Staying awake/going to sleep with the Rail Road??

Happy New Year. I am going through the pre-hire process now for UP. I've completed everything except the PAT which I have tomorrow. Will be in St. James.

How do you get your body used to the varying sleep patterns I hear comes with the RR? Do you take sleeping pills? I imagine pills increases the risk of missing a call or over-sleeping.

How do you stay awake? I take meds. for hypertension so I want to avoid caffeinated drinks--they raise your blood pressure.

Thanks.

You suck it up, do the job for as long as it takes, then go home! That's about it, really. The RR doesn't CARE about your sleep. Just run thru a switch and THEN they'll care enough to run you off. Be sure to carry plenty of "Whammy" insurance.

GF

There are no sleeping patterns on the railroad. You sleep when you can and you eat when you are hungry. It's not uncommon for me to lay down at 11 pm and wake up at 2:30 am on my own and not be able to go back to sleep. Sometimes its hard to tell the difference between being tired and not feeling well. Railroad hours are hard on your body....

jz441 wrote:There are no sleeping patterns on the railroad. You sleep when you can and you eat when you are hungry. It's not uncommon for me to lay down at 11 pm and wake up at 2:30 am on my own and not be able to go back to sleep. Sometimes its hard to tell the difference between being tired and not feeling well. Railroad hours are hard on your body....

It's affects linger even after retiring. I still suddenly wake up several times during the night looking at the clock. I don't have a problem going back to sleep. The first 6 months I thought my phone wasn't working seeing it wasn't constantly ringing.

To the original question you get use to it. At least twice a week I was up 30+ hours before finally getting some sleep. Life doesn't stop at home had responsibilities. Even when I did sleep it was only 3-4 hours. Body gets use to it. As a locomotive engineer I didn't have a choice being tired wasn't an option I drank a lot of coffee. Hoped on the rough nights the other crew member helped out. I tried catching up on sleep in the hotel. Sometimes that was impossible when the adreniline was rushing. When needed I claimed extra rest at home back then calling time was 8 hours I'd claim 10 or 12 hours rest. Later in the carreer we managed to get rest days 2 days off every half. I took advantage of it if work was heavy and looked like I was going to get in my trips for the half. Lot of people didn't take time off it's not manditory. That's an individual choice. Since I retired something new FRA manditory off days if a person works 6 days straight 48 hours off 7 days 72 hours off.

Sad enough one of the hard truths I was told in my 1st few trips is that it can be a very unhealthy lifestyle! How do you stay awake? I think any crew member that says they haven't fallen asleep on a trip would be lying! You try and drive thru it with eyeballs feeling like hot coals! And with me headaches! And as stated rely on the other crew members. It is almost feeling like your under the influence! How do you get rest? I guess its depends if your home or in a hotel! Either one can be a bitch at times! I've gone to the hotel having the people next door partying slamming shit around or just a weird noises places have bothering me. Or a good one is when your back to your home terminal you drive home ( which can be brutal if you live an hr or more away) finally crash in your bed after being awake for 14 0r 15hrs you finally close your eyes and it's time for everybody else in your family to wake up! ( Especially if you have young kids, they wont understand) I think engineers probably have it pegged a little better than most conductors do. You will get used to it with time. You can Google it. I found a good site a gentleman posted on this subject unfortunately its on another computer or I would put up the link. It explains how his wife works with him so he gets his rest. Bottom line if your tired enough you're going to sleep! How long is the question. Basically if you don't mind walking around like a zombie, missing out on a lot of the good times, or my favorite making a shitload of money watching everyone else try and run a railroad, then this is the job for you!! lol!! Best of luck and hope all goes well.

You get used to it as best you can but it always will suck. And they tell you if you work 6 straight you will get 48 off, 72 for 7 but it doesn't always work like that. A consecutive start is 24 hours from your last off duty time, not a calendar day, so you may have your 5th start of 16 hour days right off your rest and get called to report 24 hours and 1 minute after your off duty time and start the string again. Or get a deadhead home or to a hotel which doesn't count as service and resets the string. It's Saturday the 4th today and Christmas day was the last day I didn't have a ticket. And here I am first out for a nice 226 mile run through train This life isn't for everyone and a lot of guys don't stay with the combination of the hours and the attendance policies they have now but if you stick it out it's decent money and benefits. YOU just have to figure out if it's worth it to you.

I've heard there was a lot of BS attached to the FRA days off that some railroads are using to circumvent it. Like two runs in a calender day count as one, the 24 hr & one minute rest, deadheads don't count ect...most people I know like it if they get it live with it if they don't most like the $$$$ hate losing it. After years they keep up tradition and become a "hoghead". The generation before mine those guys would work 60-90 days straight before a day off which was usually vacation time and they grumbled about it. LOL!

Put it to you this way, I never had a taste for coffee until I started with the railroad. As it has been extensively mentioned all throughout these forums it's the lifestyle that's hardest about the job but also can be a plus. jz441 speaks the truth in what he wrote, even on your off days you can go to bed and wake up just a few hours later ready to go. Especially if you work the list you are always in the habit of waiting for that phone call.

Perhaps the most difficult part of railroading or any other job that has inconsistent work schedules is getting enough sleep. This is especially true for a 'relief' job position and the extra board where absolutely nothing is 'regular'.

Your body thinks it's time to be awake and you just got to bed. Your body thinks it's time to be asleep, and you're at work. Blame the 24 hour circadian rhythms of your body. For someone accustomed to going to bed about 11pm and getting up at 6:30 every morning, the railroad will utterly destroy that sleep schedule. The railroad will also wipe out your social life and abilities to schedule just about anything...even holidays off! Whether you like coffee or not, it's the best way to stay awake when needed. I'm no fan of coffee, but these days, I stop at a convenience store on the way to work and add-to their $.99 any size coffee with some hot chocolate and a couple of 'shots' of caffeine. It works very well at keeping me awake on my 3rd shift RR clerical job.

The good news is that if you're under 30ish, live alone or with your parents, working incredibly long irregular hours with minimal, irregular sleep isn't that difficult. Your body simply adapts. I had times where I'd get 3-4 hrs sleep between 16-18 hours of work (non-RR) and then 'catch up' on weekends. But that was in my 20s and 30s. If I had it to do over, I probably should have gone railroading when I got out of the Air Force. But the railroads were in a 'death spiral' those days and weren't hiring anybody.

You have to love the extraboard when you get back from a trip check the stats and realize your 1st out!! lol! Time to mark off sick!!

Just had my string reset today. Deadheaded home on the trailing unit of a run through train because cabs aren't running. 1st out already on the extraboard. Tomorrow makes my 13th day with a ticket. Work 5 straight, get a deadhead. 5 straight, deadhead. Funny how that works aint it?

I've been through all of that and then some. It will definitely make a coffee drinker out of you.

I find it strange that the railroads always want to spend a lot of time talking about "circadian rhythm" (sounds like something a bug would do) during orientation.
Then never do anything about accommodating it.

And COEN is right. Retiring doesn't stop it. I still find myself waking up at night and looking at the clock, or wake up expecting the phone to ring. And I want to stay up at night and sleep in the afternoon. Yesterday, I was so sound asleep that when my wife woke me up for dinner, I thought it was the next morning.

Les

supernova1972 wrote:Just had my string reset today. Deadheaded home on the trailing unit of a run through train because cabs aren't running. 1st out already on the extraboard. Tomorrow makes my 13th day with a ticket. Work 5 straight, get a deadhead. 5 straight, deadhead. Funny how that works aint it?

That DH should of counted seeing it was done on a working train. Years ago that was the way we deadheaded. They would run extra power to be split up at the roundhouse an if it was 3 DH crews they would tack on the 3 extra cabooses ahead of the working one. Once we got to the terminal the working crew was placed first out the rest went in order of calling time which was usually 1-5 minutes apart. We were paid actual time. I know it was most likely due to weather conditions but not the same as riding in a van.

Since I got down I sleep like a drunk 20 year old on a Saturday morning after a Friday night.Out cold. I don't even wear a watch anymore and the only clock in my house is on the cable box. If I was still working, with the weather we've had, I'd have been out every night on track indications on account of broke rails. I think about it sometimes, but I don't miss it.

It is tough. There are nights when I go to bed first out. I keep waking up and check the phone for missed calls. Sometimes the train keeps getting set back. You expect the call, and it doesn't come. Check the tape, and its now later.....I had a train keep dropping from 1400....1600.............2000.........2300........finally went at 0200.

My wife thinks that I have 12+ hrs. to sleep in the hotel. I should be 100% when I come home. If I know it will be a long layover, I try to stay up longer. Sometimes I sleep, get up....then when I try to nap again, the phone rings.

When I was a conductor, if either the engineer or,, I was tired, I would walk around the cab, and try to make conversation, in order to stay awake.

I have the bad habit of chewing. Some use sunflower seeds. I worked with an old conductor who gave me the nickname Spike. His regular engineer had a Chinese wife. He asked, "Spike, why do all the engineers chew tobacco?" I said, "To stay awake." Ol' Boss (he looked like Boss Hogg) said," Well, Sab chews Red Man, but they ought to call it Yellow Man." lol.

Seriously, hang your head out the window, put cold water on a towel.....what ever it takes.