Back in the sixties, when the IC had four passenger trains a day between Chicago and New Orleans, and three freights in the ETT into and out of New Orleans, McComb, Mississippi, was the base for the main line of the Louisiana Division. All engine and freight train crews changed in McComb, and were subject to call after their eight hours rest–first in, first out. Passenger trainmen were assigned to particular trains (1&2, 5&6, 3&8, 25&4)–and ran through McComb in one direction–going south for the City of New Orleans and going north for the other trains; thus, a particular crew was away from home 24 hours, runnning four humdred miles with two rests along the way (New Orleans and Canton; McComb was in the middle), and home for 24 hours. I am not really sure how the passenger enginemen’s roster was worked; whether they were assigned to particular trains and train crew or if they were in the chain gang. Freight crews preferred being called to go north, as it was, as I remember, about 180 miles to Gwin (above Yazoo City) instead of the 100 miles to New Orleans.
The conductors for the Panama were brothers–so they could catch up with each other every morning.
to get into “the pool” you have to mark up. To mark up you have to pass the physical exam, pass the rules exam, and find a job that your seniority will allow you to get, and get qualified on that run. A pool is a list the railroad creates of crew members who are qualified and able to work a particular run.
For example, the railroad may have a pool AC that it uses to crew trains that run from yard A to interchange point C. It could also have a pool AB to crew trains that run from yard A to yard B. This assumes there are enough trains each day to require more than a couple of crews. When you ‘mark-up’ you can only be in one or the other pools in this example. Once you are in the pool, you get called in turn. If you are in the AB pool, you can be assigned to a hot-shot (if it doesn’t have an assigned crew like in Balt’s example) , a work train, or the local if it goes in that direction. Whatever train is next, the rested crew at the top of the list in the pool gets that train.
and on another post on this Thread, Balt ACD wrote[in part]:
"…Contracturally, the Assigned Crew can only operate it’s designated Assigned Train Identification.
“That should put your head in a 360 degree continuious spin.”
On other segments of the property there are Assigned Crews, wherein the crews are only Assigned from their home terminal. Upon arrival the the AFHT they operate as FIFO pool crews.
Another segment of the property has crews operating from their Home Terminal under a Starting Time hours agreement. Crew bids a 0001 start time - from their home terminal they must be called on a train between 0001 and 0600, or they must be deadheaded to the AFHT and then operate as a FIFO pool for their return trip.
There are virtually as many different forms of Assigned Crews in road service as the various Local Chairmen can sell to the Union membership and the Company. It can get wild trying to accomidate all the various agreements.
You get hired by a Class 1 - IF you are a qualified Conductor or Engineer by service on another railroad - you get assigned to a Home Terminal by the company based upon its needs for your particular services. Y
Is it out of bounds to inquire as to how pay is earned, If the trains are running fast and furious and one is called as soon as the rest period is over, can one make over $100K before taxes RRR and other deductions? If the district is in severe decline and the interval between calls is in multiple days, is there a base or standby pay rate? While train service is a special job, is the pay comenserate. Are all train service jobs paid on a milage basis or are there base and overtime rates for some T & E jobs. Also how do short line jobs pay their crews.
The reality, at least on my carrier, there are about as many ways to define a days pay as there are local agreements in place. I believe the National Agreement defines 128 miles as being the ‘basic road day’ and that basic day will also apply to runs of less than 128 miles. Yard days are considered to be 8 hours. Where the fun comes in is that some territories operate on ‘Trip Rates’ and others operate on days as defined in the National Agreement. Depending on the mileage of the run, in some cases a crew cannot go on overtime until they have exceeded the HOS allow work time.
The Pools and Extra Boards (on my carrier) are advertised with a guaranteed $ amount. If members of that pool or board aren’t making the amount of the advertisement - the pool is cut so that the remaining members will earn at the guarantee amount or more. If the pool or board is working such that members are basically being called on their rest - both home and away, efforts will be made to add people to those pools or boards.
Basic day is 130 miles. CSX and I believe NS, have gone to a system on parts of their respective railroads where you have to re-bid your assignment/job every week. I hope we don’t do that. For us once you’ve bid/bumped onto an assignment you hold it until you are either: 1. bumped by someone with more seniority, 2. give up (bid an opening/go to the extra board) your assignment for another or 3. have your assignment cut or abolished.
Some railroads have gone to hourly pay, with overtime after a set period, usually around 10 hours. We are still paid by the mile. Runs of 130 miles or less, overtime begins at 8 hours. There is a formula to figure overtime on runs over 130 miles. Just to make it easy (there is a chart in our time books for runs 131 miles and over) my assignment in the West Pool can either have a trip of 161 miles or 144 miles. OT begins on the 161 mile run after 9 hours 55 minutes, on the 144 mile run after 8 hours 52 minutes. Our East Pool, 197 miles OT begins after 12 hours and 7 minutes. You have to be dead on the HOS to get overtime. In some cases, where terminals have been run through, the agreement implementing the run-thru may specify overtime beginning earlier than normal miliage requirements allow.
In my neck of the woods, both engineer and trainmen’s extra boards and the trainmen’s road pools have guarantees. The road engineer pools don’t. The staffing of pools and extra boards are supposed to be governed by miliage. The trouble is, the miliage parameters are still governed by a 1920s agreement when a basic day was 100 miles. Earlier this year pool engineers (without a guarantee) were turning real slow while pool conductors (with a guarantee) were turning fast. It’s picked up, but conductors are still turning out faster.