I recently read that Norfolk Southern was drawn under fire for the “quality of life” offered in it’s MOW camp car facilities. Is Norfolk Southern alone in it’s continued use of these facilities, or are other railroads just not under the microscope on this issue?
And just out of curiousity, do the mow workers ride as passengers inside the cars, between jobs?
We’ve got a camp car we want to set up as a spot for volunteers to stay if they’re working a couple of days in a row and don’t want to commute. While the weather was decent I tried it out a couple of times. My 6’5" frame is a tad long for the beds, infortunately - doesn’t make for a very good night’s sleep.
On the whole, I’d say that it won’t be a bad place, once we get it fixed up a bit, with some plumbing, especially (we’re capable, it’s just not done). Very definitely a “dorm” atmosphere - there’s bunks for eight - with one toilet and one shower and not much ‘lounge’ space. I wouldn’t want to have to live in one for an extended period.
There are spots even on our railroad where highway access is nil, making commuting a challenge. If the rail supports the traffic, we could probably bring people in using an engine and a coach, but if we have to do so at restricted speed, we’re looking at an hour or two commute, depending on where the work is and where the workers are staying. Camping them on-site would certainly be an attractive option in such cases. I have no doubt the big boys have similar situations.
On the other hand, if they’re simply using camp cars to avoid lodging costs (and there’s nothing wrong with that at the heart of it), then they owe the workers decent quarters.
I understand that Rudy Husband is especially fond of Camp cars, one has to wonder how often he stays in one personally.
At the root of this, I recently read that the State of indiana is about to begin requiring NS to obtain county inspections each time they park and set up one of these trains for operation, citing waste disposal, water, sewer, sanitation, and ventilation concerns.
I know hotels offer weekly rates but most railroad employees can’t afford them.I don’t think they are allowed to ride in the camp cars while the train moves.I could be wrong.
stay safe
joe
NS is the only class 1 that still uses them. Guys in prison have more square feet of living space than the guys in the camp cars have. NS is just trying to save as much money as they can at the expense of their employees…
As for motels, some have special rates for railroaders. Depending on the town the rate might be higher or lower than what the general public pays for a motel room. Word of mouth travels fast on the railroad so we know which places to avoid if we have a choice. Sometimes we’re stuck to stay in a town where EVERY motel jacks their rates up when they know we’re coming. They seem to think that the RR is footing the bill rather than us. Gotta love people who stick it to others just because they can.[soapbox]
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When I worked for BN we had camp cars, bunk cars whatever you want to call them and yes,at times they would move us in the middle of the night and we had to come back the next day and get our personal vehicles…But most of the time they moved our cars on the w/end while we we’re at home and was told where to report on the Friday or Sunday before retuning to work on Monday…My son now works for BNSF and they stay in motels if they are more than 150 mi.from home…The RR pays them perdiem and has contracts with different motel chains for them to stay at RR expense…
There we go. a beaucracy attempting to create more “work” so more “help” can add to their needs. Typical and one of the probems which taxpayers must pay for.
These employees are represented by a Union and the Union should negotiate the conditions. Please, no more government intervention!!!
An awful lot (not all) of the “conditions” can trace their origins right back to the people using the cars. The railroads are not in the nanny business. The same can be said of T-E-Y people trashing brand new locomotives and facilities. The corporate housing people who failed to check out the conditions reported at a given motel failed to be around very long and I can attest to certain motels being blackballed. In short, the pendulum swings both ways.
(some of the folks I worked around had pride in what they did and themselves. It showed. Their outfit cars were spotless.)
(2) The statement that NS is the only Class 1 with outfit cars just pegged the baloney meter.
(3) The reason you see so few outfit cars anymore is the FRA rules regarding blue flag protection where these things go and the 300 foot separation rule which severely limits where they can be constructively placed.
As I stated earlier NS is the only class 1 that still uses camp cars. There is absolutely no “baloney” in that statement. No one else uses them anymore.
Nobody rides in these things when we move them as far as life goes they are bunk houses and sewages is portable out houses place on the site. water if avalible is a garden hose. the union won and they was to stop using these things i wonder what happened there? if you like camping 24/7 this is your job.
interesting links
From the Chicago Tribune
From Channel 16 in South Bend
From the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen’s website
A rather revealing revelation of conditions on video at youtube
My suspicion is, just like railroads dump buckets of used spikes and just about everything else they have no further use for, anywhere convenient along their ROW, somebody probably got tired of finding buckets of s*** dumped into the nearest ditch each time the crews break camp, and consequently they are calling for closer attention to sanitation, falling onto the government for accountability [:-,]
Hmmmm…Deja Vu[}:)]
The NS paints a different picture of its camp cars…
LoL, eggzactly!!
Dang NIMBY’s, if they don’t want buckets of s*** dumped into their ditches, they should move further away from the tracks, huh? when will they EVER learn? lol.
These look like extra gang quaters,not regional or system gangs…I think extra gangs are under different contracts than regular gangs that work everyday and not just on special projects…Then laid off til the next job…