The BNSF local seems to be getting home a couple hours earlier than it used to. Is this a sign of moving less cars, or just everything working out smoother than it had before?
How is a local crew paid?
could be any number of reasons for the early day…crew going for a quit…less line traffic…less track work…less buisness these couple of days…customer slow downs for whatever reason…
as far as pay…dunno about the BNSF but on CSX locally the rate is based on a “days milage”…the locals i worked a paid 100 miles for the day and OT after 10.5 hours…or there abouts…but the runs i did were under 100 for the round trip and as such we had to “claim” the extra OT and anything else we could…like re-crews or pulling a hog law train in…or shoving without a platform…good runs pay good money…the bad paying runs are still good account the stablity…knowning when your going to work and coming home as well as knowing your days off every week…no phone calls at 3 am
Are you sure it isn’t starting work earlier too?
Hey Murph are you talking about the local that makes a trip to Garretson and returns every day Larry
Getting in early compared to what the job used to could be perhaps the on duty time was changed and moved up to an earlier time and/or is the result of better dispatching. Some dispatchers are scared to death to have a local out on their rr, others want to run the crap out of them so as to get them home and off their mainline and out of the way. Some trainmasters stress to the dispatchers to try to do the best they can on running the locals so as not to get dogcaught. Locals and road switchers are paid on assigned miles. Road switchers are based on a 100 mile eight hr day w/overtime @ $34.00 per hr starting after eight hrs. These jobs are restricted to within 25 miles of their on duty station. Locals are different. These are six day out- one- day- back- the next or can be a five or six day turnaround job w/assigned days off w/regular crewmembers who work the job unless someone is off (just like rd swtchrs). What you earn depends on the assigned mileage for the job. Since the miles are assigned, you are paid regardless if you work the entire route or not. There have been many times where a local assigned crew reports to work, there is nothing to do for that day, they tie up w/the full miles and 10 minutes later, out the door and on the way home! Working only a few short minutes a day for a full day of pay, can’t beat that!
That’s a possibility I hadn’t thought of. Maybe that’s a reason to start driving by the yard on the way to work.[:)]
No, I’m thinking of the one that works south to Canton, then west as far as maybe Mitchell?
I’m not sure where the local that heads up to Garretson goes. I suppose, south toward Sioux City, as I’ve seen it switching cars at Manley, Minnesota. That one runs pretty late into the evening.
Are you sure that there is only one local train?
Perhaps there is now an early local and a late local train to provide better service.
Andrew
Actually, there are 2 locals, one goes nort, one goes south/west. The north one still gets home at the usual time. I live a mile south of the yard, and can hear them coming through the crossings on their way in.
Here in defiance its all about timing.If the maw doesn’t have the cars ready they might need another crew to come get them.Like was said before you also have MOW at work too sometimes.The day the local had to come to get the autoracks out of storage off the maw that was an all day job(and on a saturday too).
stay safe
Joe