Western Railroad Discussion > Morning Commute With a View

At Sunrise, A UP FRRV idles down into the Antelope section of Roseville Yard. June 16th, 2017.

It blows my mind that crews take trains into Roseville every day, but never get a chance to take a train over Donner.

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Huh? If you want to run trains over donner, bid for it maybe? I dont think everyone wants to run a train over donner. If donner goes senior, ill be its because theres not much terminal traffic and hours of sitting running between roseville and sparks. I cud be wrong. Ill let the experts chime in.

pdt Wrote:
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> Huh? If you want to run trains over donner, bid
> for it maybe? I dont think everyone wants to run
> a train over donner. If donner goes senior, ill be
> its because theres not much terminal traffic and
> hours of sitting running between roseville and
> sparks. I cud be wrong. Ill let the experts
> chime in.

Would love to hear more about seniority and crew pools in/out of Roseville, but I am just trying to note how I find it interesting how many trains end their journey in Roseville

Since the MFRRVs usually leave from around 14:00 to around 16:00, it probably took 2 crews to get that train to Roseville.

SCUfoamer Wrote:
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> Would love to hear more about seniority and crew
> pools in/out of Roseville, but I am just trying to
> note how I find it interesting how many trains end
> their journey in Roseville

When I talked to a crew few years ago, he told me the run between Roseville and Dunsmuir tend to have the higher seniority folks, at least for the engineers.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/17 16:24 by darkcloud.

Highest seniority normally equals best pay and or easiest run. Doner Pass is probably NOT easiest run, at least for freight.
JB

Posted from Android

cchan006 Wrote:
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> SCUfoamer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Would love to hear more about seniority and
> crew
> > pools in/out of Roseville, but I am just trying
> to
> > note how I find it interesting how many trains
> end
> > their journey in Roseville
>
> When I talked to a crew few years ago, he told me
> the run between Roseville and Dunsmuir tend to
> have the higher seniority folks, at least for the
> engineers.

A now retired engineer told me the same thing.

Another Engineer also told me that Donner is unpopular because:

1)The Mileage is shorter than the Valley Sub and pays less.

2)Snow and severe grades

3 If you have an E/B you could end up with a FRC train on your W/B trip home which means a long cab ride to Portola.

What it all boils down to is, Donner is fun to recreate in, but sucks to work in. When you are looking at the same pine tree for 10 minutes as you grind past it, the novelty wears off pretty quick.

SCUfoamer Wrote:
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> Would love to hear more about seniority and crew
> pools in/out of Roseville, but I am just trying to
> note how I find it interesting how many trains end
> their journey in Roseville

Lowest seniority is the Roseville to Oakland Cal-P run. Next is the Roseville to Sparks over the mountain. Roseville to Fresno/Bakersfield is close to or tied with Roseville to Dunsmuir on the Valley Sub for the top. The later two are mixed with high seniority trainmen but the engineers prefer the Valley run. If it was RV to Bakersfield only it would definitely be the top but when they added Fresno in there it really screws up the pay if you catch too many Fresno trips. It's all about the Miles.