Rail Courseware

The Transportation Learning Center (the Center) organizes multiple national training consortia to develop standards-based national training courseware for frontline occupations in public transportation organizations.

Rail courseware is currently organized into three broad categories - “Rail Car Training Consortium Materials”, “Signals Training Consortium Materials”, and “Traction Power Training Consortium Materials”. Materials are based on the national rail vehicle maintenance training standards, rail signals maintenance training standards, and traction power maintenance training standards published by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).  Courseware Development Teams (CDTs), comprised of subject matter experts and instructional designers, hold regular webinars, site visits and in-person meetings to produce these materials.

Please use the navigation on the right to locate courseware of your interest. Access to full downloads and technical assistance for training and apprenticeship implementation is provided to members in good standing. Please contact our staff members listed under each consortium for information on membership.

Other Resources

Rail Car Consortium Course Catalog

Tags: trainingrail car

Started in late 2015, the National Rail Car Training Consortium has moved forward with its mission to create standardized national training courseware for rail car technicians. The development team composed of over 40 rail car maintenance subject matter experts (SMEs) from 18 member agencies and unions from across the country along with instructional systems designers from the Transportation Learning Center, design curriculum and courseware for the rail and transit industry. By joining the Rail Car Training Consortium, agencies improve technician skills and prepare for new fleet implementation or upgrade internal capacity to refurbish existing fleet. To date, the Consortium has created 35 courses.

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Rail Vehicle Sub-System Primers

Tags: primer

​These materials provide a very preliminary introduction to the sub-systems of rail vehicles. These primers were developed with subject matter experts as part of the TCRP E-7 Project. Note that these primers will be expanded on and developed into instruction-ready courseware packets as part of the Rail Vehicle Training Consortium.

Rating: Not yet rated | Contains 12 Documents | More information »

Rail Car Train-the-Trainer

Tags: trainertrain-the-trainertrain the trainerteaching techniquest3gagneadult learning9 events of instruction

​​​This Train-the-Trainer course teaches basic adult learning principles using the context of the consortium developed courseware.

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Tracking Tools for On-the-Job Learning (Mentor/Supervisor Checklists, Learning Matrices, etc.)

Tags: rail vehicleojtmentorship

A collection of the tools that can be used to track learner progress in On-the-Job Training (OJT) through a rail car apprenticeship program or a structured training program.

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Rail Car Consortium New Instructor Orientation

Tags: elearning

This eLearning module is intended for instructors new to delivering Center materials. Topics covered include: The Transportation Learning Center, Rail Car Consortium Courseware and the Development Process.

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