Seniority rules everything on the railroad, from which job you hold to when you take vacation, so the old heads at the top of the roster carry weight. They know every grade, every quirk of the power and every customer, and they pass it on to new hires, sometimes generously and sometimes as a lecture. Every new hire eventually hears an old head start a story with the words when I hired out.
Ask the old head on the hump job, he's been switching that yard since before they put in the retarders.
Also heard as
- old-timer
- senior man
Related terms
Boomer
A railroader who drifts from railroad to railroad, hiring on wherever the work is good.
Bump
To use seniority to take a job held by someone junior, who is then displaced.
Hogger
A locomotive engineer, the person who runs the train.
Beanery
A cheap restaurant or lunch counter near a terminal or depot where railroaders eat.