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Leo
Your recent mention of the Rochelle job being a two man crew brought a question to mind that I have thought about and wondered about over the years.
Were there specific requirements for a job to be designated as a two man crew or was each one negotiated individually and run by..."local agreement".
There were a couple of two man crews on the Wymore Division when I was working there in the 1950's. One was the Beatrice (NE) switcher. The job used a former Motorcar...I think it was the 9070, but I'm not sure. Neiither am I sure as to whether the two swichmen were Wymore brakeman or that they had their own little seniority district which seems highly unlikely..Most probably it was the former although the same two guys...very old heads were on this job all three summers I worked. The job had very little to do and spent most of their time "parked" in front of the depot.
The other job was the Superior (NE) switcher..90% of this job's work and it's sole reason for existing was taking care of the switching of the Ideal Cement Company's plant. Normally they used a 44 tonner for power, but often a conventional swich engine was used when the work got heavy.
There was also an additional agreement applied to this job. It was that when you bid in the job you had to stay on it for 6 months. You could not be bumped for any reason other than "reduction in force"....ie. You had to be unable to hold any other job in the district be able to bump a junior man off that job. You could not bid off the job until you had served 6 months. The ostensible reason was that the Ideal Company didn't want men trading on and off the job who didn't know the work and wanted consistent relilable service. Apparently their "clout" and business was sufficient that their wishes prevailed. I don't know how long that restriction had been in effect, but it was, seemingly, a well accepted arrangement when I was there 1956-58.
Seems like I recall one brakeman telling me that the Hastings-Huntley local which I worked two weeks in 1956 would have qualified for the 2 man status except that it ran over the mainline from Hastings to Sutton two days a week and that required the 2nd brakeman...even though it was CTC territory.
ANother run that I would think would have qualified for the two man status was the Villisca, IA-Corning MO branch. This job entailed no mainline work at all other than in turning the engine at Corning it was necessary to run down the mainline which served as the "top leg" of the WYE. The job never handled more than 8-10 cars. I'm sure that there were other branch line jobs across the Iowa Nebraska territory which operated on these same conditions, but the ones mentioned here are the only ones I have specific knowledge of.
Any thoughts you or anyone else..."in the know" would have would help answer a question that I have had for over 50 years.
Pete
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