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Fellow Engineer's out there
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[quote user="BlakeTyner"] <p>Generally, US railroading isn't so much "shift" work (save operators, dispatchers, yard jobs, and such) but, rather, by "job". If the engineer gets called for Train Q625, he'll work it a) until he reaches the train's terminal or the next crew change or b) until 12 hours on duty elapses. Once an engineer and conductor have been on duty for 12 hours, they go "dead on the law". The federal government regulates that; once a crew is dead on their hours of service, they cannot operate their train one inch. A relief crew would have to be called and driven to wherever the train is.</p><p>The law says the crew must then take an 8 hour rest period, although that's not 8 hours of actual rest/sleep. It takes X amount of time for the crew to get home or the motel, then X amount of time to eat, shower, and get ready for bed. Then, they are called 2 hours before they are required to be on-duty, so during busy periods there's not a lot of real "rest" involved. Hours can be very screwy. If I got called at 10am today to report for duty at 12pm, the railroad could work me until 12 midnight. Then I might get called for an 8am train, or I might sit on my thumbs until midnight and get a call to report at 2am. Depends on what seniority one holds and what board one is on. Low-seniority extra-board guys tend to get the crap jobs.</p><p> </p><p>In most cases, if a crew gets their train from point A to point B in, say, 6 hours, they'd get an early quit. They get paid for the whole day (their "job" is completed) but are off duty early. </p><p> </p><p>I believe there is some proposed legislation in congress to re-examine the hours of service/rest law, but I don't know much about it.</p><p> </p><p>After I got my degree I had a job opportunity with the management side of KCS, but decided against it for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that management isn't subject to hours of service; the railroad owns you 24/7/365, and when the SHTF you get the call, regardless of whether or not you just got home. </p><p>[/quote]</p><p>Thankyou for your reply.Speaking from what I work to,over here I have to (by law) have at least 12 hours off between shift's,a 50 minute break in my shift and at least a 36 hour rest period every 14 th day.The most a shift can now be is 10 hour's long (or should be..).</p>
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