Working from the extra board

[Anonymous]

Needless to say,...THANKS to all you guys who have offered your insight You have allowed me to look at the entire scenario from a perspective I never would have thought about, without your "insider" experiance

[Anonymous]

As stated, just because you are trained as an engineer, doesn't mean you'll be working as one.

In my terminal there are lots of hoggers that can't even hold the hogger spareboard, so they have to work as conductors, and they were trained in the early 1990s!

The main reason for this was because they brought in belt pack about 5 years ago, and they got rid of about 40 hogger jobs in the yard, so they haven't had to train any hoggers for about a decade now.

Now with a lot of the old hog heads retiring, they are finally getting to the point where there will be hogger training again. Some conductors have been waiting for the better part of a decade to get behind the stand.

As far as the "manditory hogger training" this is so in my terminal too.
Now, because of when I hired on, I have no choice but to take the hogger training, and hopefully I'll pass it.

The main reason for railways wanting everyone to now qualify as hoggers is because soon enough through freights will be running engineer only, without conductors, therefore it's in the RRs best interest that everyone be trained to run the loco's.

Lots of people seem to think that it will never happen, but believe me, we will all live to see engineer only operation.

[shrek623]

It all depends on the terminal. I hired out last July and I hold a pool turn right now. But at the terminal I hired out at I could barely hold the brakeman's x-board. CSXengineer98 is right, it has everything to do with location. From my recent personal experience, I moved to a different terminal because I hated the x-board and could hold a pool turn elsewhere. So take everything into account.

Shrek

[ValleyX]

There are no flowback agreements on Norfolk Southern in any location that I'm aware of and I think that's true systemwide.

[Anonymous]

My extraboard experiences are very similar to the other RR guys. I hired out a little over a year ago now and my RR career has been a wild one already. I rode the road extraboard for the whole summer. I worked on my rest most of the summer and made very good money, but I also forgot what my wife looked like. Then in the fall I found out I was going to be remote qualified eventually, so I signed up early so I could enjoy the nice September weather outdoors from 8am to 4pm. By the time my remote training was done I decided to stay in the yard for awhile and be at home. I worked off the yard switchman's board and only worked once in two weeks!! Luckily I had some guarnantee to draw, but nothing close to what that dude on the BNSF made. I needed some cash, so I went back to road and was able to hold some freight pool jobs to Chicago for a few weeks and made some good money. Then, third shift in the yard opened up and I decided to come home. The nights were long and very cold and most of the old heads and guys above me fleed to piggy backs or locals to get away from the cold nights. I have held third shift regular for three months now and I have really learned to how to switch, granted I can only do so much with a remote. Anywho, the point is... you never know what your RR career will bring you. You will have stretches of time where you work so much you wake up in a cold sweat in your own bed thinking you fell asleep on your train. Then, there are other times where that phone won't ring for a week and you sit there wondering if you still have a job! Also, if you need time off look for open turns on pools you know you can't hold, you will get bumped and then have 48 hours to make a move; granted you loose your guarantee for those days, but at least you can catch you breath! I don't know how it works on other RR's this is how it work on my part of the CSX.

[ValleyX]

Well Gates, we've all been waiting with bated breath. Did they call you?

[jrnyfrisco]

How much is training pay on BNSF for example? On their website it says they will train you for 13 to 15 weeks if you graduate from NARS and if you get hired. If anyone has a ballpark estimate I would be interested, Thanks for your time,

[Rodney Beck]

On BNSF training pay is 138.50 per day and overtime after 48 hours for the week.

Rodney BNSF Engineer

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ValleyX

Well Gates, we've all been waiting with bated breath. Did they call you?

Just saw this......

Naw, the phone never rang... Guess I'm not made of the right stuff.....[:(]


Odd to have things go so positive through the whole hiring session, and then not get a call.

[zardoz]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TheAntiGates

QUOTE: Originally posted by ValleyX

Well Gates, we've all been waiting with bated breath. Did they call you?

Just saw this......

Naw, the phone never rang... Guess I'm not made of the right stuff.....[:(]


Odd to have things go so positive through the whole hiring session, and then not get a call.

That's rather surprising. You certainly are smart enough. You sound like you have a good employment history. You're drug-free. And I was under the impression that the railroads were starving for people that not only met their criteria, but were also willing to put up with those hours.

Did you ever call back to see if they were still hiring, and if so, find out why you were not called? Perhaps in a different location, or for a different railroad....

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz

QUOTE: Originally posted by TheAntiGates

QUOTE: Originally posted by ValleyX

Well Gates, we've all been waiting with bated breath. Did they call you?

Just saw this......

Naw, the phone never rang... Guess I'm not made of the right stuff.....[:(]


Odd to have things go so positive through the whole hiring session, and then not get a call.

That's rather surprising. You certainly are smart enough. You sound like you have a good employment history. You're drug-free. And I was under the impression that the railroads were starving for people that not only met their criteria, but were also willing to put up with those hours.

Did you ever call back to see if they were still hiring, and if so, find out why you were not called? Perhaps in a different location, or for a different railroad....

The demeanor of the interviewer was kinda high handed, and he pretty much layed out a "Don't call us, we'll call you" game plan. He was a national level recruiter with NS, and to tell the truth I have no idea where his base office even was, and to hear him tell it he is out on the road conducting hiring sessions most of the time, anyway.

He told us as a group that if we were not accepted we should keep track of the NS website as well as the local papers for additional hiring sessions, that was our only recourse.

And calling around trying to track somebody down who has already said "we'll call you" seems like it would annoy him more than not. So it seemed like it was just "bummer for me"..

Too bad too, because it started bugging me for a while, wondering why they decided against me. It would have been nice to know.

My guess is, I was too honest (not enough "gung ho") during the verbal interview. part.

He asked a couple questions like "Are you going to be angry when we fire you for rules violations?" that I think they were trying to provoke a response, and I think I gave answers other than what they wanted to hear.

For instance I said "Well, it'll be my fault, so how could I blame you?" Trying to be nonconfrontational......when I think they wanted a more "rah rah!!" response such as "With you guys training me, there WILL BE NO rules violations!" and stuff like that.

Hey, it had been 28 years since my last job interview, so I was a little rusty.

Maybe next time[8D]

[zardoz]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TheAntiGates

Too bad too, because it started bugging me for a while, wondering why they decided against me. It would have been nice to know.

For what it's worth.....the extra board / pool service is what caused me to leave the CNW. When I started on the CNW, I was only 19 and single, so working on call was no big deal. However, after getting married, then two kids, the twenty years of working on-call just wore me out; I just could not take it anymore. My health was suffering, I had no life other than the railroad, and I was near divorce. So I quit (actually I got fired for insubordination (taking unauthorized time off), but that is another story).

When the Feds got involved, and started the UA's, it just wasn't any fun any more. Not because I was doing drugs or drinking on duty, it was just the change in the mood around the railroad. Plus every time you had to go for a UA, your entire career was on the line; and if someone screwed up your UA and it showed a "positive' result, you were done. Remember, when drug tests first came out, people were getting fired for eating poppy seeds or taking certain OTC drugs; each showed 'positive' on the early primitive (compared to today) tests.

And then the Feds started watching and listening to us. And the Feds imposed personal fines on railroaders for rule violations, not just the railroad, plus incidents went on your Engineer license. So we were caught between a rock and a hard place: you had the railroad getting all perturbed at the crews because, due to the Feds, we tried to follow the rules to the letter which took much more time than before, and the Feds getting all bent for silly rule transgressions (like not saying "over" after a radio transmission).

I certainly do not regret my time on the railroad; to me, operating trains is still the coolest job around. Nonetheless, I do not regret leaving.

So your being not accepted may have been a blessing in disguise.

[ValleyX]

They're going to hire again in your area, rumor has it, tell the interviewer you plan to buy job insurance and you don't care if they fire you or not, that's sure to keep you on the street, so to speak.[swg]

Actually, your responses probably made them think you were a little too independent for their tastes, if they got the idea that you were financially independent in any way, that might have done it. I think they'd prefer to hire a guy your age who really needs a job and will stay marked up about all the time, maybe they weren't hearing that from you.
Mere speculation on my part, you understand.

Oh, and if you railroad, regardless of what they try to implant into you, sooner or later, you'll do something stupid. They might never know it but you'll do it. I suspect that is true of most occupations (and life).

[Anonymous]

We have had differences on other threads, but, c'mon......are you going to be upset when we fire you? No! ***, I'm gonna be freakin' overjoyed! I'll collect job insurance and RR unemployment and sit at home watching cartoons. In my first hiring session my interviewer was an idiot, I tried again and got a different guy and was hired. Some of these HR people are clowns. My suggestion, try choo-choo u. You are retired, financially stable, like trains...what's the worst thing that could happen? You get to go to K.C. and learn about the rules....best thing, get a job. Most of these HR chumps have no idea about operating, they spout a bunch of crap from a script and give a bunch of poor saps the runaround cause they can. I had the pleasure of meeting a HR bimbo that didn't know a frog from a wet fart, and the only joint she ever made were the ones she smoked in college. 1 class one down 4 more to go.