Clearline Protocol Training · FRA Part 243
Trained. Tested.
On file.
Twenty-three modules covering GCOR, radio, switching, air brakes, hazmat and PTC — each with drills and a knowledge check, then a final exam. Every completion is stamped, countersigned by an instructor and kept seven years, so the record an inspector asks for is the record that exists.
01 · The program
The training file an inspector can read
Not a binder and not a spreadsheet — a program. A conductor works module by module, drills until the knowledge check passes, and sits the final. The result lands in the same database the railroad runs on, already countersigned.
- 23 modulesEvery rule as an expandable card, with an AI to ask
- DrillsFlashcards, fill-in-the-blank and activities in every module
- 126 questionsKnowledge checks and the final exam
- Sign-offInstructor countersignature on every record
- RetentionSeven years, per § 243.203
02 · From Module 6, Signals and Their Use
The signal chart that moves
A paper chart shows nine indications at once and teaches none of them. Here the mast shows one indication at a time, the lamps light the way they do on the territory, and the rule reads alongside — the difference between recognising a picture and reading a signal.
Try itTap through the indications — or let it cycle — and watch which lamps light for each. Advance Approach flashes, exactly as it should.
Illustrative lamp patterns — the module teaches the aspects and speeds of your territory, and the exam scores against them.
03 · From the hazmat module
Safe switching, A · B · C
The quick reference a conductor carries out of the module. Three habits, three cards — and the drill below scores whether they stuck.
Prove the brakes first
Test by trial that a loaded placarded car's hand brakes work before cutting it off. A loaded placarded tank car is not cut off until the car ahead clears the ladder track — and must itself clear before the next car follows.
Some cars are never kicked
Loaded cars placarded 1.1 / 1.2 explosives, 2.3 Zone A poison gas, 6.1 PG I Zone A, or a DOT-113 with a 2.1 placard: never cut off in motion, never kicked, never struck by a free-rolling car.
Four miles an hour
Only enough force to make the coupling — 4 MPH or less. Placarded flatcars, or flats carrying placarded vehicles or containers, are not cut off in motion or struck by a rolling car.
04 · The placement drill
Build the train
Where a placarded car rides in the consist is federal law, and getting it wrong is how a railroad meets the FRA. The module drills it the way it is decided in the yard: here is the car, here is today's train — where does it couple?
Try itFour rounds, scored on your first answer — the same drill a conductor works in the hazmat module. Tap the coupling spot you would use.
Why it is drilled, not read
Placement is a decision made standing next to the car, usually in the dark, usually in a hurry. A rule that was only ever read loses to a hurry. A rule that was answered forty times — short train, long train, occupied platform on the rear — comes back by reflex.
And it goes on the record
In the full module this drill sits alongside click-to-learn placard groups, the A·B·C reference above, and an assessment — and the score lands in the conductor's Part 243 file with the instructor's countersignature.
Next
Put your rulebook in it
The modules ship with the general code; the program is built to carry your territory's aspects, your speeds and your special instructions.