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Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers vs Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers and Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders 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.”

Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$65,480
$58,070
Employment · BLS OEWS
12,460
10,920
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
6th pct
23rd pct

At a glance

Dimension Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders
Median pay $65,480 $58,070
Employment 12,460 10,920
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+1.0%) About average (+4.3%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 1,000 1,300
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 Low · 6th pct Low · 23rd pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk — 15th pct · 14% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman — 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, Control Precision, Near Vision, Oral Comprehension, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Far Vision, Monitoring, Problem Sensitivity, Perceptual Speed, Reaction Time, Public Safety and Security, Operations Monitoring, Manual Dexterity, Multilimb Coordination, Rate Control, Speech Recognition, Active Listening, Critical Thinking, Operation and Control, Written Comprehension, Oral Expression, Information Ordering, Speech Clarity, English Language, Reading Comprehension, Flexibility of Closure, Time Management, Visualization, Selective Attention, Finger Dexterity.

Specific to Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers

  • Response Orientation
  • Mechanical
  • Deductive Reasoning
  • Inductive Reasoning
  • Visual Color Discrimination
  • Auditory Attention
  • Social Perceptiveness
  • Coordination

Specific to Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders

  • Static Strength
  • Depth Perception
  • Production and Processing
  • Trunk Strength
  • Stamina
  • Extent Flexibility
  • Writing
  • Speaking

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: Operating system software , Office suite software , Spreadsheet software , Data base user interface and query software .

Specific to Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers

Specific to Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers or Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders — 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. "Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers vs Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders." 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; 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/railroad-brake-signal-and-switch-operators-and-locomotive-firers-vs-tank-car-truck-and-ship-loaders

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers vs Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/railroad-brake-signal-and-switch-operators-and-locomotive-firers-vs-tank-car-truck-and-ship-loaders

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-railroad-brake-signal-and-switch-operators-and-locomotive-firers-vs-tank-car-truck-and-ship-loaders,
  title  = {Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers vs Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; 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/railroad-brake-signal-and-switch-operators-and-locomotive-firers-vs-tank-car-truck-and-ship-loaders}
}

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