Recently, through this area; there seems to be an obvious effect on composition of trains. As an observation; recently, there have been some of the unusual, combinations; Auto rack trains with pairs of engines on head end, DPUs in their 'middles'(?) with no power on the EOT.
Some of the feed supplement trains, returning empty; obviously, due to their length, were combined, with just a couple of engines on head end. Similarly, some coal trains with apparently, doubled consists.
Then the container trains with head end power and mid train DPU's with EOT units, pushing. Some of the 15K(+,-) trains, That BNSF seems to oerate through this area.
In pervious discussions, we have had on this Forum; Engine crew pay was mentioned as a function of several elements: Union Contracts, weight of train, power on train(axles) (?).
When one of these larger trains are created, are they considered an extra assignment, or just a 'larger' consist, with just a regular pay for the crew? I would guess the empty trains would be a 'normal' pasy schedule; but with the container trains, the assumption seems to be,they are pretty much 'loaded' (?)
Just askin'.
Engineer's pay rate traditionally is based on weight on drivers. It would include all consists, including DP consists. However, changes in contracts may have changed this in some way. Either doing away with it all together or using an average for all trains or some other formula. In short, longer trains don't really increase an engineer's pay.
Conductor's (and brakemen's) pay rate has traditionally been in the number of cars. It's the same with them. New contracts have either done away with or use averages to figure rates. Trainmen also don't benefit from longer trains.
Once, the contracts were pretty much uniform over all the carriers. There have always been "side agreements" that apply to local areas/railroads that differ from the master contract. Some railroads have pulled out of national bargaining on some or all issues. Some only bargain nationally on health care. This leads to the one size no longer fits all case. Especially on how pay is calculated. We still get paid by the mile, however we have trip rates where extra miles no longer count. Other companies have gone to hourly pay. There may be some place out there where an extra long train may result in higher pay, but I doubt it.
Jeff
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.