Railroaders' Nostalgia > Largest seniority districts??

Cabhop's thread about longest runs got me to thinking, (always dangerous) about what are/were the largest seniority districts.
​Large can be defined as encompassing miles of track or geographical area or number of employees.
​I know my old (last) seniority district, BNSF's Pacific 5th, comprised several elements from roads that existed prior to the
​BN merger of 1970, ie: GN, NP, SP&S, maybe others that I am forgetting. Geographically it encompassed all of BN's track from
​Whitefish, MT to Vancouver B.C., all the BN track in the states of Washington, Oregon and down to Bieber, CA on the Inside Gateway.

​Some districts had hundreds if not thousands of employees. Some 'Pocket' districts might include only one or two employees. What are some other examples out there?

​Charlie

cewherry Wrote:
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> Cabhop's thread about longest runs got me to
> thinking, (always dangerous) about what are/were
> the largest seniority districts.
> ​Large can be defined as encompassing miles of
> track or geographical area or number of
> employees.
> ​I know my old (last) seniority district, BNSF's
> Pacific 5th, comprised several elements from roads
> that existed prior to the
> ​BN merger of 1970, ie: GN, NP, SP&S, maybe
> others that I am forgetting. Geographically it
> encompassed all of BN's track from
> ​Whitefish, MT to Vancouver B.C., all the BN
> track in the states of Washington, Oregon and
> down to Bieber, CA on the Inside Gateway.
>

Operator and dispatcher seniority districts were the same. The operator's extra board could be brutal, especially if the Telegrapher Control manager didn't like you. I knew two operators that quit, then hired out on another part of BN to escape, and one who sold his house and bought a big RV. He hadn't been home in months. I bid into the Havre dispatchers office when I got bumped out of 3d trick Bellingham in order to avoid driving all over five states on a daily basis, filling a day here, a day there, and a day somewhere else. Since I had already experienced being sent from Bellingham to Centralia to fill a vacancy that was being filled by a guy who lived in Centralia...who was sent to Bellingham to fill the position I was vacating, I could see the writing on the wall.

TAW

On the Rock Island, the Telegraphers had 2 districts with Kansas City as the
dividing line.  I never experienced it, but the stories were that it was not unusual
for someone to go from a small town in Kansas to 3rd trick at Blue Island, Illinois and
at the same time someone else going from somewhere in Illinois to an agenmcy in
western Iowa or Nebraska.  There were 2 other districts covered by the Telegraphers
agreement, the Chicago area Towers and the Relay offices.
zr190

SP trainmen's System Seniority, Charlie (-:

EO

Yes, I recall that; although enginemen didn't participate, at least while I worked there. Did that change after 1979?

I know that system agreement helped several NWP and SD&AE
men after various storms shut down their RR's. Also, wasn't there a minimum time a person had to remain at a given location before moving on or/back?

Charlie

Posted from iPhone

cewherry Wrote:
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> Yes, I recall that; although enginemen didn't
> participate, at least while I worked there. Did
> that change after 1979?
>
> I know that system agreement helped several NWP
> and SD&AE
> men after various storms shut down their RR's.
> Also, wasn't there a minimum time a person had to
> remain at a given location before moving on
> or/back?
>
> Charlie
>
> Posted from iPhone

The only time you had a set minimum time, as far as I remember Charlie, was going from the road to the yard which was 60 days. With trainmen going form terminal to terminal on system seniority I don't believe there was a minimum.

hogheaded Wrote:
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> SP trainmen's System Seniority, Charlie (-:

SP train dispatchers had office seniority and system seniority too. There were office extra board and no system extra boards. If you couldn't hold anything in the office you were working, you could go to the board in another office or bid a job in another office if it didn't go to a regular man in that office.

TAW

On ATSF we had division seniority when I started a lot along the lines of  old original ATSF  divisions.Trainmen expanded to Coast Lines seniority around 1985..At the the time of the merger with BN , ATSF trainmen were granted system seniorty on the the old ATSF as were enginemen,but with  a prior right 95 date BN trainmen recieved the same with the 95 prior right..At merger time trainmen gained system seniority on all BNSF lines except old NP and GN.I think this system exists to this day.Bill Webb