This kind of training is great, I started as a nightwatchman, servicing the locomotives and staying with them all night, I worked as a brakeman... ran rock patrol on motor cars.. worked as a fireman for many years and still do even today!1 I worked with the track gang and learned to gauge track and spike, I learned how to dump ballast and run tie trains. I can take apart a steam locomotive and put it back together, I can rip apart a truck set, replace the wheels, change the springs and clean, service and adjust the brakes.. and on top of that I can hook up M.U. Cables on GP-40's and take reservations in the depot.
It takes time, but the best training is to start a employee from the bottom and work them up to the top.. As a brakeman who got jerked around on passenger trains, I learned to be a smooth engineer.. as somebody who has pulled steam locomotives apart and put them back together i have learned to be more respectful to the equipment.. as a employee who has frozen in the snow, come home dusty and dirty from ballast trains and shoveled my tail off as a fireman i have learned to respect my fellow employee's and the railroad.. there is no training like time.. give anybody the time and respect and they will become good employee's..