Railroaders' Nostalgia > Always sad to see a retired rail pass on.

Was sad reading about JB Benson, didn't know the man but he must have been a good guy from the other comments. It's no consolation but it looks like he got in some good yerars of well earned Railroad Retirement before passing away. Too many guys don't. I worked with Richie Caristo for 25 years and he was a good friend a great Union Rep, and he educated me on what working on our railroad was all about. The guy worked every minute of overtime available and every holiday and had run up a great Railroad Retirement benefit but dies of cancer not a year after rtirement. Too many like that.

There are guys at work, well past retirement age, that want to hang in until 70 because they’ll get a good chunk more in their pension. I don’t know their situation, but it sounds like a real gamble to me after 40 plus years in a job that takes its toll on the body in many different ways.

Every situation is different, but each month after 360 pays about $5-7. It ain't worth it if you have the 360. I knew one engineer who didn't retire until he was almost 80. Why I don't know. He had about 60 years service between the SAL, the S&A, cut off there in the 282, ACL, SCL, and finally CSX.

I left CSX thirty two years ago.Taint no
30-60 then.

Uncle Joe
Seffner,Fl.

Trainhand Wrote:
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> Every situation is different, but each month after
> 360 pays about $5-7. It ain't worth it if you have
> the 360. I knew one engineer who didn't retire
> until he was almost 80. Why I don't know. He had
> about 60 years service between the SAL, the S&A,
> cut off there in the 282, ACL, SCL, and finally
> CSX.

In the Los Angeles area had the last remaining Pacific Electric engineer that worked until he was 79 or 80 years old. He was also the local chairman and negotiate d his own contract.!

Posted from Android

Sorry for your loss also.

Posted from Android

Engineer I mentioned is still alive and well. Was born in1935 and retired in 2014 or 2015.

What I've been told is every year you work past the 360 months will add on somewhere from $50 to $100 per month to your retirement. So an extra $600 to $1200 per year.

I retired with 39&1/2 years. If I had worked the 6 months for 40 years retirement would have been $25-30 more. The overall compensation figures in and years worked. By my rough calculation it's about $5-10 / month for every one over 360.

Ivar Wrote: > ...  There are guys ... that want to hang in until 70 ...

I hired on with Santa Fe in 1978. I think a lot of the senior guys I knew back then hung on until well after retirement age because they were just plain scared of dying. They were indeed quite a few times when "good ol' Joe Blow" retried, and 6 months later we were going to his funeral... 

Just a thought,
Lance/199

ble692 Wrote:
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> What I've been told is every year you work past
> the 360 months will add on somewhere from $50 to
> $100 per month to your retirement. So an extra
> $600 to $1200 per year.

I wish!!........................

There is just a little more to it than that, and I speak from experience.

A "full" pension is available at age 60 with 360 months of service.  The Tier 1 component, and the Tier 2 component vary by total earnings as well as time in service.  I was 18 in September of 1965, and was hired in February of 1966 as an LA switchman.  I qualified as a Car Retarder Operator on my own time, which you had to do at that time, for a job that a lot of switchmen didn't want.  The three towers paid yard foreman's rate, but without the hour "cannonball," (1 hour for coupling air hoses) but it enabled me to work all winter the first couple of years with low seniority, without being cut off.

I made one trip in July 2009 before retiring, which gave me 521 months of service, and almost age 63.

I called the Retirement Board about a year before I retired to check on what they thought I would get, and the rep's comment was "Wow, working a lot DOES make a difference!"

There is a $70 monthly supplemental pension which I don't get because I get the former SP Officers Pension, but everyone who doesn't get a second pension does.

Bottom line is that the bottom line is affected by total months of service, total earnings, and age at retirement.  With the $200/mo COLA this spring, I'm now over $4800/mo.  Several of the other former SP Conductors who were getting the SP Productivity Fund, and then got the lifetime TPA on the UP, and are either still working, or have just retired will greatly exceed that number.
G

I think everybody who has worked a career deserves to retire to "the best job ever".  I'm not a railroader, and hung them up in '06.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA