverage for employees and their families, 401k retirement plan, railroad retirement benefits, life insurance, and short-term disability.
Positions for which you may qualify
There are a number of training opportunities for new employees, and we pay them while they’re being trained.
- Locomotive Engineers operate locomotive equipment for the railroad. They also service and supply equipment, couple and uncouple cars, inspect cars and locomotives, operate rail switches and derails, perform air brake tests, train other employees, and interact with customers being served.
- Assistant Engineers/Conductors supervise employees in train operations, couple and uncouple cars, inspect cars and locomotives, operate rail switches and derails, train other employees, and interact with customers being served.
- Mechanical Carmen inspect, repair, and provide preventative maintenance services on rail cars. They perform these repairs using hand and power tools, hydraulic lifts, cutting torches, welders, grinders and other metal working tools. They also operate company vehicles, scissor lifts, and forklifts.
- Track Maintenance Specialists inspect and repair track and track components per regulatory requirements. They perform tasks using hand and power tools, metal working tools, welders, grinders, and hydraulic tools, amongst others.