LIRR Work Assignment Book

[nostalgia]

I recently acquired Assignment Book #2 to Timetable #2, effective November 18, 2002. Though outdated, it's more current than the October 1986 assignment book.

 

I can figure out 90% of the book. I need the forum to fill in the missing 10%.

 

There are revenue, equipment, and shop trains. I'm guessing equipment trains are deadheads to position a train for a trip from a different terminal than its current location. They are numbered >3000 and <6000. But what is a shop train? Shop trains don't have numbers as an identification but letters to indicate origin and destination. For example, JP233 is a shop train that travels from Jamaica to Penn Station and leaves Jamaica at 2:33 AM.

 

The front of the book (yellow pages) lists crew and collector assignments for every train. Every train as a crew (engineer) but not every revenue train has collectors. And some trains only have one collector. A train with one collector. That sounds odd. Also, the collector positions aren't identified as conductor nor assistant conductor.

 

As a note, a holiday section determines which jobs work Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and Memorial Days and Washington's Birthday. You don't sign up and somebody makes a decision who works.

[lirr42]

Collectors are different from conductors.  Every train has an engineer, conductor, and brakeman (or if you prefer the 'gender neutral' term, Assistant Conductor).  Those three are the ones that actually make the train move and work.  Collectors are there soley to collect tickets from passengers.  They're [usually] not qualified on the rules or physical characteristics, they don't get the doors and they don't help with brake tests.  They just take tickets.

 

On trains that have light loads, the C/R and A/C will be plenty able to get all the tickets, so they don't need to bother assigning collectors.

[nostalgia]

Then crew means engineer, conductor, and assistant conductor. I never would have come to that conclusion. I guess on trains that have no collectors, the (assistant) conductor take the tickets.

 

I wonder if this is the same arrangement on Metro North. But I haven't seen anybody wear a badge that reads "collector."

[lirr42]

Then crew means engineer, conductor, and assistant conductor. I never would have come to that conclusion. I guess on trains that have no collectors, the (assistant) conductor take the tickets.

 

I wonder if this is the same arrangement on Metro North. But I haven't seen anybody wear a badge that reads "collector."

 

On all trains the Conductor and Brakeman are out getting tickets, even if they do have collectors.  They just do that and their other things (and that's why they get paid the big bucks).

 

I haven't either.  But you can usually tell who's who based on their position in the train.  Conductors usually ride in the back of the send or head of the third car and the brakeman usually bring up the rear.  If you're in the third through third to last car, you're probably looking at a collector, but that's not for sure. 

[tun]

Shop trains are equipment train moves that happen as needed. You call up the yardmaster and ask him/her if the train has to be run that particular day or not.

 

Most revenue trains do have at least one collector who helps out the Conductor and Brakeman with fare collection. Some trains can be sufficiently collected with just the conductor and brakeman while others need 3+ collectors. It all depends on the train.

 

While most crews consist of an engineer, conductor, and assistant conductor (brakeman), there are a handful of jobs that are C+E only. The only member of a crew who doesn't have to be qualified on the PC/Rules/Air Brake is the brakeman.

 

About 85% of the roster is qualified, so the characterization of collectors being mostly unqualified guys is not true at all. Most collector and brakeman jobs are covered by qualified guys simply based on the numbers.

 

Collectors almost always get the doors at short platforms like Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, St. Albans, Murray Hill, etc. so that's also not true.

 

As for badges, you can't go by what it says on the badge either. I see plenty of qualified guys who wear their Assistant Conductor badge even when they run as conductors. There are also plenty of guys who wear their Conductor badge when they work as collectors or brakemen. Generally no one is swapping out the badges every time they work a different type of assignment.

 

As far as Metro-North is concerned, my understanding is that their crews are only C+E. What they call assistant conductors are what we call collectors. They don't have a true brakeman position.

[nostalgia]

Shop trains are equipment train moves that happen as needed. You call up the yardmaster and ask him/her if the train has to be run that particular day or not.

 

 

 

I took a closer look at the job assignments that include shop trains. The trains don't go to Hillside nor Jamaica Yard but to Penn Station, Jamaica, or an end-of-line station. It's part of a job assignment and it runs every day the employee works. I'm guessing that a shop move is to move a train from one location to another where the crew gets off and the equipment doesn't go into turnaround service in a short period of time. It looks like an equipment train is a deadhead train to move equipment to another location BUT that the crew stays on to operate the train in the other direction.

 

The assignment book doesn't have a glossary.

 

The assignment book is from November 2002 and I acknowledge that operations could have changed significantly since then. Except for the opening of Hillside and West Side Yard, there doesn't seem to be a lot of changes from the 1986 and 2002 assignment books except for electric service extended to Ronkonkoma.

[Vistausss]

And except for the fact that the Wassaic yard got reopened (the 2002 book probably covers that but the 1986 book probably didn't as the reopening was in 2000).

[nostalgia]

And except for the fact that the Wassaic yard got reopened (the 2002 book probably covers that but the 1986 book probably didn't as the reopening was in 2000).

I'm writing about LIRR assignment books. I don't have any Metro North assignment books, not for lack of trying.

[Vistausss]

Sorry. I figured it might cover some MNRR information too but apparently it doesn't. Again: sorry

[nostalgia]

Are employees paid a minimum 8 hours even if the workday is less than 8 hours? I'm sure they are paid OT for days > 8 hours.