Starting with the Alaska Railroad...

I just got the call, I start next month as a conductor with the alaska railroad. It's a pretty sweet deal, most breathtaking rail line in the country. 75% thing again, oh well, top rate right now is $36 hour. They say you turn and burn on the x-board. You work both passenger and freight, plus they still have fireman position's. No B.L.E.T. up there, all U.T.U. also no railroad retirement up there, alaska has there own retirement program, highball, Dean

Good luck with that. Seems like fun.

From what I understand, ARR is a nice small operation, where everyone knows everyone else.

SPDEAN wrote:I just got the call, I start next month as a conductor with the alaska railroad. It's a pretty sweet deal, most breathtaking rail line in the country. 75% thing again, oh well, top rate right now is $36 hour. They say you turn and burn on the x-board. You work both passenger and freight, plus they still have fireman position's. No B.L.E.T. up there, all U.T.U. also no railroad retirement up there, alaska has there own retirement program, highball, Dean

No railroad retirement, that's interesting. I wonder how the two programs compare.

SPDEAN wrote:I just got the call, I start next month as a conductor with the alaska railroad. It's a pretty sweet deal, most breathtaking rail line in the country. 75% thing again, oh well, top rate right now is $36 hour. They say you turn and burn on the x-board. You work both passenger and freight, plus they still have fireman position's. No B.L.E.T. up there, all U.T.U. also no railroad retirement up there, alaska has there own retirement program, highball, Dean

How can they get away without paying into railroad retirement????
$36 hour...... that’s pretty good. Three years a go when I was going through engine service (BNSF RR) there was a class of student engineers from Alaska RR with us. Alaska RR trains their engineers at BNSF's training center in Kansas City. They told me that they were making $20/hr, but that was probably at training rate of pay. They were all very happy with their jobs.
Good luck!....

JZ441: I'm not sure if I have the ALASKA picture COMPLETELY correct, but I think it's something like this:
ALASKA RR employees may be STATE OF ALASKA employees, and according to RRB definitions, technically not railroad employees. Hence, if what is posted above is true, we can "retire" from our Class 1 RR jobs when eligible, begin collecting a full railroad retirement pension, then move to Alaska, get hired, and resume railroad "STYLE" employment (while collecting).
Until about 20-25 years ago, ALASKA RR employees were actually employees of the FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION, i.e. government employees.
More than one active RR employee from the Lower 48 was able to get a leave of absence from their Class 1 job, do the Alaska thing for a while, and return to their original Class 1 position after a few years, with full seniority. Not a bad deal. I wish I did it while I could have.
Can anybody either verify or correct the babblings I have just posted?

That $36.00 an hour, sounds kind of sweet, until you realize what it costs to live in Alaska. Four dollars plus, for gas, five dollar Big Mac's, and two dollar soda's, and pretty soon, you realize it's no more money, than a job in the "lower 48". They also used to work you seasonally, for the first three years, before you became a full time employee. Don't know if they still do it that way, but be sure to ask, as after working only five months, it's kinda hard to find a job, to fill the other seven, while awaiting next years' call to duty...........