Valley Crew District

What seniority roster covered the Valley? Were the train crews Midland? How about engine crews?

Valley was Shore Line for engine crews. I am not certain about the train crews, the train crews on the NHRR had way too many localized rosters to be able to follow, you would need a book to keep track of them. When I had the local out of New London that did Essex we had a New London Train Crew, I think they were Shore Line but as I said, it was hard to follow that one. I never had a copy of the trainmen's agreement with the NHRR and that doesn't help either.
Noel Weaver

This question sparked my interest and I was able to find an old Conrail Train Service roster from 1989. Even then they showed around 70 different rosters for train service. When I get a chance I will list them but it is way too much typing for my smartphone, I might try to estable what roster covered ehat so stay tuned.
Noel Weaver

Here is the promised list of New Haven T and E roster districts. It borders on ridiculous considering the size of the railroad and the type of operation.

From the Conrail roster of trainmen for 1989, here is a list of the prior prior right New Haven Railroad trainmen rosters that still had active employees with Conrail at that time:
Berkshire freight trainmen
Canal freight trainmen
Canal Holyoke yard brakemen
Central New England freight trainmen and flagmen
Central New England Maybrook yard brakemen
Hartford yard brakemen
Hartford Springfield yard brakemen
Hartford freight trainmen
Highland East Hartford yard brakemen
Highland Waterbury yard brakemen
Highland Danbury yard brakemen
Midland passenger conductors
Midland ticket collectors
Midland freight conductors
Midland freight flagmen
Midland freight trainmen
Midland BFT yard conductors
Midland BFT yard brakemen
Naugatuck freight trainmen
Naugatuck – Ansonia yard brakemen
New Haven yard brakemen
New York district passenger trainmen
New York district freight trainmen
New York district Stamford yard brakemen
New York district Bridgeport yard brakemen
New York district Harlem River yard conductors
New York district Harlem River yard brakemen
Plymouth passenger conductors
Plymouth ticket collectors
Plymouth freight conductors
Plymouth freight flagmen
Plymouth freight flagmen
Plymouth freight trainmen
Plymouth Dover Street yard conductors
Plymouth Dover Street yard brakemen
Providence passenger conductors
Providence ticket collectors
Providence train baggagemen
Providence passenger trainmen
Providence freight conductors
Providence freight flagmen
Providence freight trainmen
Providence Readville yard conductors
Shore Line passenger conductors
Shore Line ticket collectors
Shore Line passenger trainmen
Shore Line freight conductors
Shore Line freight flagmen
Shore Line New London yard conductors
Shore Line New London yard brakemen
Taunton passenger conductors
Taunton ticket collectors
Taunton train baggagemen
Taunton freight conductors
Taunton freight flagmen
Taunton – Lowell yard brakemen
Taunton – Framingham yard conductors
Taunton – New Bedford yard conductors
Taunton yard conductors
Worcester passenger conductors
Worcester train baggagemen
Worcester freight conductors
Worcester freight flagmen
Worcester Providence yard conductors
Worcester Providence yard brakemen
Worcester yard conductors
Worcester yard brakemen
WHEW

By contrast here are the engine service districts:
Shore Line
Providence
Old Colony
Midland
Western
Central New England
The hostlers had their own:
Boston district hostlers
Worcester hostlers
Providence – New London hostlers
New Haven terminal hostlers
Danbury – Waterbury hostlers
Hartford hostlers
Hartford-Springfield hostlers
Oak Point hostlers
The New Haven districts were eventually merged in to one separate district and this included the hostlers as well. Prior prior rights were respected in this merger.

Both the engine service and train service folks had runs that covered more than one district, the trainmen had runs that covered several districts with one train, it had to be a nightmare for somebody in the company to try to figure out the equity involved. For example Cedar Hill - Maybrook covered territory New York, Naugatuck, Highland, Berkshire and finally Central New England. Somehow the New York (and Shore Line for engineers and firemen) had no equity in these jobs even though they ran on New York or Shore Line territory between Cedar Hill and Devon, I could never figure this one out, it might have had something to do with the abandoned line between New Haven and Derby via Orange but that was never a heavy freight route so I don't think it figured in the Maybrook equity. All of the T and E people on the New Haven would have been better off in the long run had all of these districts been merged in to one roster say in the 1920's. By the late 1920's it was clearly evident that some parts of the railroad did not have much future while others had a decent future. The senior men could have been protected, after all that's what seniority is all about. OH WELL! It is all history today and I could even say ancient history at this point. I don't think in 2017 that there are any former NHRR T or E people still working in the industry today at least not on CSX. The Conrail rosters of 1990 carried a lot of names of folks who went with one of the commuter agencies, Amtrak or someplace else but were in a leave of absense status with Conrail with their rights reserved. Few of them ever returned to Conrail. I was one of the few when I exercised my right to return to Conrail in 1987 and in having done so, I gave up all of my rights to employment with Metro-North. Amtrak was a different situation, Conrail and Amtrak had a free flow of sorts and every six months in the spring and fall an employee could flow from Conrail to Amtrak or from Amtrak to Conrail with all seniority maintained. I never worked for Amtrak directly although if I was still working in the industry today and with the situation on CSX being what it is, most likely I would be working for Amtrak today. I hope the above is interesting.
Noel Weaver

Thank you Noel. There wasn't more than a local or two on the Valley anyway. Does Shoreline train service seem to be the consensus?

This is all interesting, along with our discussion about the CNE guys in Hartford. As I have said, these types of issues have impacted me at various times too.