I saw a rail grinding unit parked today. Do crews manning these machines normally get holidays off?
Only if the railroad can swing it with the contractor and the 8-14 day cycles those guys run conveniently lands on the weekend in question. Certain holidays have the railroads shut down everything but the essential trains (including the yard engines)…The engineering forces that go with the thing would probably like a blow, but the hourly delay charge ($1880+) has to be dealt with if the contractor’s tribe is aboard.
MOW forces were working today in Boone. There’s been a 4 day project over the Labor Day weekend to undercut and raise the crossovers at CP A203.
Jeff
Maybe normally, but a rail grinder was going through the Rochelle crossing on the BNSF tracks at about 8:30 PM CDT today. See the Rochelle Webcam thread for pictures.
Certain holidays are more holidays than others… I would suspect that Labor Day would be one that labor would want to observe, but it it’s that or one of the more family oriented holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas) I’d assume they’d rather work on Labor Day.
Depending on the agreement in force, it could be as much as doubletime pay for the day.
We gave up running on Labor Day (and Memorial Day) because all the folks visiting the area were usually headed home on Monday morning, and definitely by Monday afternoon.
Our company as a whole has reduced ops for holidays, but I work compressed work halves, so our holiday will be tomorrow. Tomorrow would have been the last day of the half, but we will get it as a paid holiday.