Railroaders' Nostalgia > Questions about my dad's work in the old days

My father (who died in 2012, largely of asbestosis) worked as a brakeman, then conductor, for the M&StL, then the Chicago and North Western, in Iowa from 1947 to 1989 (Marshalltown to Albert Lea; Marshalltown to Albia; later, for a couple of years, Clinton to Boone). (He took a buyout in 1989.) For an essay about his work, I'm trying to get some details right: (1) when he got the call from the dispatcher (it was the dispatcher, right?), how long did he have to report to the station?  Two hours?  (2) When the call came, was he told only the time by which he had to report? Or was he also told the unit/engine number? (3) He had to take the call himself, right? (That is, he had to be home to take the call?) Would the dispatcher try a second time if he missed the call? What was the penalty if he missed even the second call? How serious? (4) How much time after he was back home (or after he had reached the end of his run) did he have off before he could get called back to work?
Also, I once asked him when he had achieved regular, guaranteed work. He said "never." I know that starting out he was on the extra board for a while (years?), but eventually he "held" jobs (the M'town to Albert Lea run, the M'town to Albia run), because except for the few times there was a strike, he was always working. I wonder why he said his work was never for sure. (Granted, he was a worrier.)
BTW, when he did the M'town to Albia run, I wonder if he actually laid over in Albia or traveled back up to Oskaloosa (30 minutes back north) to lay over where he had relatives. Anybody familiar with that run? Might he have gotten a ride back to Oskaloosa for the layover time, then back to Albia for the run back?
(It was called a "run," also a "trip," right? Anything else?)
Also a question about the pay when he was starting out: I have notes of him saying that starting out he made $7.51 a day, though the run up to one town paid $10 a day. But he also remembered his pay as $190 every two weeks. He’d draw $110, after taxes and Social Security and pension were taken out. The numbers for the daily rate and the biweekly pay don't seem to jibe. Any way they make sense to you?
Finally, I learned only after he retired how unhappy he had been in his job (he had six kids and was a "you do what you gotta do" kind of guy who didn't talk about his frustrations). A guy he had sometimes worked with told me it was the being away from home and "some of the guys you had to work with" that made it frustrating and aggravating. Does that resonate with others? I assume also the irregular sleeping hours. The weather. The company surveillance. . . . But what were the advantages/pros?
Sorry to ask so many questions.
Thanks.
PS: When I was attending Grinnell College, he had the M'town to Albia run, which took him through Grinnell. The tracks run right through the campus, and when I would hear the train whistle I'd run down from the library or my dorm to wave to him as he went by. Pretty cool.
 

I don't know the specifics of the roads he worked for or the earlier era, but the overall story is familiar to every rail on this sight.  We have all "lived the dream". Hopefully, someone can add the road specific details you seek. Good luck on your writing! 

Thanks for the response.

I agree it could vary a lot between railroads and even the date. I will tell you what I know on the WP up until 1980. There were two types of crews at your terminal, home and away. As in Oroville yard, you had crews that lived in town, then you had crews from Portola, Bieber and Stockton on layover. Dispatchers didnt call crews, a crew caller did. He had the line-up and called locals on the phone, but the layovers had designated hotels they stayed at. The crew caller went to the motel knocked on the door and said "Grain Train at 330" or "GGM at 11". If he couldnt find you, he would move to the next avalible guy on the list. You didnt want to miss your call as you wanted to go home. Crew callers knew your hangout, favorite bar or your girlfriends place. My father was a crew caller and I have had many of rails tell me over the years that my dad could find you anywhere. If I remember correctly, they had a 2 or 3 hour notice. After around 1980 they went to all phone calls. As a kid it was fun riding around in the white 71 Ford E100 with a spotlight on the roof while out calling crews.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/24 14:23 by TomG.

Jmulvi: this post resonates with me for several reasons.  I'm a 3rd generation railroader since retired, who basically grew up with railroading.  Your Father had a difficult and challenging job and my guess is that providing for family was his primary motivation for staying in that career.  It wasn't easy then, and for other reasons, isn't easy now.  My railroad career ended up being my second career,for reasons unimportant but want to share this with you.  As a 3rd generation rail, I knew that railroading can be tough on family life.  I wrestled with that when I got my 2nd chance to " live the dream" and become a railroader again.  Again, I believe your Dad stuck it out through all the challenges because he felt it was the best way to provide for his family, as do most railroaders; even those who love the job inspite of the challenges.  So, I'll leave it to the "old heads" who can best describe what it was like during your Dad's era, even though my experience had some similarities to your Dad's era and that of the 2 generations that preceded my time.  I just thought, you might also contribute to the " Railroaders' Discussion" board ( one of my favorites) by describing your experiences as a railroaders child.  I think it might be interesting to the working rails, both past and present who populate this discussion board.  Can't speak for all, but I think many of the working rails who questioned their career and it's affect on family life would appreciate it, if not enjoy it.  Either way, I bet your Dad had his family's best interest in mind, regardless of the missed birthdays, holidays, gradations or any other important day in your life.  I hope that my wife and Daughter know that.  There's a lot of good folks on this discussion board who will hopefully address your questions.  Hope that your experience as a railroaders kid was a good one. Mine was, but my Mother wasn't a TY&E employee, meaning she had a stable living experience.  At a youbg age, she fiercely discouraged me from a railroad career.  When it finally happened for me, she supported my career.  That's what parents do!

Thanks for the correction--namely, "crew caller" vs. "dispatcher." Two different roles, I now understand.
Your details about the lengths the crew caller would go to to track down guys are humorous. My dad was the very responsible type, so I don't think they searched the bars for him! There were six of us kids, always teenagers among them; so you can imagine the reminders we were given about staying off the phone if Dad was expecting a call to work.
As for layover accommodations, he told my younger brother once about what those were in the early days (late 1940s, early 1950s): One place was a bunk room with no heat, just a pile of blankets to draw from to keep warm. Another, on an upper floor of a hotel or boarding house, had only a rope tied to a radiator as the fire escape.

Yeah back before they got real serious about hotels for crews to stay in, some of the places could be real dumps.

Another CNW trainman friend I knew who worked the ex CGW lines told me they stayed in this one old hotel on Oelwein Iowa, years later he found out this hotel was on the state fire marshalls list as one of the most dangerous fire prone hotels in Iowa.
JC

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In Florence, SC we stayed in a hotel that was condemned for guests except rr employees. When we left, it was torn down. In Jacksonville, I can think of 4 that were torn down when we left. One we stayed at in Jax had so many "lost" keys that they would have to find you a key so you could go to bed. A fried and I complained about it so much that our wives didn't believe us. Mine came and was going to stay all week while I was on a work train, she left after one night and went back home. They never questioned our complaints about lodging again.

Sam

To ButcherofBena: Thanks for the response. I think my dad being away from home so much was most difficult for my mom--though she handled it well. Six kids that she was managing by herself much of the time. Whew! For all the time that he was "on the road," my dad still made time for playing with us when he was home.

jmulvi Wrote:
-----------------------------------------------------
> But he also remembered his pay as
> $190 every two weeks. He’d draw $110, after
> taxes and Social Security and pension were taken
> out.

It wouldn't be Social Security or a company pension. Railroads had a separate government plan called Railroad Retirement and it pre-dated Social Security. Railroads are not part of Social Security.

In late 1970's CR/ex-CNJ crews from Eport. NJ to Lakehurst, NJ on Sand Train stayed for rest at local fleabag motel in Lakewood on layover with next door go-go bar and swimming pool. Had roaches too but CR didn't believe or care until we started to staple roaches to our timecards! Finally moved crews on rest to a better fleabag motel with bigger swimming pool.
rr caboose

rrcaboose Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In late 1970's CR/ex-CNJ crews from Eport. NJ to
> Lakehurst, NJ on Sand Train stayed for rest at
> local fleabag motel in Lakewood on layover with
> next door go-go bar and swimming pool. Had roaches
> too but CR didn't believe or care until we started
> to staple roaches to our timecards! Finally moved
> crews on rest to a better fleabag motel with
> bigger swimming pool.
> rr caboose

My great friend that passed away 4 years ago the Godfather Vince Cipolla told me this story. We worked the Los Angeles to Bakersfield freight pool. the hotels we stayed in were built in the early 1900s or before. When the hotels became inhabitable..Vince would put a banana peel outside for a few hours and would load up with ants then place it under the bed. On the next trip he would repeat the process. The next trip he would take photos and complain to the union griever. About 2 weeks later we would have a newer flea bag to reside..

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The specifics of your dad's work aside, I applaud you for doing this research.  My late Dad was not a rail, and I've been able to learn only a bit about his career from his acquaintances, some of whom out lived him. 

I wish I had paid more attention while he was alive!

That's right. But I know that's what he said because I wrote it down at the time. He must have misspoke.
Thanks.

> But he also remembered his pay as
> $190 every two weeks. He’d draw $110, after
> taxes and Social Security and pension were taken
> out.

It wouldn't be Social Security or a company pension. Railroads had a separate government plan called Railroad Retirement and it pre-dated Social Security. Railroads are not part of Social Security.

Stapling roaches to timecards. That's hilarious. My dad also recalled being being put up in some hotel that was across the alley from the jail. So they could hear girlfriends talking to their inmate boyfriends through the jailhouse windows.

rrcaboose: In late 1970's CR/ex-CNJ crews from Eport. NJ to Lakehurst, NJ on Sand Train stayed for rest at local fleabag motel in Lakewood on layover with next door go-go bar and swimming pool. Had roaches too but CR didn't believe or care until we started to staple roaches to our timecards! Finally moved crews on rest to a better fleabag motel with bigger swimming pool.
rr caboose

When he started out on the M&StL, he probably had a 90 minute or so call to report for work.  I don't have M&StL agreements, but the CNW agreements call for a 1 hour call.  Even so, 90 minutes seemed to be pretty standard industry wide.  There could be local side agreements that specified other time periods, or how far the caller had to travel from the normal place for reporting on duty.  Calling by phone was probably already done when he hired out, but old heads I worked with talked about the caller going out and looking for a person into the 1970s.

How a missed call was handled depended on what assignment he was working.  If on an extra board, he might be marked off for 24 hours as a penalty.  Maybe less depending on agreement and how bad they needed people.  On a regular pool turn, they would call someone of the extra board to fill his vacancy.  He would miss the trip and probably not be able to work until the turn he was assigned to returned home.

After finishing work, tying up in railroadese, he would've received 8 hours off.  If he worked longer than 16 hours. later 14 hours and then 12 hours, he would receive 10 hours off.  The 8 or 10 hours off was shortened by the fact the caller could call them to report for duty exactly when the 8 or 10 hours was up.  So if he got a 90 minute call, he would be getting 6 hours 30 minutes rest.

The pay was based on mileage. 100 miles or 8 hours was a basic day.  Marshalltown to Oskaloose is about 70 miles.  Oskaloosa was the division point south of Mtown.  Albia would've been longer but still not 100 miles. Albia was an interchange point with the Wabash, to facilitate this, they probably had an agreement to run through Osky and lay over in Albia.  After 8 hours on duty, he would receive overtime on these runs. Off hand, I don't know how many miles Mtown to Albert Lea is.  Over 100 I'm sure.  The pay rate would reflect the miles over 100.  Overtime was calculated on mileage, so over 100 miles it began according to a formula of time on duty exceeding miles run divided by 12.5.  Pay for trainmen also was influenced by how many cars handled.

Being a trainman, in the early years he could've slept on the caboose at the away from home terminal when working (regular or extra) when on an assigned or pool turn.  It was later when railroads started pooling cabooses, instead of assigning one to a crew/conductor.   

Today, Marshalltown to Oskaloosa and Eddyville is a UP branch.  The line from Eddyville, site of a Cargill facility, is abandoned south of Cargill to Albia,  I ran on this line for a week almost 20 years ago when in engineer training. 

My Dad hired out firing on the Frisco in 1916 and worked on the Rolla Subdivision between Lindenwood (St. Louis) and Newburg, MO.  He married my Mom in the late '30s and I came along in 1940.
I don't recall how he was called when I was little.  He was very busy during WWII, having been promoted to Engineer in '39-40.  I'm sure he had the Extra Board work for a few years, again I don't know how long until he was in pool service. 
We moved in 1944 and I remember he worked a lot.  We had a desk phone (no party line) and had a phone jack downstairs and upstairs and when he was home would take the phone upstairs for when he got called.  In Newburg, he rented a sleeping room and the caller knew where to find him.
Some time in the early '50s he was elected Local Chairman of his B of L E lodge.  He would have to go to the office by the roundhouse to "figure the miles" and that would determine how many pool crews there would be for the half.  As a kid, I would take this opportunity to go along and climb all over the steam engines in the 32 stall roundhouse and get filthy.
Late 50s-early 60s he was in regular passenger service and I don't think he got called for that.  Before then, there was the usual "sharpshooting" and bumping going on
He died in 1964 in an auto wreck, ironically next to the Frisco ROW just west of Cuba, MO.  He was still in service.
He loved running steam and instilled the love of it to me.  Frisco dieselized before either of us were ready.
I can't believe he's been gone over 60 years!