Work Hours

[Jordan6]

Recently my mother asked me why railroad employees work whenever they get called up instead of in set shifts. I gave here a basic idea, but it wasn't quite accurate. If you would happen to know why, just let me know.

[Anonymous]

There are railroad workers whom work set shifts while others are
called to do extra switching man extras and replace crews who been on the
line till hours set or are ill.

Yours is safety.

David Brown

[heavyd]

Yah like Eastern said when you work the spare board, especially in a big city, there are dozens and dozens of different yard/road switcher assignments. They are schedualled start times, but only for thoses who own those jobs. The start times are different job to job. There can be one starting somewhere in your territory every hour. When one goes spare because the regular guy is sick or booked off or what ever then the spare guys get called in. It just happens to be who is next in line and what the job is. It is totally random! Then you figure in when extra assignments are called the pot is stirred even more. Main line crews work on a pool system, same as a spare board sorta. Main line trains are a new ball game. At major terminals some trains start at the same time every day. But most others get delayed because engines aren't ready, the train isn't long enough to run yet, delays enroute - you name it! The call comes when the train is ready. It is like waiting for your first child to be born sometimes, the call can come in 15 minutes or 27 hours. The pool guys get sick and vacation aswell and their turns go spare. So guys on the spare board have the ultimate in randomness and irregularity because of those reasons. Tie all that in with a 24/7 365 industry and it is easy to see. Hope that explains a little better...?

[Anonymous]

The railroad knows no night and day, it's all just the 24 hour day clock.

Don't matter if it's christmas day 8:00am or some other random day at 2:00am be ready to go!

[croteaudd]

Train crew work hours are so horribly erratic BECAUSE railroads lack perceptive visions of how wonderful things could be. If anyone has ever mentally seen brand new $2 million locomotives material right out of thin air … well, they will understand exactly what I am saying!

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Jordan6

Recently my mother asked me why railroad employees work whenever they get called up instead of in set shifts. I gave here a basic idea, but it wasn't quite accurate. If you would happen to know why, just let me know.

Tell your mom to join us on the forum. She would be in good company and who knows, she may enjoy it as much as I do!

Mookie

[jchnhtfd]

Work hours are erratic for some railroaders (not all) not just because of a certain lack of perception -- to put it mildly -- on the part of management, but also because at least in some instances the operating unions have also opposed shifts to regular schedules (both of them). The topic is very complex!

[AntonioFP45]

I remember reading a story years back on how a trainman on one of the U.S western roads was always called to work immedietely as soon as the minimum (8 hours?) of off time had passed.

He stated that he really thought that the crew clerk had permanently etched his name on the chalkboard where the extra board railroaders signed up for duty.

[BaltACD]

On the Non-Operating side of the railroad, most jobs have regular starting and quiting times for the regular job holders. That being said, regular relief jobs may, and most likely will, have different starting times on different days of the week....the starting times for the jobs whose rest days they are filling. Extra personnel can be expected to fill any and all vacancies.

The operating side of the railroad is a whole 'nother animal. Yard and regular Road Switcher or Mine Run jobs have assigned starting times....the quiting times for these jobs can be anwhere with the 12 Hour span they are permitted to perform duty, their final release from the property can be in excess of 12 hours after their on duty time if there are difficulties in getting the crew transportation from their tie up point to their off duty point. Jobs can have minimal work on a day and be relieved short of 8 hours on duty or they can have more work than can be accomplished in 12 hours and a relief crew takes charge of the job.

In Yard assgnments, extra T&E personnel may work one shift of 8 hours and then work over 4 hours on a succeeding shifts vacancy (for the complete day's pay) and get relieved after 12 hours on duty.

Line of road T&E jobs can be one of 3 varieties....A crew assigned to operate Specific Train assignments....operating a Specific Train from A to Z and then after getting rest operating another Specific Train from Z back to A

2nd - a crew operates a Specific Train from A to Z, then falls into a first in-first out pool situation at Z for getting their train back to A.

3rd - a crew operates in a first in-first out. pool from the origin at A to the desination at Z where they assume their turn in the first in-first out pool from Z back to A.

In all three forms of service operating the train from A to Z will take from 4 to 12 hours or more depending on the length of the run and the operating circumstances surrounding the run (train meets, mechanical trouble, engine trouble, engine and mechanical troble for other trains on the territory).

None of this is an exact science!

[Anonymous]

And if you work on the road coming into Chicago a four hour high-ball run can turn into a 12 hour trip just about every time!! The joint UP/CSX line has at least four to five trains waiting in line just to get through Yard Center at any given time.

[Anonymous]

Basically, any transport industry works 'round the clock,' be it airlines, trucking, or railroads. Being an extra-board junkie, I understand it from the inside. The railroad is a complex animal that has evolved through over a century of tradition, and exists in a universe all it's own. Labor laws that apply everywhere else seem to be of no effect here...long ago, the railroads worked out their own sets of rules with the federal government. One example is that we have our own "social security" system (railroad retirement taxes).

[Rodney Beck]

Hi jordan6 the only people that have set working hours are the switchman that work daily mark and the hostlers. Road crews have no set hours they work in pool order whenever the train arrives or is made up they get called to go to work. It will take sometime and a lot of tring to figure out when you will work if on a road pool because lineups can and will fall back or move up. Rodney Beck conductor BNSF

[Jordan6]

Thanks guys, I wasn't quite sure what to tell mom about the hour's, but now I've got a pretty good understanding of it.

[Jordan6]

QUOTE: Tell your mom to join us on the forum. She would be in good company and who knows, she may enjoy it as much as I do!

Mookie

I don't know about this one! She's quite busy with school (she's a teacher) and not to mention she's got to take care of us guys (dad, two brothers and I).[zzz]