| When you worked in the office with the railroad, you just didn't get to have that 9 to 5 job you always hear about. No, the railroad worked a lot different. You might work 3 to 11pm or 11pm to 7am. And, with new hires, it was mostly 2nd and 3rd shifts. My first job was on the "extra board". This meant that you had to work when someone else was off sick, vacation, etc. Not the ideal job you would want to have because you would have to set home and wait for the phone to ring (the cell phone was not on the scene yet). Now, if my memory serves me correctly, you didn't have to be available the entire 24 hours. Just 2 hours before each calling period. Example - if there was a 3pm job open, you would have to be in place to accept a call for that job from 1 to 3. And so for other shifts. And, you would figure that you would have to work for one 8 hour shift. But sometimes you would have to work 2 shifts - 16 hours. You might be forced to work it or volunteer to work overtime. The worst part of being on the extra board was not knowing what days you would have off. You had to be in place for calls all week until you made your five days, then you would have two days off. But if you were not able to make your five days until Sunday rolled around, then you would start all over again on Monday having to stay in place for a call the rest of that work week. If you were a new clerk, of course you wouldn't know any jobs so the office manager might let you train for a week or two on a particular job in order to get qualified to work it. That was pretty good if the job was a first shift. Pretty bad, if a second or third shift job. But that was the life of being on the extra board. You had to pay your dues in order to get the better jobs later on in your railroad career. One of my first regular assigned jobs was the 2nd shift utility clerk with Mondays and Tuesdays off. I worked with another clerk doing this job - he was called the assistant chief clerk. The rates of pay on these two jobs were about $2 a day difference. I remember many days setting in front of that big window in Yard A and checking trains as they pulled into the yard. You either had to write the car numbers down real fast (and that was not easy because my handwriting leaves a lot to be desired) or you had a list already made up to check off....or one other luxury we had was a recorder. These little recorders came in good because all you had to do was call the car number out and it was recorded. You remember the vinyl records of yesterday? Well, that is what we made the recording on...well kindof, these vinyl records were a lot smaller and they were green. But it was very useful because you could call out the size of the boxcar, whether it was a RBL , empty or loaded gon or hopper, mechanical car, etc. But they eventually did away with the little green vinyl records and the recorders as the computers became more sophisticated and created better lists. Of course, those days are long gone and the job duties at Hamlet eventually were moved to Jacksonville Fla. But I still have memories of working at Hamlet with a lot of good people. And will share those memories as these series of Working on the Railroad - My Story continues...and hopefully these stories will inspire others to write of their own memories of railroad life. So, another chapter written of Working on the Railroad - My Story - and another memory of how it was growing up in Rockingham, North Carolina - a small textile town in the South in the '50s, '60s,'70s and '80s. |
| Working on the Railroad - My Story - Chapter 3 written by Joel Bailey January 13, 2009 |
| So, as the Train of Life keeps chugging along, another page written of my Memories of.... Rockingham Remembered. |
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