If you get hired out with a railroad that’s not near your home and you have to move, does the railroad help put you up some where or do you have to find a place before you start?
If you accept a job at another location, it’s the employee’s responsibility to relocated himself. The only time they will help with re-location cost’s is if you accept a position that they offer, such as a management position, where THEY require you to move.
If you’re talking about your initial hiring by the railroad, you’re completely on your own. When I got my job with the CNW in Chicago, I moved to the area from Michigan. With no money, I was very fortunate in that a cousin of my dad’s let me stay with her until I could afford an apartment of my own. She never let me pay her, but I’d take her out to dinner often afterwards.
In train service you are completely on your own. If you are hired as or are promoted to an officer (trainmaster or better), the company usually will pay your transfer costs.
Nick
My railroad only pays management employees to move. I know of one dispatcher who went to work for corporate HQ, and they moved him down there. When he wanted to move back, he had to take a trainmaster position here so the company could move him back, and then serve a minimum amount of time before he could go back to dispatching (or whatever he’s doing now).