Western Railroad Discussion > When one has no seniority at a railroad

When getting hired at a bigger railroad do the engineer/conductor applicants usually know where they will be sent after training?

Since they are obviously at the very bottom of the seniority list how is it decided where they will go?

And one last dumb question what is usually the most junior/least-desired job at a railroad?

Chuck
 

Too broad of a question. It really depends on which railroad and the customs and local agreements in place at the hiring terminal.

RailDawg Wrote:
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> And one last dumb question what is usually the
> most junior/least-desired job at a railroad?
 
Forced assignments that are so undesired that no one bid them in. They can be undesired because of being outlying jobs at bad or far locations or jobs with off days or work times no one likes. People prefer the extra board to jobs like these. I got forced to a lot of assignments early on.

Posted from Android

RailDawg Wrote:
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> When getting hired at a bigger railroad do the
> engineer/conductor applicants usually know where
> they will be sent after training?
>
> Since they are obviously at the very bottom of the
> seniority list how is it decided where they will
> go?
>
> And one last dumb question what is usually the
> most junior/least-desired job at a railroad?
>
> Chuck

My advice is; go and google, "The Worst Companies In USA To Work For?" Then, if you do hire out for one of the railroads, you had been warned.
>  

IF I remember correct, when I hired on Santa Fe in Los Angeles you could only get forced to a job that was called off the LA extra board. San Diego, San Bernardino had their own seniority.
One of the reasons I passed on Amtrak as a fireman was because I would have been only one from the bottom and the triangle was LA San Diego and Oakland. I could have been forced to any of the above. Just a condition of the job which many would have nothing to do with.
JB

I just want to know why u ask so many questions? 

Nobody hires out as an engineer anymore…we all start off as switchmen/brakemen/conductors…and those who wish to promote after conductor training can try to get into an engine class and learn to be a hog…or…often times new hires are forced to the engine program right out of conductor class. That’s how it is on Big Orange anyways.

In any event…about the only idea a new hire has on where they’re going to go after training is the extraboard…with no schedule and no regular time off….living by the phone 24/7 covering regular men’s vacancies. Often times, that takes a couple of years working like that until a guy gets a little seniority under his belt and can move to a regular or more permanent position in a yard, or out on the road somewhere.

When you start working for a class 1 railroad, it's not a bad idea to live out of a RV until you get some senority.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

And be single...

Eng.Shadetree
 

pdt Wrote:
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> I just want to know why u ask so many questions? 

It's a railroad discussion form?????????? Kinda the whole point of Trainorders aint it?
JC

Posted from Android

And this aint exactly new. My dad got his start in train service back in the late 1970's after working in their car shop he was hired at a terminal 200 miles from his home town.
He also had to work out of other terminals that where an hour away due to his low senority at the time,Usually after being cut off from his home terminal. There where a loy of higher senority men above him at the time. This went on all thru the 1980's for him. He did not feel safe from being cut off due to senority until he got his own pool turn after the UP merger in 1995 almost 16 years after he went into train service.

But like others have said it all depends on what RR and location you hire out of and what agreements are in place.
JC

Posted from Android

Six months after hiring for train service I had a regular midnight yard job, at the time no one wanted it. Bumped to the road extra list where I worked until qualifying as a conductor, worked the conductor’s list until bumped to other end of seniority district. Eventually got back home and worked road until the effects of the 1980s crew consist agreement seriously went into effect. Seven years seniority meant nothing. Eventually completed my RR industry career as a government safety inspector for 25 years.
CR

Posted from iPhone

It might sound sarcastic but if you have to ask, don't apply. It's pretty much as bad as people say, it's for single
people without a life.

Out 

callum_out Wrote:
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> It might sound sarcastic but if you have to ask,
> don't apply. It's pretty much as bad as people
> say, it's for single
> people without a life.
>
> Out 

The Class Ones, at least, have been hell bent on making the job miserable for a while now.

The last 15 years or so have been especially bad, not just going downhill, but falling off a cliff.

Regards

Posted from iPhone

pdt Wrote:
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> I just want to know why u ask so many questions? 

An interested person who is curious is the only reason necessary. I'm sure that there are plenty of folks here who would have questions for pro football, baseball, basketball coaches, players, maybe umpires. Some might have questions of Formula 1 drivers given the opportunity. 

et cetera, et cetera, etcetera

TAW

I can say on CSX you apply for a certain terminal....if they hire you you should get that...but they may say....we want you but can you go to...xxxx......wherever though your seniority is broad...and you can work ANYWHERE that that seniority applies to...you will only qualify initially where they put you....but at your own discretion you may go elsewhere...qualifying on your own time....if you can hold a job elsewhere....seniority is all you have...inititally it ain't worth much...but it gets better. 

All right here's my story of woe. I hired out as a fireman in June 1973. I got promoted to engineer in September 1975. I worked firing jobs until Christmas 1978. I got picked up as we callws it as an engineer. I was forced to the Yulee switcher. It was a good job just 115 miles from home and no provision for lodging unless you paid for it yourself. I was cut back to firing ranks about January 2 of 1979. I fired all year then got picked up in December that year too. In 1980 I got picked up in April and forced to the Busch #2 switcher.It worked 12 hours a night 9:00pm to 9:00am. It waas 140 miles from home.Finally someone younger than me got picked up and forced to that job and I got relief. This went on until August of 1981. I worked yard jobs in Brunswick, GA 80 miles from home, 2 different locals in Waycross 110 miles from home, jobs in Fernandina Beach, Florida 125 miles from home and the infamous Busch switchers. I got cut back firing. I fired until the summer of 1983. Then I'd get picked up and forced to one of the mentioned jobs with maybe a week in Savannah every now and then. This went on until about 1987. I got picked up and never went back firing.I got forced to most of those outlining jobs but mostly stood for the engineers extra board. Then in the early 1990's I finally stood for a job in the infaous south pool. It protected service between Savannah-Jacksonville-Waycross-and to Fitzgerald. You may be gone 12 hours or your may be gone 6 or 7 days. You didn't know when you left the house. I tried to work to Florence, SC , Colunbia,SC, or Augusta, GA afterstanding for that awful south pool. One conductor said it wasn't the end of the world, but you could see it from there. These jobs going north didn't have the redicolous time away from home. I finally stood for Augusta and worked it most of the last 10 or 12 years that I worked. 
Was the job aggrivating, yes. In that south pool there was a constanct soap opera of someone screwing someone on markup times, what trains you caught,etc an a regular basis. Going to Augusta we didn't have that soap opera and the officials were not quite as vindictive as the ones on the triangle.

Glad to be gome.

Sam

pdt Wrote: > … I just want to know why u ask so many questions? 

What an incredibly buffoonish statement to make. You should try sleeping on top of your bed instead of underneath it… 🤪

Posted from iPhone

TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> pdt Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I just want to know why u ask so many
> questions? 
>
> An interested person who is curious is the only
> reason necessary. I'm sure that there are plenty
> of folks here who would have questions for pro
> football, baseball, basketball coaches, players,
> maybe umpires. Some might have questions of
> Formula 1 drivers given the opportunity. 
>
> et cetera, et cetera, etcetera
>
> TAW

You nailed it TAW.  

Thank you.   

Chuck 

The terminal issue brings a chuckle, a couple years ago I believe it was CN that was advertizing for a conductors job at some
remote terminal in Maine with like a $31K bonus. I don't know if it ever got filled but if that dollar level wasn't enough to bring
some attention I'd wonder as to the location!

Out