Railroads have "divisions" or "crew districts" with a home and away terminal. A basic day is 100 miles in terms of pay, if you run farther, or work longer, there are adjustments in the union contracts.
There are federal regulations governing hours of service. 12 hours max, used to be 16, then 14, then 12. If you are on duty more than 12 hours without a relief crew, you go "dead on hours" and must take 10 hours rest from the time you mark off before you can go out again. You start the day with a call time that has to be at least 8 hours from when you "tied up" for the day in the official register. A lot of times, crews will book 11:59 leaving them 8 hours before their next call. When times are busy, crews often get called on rest again and again. Gets old fast.
On a crew district, it's usually 200=300 miles depending on how far a normal train can get in 10 hours. Some fast trains get across the division much faster, the senior guys like those, and bid those when possible. But most crews are on the "extra board" where you are called for whatever train needs a rested crew. Most crews will work one part of the railroad their entire career, although some will move around with the traffic patterns within a REGION of Divisions, or some have SYSTEMWIDE seniority, and they can bid anywhere they want. But most work out of "home" division point or crew point in either direction after qualifying on that stretch of track, to a regular away terminal. For decades.
