Odds of Getting In
With only 400 federal railroad inspectors in the entire country, there are very few job openings for a very lucrative career. Why only 400 positions? Well, because Congress is in charge of funding, and Congress doesn't really like funding things, no matter how necessary they may be. In fact, there's only one safety inspector for the 3,000 railroad bridge crossings in New York―not the city, the entire state.
So even if you're qualified up and down the good old Union Pacific, you're still going to have to wait for one of those chosen few jobs to open up.