Questions about working as a Conductor for Union Pacific?

Question

Hoghead and others, I know you can help me with this. I am thinking seriously about taking this job down here. I just have a few more questions dealing with your sleeping patterns and such. First of all, can whoever responds tell me what they work, the extra board or a regular pool, and which you would like working better? on Pool turns do you have some idea when you will go to work and can you get some steady sleeping hours in? for instance, 80% of the month you can get yourself use to sleeping days?

I had an engineer on yahoo chats tell me that he struggles to stay awake approximatly 1 out of every 5 trips. Is it common place in the industry for a conversation like this to go on while the train is moving "hey, I am going to sleep now, are you gonna be ok?" and then the next one to say "ok, I might wake you up in 3 or 4 hours so you can operate this train and I go to sleep"

do you have enough time to enjoy all the money you make? do you ever think about quiting?

Answer 1

Hoghead got here ahead of me - usually does. But he pretty much summed it all up. Railroading, I believe, is the most difficult job to explain to someone else. But Hoghead got it done here. And you are to be commended for doing such extensive homework. Many of us simply took the job and had no idea what would happen. And speaking of what will happen - well, no one can say. I've known people who spent only their first 5 months on the extra board before getting on a pool. Some people have spent 3 years, and others like myself, flipped between pools and the 'board for several years. Depends on your location and traffic. You'll do just fine. Nearly everyone does. And the beauty of America is, you don't have to do it forever if you don't want to. After some time and you decide it's maybe not for you, no one will tell you that you can't go do something else.

Answer 2

At first, you won't have a choice.  You will work where your seniority permits you to work.  That usually means the extra board.  Pool positions are usually where the higher seniority is.  Usually because they pay better, but, when working pool freight, from time to time you will fall into a "slot" for a couple days.

This doesn't mean you'll be working when the sun is shining, but there is a bit of even ground where there is as close a thing as a cycle that any rail will ever see.

Keep in mind, in a few years, you'll be following the pools or the extra board to work whichever is turning SLOWER.

The pools fluctuate, as traffic volume does.  So are jobs added to or cut off from the pool in question.  These are usually predicated on "starts", which is the number of times crews go to work in a given period.  This means that the adjustments are made a week or two after the changes in volume that the changes. to the number of pool turns (runs) or extra board positions.

So, either the pools are flipping or the extra board is.  Here it is not uncommon to bid back and forth between the pools and the extra board, depending if you want more money or more time off.

There are temporary moves you can make as well, again predicated on your seniority.  Most National Collective Bargaining Agreements are modified by local arrangement (vest pocket agreement) on different properties and may have further modifications on specific areas of the same property.  

Taking that into account, when a man on a pool job takes some days off or goes on vacation, that run is open for a "hold down."

When a job is designated as "must fill" , which would include passenger operations and helper pools, the run is immediately open to one with the seniority to be assigned that run until the man returns, or until someone with greater seniority bumps you off of your temporary hold down.

Non-must fill positions, such as pool freight, locals and yard jobs, are open for a hold down after being vacant for 3 calendar days.  For those 3 days, the position is covered off of the extra board.

When an extra board man takes some days off or goes on vacation, there is no filling the job, because it IS the extra board.  In this instance, the board gets shorter and turns faster.

You'll find summer time and hunting season everything is turning fast due to the high number of vacations taken during these times.  As with so much of it, it really depends on where you are working out of.

You'll have some time to figure it all out, while working the extra board.

It is absolutely guaranteed that you'll be running often with your eyeballs on your cheeks.  There is no way around it.  That's just the way it is.

Sleeping...  If caught, you'll be fired.  If you get caught and I let you do it, we'll both get fired.  So, on my engine, if it is moving, all eyes are open.  Period.  If some other dummy will buy into it, good for him.  I won't.  If I'm awake, everyone is awake.  It may be the conductors train, but it's the engineer's engine and all employes thereupon are subject to his instructions.  

Even conductors.

Yes.  There'll be time to pursue the pleasures of fiscal stability.  This is the primary reason why you'll have all those trips with your eyeballs on your cheeks.

You'll do OK.

Good luck and keep the wheels on the steel ! !