I Should Have Been A Firefighter

[Grateful11]

lafinfil wrote:
[quote=Grateful11]
>"When my dad was on the railroad there was a story published about how the highest paid guy on Amtrak
was a porter based out of Chicago who would take any overtime he could get and cashed in his vacations.
He made more than the CEO"

I do work for a railroad and we had a guy, a carman, that made about $82K a year by working all the OT
he could get which was 12 hours a day 5 days a week. He was the local shop chairman for the his union
so he controlled the OT board for his craft. Unless the CEO of Amtrak made a very small sum back then
I don't see how a Porter could make more than the CEO.

BTW: Railroad workers don't pay into Social Security just Medicare and Railroad Retirement.

This was over 15 years ago and the Chicago Tribune ran a story about him. He was a porter and worked out of Chicago
to the west coast. He would stay on the train all the way out and back then take a day off and go again. The porters were
probably not limited by require hours of rest like the engine crew and guys in the shops (and they get tips too!)
You're right about the rest periods, didn't think about that. Engineers and Conductors are pulled from
trains after so many hours on the train. The railroad is one the strangest places one could ever work,
they'll actually put you in a taxi and drive you from one state to another to put on a train to take over
for another crew and then you might get laid over in a motel for a day or two waiting for another train
to another location. Then there's safety, safety meeting at least twice a day and stretching exercises
with each meeting. The rule book we have is about an inch thick, the folks out on the track have even
more rules.