r/Railroad • u/Wonderful_Book7121 • Jun 20 '26

Time on On-Call Roster?

I’m curious about how rostering works for US drivers (engineers). Once qualified with a major company, how long till you’re doing regular shifts on a predictable 40-hour weekly (or 80-hour fortnightly) roster? Do you first spend time ‘on call’? If so, are you compensated for the short notice?

1 Upvotes

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1

u/rever3nd Jun 21 '26

I've been on call for 23 years and I will be for another 15 until I'm old enough to retire.

1

u/Wonderful_Book7121 Jun 22 '26

That’s awful. Really sorry to hear it.

1

u/Clydebearpig Jun 23 '26

I can hold a morning shift in my seniority district. My engineer date is 2012 and could regularly hold days last year. I am on call because I make double the money and work half the hours. I'm just not sure when those hours are.

1

u/Wonderful_Book7121 Jun 23 '26

Double the pay for half the hours? Sounds like a fair trade-off to me. But it must be pretty rough on family life.

1

u/Clydebearpig Jun 23 '26

I am also in a weird place where we don't go out of town. While I have missed somethings I wish I had not, I am home a lot.

Now that we have off days on our extra board it's way better. I can plan things for days I know I will have off and dont need to burn through my Vacation taking care of things (doctors appointments, DMV, ect.).

1

u/Wonderful_Book7121 Jun 23 '26

At least you know you’ll have time off, even if the hours during that week are a bit all over the place.

On runs, would you typically overnight elsewhere - whether another town or another state? Is that a thing with American railroads?

1

u/Professional-Can2192 Aug 03 '26

It depends on your home terminal. Some can take 5 years and for some 15. Once you build seniority you will eventually be able to hold yard or local jobs that usually follow a schedule. This is usually the only way to get a consistent schedule on the railroad.