How does train engineers get their sleep?

Question

Ok, I know they they sometimes catnap while getting cars hooked or unhooked, but I heard they sometimes get transported to a hotel to sleep, how do they get transported from the train to the hotel? or how does this exactly work? Is it always a hotel they sleep at or what? I live next to a rail road track (on a hill) and a big paper factory on down brings the loaded trailers down to where our house is and union pacific comes pick them up late at night and bring them back in couple days and I was confused bout them sleeping

Answer 1

they get sleep and do not  feel sorry for this overpaid bunch of losers that could not make it in the real work. union protection and do nothing jobs.

Answer 2

Railroads contract with companies that go out and pick up the train crews from the train.  The slang word for them is "dogcatchers,"  and a couple of the companies are Armadillo and Renzenberger.  Around here they use white passenger vans.  What you are describing at the paper factory sounds more like a local run.  A local crew on a switch engine (or road switcher) comes and picks up the rail cars and hauls them back to your local rail yard.  Once there, they are attached to an outbound train headed for their destination.  It's likely the crew that picks up the paper factory cars simply goes home to sleep when they are done.  Most local crews do.

Kent in SD

Answer 3

They have lay over times. Someone will come pick them up where ever they are stopped at and take them to hotels or they will take them home if they are close enough. Then the next day when it's time to go they will take them back to the train.

Answer 4

I was gonna let the question pass, but I wanted to extend an invitation to 'scooter' to drop on in to any yard office sometime and shoot off his mouth with his ignorant claptrap.

The 'over paid' 'do nothings' will be more than happy to explain it to him.................. free of charge, too, even if it means missing a few minutes of much needed sleep at the local hotel/motel where the off duty crews try to get their rest.

As far as transportation to lodging facilities, most hotels provide their own shuttle service.  As far as relieving crews out on line, there are crew transport companies, such as Renzenberger, headquartered in Shawnee, Kansas.  There are others, but Renzenberger is the largest, I believe.

Road freight trains do change crews frequently, but these days the 100 mile run is a thing of the past, in most instances.  Runs of 150 to 300 miles are far more common.

Crews get their rest and are then called to either work a train back to their home terminal or are deadheaded there, again, usually by Renzenberger, although busses, taxis and other trains, such as Amtrak are utilized frequently for deadhead crews.

Answer 5

The entire crew changes every hundred or so miles. A new crew gets on and the old crew sleeps, then takes another train back to where they began.

Answer 6

..and, they work in shifts, so there is time for rest, sleep! transportation to rest place, is just a matter of co-ordination!

Answer 7

Indeed, on Class I railroads (and large, Regional, Class II railroads) engineers and conductors are almost always far from home (at least those with less seniority) requiring them to often times stay in hotels via local taxi cab services.  Also, typically working 12-hour shifts and often only given the required 8 hours of rest so they are always on the go.