hey engineers and crew

[crbond]

how does it work.say when you leave you home yard do you run a certain area or do you go all over tin buck and back again?is it true that you areexpected to work up to 20 hours at a time?how often do you get home and how long do you get to stay home before leaving again?im so interested in how things work thanks guys

 

[jbaakko]

Currently they work 12 hours, and go one direction, then back home again.

 

[NYC_George]

12 hour rule

I know this one. I did it for 12 years. The law now is 12 hours of work unless you have a 4 hour break at a terminal then you can work another 4 as I remember it. You are considered fresh if you have 10 full hours off then you can work another 12. By the time you drive home go shopping, shower etc and try to sleep some times in the middle of the day the ten 10 hours turns into about 6 hours of sleep and your back on the engine. This is one of the reasons crews miss approach signals and run through reds ones and the main reason I left in railroad in 1981. Before the 12 hour change the rule use to be 16 hours but you always wrote down 15:59 on your time slip so you could work the next day on a regular run. If you wrote down 16 you would need 10 hours off and miss the next day. Back then in the early seventy’s that only gave you 8 hours off to get everything done, sleep and then back to work. I wondered what the union and railroad was thinking back then. When they changed the law I thought it would be work 12 off 12 which I wanted and would be a whole lot safer but the unions and railroads wanted work 12 off 10. This gets crazy when your working the extra list. Every terminal has a bunk house so if you work your 12 hours one way you sleep there then come back on another run the next day. After a while this gets pretty boring. The Penn Central always tried to get crews there and back home within 12 hours by changing crews at different locations. I’m not sure what happens out west where the terminals are so far apart. You most likely live half you life in the bunk house.

NYC_George

 

[vato loco]

Now, this is how the Brooksville branch is run here. The local crew starts in brooksville with the train they left there the day before http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1 Here you can see the train sitting awaiting her crew! they board the train and head to Tampa at 4pmish. on the way to tampa drop of a couple of LP cars to a local industry and back to tampa! They get to tampa and pick up the next train bound for the Brooksville branch that need to head up their line. Along the way back they drop off and pick up cars along the way to brooksville. Once it gets to brooksville the crew hot foot it over to the Camps(aka cement mines/plant) drop of cars to Cemexs plants Interchange http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1 (They switch their own cars) then back To florida rock to spot cars there http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1 ! Assemble train at the camps yard then back to B'ville Park train and go home

Now 2x times a week the schedule gets turned up side down! They Pick up their train in brookville and head to tampa. Come back with a HUGE unit coal train bound for one of the two plants! If the coal is bound for Cemex plant http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1 They drop loaded cars in interchange and pick up emptys and head back to tampa Fast. If they are delivering to FCS plant they use the unloader http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1 and the whole train is unloaded in one hour and heads back to tampa fast! Once they get back to tampa they drop off the unit coal trains and come home to B'ville with the next train and follow return schedule. if all goes well they get done in 12 hours! These two full time guys and one part timer? are the only engine crew for the line! so they stay buzzy