Left to right, Ken Akers, Jeff Coburn, Kevin Sorah and Dale Smith in Buffalo, New York, June 21, 1999.

Steve Beck, left, with Joe Grace.

One evening in June this year, S. William (Chris) Christen, age 57, a section laborer with 20 years service from Westfield, New York, told us he wants the next contract to have the company provide "more money towards a 401K. My second choice on the survey was sick days. Even if they started out with only two and added so many after five years or so."

Andy Lance, who at age 43 has 25 years on the railroad, picked "55 and out" as his number one choice. From Cranesville, Pennsylvania, Lance and his wife Colleen have five daughters, ages 17 to 26. Lance's second choice is improved health care coverage. He says he needs knee surgery but the insurance won't cover it.

Somewhat surprisingly because of their age, two out of the four young traveling maintenance of way workers we talked to also said the most important issue in the next round of bargaining was "55 and out." Ken Akers, age 23 and Dale Smith, age 24, both said they would be willing to pay increased taxes in order to be able to retire early with benefits.

The most important issue to co-worker Jeff Coburn, age 25, was travel expenses. He said he believes any gang that travels should get expenses paid "no matter what." Kevin Sorah, age 24, wants to see Norfolk Southern set a schedule at least a month in advance and "stick to it so we can make plans with our families."

Akers and Smith agreed that conditions of work on a traveling gang, including expenses, was a close second to early retirement.

The four men, all from West Virginia, had traveled to Buffalo, New York that morning on a bus provided by the railroad. Coburn and Smith, from Princeton, had to drive 514 miles the night before to get the bus the next morning. There is no expense money provided if you drive your own vehicle to a location.

When the men are away from home, they live in camp cars. As we talked about their experiences, Akers said he wanted to change his number one priority to getting motel rooms instead of camp cars. Everyone agreed they would much prefer to be in a motel room.

They talked about the lack of privacy in the camp car and the problems of only having two showers. And "those porta-potties are only tolerable in the spring and fall."

"We probably shouldn't complain because we have a satellite dish now. But everybody has to watch the same thing," they said.

Meals are provided and they say the current cook, who works on a contract, is open to suggestions but usually the "food has lots of grease. Everything's fried. It doesn't seem really healthy." There is no meal allowance. You eat what they give you or pay for it yourself if there is a place near by where you can walk and get it.

Sleeping is probably the biggest problem on the road. "Trains go by at 60 miles an hour. When we're working there's a slow order. How come there isn't when you have 25 guys trying to sleep in camp cars?

"And we're so close to the trains. About two months ago about 2:00 in the morning in Marshall, Virginia, one train blew the door open and it was latched. The next train tore it right off. The whole car was really rocking. And the noise is really something."

Some places where the camp cars are stationed are worse than others. "In Chicago the cops told us to get out of there (Calumet Yard) or we were going to get killed."

Communications with home can also be a problem. In November 1997 when Coburn and his brother, who also works for the railroad, were in Chicago, their parents' house burnt down. This happened around 12:30 in the afternoon on a Tuesday and the family couldn't reach the brothers until 9:30 the next morning.

"And the company doesn't tell you anything. Where you're going, how long you'll be there, even how much rail, about the job. Everything's a big secret."

These men would also like to see a clear definition of inclement weather. "Once we were working and it was 30 below with the wind chill. They brought us out kool-aid and tea but it froze before we could get in the bus to drink it.

"We've also worked when it's been as hot as 133 degrees on the track. We were constantly drinking but never had to go to the bathroom because we sweated it all out.

"We've trammed machines 80 miles when it was 11 below. We tried to wrap the machines in plastic but it didn't work.

"In the fall of 1996 we worked through a tornado in Shelbyville, Kentucky. We also just missed one in Henry, Virginia. We had just moved 50 miles away to Stoneville, North Carolina."

All four agreed that the hardest thing about being on a traveling gang is being away from their families. When they're working seven days on, seven days off, they like it better than "four tens but two out of the seven are usually travel days."

Akers is married to Stephanie; Coburn and his wife Barbie have a son Houston, age 2, and a daughter, Taylor, age 1; Sorah has a daughter Megan, then 9-1/2 months, with wife Tonya; and Smith, his wife Serita, and son Hunter, age 4, had just welcomed Sarah into the family three weeks before we talked with him.