04-20-2012, 08:03 AM
I' m modeling a short line in 1979 and I was wondering how much it would cost to ship a carload of freight as well as the average salary of a short line worker. I figure that benefits would be 15% in addition to the salary.
04-20-2012, 08:03 AM
04-20-2012, 08:49 PM
Not going to get a precise answer for your questions Mike as there are many variables to consider and my comments are all based on personal experience - your mileage may vary.
Is your short line union or non-union? In general if it's non-union then the wages will be more or less what the prevailing wages are in the area where the railroad operates. If it's union, then the wages will be roughly on par with what the same railroad crafts on the other railroads receive in that area. In the south, wages tend to be lower overall because the cost of living is less. If the cost of living is higher, then the wages would (should?) be higher.
Most short lines (at least the ones I worked for) would have some minimum health insurance and 2 to 4 weeks paid vacation each year (depending on what management will allow). Your crew may or may not get overtime too. On the F&C, we got overtime for any hours worked over 40 in a week (and management would work very hard to find ways to prevent that!). Little interesting side note here: R. J. Corman on their Central Kentucky Lines does not pay their train crews overtime at all. I was a bit surprised when some of their trainmen told me that!
As for freight rates, it depends on the commodity and destination. Your short line would receive a division of the freight rate which will vary depending on what rate divisions have been agreed to with the other railroads involved. A few short lines and/or terminal companies simply received a switching charge for anything they handled rather than a division of the freight rate, but in general they would get a division of the rate - the originating and terminating railroads receiving the highest divisions. I should mention that there are a couple of short lines I'm aware of that went out of business or were never able to get started because they could not negotiate rate divisions with their connecting lines. In both cases, the connecting road could have just as easily handled the "proposed" freight themselves without giving up a piece of it to another railroad and thus...
It's been quite a few years since I dealt with any of that stuff, but while working for the L&N in 70's, I once figured that the rate division that the F&C received off one car of case whiskey from Elsinore (Frankfort), KY to Washington, DC (yes our congress men/women hit the bottle!) would have paid the salary for the entire 3 man train crew for a week. I don't recall the freight charges, but the F&C's division of the rate was 25%. Based on that, the freight charges would have been around $3,000. As another quick example, on cars of corn moving from Louisville, KY or southern Indiana to the F&C in Frankfort - The F&C got 50% of the rate and the L&N got 50%. Darn good rate division when you consider that the L&N handled the cars about 70 miles and the F&C either 2 or 5 miles depending on which distillery was the destination. Sorry that I can't recall specific freight charges, but as I said, it's been a few years. I've often wondered how much freight rates have increased on the prototype since the mid-80's. No doubt substantially, what with fuel surcharges, etc.
Is your short line union or non-union? In general if it's non-union then the wages will be more or less what the prevailing wages are in the area where the railroad operates. If it's union, then the wages will be roughly on par with what the same railroad crafts on the other railroads receive in that area. In the south, wages tend to be lower overall because the cost of living is less. If the cost of living is higher, then the wages would (should?) be higher.
Most short lines (at least the ones I worked for) would have some minimum health insurance and 2 to 4 weeks paid vacation each year (depending on what management will allow). Your crew may or may not get overtime too. On the F&C, we got overtime for any hours worked over 40 in a week (and management would work very hard to find ways to prevent that!). Little interesting side note here: R. J. Corman on their Central Kentucky Lines does not pay their train crews overtime at all. I was a bit surprised when some of their trainmen told me that!
As for freight rates, it depends on the commodity and destination. Your short line would receive a division of the freight rate which will vary depending on what rate divisions have been agreed to with the other railroads involved. A few short lines and/or terminal companies simply received a switching charge for anything they handled rather than a division of the freight rate, but in general they would get a division of the rate - the originating and terminating railroads receiving the highest divisions. I should mention that there are a couple of short lines I'm aware of that went out of business or were never able to get started because they could not negotiate rate divisions with their connecting lines. In both cases, the connecting road could have just as easily handled the "proposed" freight themselves without giving up a piece of it to another railroad and thus...
It's been quite a few years since I dealt with any of that stuff, but while working for the L&N in 70's, I once figured that the rate division that the F&C received off one car of case whiskey from Elsinore (Frankfort), KY to Washington, DC (yes our congress men/women hit the bottle!) would have paid the salary for the entire 3 man train crew for a week. I don't recall the freight charges, but the F&C's division of the rate was 25%. Based on that, the freight charges would have been around $3,000. As another quick example, on cars of corn moving from Louisville, KY or southern Indiana to the F&C in Frankfort - The F&C got 50% of the rate and the L&N got 50%. Darn good rate division when you consider that the L&N handled the cars about 70 miles and the F&C either 2 or 5 miles depending on which distillery was the destination. Sorry that I can't recall specific freight charges, but as I said, it's been a few years. I've often wondered how much freight rates have increased on the prototype since the mid-80's. No doubt substantially, what with fuel surcharges, etc.