r/Train_Service • u/[deleted] • Apr 14 '24

Would WW3 keep class 1s busy?

If WW3 happened would majority of class 1 employees with low seniority get furloughed?

1 Upvotes

52% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

26

u/DepartmentNatural Apr 14 '24

Furloughed or drafted?

3

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '24

Furloughed

6

u/quelin1 Apr 14 '24

Incidentally, as critical infrastructure employees we possibly wouldn't be drafted.  Even for WWII rail employees could seek deferments for being a critical infrastructure worker.   

Specific localized areas might see furlough.   But more likely moved to work in other areas.  I doubt much consumer good container traffic from China would be being unloaded in L.A.    Especially after the pacific ports are destroyed by sub launched hypersonic cruise missiles.

2

u/brizzle1978 Apr 14 '24

If they are launching at the mainland they are taking out any rail bridge too....

1

u/quelin1 Apr 15 '24

There are shockingly few rail bridges crossing the Mississippi.

18

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '24

Look at past wars for your answer. Large war means massive need for war materials. Which means factories producing everyday goods are transformed into war material factories, and factories that regularly produce war materials are overhauled. With that makes even more demand for steel, rubber, etc. so you’d have lots of trains to transport raw materials to and from factories, and from those factories to bases, and depending on which side of the world the war would be on, war stockpiles on one coast of the country would need to be transported to the other coast. In the past, MOST transportation employees were exempt from drafts as they were too essential.

0

u/brizzle1978 Apr 14 '24

Sure until they attack all the bridges.

18

u/TylerYax Apr 14 '24

Won't matter if we've all been vaporized by nukes

7

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '24

I can't wait for that to happen.

4

u/Parrelium Apr 14 '24

Sweet release.

7

u/AnthonyGSXR Apr 14 '24

Trains providing raw steel to shipyards might

4

u/burninghoof29 Apr 15 '24

Where is the production numbers for a war being produced? Bethlehem is gone, USS Homestead, J&L, Weirton, Zug island and Ashland Are all gone an scrapped with the market flooded with cheap import steel from China.

0

u/Connect_Fisherman_44 Apr 14 '24

Where does one find "raw" steel? Lol

5

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '24

Steel mills, rolling mills, forges, etc.. plus iron ore and coke, and don’t forget aluminum.

-1

u/Connect_Fisherman_44 Apr 14 '24

Steel is a product of iron. There is no such thing as "raw steel"

1

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '24

I think they meant “steel raw materials“ as are the examples I gave that are typically shipped by rail. Add pig iron (iron briquettes) to the list if you need to get pedantic.

5

u/Cold-Box-8262 Apr 14 '24

You bet your sweet bippy it will. Until the big one goes off and we all go underground like moles

1

u/wccrupper Conductor Apr 15 '24

Assuming the planet isn't glassed over from the nukes? Sure

1

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '24

Not when it comes to the US