Passenger Conductors on NYC Trains

Just from listening to old NYC men (and SHL will correct me please), I think it was just the Conductors/brakemen (and maybe baggagemen) that did long passenger pools. Engine crews I believe did just Division points: NYG-CRT/CRT-ALB/ALB-SYR/SYR-BUF/BUF-CLE/CLE-TOL/TOL-ELK/ELK-CHI.
I know when Mail #6/Mail #5 ran in the early 70's, the Cdr/Brkm ran through ALB-BOS; the engine crew ALB-SPG/SPG-BOS.
Personal experience with eng crews in my early days was they did not want to be "tied" to train crews in job assignments (pass and frt)...but it changed in later years in both pass and frt.

I agree. When I wrote it "was the entire train crew, too, not just the conductors" I meant the rest of the trainmen. The 'T' in T&E.

I have also been told the engineers continued working the traditional crew districts.

shlustig wrote:When Amtrak ran the crews on #'s 49 & 48 (Lake Shore Ltd.) between ALB and CLE, they would go on duty @ ALB around 8:30 Pm/ 9 PM and off duty @ CLE around 6:30AM if the train was OT, be off duty until 1:30 AM / 2 AM, and then work back to ALB arriving around 10 AM if OT.

If an extra man was called @ ALB to cover a vacancy, he could be up all day with no job in sight and then get called for #49. There was no provision for an early call (regular call was 2') time to allow someone to take a nap before reporting for the job.

Not sure how long this lasted.

Been there done it got the t-shirt. ALB CLE wasn't bad if you knew it was coming but getting that call with two or less hours was a bitch. No one ever wanted to cover that work off the list, nothing like being 14 times out with only that job showing. Out with friends and family, end up getting dinner to go, and a head ache from the wife chirping about how come they called you and no one else. Always seemed that way anyway.

Paid well just gone for three days. If I remember correctly it was the early 2000s when the conductors stopped and the late 90s for the engineers. The local chair for the BLE convinced "upstairs" it was cheaper to make the turns at SYR and BUF.