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Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers

SOC 53-4022 · 2024-2034

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.

How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.

What California expects of this job

Typical pay in California

$60,056per year

Projected openings

1,200

Projected change

0%

Usually needs

High school diploma or equivalent

Skills this work uses most

O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.

1. Monitoring
2. Operations Monitoring
3. Critical Thinking
4. Active Listening
5. Operation and Control
6. Reading Comprehension

Pay by region

What the pay actually ranges across

The lowest-paid tenth earn under

$52,607

A quarter earn under

$59,934

Half earn under

$60,056

Three quarters earn under

$71,532

The highest-paid tenth earn over

$71,532

A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.

Similar work

O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.