it's 6 months of "railroad school" provided by the company, i'm a 4th generation railroader been doing it for just over 5 years, my father is an engineer for CPR, he's got 2 years till he retires my family has been railroading for over 120 years in canada, basically you need a high school diploma ,college preffered ,then you apply and join the 1000's of other hopefuls waiting for a callback