johnnyfuego
Recycles dryer sheets
What to do, what to do. A little background info - before my 28 years as a firefighter, I was a thru freight brakeman/conductor for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (Katy) railroad. I enjoyed it, but was furloughed several times, so after 6 1/2 years and 87,000 miles of riding the rails all over Texas, I changed career paths to become a ff with more job security and now I'm retired with a great pension. It has been a great 18 months.
This week, after just inquiring for grins and giggles on a posting on indeed.com, on my birthday no less, I was offered the position of switchman at a local power plant, to be cross trained as an engineer. The opportunity just fell in my lap straight out of the sky. It is fairly simple work. In a nutshell, we just receive the arriving coal train off of the adjoining UP railroad, take the train to the power plant, position the first three cars for unloading with the locomotives, then the power plant personnel take over with the automatic coal car unloader. We go to the yard office and hang out until they are done, then, if needed, set out cars that need repair (bad order), then take the unloaded train back to the UP main line and turn it back over to the other railroad to take back to Powder River Basin in Wyoming for reloading. Then it's back home for a day or two or three, depending on how much time the trains take to make their way back. I'm told there are relaxed easy going crews I will be working with and they are all in their 50's and 60's.
Seeing that I need 4 more quarters to reach 40 to be eligible for SSA benefits, I think this is a great opportunity to do so. I am hoping to do them a great job for a while, then transition to more of a part time position as a floater filling in here and there, if all goes well. The pay is not bad, with a guaranteed 40 hours and overtime after 40. The 'shift' is 12 hours max, and usually less than that. After working 24 hour shifts for all those years, 12 should be a piece of cake. The benefits are good too, but my benefits are already in place from the AFD, so maybe I can negotiate for more money in lieu of bennies.
The cool thing about all of this is anticipating a fun and relaxed atmosphere without the pressure of 'having' to work, since my financial situation is quite healthy. I can always walk away.
What say y'all?
This week, after just inquiring for grins and giggles on a posting on indeed.com, on my birthday no less, I was offered the position of switchman at a local power plant, to be cross trained as an engineer. The opportunity just fell in my lap straight out of the sky. It is fairly simple work. In a nutshell, we just receive the arriving coal train off of the adjoining UP railroad, take the train to the power plant, position the first three cars for unloading with the locomotives, then the power plant personnel take over with the automatic coal car unloader. We go to the yard office and hang out until they are done, then, if needed, set out cars that need repair (bad order), then take the unloaded train back to the UP main line and turn it back over to the other railroad to take back to Powder River Basin in Wyoming for reloading. Then it's back home for a day or two or three, depending on how much time the trains take to make their way back. I'm told there are relaxed easy going crews I will be working with and they are all in their 50's and 60's.
Seeing that I need 4 more quarters to reach 40 to be eligible for SSA benefits, I think this is a great opportunity to do so. I am hoping to do them a great job for a while, then transition to more of a part time position as a floater filling in here and there, if all goes well. The pay is not bad, with a guaranteed 40 hours and overtime after 40. The 'shift' is 12 hours max, and usually less than that. After working 24 hour shifts for all those years, 12 should be a piece of cake. The benefits are good too, but my benefits are already in place from the AFD, so maybe I can negotiate for more money in lieu of bennies.
The cool thing about all of this is anticipating a fun and relaxed atmosphere without the pressure of 'having' to work, since my financial situation is quite healthy. I can always walk away.
What say y'all?
OK, probably not that much fun for you, since you have 'been there - done that', but you seem good with it, you have little to lose, you could always quit if it turns out bad, but that seems unlikely.
