What is the lifestyle like working for union pacific train crew?

Question

hours you have to work pay days off

Answer 1

Dan-

The other two respondants are right on the money.  I can give you a little experience from my world.

Two years ago I applied to Union Pacific out of the Milpitas Yard.  During the intervew process I got the feeling there was an aspect of the job they were not disclosing until the last possible second.

I was correct.

I was told, after being offered the job that in this industry, you are going to be required to be "On Call" 24/7.  This did not sound too different than my current job doing Armed Security for DHS.  

Yeah, well being "On Call" to the railroad is a little different than being "On Call" as to what I was familiar with.

There is this thing they call the "Extra Board".  Yep you may not get a call for a couple of days, but then you are asleep and about 02:45 your phone rings and guess what!  Its your shift, and you had better be there in 90 minutes or less, ready to rock and roll.  

Here is the crappy part.  You can get that call from anywhere on the hub.  If you tell the dispatcher that you are in San Jose and the job call is in Dunsmuir, well that is going to be a 5 hour drive for you.  

How do you deal with that?  

Well lets just say you get to take a drive.

As it was described to be from a Former SP Engineer, during your first five years of railroading, you are the "Poo on the shovel."  At least that is how it was described to me.

The former engineer and I had a good talk about it.  Basically in his words you are literally married to the railroad.  

The crappy part of the whole deal is that the folks that have more seniority than you can bid for your position and bounce you to an alternate location on the hub.  In that case you might be making a phone call to your wife and having a conversation that might make the phone tremble.  

Like packing up the house and making a temporary move to some remote location like Elko, Nevada.  

So since I am married, and I value the relationship with my other half I thought it wise to NOT take that particular job.

Basically, if you are footloose and fancy free, and owe no serious responsibilites to family members, then you are probably going to do just fine.

But as my friend Errol said.  "42 years and two devorces later, the two women I loved very dearly really hate trains."

He is retired now and still single.  Guess what, he still plays with trains!

As for me, well the thought of being away from my wife and family, well that just did not set very well.

However, their retirment benefits are EXCELLENT!  You will not find a better package anywhere!

Good Luck!

Answer 2

It's been called a good living but a lousy life.

Takes a different breed of cat to enjoy it.

If you can function in a completely unscheduled work environment and be sponatneous in your personal and family life you might enjoy it.

If you are into a lot of tightly scheduled activities, leagues, team activities, etc, y ou will have to give most of them up as you cant make a commitment and tell someone you will be available each week.

Answer 3

When you work on the railroad as a train crew you have no set days off.We all work on a rotating board..first in first to go.In other words you might tie up and be 20 times out.When the 20th train comes in they call you.Your on the board 24/7 unless you call them and lay off.The only guys that work regular hours and set days are the crews on locals and regular switchmans jobs in the yard.The longest law allows us to work is 12 hours,then they have to put a new crew on the train.We work all hours of the day and night.For that they pay a guy starting out about 55k a year.It can be a crazy life.You miss a lot of events in your family life.