Thanks for the story Flash! It is an amazing story. A similar thing happened to a METRA commuter train 2 or 3 years ago. A woman was struck at low speed by a commuter train but was not killed or dismembered. She did go to the hospital however. I heard a story, and AFAIK it is just a story. Please forgive me, but I don't intend for this to sound racist or a bigot. Anyway as I heard the story, it states that trains don't run during the midnight hours on Mexican railroads. I dont know it that's true or not. It seems that there is an old wives tale that if you sleep between the rails, scorpions can't get to you and sting you. Again, I don't vouch for the veracity of that. It seems that when migrants were sneaking across the border in the dead of night, once they reached the border they would find some railroad tracks and then catch a couple of ZZZs. Well, as we well know, trains do run 24hrs/day in this country, fatally surprising unsuspecting migrants. Again AFAIK it's only a story.
Just reading another thread. Thought I would ask this: Do you get a seniority number at a company and keep that number? Do you change seniority when you change stations? I think that means is this local or system wide seniority? How do other companies handle senority?
I had BNSF seniority as I was hired after the merger. I also had both conductor and engineer seniority and I had to maintain both. So in any given 4 year period I had to take major requalifying exams in 3 of them. Since I had BNSF seniority it stayed with me if I transfered(which I did once)stations. There are certain districts out west which have closed seniority due to their merger agreements when the BN became the BN. If I went there I began at the bottom. I knew an engineer who was pre-1995 seniority(before BNSF) he and his GF wanted to move to Colorado, which they did. He couldn't place as an engineer since there were no openings so he took a bath in seniority as a trainman. I learned later that he suffered a severe life-threatening on-the-job-injury and was on sick leave for the longest time. I dont know the outcome but I heard he was back to work. If I was still working I could be holding a decent job and making a low 6 figure salary. Seniority is EVERYTHING on the railroad. As a trainman I held a day commuter train job for several years. The old heads would always remark to me that they couldn't understand how someone with my seniority could hold a day job. I held the job because nobody wanted to work it since it was a "worker", it was also the 3rd or 4th(depending on the cycle)highest paying job on the commuter schedule. If you want to go railroading and have some semblance of a life, then do as I did... bid every job with regular days off regardless of shift. Once you hold a regular job, you aren't subject to the crew caller 24/7. They only call you if you get bumped or if you won another job or try to get you to work an extra job. Once you know what time you will work every day and what days you will have off, you can plan you days around that. I worked 2nd shift East Yard at Eola for a long time. The job had great days off and the hours were bearable. I didn't deal with traffic, so to speak, and I got a decent nights sleep. The pay wasn't all that great but the work was good and there was always a chance for mainline work to pick up interchange traffic from the SheepYard in Montgomery. (Illinois RailNet-the former Fox River Branch). My philosophy, learn how the game is played, then play it to your advantage! Charlie
Thanks, Charlie. I worked for the airlines and it works pretty much the same way except maybe commuting can be a way of life. You commute to get the regular days off. "Closed senority" is a term I had not heard before.
I was with UAL for just over 25years. Best career move I ever made was leaving and eventually wind up railroading. I am actually "retired" from the airline. It was part of my exit agreement. Charlie
I am hoping that all had a safe and sane Independence Day. Take a moment to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to gain and hold that independence. Support our troops. Charlie
That is about the closest I can think of to describe the situation. It's part of a flowback agreement. If you were holding say Northern Pacific seniority, you could transfer to one of those stations without losing seniority, but if you held sennie on another RR you were SOL(simply outta luck!). However new hires at those stations all had BNSF seniority. I knew a conductor on the "Southwest Service" on METRA. He said he was one of two or three conductors who still had flowback rights on the Wabash. Sort of a moot point as there is no longer a Wabash Railroad and very little remaining of the original railroad. Charlie
Charlie: I used to fly with a guy in the national guard here in San Antonio. Pan Am (the second or third iteration) called him back to work after being furloughed for 18 years. I've never heard of a longer layoff. He was a Lt. Col. at the time so he just stayed in the guard and didn't go back.
I think trying to start a career with any airline these days is a risky business. IMO air carriers are not really interested in people who want to set roots. They want the people the can pay the least salary to for the longest time possible. Career employees are more expensive. As a word of advice to air travelers, if you pay cheap, expect cheap. The $200K pilot will be flying for the airline that can pay him $200K. Dont expect that from Peanut Central airlines. Charlie
In addition to my last post, my wife & I were talking about travel the other day. When her health improves and if we are able to travel, we will take the train if it's in the Continental U.S. If we decide to go to Hawaii(as we used to do years ago) we will AMTRAK to the west coast and cruise to the islands. Charlie
Consider a cargo vessel for ocean travel. I believe many companies (ships) have a few cabins open for folks who are not schedule-bound, can accept non-tourist accommodations, and can entertain themselves on the open ocean between ports of call on the way to their ultimate destination.
Hi Charlie, I have a question I would like to offer up for consideration. Last week I observed a westbound unit coal train on the BNSF Wayzata Sub (west of Minneapolis). Nothing unusual as the empty coal gons rolled by. Then a couple of still-full cars rolled by. In all there were about 8 still-full cars in the consist; the other 100 cars were empty. Any idea why some of the gons in the consist were still loaded?
Could have been those cars were somehow misdirected and were being returned to where they belonged. Or they may have been bad-ordered enroute from other trains, repaired, and were being sent to their proper destinations. Charlie
I recall one time where I saw a dozen or so loaded coal gons behind two scruffy Ex Santa Fe Geeps still in cub scout paint. They were headed in the direction of the local coal plant. I assumed they had been set out bad ordered at places along the route and after repair were gathered up and routed to the plant to be unloaded and rejoin their brethren. Did not have my camera at the time. Darn.
speaking of re-routes... I was working 2nd shift East Yard at Eola. Dave was the foreman, I was the helper. Summer weather,easy night,no problems. That job usually made up trains for road-switchers(locals)or transfers to other railroads. As I mentioned, no problems that night. When we came to work the next day, we got the 3rd degree about what we did the night before. It seems about a dozen cars that were supposed to go east ended up in Galesburg.We told the YM that we switched the cars exactly as on the list, didn't set any cuts over to other tracks or anything like that. Dunno what happened but somebody other that us messed up. We never heard anything further about it.
Hi Charlie, Its been along time since Ive asked,a "probably silly question".....so here goes. Here in NZ we don't have the numbers of rolling stock compared to you guys,and only one railroad.So how does it work when a wagon eg:boxcar that is owned by railroad "A",ends up ,in its travels in a train of railroad"B"and possiably on to a branch line run by railroad"C".....gets to final destination.......unloaded:1st question.....Would it normally go back to origin or maybe loaded somewhere else and goes further afield? 2nd question:How would a car like that be charged out?Does the fella at the unloading end get three bills?or does he just pay first railroad and they throw abit to the others? 3rd Question:How do they keep track of the car(if its moving around country)as far as maitaince(cant spell!!)etc goes? Hope this ramble makes sence. Cheers Stu
