Inside Amtrak's engineer training school
Eleven weeks. That's how long it takes to go from average Joe to Amtrak engineer.
The transformation takes place at Amtrak's High-Speed Rail Training Facility, housed inside an unassuming beige building along a dead-end road just west of Wilmington, Delaware's Riverfront section.
It's here where hopeful engineers from around the country come to take an eleven-week classroom course. Some are former freight train engineers. Some are what Amtrak calls "off the street."