Merry Christmas ladies and gentlemen. I hope all the railroaders here will be at your home terminal for the holidays.
Me…I get to man the tower 3rd shift on the 24th. After the last train passes, and all the road crews are safe in bed, I shall open the bridge, lock the building, and join my family in the wee hours of Christmas morning.
Nick
Well have a Merry Christmas yourself !
Merry Christmas - and be safe!
I have been annuled the 24th and 25th. Merry Christmas to all.
"…Hail our dear old friend Kris Kringle.
Guiding his reindeer across the sky,
Don’t stand underneath when they fly by!" [#oops][censored][:O]
Thanks, Nick,
Going to be kicking 'em Sunday and Monday mornings, pounding rocks and pulling pins, but will get home both nights, the plus side of working at a switching and terminal road.
So those of you out on the road be careful, stay cut in, get home when you can, and have a Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to all of you railroaders out there! Sorry you have to work those mornings, Ed; at least your first January paycheck ought to be a good one. I’ll be working tomorrow (Sunday) from 0630 until possibly 1830, when the hump will shut down for 28 hours or more. Everybody on our end of the yard will be home (or wherever) for Christmas Day, except for Third shift. I have Mondays off anyway, so we have plans made. And we won’t have much snow bothering us–at least until we come home later Monday. Nick–which bridge? One of our rules of the day every day now is GCOR 1.1.2, requiring us to remain alert and attentive. Stay safe out there! (How does one make paragraphs now? I seem to have lost that ability.)
A very Merry Christmas and a joyous, healthy and prosperous New Year to all my fellow foamers.
Carl, The Schuykill River Bridge.
Ed, Switching Sunday and Monday? Oy. Our yard crews will be annulled from 2nd Sunday to 2nd Monday - resuming operation 3rd on Monday.
Nick
Working as planed I just checked the lineup and it looks like I will be getting in the morning about 0700, as an after thaught at least I will not have to deal with my mother in law (lol).
Rodney
My job is off until tuesday. Barring any unforeseen calls from the crew management folks of course (and there’ll be one) hopefully today or tomorrow at worst. Lots of industries taking maintenance shut downs this time of year and this year in particular. Hope the economy can hold it together so cut offs are minimized in the winter/spring…
LC
Wishing all of you and yours a very Merry Christmas, especially those of you who have to work. Being a retired fire fighter, I couldn’t even begin to count the holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc, that I missed over the years. But I believe that those special days that I was off, meant even more to me. Enjoy the Holidays and best wishes for the coming year.
Tom
Merry x-mas from down south in Texas.
I would guess that those of you using the new version of Internet Explorer are having this problem. As I don’t have the new version, I can’t say for sure, but I would think that a workaround would be to use “ctrl-enter” (hold down the ctrl key while typing enter) instead of just “enter”. That should force a non-paragraph break in the HTML code. You would probably have to do ctrl-enter twice in order to get a blank line between paragraphs.
I am fortunate 30 years ago that the railroads were not interested in hiring me. Thus, I have a “normal” life.
I certainly hope that everyone can spend the holiday with families.
ed
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope that even if the railroaders out there can’t spend December 25th Christmas with their families, they can still have their own Christmas when they are able to be at home.
Carl,
Open Microsoft Word also,
Write your posting in Word as you choose, then toggle back to the forum, click on the reply button…when the reply window pops up, click on the “insert from Word” icon, 4th from the left on the toolbar, another box will open, toggle back to Word, highlight and cut or copy, toggle to the new reply box, paste your reply in the pop up box, and click insert on the bottom.
What ever you do in Word will copy straight to the forum page exactly as you write it in Word.
Nick, yup, both days, but then we are the only railroad servicing the Houston ship channel industries, so we work 24/7/365!
North yard never closes, ever.
A question to the railroaders.
How do the railroads assign employess to the odd working-hours, like christmas, new year’s eve, easter etc.? Do the distribute those assignements equalliy among their employees - for example, somebody working on Christmas will not be called on new year’s eve? Or do they call the employees, road-crews, ect. with lowest seniority do jump in on those days? (Provided, of course, the hours-of-service-laws allow them to jump in.)
Martin,
If you are in a pool assignment, or on the extra board, you get called based on first rested man in the order.
First rested, first called or first out, last rested, last man called out and then they start over at the top of the board and the first rested man in the order…some times a man may work all twelve hours plus deadhead time, and he “loses” his slot in the order, he will not be called till he has been off on rest time according to that locals contract.
As for those of us on regular assigned jobs, we work the days that job normally work…if that happens to include a holiday, well, that’s the way it goes…but holidays are 8 straight time hours plus 8 overtime hours, so you don’t mind too much.
Regular jobs are bid on by the employees, and assigned to the person who bids and holds the highest seniority…the longer you have been there, the better your choice of jobs.
A lot of little things can be changed or might be a little different based on the local union contract, but that’s the basic way it works.
The railroads/carriers don’t decide who gets what job, the unions do, based on your seniority.
If you are a new hire, or haven’t been there very long, you will either ride the extra board and work the jobs in the order you fall on the board, or you work pool assignment, which is a modified extra board covering a division or district.
Extra boards usually cover assigned jobs where a man marked off sick or on vacation, and can cover the pool assignment jobs when the pool runs out of men and no one is rested.
Some men like the extra board and pool assignments; it allows them to make quite a bit of overtime and money, but they are away from home most of the time.
Ed, I must have a different toolbar from yours; I can’t find the “Insert from Word” button anywhere. Nearest geek is miles away and busy. Trying a new technique herewith. ________________________________________________________________________________ Late note: It appears, as of the time I left work today, that we will be getting relieved tomorrow, so we should be off to the North Country soon after 1430. ________________________________________________________________________________ Thanks to a doting Grandma and Grandpa, one granddaughter now has a trampoline for Christmas. It took one daddy and both grandparents a lot of effort to assemble, but Kates can hop on it very well (as long as she holds onto the bar provided). She’ll sleep well tonight, and might be sore tomorrow!
Merry Christmas!
I’m just a student now, but my schedule happens to be Tues - Saturday 7-4 (for now) so I am set for new years and christmas.
Home terminal is Hinkle, OR on the UP.