I’ve been a member of this forum for 11 years and read lots of railroading books and Trains magazines over the last 30 or so years. I’ve learned a lot about how the industry works, but there’s one aspect of the business I still can’t quite get my brain wrapped around- choosing who will be on what train tomorrow.
Can someone give me a primer on how the system works? If a train needs to leave the terminal at 2:00 tomorrow afternoon, how is it decided who will be on the train and what job they will perform, if they both have the same qualifications?
If it is a train that has an Assigned Crew, the assigned crew will be called if the train is being called within the Assigned Crew’s time window. If the call figure is outside of the assigned time window, a pool or extra crew will be called in accordance with prevailing local agreements.
If the train is to be called from the Pool that operates between the Origin and Destination - the head out Pool Turn that is rested will be called. Note - it is possible for the head out turn to not be rested. If there are vacancies on the head out pool turn (engineer conductor or both) those vacancies will be filled from the head out rested individual on whichever craft needs the vacancy filled.
In the simplest cases, crews are placed on the boards at the time the mark off their time cards at the destination terminal of a individual run (home or away). Their rest time begins to run from that time. There are a number of local conditions that are specific to individual locations that can slightly modify how these general principles are applied. In some cases, there may be a local agreement that crews will be ordered at the away from home terminal in the order they were called from the home terminal, without regard to the times they actually registed off.
On my carrier there are two standards for crew notification. 2 hours is the standard notification period - Crew is notified at 1500 they are to report for and go on duty at 1700. On designated InterDivisional runs (ID runs) the notification period is 3 hours. The crew would be notified at 1500 that they are to report for and go on duty at 1800. At the Away from Home terminal the notification is 2 hours for all crews.
I like the term “PDQ” for a call. We used to get some “SAP” calls, which would be the same as “ASAP”.
I took one very early in my career to work days on top of the hump. I got the call, dropped everything, and went out there the fastest way I knew how to. When I got to the hump, I was darn near sent back home. The trainmaster couldn’t believe that I was responding to the call, and had beaten out the guy he was going to send home for not showing up on time. (This TM later became one of my better friends in high places.)
Norris, I much preferred the life inside the yard…a regular call time, and usually a regular tie-up time eight hours later (on my job…other jobs would often get a “quit” of an hour or more).
My shortest call was 20 minutes. Normal call is 90 minutes at my terminal. Terminals in larger cities get longer calls, 2 to 3 hours, because of longer travel time due to highway traffic.
Normally, short calls are due to unexpected things happening like someone having an accident on their way to work. My 20 minute call was just because they forgot to call the train. Human error. Now they have replaced some of that with computerized calls. The “robot” calls you. (Now if it’s a human caller something’s up. Like they need to beg you to work a job off your assignment because they are short of people.) When the robot first started, it had a bad habit of just placing the crews on duty without bothering to call them on the phone. It took a while to completely squash that bug.
If it is a train that has an Assigned Crew, the assigned crew will be called if the train is being called within the Assigned Crew’s time window. If the call figure is outside of the assigned time window, a pool or extra crew will be called in accordance with prevailing local agreements.
Using my terminal as an example, local and yard jobs are assigned. Those people know when they are going to work, unless notified different. Through trains go to the road pools. Spotting or pulling grain or ethanol trains at intermediate points and dog catching goes to the extra board. They are still called boards because at one time they were big chalk boards. There are also procedures to fill vacancies on assigned jobs and short turns with pool guys when the extra board is used up.
If the train is to be called from the Pool that operates between the Origin and Destination - the head out Pool Turn that is rested will be called. Note - it is possible for the head out turn to not be rested. If there are vacancies on the head out pool turn (engineer conductor or both) those vacancies will be filled from the head out rested individual on whichever craft needs the vacancy filled.
The extra board for each craft protects any pool vacancy for that craft. If there is no one available on the extra board, they can legally run-around that turn with the next available turn in OK status. At certain times, major holidays, someone might go around 10 or more vacant turns.
In the simplest cases, crews are placed on the boards at the time the mark off their time cards at the destination terminal of a individual run (home or away). Their rest time begins to run from that time. There are a number of local conditions th
That explanation by Jeff H. made prettty good sense; and his overlaying it with BaltACD’s explanation was a good example of how the systems of TWO Different organizations seem to have some common ground…
Thanks, Guys!
Easy to see how someone new or unfamiliar with that kind of ‘Dispatch’[X-)] could have their head explode during the explanation… [yeah][wow]
I think I’m kid of with Paul of Covington on this one- head still spinning. I understand …some… of the explanations from BaltACD from Jeff and I do thank you guys for sharing.
Trouble is, a lot of it went over my head fairly quickly. ([sigh] / [D)]). If it’s OK, I’ll break my curiosity into smaller segments.
Who assigns the crews? What criteria is used to assign particular crews to particular trains? How do you get on (in?) the pool?
Seniority rules. I’ll have to let somebody else explain about bidding on jobs, because all I had to do was give Crew Management a 24-hour notice of my intention to “exercise my seniorty”. If I placed myself on a job that was occupied by a junior man, he got a “bump” and could place himself on a different job with 3 1/2 hours’ notice. And so it goes…generally the people with the least seniority wind up on the extra board, though there were a couple of grueling days in my last year of work that I (Numero Uno in my craft) protected the extra board.
On my territory, one of our high priority intermodal trains has an Assigned Crew. The Company desires that this train is NEVER waiting on the availability of a crew. Needless to say, the positions on this crew are assigned to the bidder with the oldest seniority date (and the 3 sides of this assignment ARE the old heads). The earliest that the crew can be called from their home terminal is 0700, the latest is 1000. If the train is running early, it will either be held for the assigned crews 0700 start or filled with a regular ID crew that runs between the origin and destination of this run. If the train is running later than the 1000 starting time, the assigned crew gets deadheaded to the destination terminal, and the train will be called on it’s late figure with and ID crew. From experience, if the crew members don’t receive a call from Crew Managemnt by 0700 - they are calling the Chief Dispatcher for information on THEIR train! These crews take pride in the operation of the trains that this assignment p
I knew an engineer who worked for Canadian Pacific out of Kamloops, BC. This is going back over 30 years now, so my information may be a bit outdated. But back then crew assignments were seniority based. The last hired had the fewest options and generally had to take the assignment nobody else wanted. On the other end of the spectrum, an engineer or conductor with the most seniority had first dibs on any runs that came up. Of course, CP had (and still has) a fairly simple network, and all assignments out of Kamloops were either west to North Bend or east to Revelstoke. At that time all motive power was of the SD40/SD40-2 variety, so one job was pretty much the same as the next. Other railroads with more complex route structures likely had more complex crew assignment matrices
I think I’m kid of with Paul of Covington on this one- head still spinning. I understand …some… of the explanations from BaltACD from Jeff and I do thank you guys for sharing.
Trouble is, a lot of it went over my head fairly quickly. ( / ). If it’s OK, I’ll break my curiosity into smaller segments.
Who assigns the crews? What criteria is used to assign particular crews to particular trains? How do you get on (in?) the pool?
On my territory, one of our high priority intermodal trains has an Assigned Crew. The Company desires that this train is NEVER waiting on the availability of a crew. Needless to say, the positions on this crew are assigned to the bidder with the oldest seniority date (and the 3 sides of this assignment ARE the old heads). The earliest that the crew can be called from their home terminal is 0700, the latest is 1000. If the train is running early, it will either be held for the assigned crews 0700 start or filled with a regular ID crew that runs between the origin and destination of this run. If the train is running later than the 1000 starting time, the assigned crew gets deadheaded to the destination terminal, and the train will be called on it’s late figure with and ID crew. From experience, if the crew members don’t receive a call from Crew
