ITSAV6
It's my Granny's car!
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- Nov 13, 2001
- Messages
- 2,452
I am thinking of getting a job with the railroad. What are the good/bad things to consider?
Any CSX or Norfolk Southern employees here?
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I used to work for CN. Railroad retirement is excellent, but no time off. Pretty sure they all work the same way. Work 365 days a year til you have enough seniority to have one day off a week. Railroad jobs are totally different than regular jobs.
Joe Kelsch
Eat Mo' Rats
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- Oct 28, 2005
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- 149
I work for the Buffalo and Pittsburgh railroad. Its a large shortline. I think my company has about 800-900 miles of track. It's definitely true that railroad work is completely different from anything you've ever experienced. I spent the first 7 years of my employment on an extra-board. My job was to cover any vacancies for a regular job or anything that would pop up. I was on call 24/7/365. I got a 3 hour call (3 hours before I had to work). I would have to work out of terminal (the furthest one I worked at was 150miles away). I've also been laid over at an outlying terminals. I have a regular job now. I work Mon-Fri on an evening yard job. The railroad is almost a high stress job, but its not from the work, the work is easy. Its from politics, the schedule, the other guys you work with, the management doing stupid things (the term "they could f-up a one car train" or "they couldn't move a train around a Christmas tree" gets used often).
If you do hire out with CSXT or the NS, don't expect to be home often. Those guys will go out for a week at a time. At least with my railroad I'm home every night. All in all its a good job, Railroad Retirement is great and you'll make lots of money, just don't expect ot have a life outside of railroading.
If you do hire out with CSXT or the NS, don't expect to be home often. Those guys will go out for a week at a time. At least with my railroad I'm home every night. All in all its a good job, Railroad Retirement is great and you'll make lots of money, just don't expect ot have a life outside of railroading.
Freight Train
Member
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- Jun 6, 2006
- Messages
- 209
csx
i am a csx conductor here in tampa florida..i work at 4am to ?...7 days a week
the pay is excellent for the amount of work we do...minimum 8 hours pay even if you only work 5 minutes...thanks Union...i can make as much money as i desire...depending on how often i want to see my wife/drive my buick/golf/dinner out/.....you will have No life....$4000 ever 2 weeks is nice,if it doesnt cost you a divorce...your kids wont know you..i never had to work the extra board and i thank God for it...those guys never sleep or enjoy anyhing but going to work every 8 hours..
federal law only lets us work 12 hours then we must be off for 10 before returning..i love my job...no real stress..it is dangerous..working midnights in the rain sux..if you want a good stable and well paying job..awesome benefits..go for it....just be ready to give up..weekends/trips to the track/normal 9 to 5...but you will lagh at your friends when it comes time to retire...as we pay double into retirement and get a ton more than soc sec people
i am a csx conductor here in tampa florida..i work at 4am to ?...7 days a week
the pay is excellent for the amount of work we do...minimum 8 hours pay even if you only work 5 minutes...thanks Union...i can make as much money as i desire...depending on how often i want to see my wife/drive my buick/golf/dinner out/.....you will have No life....$4000 ever 2 weeks is nice,if it doesnt cost you a divorce...your kids wont know you..i never had to work the extra board and i thank God for it...those guys never sleep or enjoy anyhing but going to work every 8 hours..
federal law only lets us work 12 hours then we must be off for 10 before returning..i love my job...no real stress..it is dangerous..working midnights in the rain sux..if you want a good stable and well paying job..awesome benefits..go for it....just be ready to give up..weekends/trips to the track/normal 9 to 5...but you will lagh at your friends when it comes time to retire...as we pay double into retirement and get a ton more than soc sec people
ITSAV6
It's my Granny's car!
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2001
- Messages
- 2,452
...........
I have a pretty good job with Procter & Gamble but it is pretty stressful as I already work 12hr swing shifts,every other weekend on a 2-2-3 schedule. Swinging from day-night every time I go back. They have pretty much halted our raises. I have had nothing but 1.5-3% cost of living raises in 5 yrs.
We get mandatory OT out the ying yang and now they are curtailing and cut ouy almost all OT and we have to run short staffed. And the 120m round trip commute don't help!
They just sold the Thermacare div and would not let ANYONE transfer out to the other depts in our plant,WTF. My retirement has taken a good hit as thier stock has been flat/dropping for a while.
It just sux having people making $3-4 more an hour doing the same job I am and some you end up doing what they can't or won't do
I have a pretty good job with Procter & Gamble but it is pretty stressful as I already work 12hr swing shifts,every other weekend on a 2-2-3 schedule. Swinging from day-night every time I go back. They have pretty much halted our raises. I have had nothing but 1.5-3% cost of living raises in 5 yrs.
We get mandatory OT out the ying yang and now they are curtailing and cut ouy almost all OT and we have to run short staffed. And the 120m round trip commute don't help!
They just sold the Thermacare div and would not let ANYONE transfer out to the other depts in our plant,WTF. My retirement has taken a good hit as thier stock has been flat/dropping for a while.
It just sux having people making $3-4 more an hour doing the same job I am and some you end up doing what they can't or won't do
Thumper
Active Member
- Joined
- May 25, 2001
- Messages
- 684
It sounds like all engineers and conductors here.
I am a track worker, pull maintenance and repairs and the track structure, I am off fri, sat and sun, working 4 days, 10 hour shifts on average, some weeks get about 4 or 5 hours overtime, very few others 40 to 50 overtime when they run thru a switch or come off the track. Good money, good benefits and with a government retirement.
It all depends on what job you do for the railroad, not all travel, but traveling is where the money is.
2nd year in CSX and roughly 70,000 yearly, but I do travel 30% of the time.
I would say if you can tough it out getting started, DO IT. In the long run its worth it.
Thanks
Bill
I am a track worker, pull maintenance and repairs and the track structure, I am off fri, sat and sun, working 4 days, 10 hour shifts on average, some weeks get about 4 or 5 hours overtime, very few others 40 to 50 overtime when they run thru a switch or come off the track. Good money, good benefits and with a government retirement.
It all depends on what job you do for the railroad, not all travel, but traveling is where the money is.
2nd year in CSX and roughly 70,000 yearly, but I do travel 30% of the time.
I would say if you can tough it out getting started, DO IT. In the long run its worth it.
Thanks
Bill
What surprised me is I've always loved trains and always wants to work for the railroad. Turns out it was one of the worst jobs I had. Everyone was divorced, never home with kids, no hobbies. One day I was switching cars and thought about my son (at the time he wasn't born but due in a month) I didn't want him to have a life where he sees his dad go to work and that's it. I got off, went home and told my wife I wasn't going back. Never did.
Joe Kelsch
Eat Mo' Rats
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2005
- Messages
- 149
Bill's a gandy...I kinda wish I was.
Our M of W dept is all but totally disolved. They've been contracting everything out lately. Atlas and Delta are the ones who do our track work. Atlas does the railtrains and Delta does the tie gangs...and our M of W guys sit there and watch them work. Our signal dept is about gone too. We still have quite a few car inspectors, machinists and electritians.
Our M of W dept is all but totally disolved. They've been contracting everything out lately. Atlas and Delta are the ones who do our track work. Atlas does the railtrains and Delta does the tie gangs...and our M of W guys sit there and watch them work. Our signal dept is about gone too. We still have quite a few car inspectors, machinists and electritians.
Our business is growing by leaps and bounds. We are in the middle of the Heartland Project which is where they are raising the tops of all of our tunnels so we can take double stack trains from Portsmouth to Roanoke nonstop. The coal business has almost doubled in the last 18mos. Im the engineer on the work train here and our maintinence dept. is always really busy.
