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Locomotive Engineers vs Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Locomotive Engineers and Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Locomotive Engineers Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$77,400
$74,080
Employment · BLS OEWS
31,990
42,710
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
34th pct
52nd pct

At a glance

Dimension Locomotive Engineers Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters
Median pay $77,400 $74,080
Employment 31,990 42,710
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+0.7%) About average (+1.1%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 2,200 3,100
Typical education · O*NET Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not. Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Moderate · 34th pct Moderate · 52nd pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 33rd pct · 20% of tasks 25th pct · 18% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No No

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Transportation, Far Vision, Operation and Control, Operations Monitoring, Selective Attention, Control Precision, Problem Sensitivity, Reaction Time, Near Vision, Active Listening, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Perceptual Speed, Speaking, Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Public Safety and Security, Information Ordering, Auditory Attention, Inductive Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Judgment and Decision Making, Speech Recognition, English Language, Education and Training, Written Comprehension, Deductive Reasoning, Speech Clarity, Active Learning, Complex Problem Solving, Time Management.

Specific to Locomotive Engineers

  • Response Orientation
  • Depth Perception
  • Multilimb Coordination
  • Flexibility of Closure
  • Rate Control
  • Manual Dexterity
  • Hearing Sensitivity
  • Time Sharing

Specific to Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters

  • Coordination
  • Written Expression
  • Category Flexibility
  • Visualization
  • Law and Government
  • Writing
  • Persuasion
  • Quality Control Analysis

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Spreadsheet software , Word processing software , Expert system software .

Specific to Locomotive Engineers

Specific to Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Locomotive Engineers or Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Locomotive Engineers vs Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/locomotive-engineers-vs-railroad-conductors-and-yardmasters

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Locomotive Engineers vs Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/locomotive-engineers-vs-railroad-conductors-and-yardmasters

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-locomotive-engineers-vs-railroad-conductors-and-yardmasters,
  title  = {Locomotive Engineers vs Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/locomotive-engineers-vs-railroad-conductors-and-yardmasters}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.