Norfolk Southern

[banginAltima]

Anyone heard anything about them?

[trainman0978]

Man, this is long winded I know, but you need to read it.

I would probably be the only one who would know much about this on here, unless somebody has a relative working for them... I work for CSX out of savannah, GA. I am a engineer, and started out as a conductor. We are also hiring as well, although in alot of terminals they are training guys , basically about six months worth of going to work and getting paid, then they are being furloughed ( layed-off ) , some of them up to a year. This is only in our transportation dept. : signals, maintenance of way, engineering ( not train drivers ) , clerks, yardmasters, crew callers, dispatchers, and management don't seem to be having the overhiring and lay off problems. I say all of this because if you go to a interview, make sure you ask what the likely hood of being laid off will be for you. the railroads in the US are having problems getting people to retire. The reasons vary from men being married to younger wives ( railroad retirement pays the employee and the spouse a check when they both reach 60 years of age ) , to massive debt, kids in college, and some guys just don't want to leave for fear of being bored. The railroads over hired a few years ago expecting 15-20 percent of the workforce to retire over the next few years, but they didn't.

I can tell you, if you get the job, and do get layed off, deal with it. They WILL call you back to work , and you want to get on the seniority roster as fast as possible. Every railroad runs on seniority. The more you have , the better your quality of life will be ( more on that in a minute ) Every job that railroads operate ( yard jobs, local industry switchers, main line freight trains, work trains, assignment trains, job with off days, jobs with no off days, etc... ) are awarded to employees based on seniority. I cannot stress how important this is to a young railroader. The sooner you get hired , the better...

As far as benefits go, you don't pay into FICA, you pay into RRB or the railroad retirement board, which is a private, yet government recognized retirement plan for railroad employees and their spouses. And, as mentioned above, once you turn 60 yrs. of age, you can start to collect, and the same for your wife. It basically works like this : Lets say you are set to collect 3600.00 dollars a month once you reach 60, every month till you die. When your wife turn 60, she will collect 1800.00 bucks a month, every month , till you die, then she no longer gets her 1800, and instead starts drawing your 3600.00 until she dies. This is probably the best retirement plan in any union job in the U.S. The down side to this is, the pay day deductions are a bit more, but you can see the payoff is worth it. Also consider the medical benefits, both unions just signed national agreements a couple of years ago that included a clause that we have to start paying a share of our health insurance, and that is 166.25 a month. Growing up my whole life, my father never payed for our families health insurance , and he has been on the railroad now 36 years. We also have a very successful 401K plan, and I am sure Norfolk southern is no different , as all 4 Class 1 railroads are doing well with fuel prices doing what they are these days... We also get HUGE discounts from all sorts of large corporations , including almost every auto maker except toyota and honda, not to mention GE appliances, verizon, alltell, lots of golf courses and hotels built on CSx owned land and I am sure the NS has a very similar program.

Now, for the not so good of railroad life. RAILROADING IS NOT FOR EVERYBODY. This is very important for you to understand. I work nights, days, weekends, holidays, off -days, in the heat, in the rain, in the woods, inside factories, we deal with dangerous, hazardous, and very large equipment everyday. I work on a 24 hour call. You may not if you start out on a yard job, but you may be in the same situation. Depending on what job I am working, I don't know when I am going to work, or where I am going until the phone rings. I don't know if I will be at work for 4 hours or 12 hours, if not longer. I don't know if I will be home tonight, or in three days. This job makes a social life very hard to maintain, and can really test a relationship with a significant other ( i.e. your girlfriend ). I can never make any plans for the weekend or for next week, with out "marking-off" ( the NS works the same way ) Basically I make plans to do things with my girlfriend on the way home from work, once I am in my vehicle. that is the only time that I know for certain that I am going to be home. Sometimes I am home 10 hours, sometimes I will be home almost two days. This means if you want to go to a stereo competition , you may have to take off and miss a day or two ahead of time to make sure you are home the day you want to be. " Marking - off " is just like what is sounds. You will contact your crew caller and tell them to take you off the board, which makes them unable to call you. We have a certain number of days we can be "unavailable" depending on what job we work. So yes , you can be off when ever you need to be, but you can't abuse the system either. and marking off can sometimes cost you alot of money if you work a job that pays you a guaranteed amount for a 14 day period. I know that the NS works the same way we do, because CSX modeled its availability policy after Norfolk Southern's, on account we hired their formers system operations manager. A guy named Tony Ingram. the opinions of this guys policies vary depending on who you ask, but so far I have yet to get into trouble for attendance, although I have seen several guys fired for excessive absenteeism. Sometimes they come back a year or so later, sometimes they don't ( the union affords you this benefit, and a thing called the National mediation appeal board. ) When we end up getting fired, we can appeal the decision to this board, and the railroad has to honor its decision. Kinda nice, but it can also work against you as well.

You have to ask yourself a few questions. Are you ready to make some really good money? and at what cost to your social life are you commited to earning this money? Are you afraid of very large equipment that can and will kill you if you are not focused on the job? The railroad is VERY unforgiving, and the steel will always win, I guarantee it. Are you okay with working out in the middle of the woods in the middle of january, at 2:00 a.m. , when it is 20 degrees outside and pouring rain? And in that weather, could you walk a mile or so on very uneven rocks, to fix something that broke in order to get the train running? It sounds crazy, but at some point it will happen. Are you okay with sitting at home on a nice saturday, 1st out for a call ( which means you are the very next guy that will get a call, no matter what whenever a train is ready to go ) , waiting all day for the phone to ring, and it doesn't until 11:30 at night, after you have been awake all day and haven't gotten anything done for fear of getting a call to go to work? Can your girlfriend/wife/both handle never knowing when you are going to walk in the door, or never knowing when you are going to work? do you have any kids? can their mother handle them by herself for 2 or three days at a time ? Are you willing to be stuck in a hotel thanksgiving day morning because the lead train dispatcher says he needs you for a train that never actually shows up, and you end up getting home at 8 p.m. that night? Do you mind missing the 4th of july fireworks because you don't have enough personal leave days left, and your seniority didn't allow you to get that week off for vacation? Do you mind having the phone ring at 1:30 in the morning while you and your girl are arguing or fighting , and you have to walk out the door to be at work at 3:30, with no sleep , and the argument unsettled? And then stay gone maybe twelve hours, or maybe two days? Can you handle being stuck in another town when the phone rings and you find out some one very close to you is in the hospital ( the railroad will send you home if something like this happens ) and you cant get there for 3-6 hours? Do you mind living out of a suitcase, do you mind missing your usual social gatherings and hobbies cause the railroad says go to work?

all of this shit you just read, I have had happen to me. Now, I do not work any yard jobs , which work 8 hour shifts, cause the work sucks and the pay is dramatically less than a road job pays. Yard guys have a pretty normal life, but they work in every bit of every kind of weather, constantly running up and don the yard handling switches and climbing up and down railcars, and wearing out boots on the ballast, day in and day out. They have to hang on the side of moving cars frequently every shift, they have a very physical , very outdoor job. And the railroad could care less if it is raining or snowing , the cars have gotta be switched, trains have to be built.

The road jobs ( trains that run city to city ) have it a little better. Most of engines are air-conditioned, alot of the trains are step-on, step-off jobs. which means you dont have to do anything but get on it and leave town. some trains we have to pick up and set off cars before we leave or when we get to our destination, and this usually only takes an hour or so. Now, locals and/or road switchers are trains that travel from one city to the next or out of the home terminal and then back again later that day, working industries and factories along the line. They do require a little more work and can sometimes be aggravating, but they usually pay the most money, and are usually home every night, or are gone just one night and back the next day. If I actually have to break a sweat at work as a conductor , it is only for a little while , then I climb up on the engine and sit on my butt and call signals on the radio and contact the dispatcher when needed. If the train breaks down , the conductor has to make every attempt to get the train fixed ( busted air hose, broken knuckle, setting out a car that has a defect , etc... ) and if he can't the mechanical department will send out a repair truck to help you out. Sitting on and riding trains out on the mainline is boring, and it will test your ability to stay awake , day or night. They move like a big rocking chair, with a faint rumble behind you of the diesel engine purring along... until you stop in a siding and sit for sometimes hours and hours waiting to get into a yard or a broke down train to get out the way. The job itself is not hard , but you have to stay alert or this shit will kill you. people die out here all the time, employees and trespassers and idiot drivers. That is another thing. How will handle hitting a car at a road crossing? Seeing somebody in a car as you hit them and walking back to the car and finding them dead? It not a matter of it it will happen, but when will it happen. Some people can't deal with it, and they quit shortly afterwards. I know several guys , my father included, that have had numerous people either walk out or pull their car out in front of the train and get killed. It happens some where every day in this country. This is another thing that is very much guaranteed. It is a hard thing to get over, considering on some engines you have a very clear view , very close to where the front of a train would hit a car or person. Think long and hard about taking a job operating trains. It is not really a job as it is a lifestyle. The money is great, but you will only have little time off to enjoy it. The railroad looks at its employees as a number, and they are trying harder and harder to fire you for the most petty shit , and the management comes up with some of the most idiotic operating procedures that will make you want to pull your hair out some days. This is prolly the last bit of info I have for you, and with that, I will say , you pretty much have to join the union once you get done training, and you will need to purchase something called run-off insurance. run-off is for when they give you time off as a disciplinary action for rule violations, they all pay after you have been off 10 days. and they all pay up to one year. All the unions and a few private , and reputable companies offer it, and it is payroll deducted once a month. Lets say you and your co-worker goes by a red signal. If you don't hit another train and die, you will get anywhere from 6 months to one year off of work. If you and a coworker are speeding excessively, they might give you 30 days off work. Run off insurance is also called income insurance, and it is exactly that. you stop getting paid while suspended, and the run-off policy sends you a paycheck.

So, is the railroad really for you?

[trainman0978]

Is what I typed at all helpful to you ? .... What type of job are you going to apply for?

[banginAltima]

Is what I typed at all helpful to you ? .... What type of job are you going to apply for?

Yeah, it was helpful...

Going for Car-Repairman.

[trainman0978]

hahaha...( laughing at myself for typing a bunch of shit you prolly will never have to worry about ) oh well... Yeah you might have to work some nights and weekends, maybe a holiday here and there , but nothing like traveling and being gone for days. Car knockers have a pretty normal lifestyle. And they get paid pretty good. You will of course deal with all types of weather , and the job is VERY dangerous, and will be in between cars on a regular basis, and they wont be moving , but the cars in the track next to you could be at any time and in any direction. It is a union job, with railroad retirement, and the great benefits as well.... A lot of guys at CSX transferred from the car shops into transportation ... as some car knockers have told me that they would never do anything else but be a car knocker...

good luck. definitely worth pursuing.