Railroad payroll isn't calculated by clock-in and clock-out. It's assembled from a stack of variables that shift with every run: the subdivision you worked, whether the train was held away, how long the inspection took, whether the BLE differential applied. Miss one field and the ticket is wrong.
The Run, From Call to Tie-Up
A crew call comes in at 04:17. You log the call time immediately — not when you arrive at the terminal, when you were called. That distinction matters: under most agreements, time on duty begins at call, not at departure. The origination terminal gets recorded (Springfield 92239, Fort Scott 93099), alongside the assigned train number and the subdivision: Thayer North, Cherokee, Cuba.
Before departure, engine inspection. The asterisk notation in the engines field marks which units you personally walked — a small but legally significant detail if there's ever a question about equipment condition pre-trip.
Departure time, train length, car count. Then the run itself.
At tie-up, you log the release station, tie-up date and time, and compute current service time. For an engineer who started at call, this is the raw hours figure that drives straight time versus overtime. The miles field captures distance operated — relevant for certain mileage-based pay components.
Breaking Down the Ticket
This is where most time books fail: they capture the run, but not the math behind the pay.
Straight time pay covers the base hours at the applicable rate. Overtime kicks in past the contractual threshold — typically eight hours on most Class I agreements, though this varies. Certification pay reflects engineer or conductor certification premiums. Meals are per-diem, not receipts: a fixed amount triggered by duty duration crossing a threshold.
Held away is the field that catches people. When a crew is away from their home terminal and the railroad can't release them within the allowed window, held-away pay accrues. It's easy to forget to log because it often accumulates after the run ends, while you're waiting in a hotel room in Fort Scott.
BLE special pay differential applies to engineers covered under Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers agreements with specific supplemental provisions. Whether it applies on a given ticket depends on the subdivision, the service type, and sometimes the specific train.
The calculated total pay field sums straight time, overtime, certification, meals, held away, and BLE differential automatically. That number should match what payroll produces. When it doesn't, you have a documented record of exactly where the discrepancy sits.
What the Record Becomes
After 60 or 90 days, this isn't just a payroll log — it's a personal operations record. You can see which subdivisions you ran most frequently, how often held-away pay triggered, whether overtime is clustering around certain assignments. That pattern information is useful during contract negotiations, or when challenging a payroll error that spans multiple pay periods.
The prev time off duty field closes the loop: it anchors each new call against the prior tie-up, making it possible to verify that rest requirements were met before the next call was issued. That field is rarely checked until it needs to be.