Can anyone tell me what the hourly pay rate for an employee in train service wiyh a class1 railroad is after 6 to 12 months service. Also is there never any time to enjoy a hobby, stop for a beer, go to a ballgame? Wouldnt mind hearing about what you like about your job
it is going to be 75% of the conntracted rate for the first year of service…after the first year…you get a 5% pay raise for the next 5 years…untill you you reach the 100% of the contracted rate of pay …
as far as time to injoy things…you have to pick your battles…working for the rail road is not a death sentance…but it is a hard way of life… you still can stop for a beer…as long as its as soon as you get off duty…and you can have the alcohal out of you system befor our subject to call agin… as far as drinking while on call…you run a major risk of getting cough short …and showing up to work under the infuance of alcohal is a BIG NO NO!!! you can be fired…for good…
as far as hobbies… you can still injoy hobbies…not as much as you might be able to with a 9-5 office job… but some things you might be able to take with you in your grip to work on while your rotting at a hotel wating for the call to take a train home…
but as far as injoying things such as going to ball games and what not…you hvae to pick your battles…marking off to go…or puting in a personal day to go… a good friend of mine told me befor i hired out on the railroad…work the railroad …dont let the railroad work you… the railroad will work you to death if you let it… thats why you have to pick what is more importaint to you at times…their comes a point where you have to tell the railroad to shove it…in a matter of speaking…making a paycheck…or haveing a litlle bit of time to injoy something on the side…
csx engineer
What are the consequences for marking off? Do they vary depending on what your home terminal is? What exactly is marking off? Is it telling the railroad you will not be working a certain day? How many personal days per year do you get? Is this the same as sick days or are they seperate?
A UP road conductor once me they are paid by the mile. What about yard and lo
marking off is useing any exucse other then personal days and vacation days to get off of work…safty days… union biz…sick… death in the family…family illness…and any company biz that you need to be rested for…such as a rules test or class…they are all excused absances…but you have to be on the safty commity to use safty days…you have to be a union officer to be able to use… the others are taken on the emplyees honnor…now if you mark off sick to many times…or just say ever other weekend…then the carrier can pull you in for an investigation on patern markoff charges…also csx has a policy out now that if you mark off sick on thursday friday saterday or sunday…they can call you in for a talking to also… they are starting to want profe of emplyees being sick on the weekends due to some that are abuseing the system …becouse they want to go out and party on the weekend…or what ever the case may be…
the peniltys for marking off and haveing a talk range from time off…over head (the threat of time off if you do anything wrong at all…almost like a porbation) for a set time period…to time off for up to what ever the company wants to give you…time off is unpayed…and is considerd a suspention…
you get 3 personl days a year…up untill your 5th year of service…then it goes to 5 days a year…if you dont use them durning the calander year…you can carry the unused ones over to the next year…so say you get 5 a year…and you only use 1…the next year…you get 5 more…pluse the 4 you didnt use…so you have 9 to use that year if you chose to use them…you can carry up to 30 personal days a year… if you have more then 30 due to carryovers…you have to use them or lose them…you can also ca***hem in for the cash vaulue of them… meaning you get payed for them…but you dont take time off… the railroad dosnt have payed sick days…so if you mark off sick…you lose the pay for the day…and on an extra board that has a garrentee…the punshment is 2 days garrentee
Thanks CSX Engineer.
no problem…
csx engineer
Anything the Mookie can understand is pretty clear! I followed it just fine!
Thank you!
csx engineer-Given the nature of road work, it sounds like you at least have the flex to be able to make “special” events, without getting harrassed. Isn’t there also paid vacation?
Jay
your lossing me on the “special events” … yes their is payed vacation…you get 1 week after your first year…2 weeks after you sencond year…you stay at 2 weeks untilll you get to 8 years service…then you get a 3rd week… now when you get the other 2 weeks…no one realy knows anymore… but the max you get is 5 weeks payed vacation…
csx engineer
I think what jeaton means by “special events” is weddings, graduations, family reunions, etc. events that are planned by someone else, perhaps, which you would like to attend, but may or may not be able to, due to work requirements.
i pleed the 5th amendment…for fear of who might be learking in the shadows…lol
csx engineer
I’m a new hire who was worked for CSX since early February. I was one of the lucky ones who got 100% right off the bat due to some weird union agreement that expired the day after I hired out. Obviously being new I’ve had to work the extraboard about 90% of the time; however, during the summer when there are vacations I was able to hold the freight pool for a week and the piggy back pool for a few days. I have home access to the call boards, so I can see what’s coming and actually try to make plans for the day. I have only laid off once, but that was to protect a personal day I was about to go on, so like csx engineer said you have to pick your battles.
I’ve had periods where I work on my rest for three weeks straight, and then other times where I’m home more than on the road and I only work about four trips in a half. Right now the fall harvest boosts business, but in November the boards get cut, so things get tight. I’m building some seniority, I have 9 people underneath me right now, so I may just be able to hold on as long as things don’t get too tight. So, as a newbie the first year or two can be a little stressful just because of the possiblity of furlough, but CSX is offering those furloughed to temporarily transfer to places that are short of help, so there are opportunites out there.
In terms of personal days vs Sick days. they are essencially the same thing, except in how they are used. Sick days are rated as 1 full day of work (ie in a 9-5 job that’d be an 8 hr day offin a 24 hr period), where-as a personal day is rated in hours (ie you have 6 days of personal days, but you take 2 hours off for a doctors appt, leaving you 5 days and 6 hrs of personal time left).
Not sure how it translates for a railroad corp, a day may be 12 hr or one 24 hr block instead of 8 hr blocks. and this may vary from railroad to railroad, so you’d have to check with human resources before signing on to make sure the benifits are understandable to you.
no…a persnal day counts as 1 day off…no partial days on the railroad…you take a personal day…your off for 24 hours… from the time you marked off untill 24 hours pass…automaic markup after personl days… now sick days are also at minimum 12 hours off… but you have to call and mark up on your own…no automatic markup when your off sick…
and it depends on the termial your at will determan when your day off personal days begin…some terminals off days start at noon…others they start at midnight…
csx engineer
And I’ll bet the “pool” hasn’t changed - you come in with what looks like a lot of time off, plan to go to a “special event” and the railroad runs itself ragged all and once and about the time you are ready to go - you are first out. Been there, done that.
Mookie
On NS, trainmen cannot accumulate personal days, if there are carryover days from the previous year because they were denied when asked for, they have to be used by the end of March of the following year. Engineers can accumulate 30 days without penalty, however. I don’t know if it’s like this for trainmen everywhere.
Five weeks of vacation comes after 25 years service, not sure when four weeks comes.