Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX & Thanksgiving & Christmas

Has CSX ever shut down during the weeks of Thanksgiving or Christmas ? Will Q580/581/Q037/Q038 run during the week of Thanksgiving or will they Combine 2 days of trains ? 

There is no such thing on the RR as a shutdown....

With that being said, modified schedules are a possibility.

Posted from Android

ns1000 Wrote:
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> There is no such thing on the RR as a
> shutdown....
>
> With that being said, modified schedules are a
> possibility.
>
> Posted from Android
I beg to differ with you.  There have been years where everything on CSX was basically shut down with the exception of the Amtrak Passenger Trains running Christmas Eve late and Christmas Day.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

611Fan Wrote:
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> Has CSX ever shut down during the weeks of
> Thanksgiving or Christmas ? Will
> Q580/581/Q037/Q038 run during the week of
> Thanksgiving or will they Combine 2 days of trains
> ? 


Seems like a question for upper management

Posted from iPhone

They typically have laid in jobs that could not do anything anyway since the customers they served would be closed, and certain road trains would be held for a day perhaps, at least on Christmas...and they would make an effort to empty out the hotels so away crews could be home. On Christmas night, we would deadhead four or so crews back to the hotel to protect whatever was at the away terminal and immediately thereafter call whatever was sitting at the home terminal....now with the new management scheme there will be none of that officially...as business as usual is scheduled. When the holiday is over they will send out a memo about how dissapointed they are that x number of people marked off. The will say NOTHING to congratulate the crews that did go to work at great expense to family life. 

Years ago when i hauled cars/Vans for GM out of Lordstown,Ohio if you got into the Terminal with hours left on your log book,they sent you right back out even on christmas eve,I had a bid run that i dropped vans in the elkart,ind area and i didnt mater if they were not there,we just threw the keys in the slot,I spent a lot of holidays away from home in the early years.....Scoob

Anybody who knows anything about railroads knows that they never shut down for a full week...
Some may shut down for a single holiday, but the larger railroads like UP, BNSF, NS and CSX will still run some trains if needed (per contracts) on those holidays.

ClubCar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ns1000 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > There is no such thing on the RR as a
> > shutdown....
> >
> > With that being said, modified schedules are a
> > possibility.
> >
> > Posted from Android
> I beg to differ with you.  There have been years
> where everything on CSX was basically shut down
> with the exception of the Amtrak Passenger Trains
> running Christmas Eve late and Christmas Day.
> John in White Marsh, Maryland

These days, the almighty dollar is more important to management than employees being with their families on holidays.  So, a modified schedule, aka fewer and/or combined trains will run. 

The good side is, as a (former) CSX Intermodal employee, it was double-time-and-a-half at work!!!  (8hrs 'straight pay' for the holiday plus time & half for 8 hours worked was overtime!).  I think it was 2013 the #1 seniority man worked two 16 hour shifts with 8 hrs in between Christmas Eve/Christmas and then repeated it New Years Eve/New Years as the boss couldn't prevent anyone from taking vacation across holidays (there's no such 'cannot take vacation' verbage in the contract!)  All he said about his check the following weeks was a silent, great big smile!!!  Starting in 2014, the ramp was closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.  But as my shift officially started at 23:59 on those days, I'd open the gate and get paid double time & half for my entire shift!

I think the last time CSX shut down the railroad for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years was about 10 years ago.  As an intermodal clerk on the extra board, I was happy to get those days off.  Riding Amtrak on those days, we 'owned the road', so to speak.  Green signals all the way, whether it was from Chicago to Washington or Washington to Florida, as I visited my parents wintering in Florida in the late '70s and '80s during the Christmas - New Years 'week'.