2. Recognized customs and practices under the rules are in accord with the practice against which Mr. Anderson has protested.

3. Rules 9 and 52 cited by the employes in support of this protest have not been violated."

There is in existence an agreement between the parties bearing effective date of November 1, 1935.

The meaning contended for by the employes would necessitate reading the rule substantially as follows:

The meaning contended for by the carrier would necessitate reading the rule substantially as follows:

"The boarding cars in a division will be the home station," etc.

Either interpretation might be given to the words "boarding cars" in the rule. What light does the balance of the rule throw on the correct interpretation?

"the home station as referred to in these rules . . . .

What is the meaning of that phrase? Elsewhere in the rules, wherever "home station" is used, its normal meaning is that of some specific geographical location. But that cannot be its meaning in Rule 14, since boarding cars have no fixed location and may go anywhere on a division. Moreover, boarding cars are pretty much alike; the men buy their own food and share the expenses; the accommodations are regularized by Rule 58; and the cars may be here today and there tomorrow. For these reasons it would seem possible to construe "home station" in Rule 14 as meaning either a particular outfit of boarding cars, or the boarding cars on the division generally.

Thus far neither the interpretation desired by the carriers nor that desired by the employes can be derived with certainty from the language of Rule 14.

But Rule 14 must be read in connection with the other rules referring to "home station." These are Rules 13, 16(d) (perhaps), 22, and 52. They will be considered in order.

Rule 13 provides in substance that the time of employes called for work after their regular hours:

Thus an-employe must have a designated point (and sometimes more than one), and also a home station. The two are not normally the same.

How would Rule 13 apply to employes on boarding cars if they were called to work after regular hours? Presumably their "designated point" would be their particular boarding car outfit. Their "home station" would also be that outfit, if the employes' interpretation of Rule 14 is followed; in other words, the designated point and the home station would be co-extensive. though Rule 13 evidently contemplates that the designated point would normally be a point somewhere within the boundaries of a home station. If the carrier's interpretation of Rule 14 is followed, the designated point would presumably be the particular boarding car outfit, while the home station would be the boarding cars as a whole on the division.

It cannot be said that Rule 13 necessitates the one interpretation of Rule 14 any more than it necessitates the other.

We do not pass upon the question whether the words "home location" here mean the same thing as "home station." The employes contend that they do, and therefore contend that, since in their view the home station is a particular boarding car outfit, a man temporarily sent from that outfit to to work with another, and not returning daily, would be entitled to his expenses for meals and lodging. But if that were the result, it would be an unnatural one, for, as has been stated, employes on all boarding cars are provided with their lodgings by the carrier and share the expenses of their own food, so that a man going from one outfit to another would normally incur no additional expense for which he should be compensated. Hence, if "home location" in Rule 16(d) means the same thing as "home station," and if "home station" means a particular boarding car outfit, rather than boarding cars generally, the result would be one which the parties can hardly have contemplated when they agreed upon Rule 16(d).

We turn next to Rule 22. This provides that employes attending court, etc., will, among other things, be paid their expenses "while away from home station or headquarters." It is evident that either interpretation of what constitutes the home station of boarding car employes would fit Rule 22.

Rule 52 simply prescribes the form of bulletins advertising positions, and contains a space entitled "Home Station." It sheds no light on what is meant by that phrase.

We conclude that the meaning of Rule 14 is ambiguous and uncertain and cannot be derived with assurance either from its own language or from the other rules. In these circumstances it is both proper and necessary to turn to the practices of the parties as indicating how they themselves have interpreted the rule. The record sufficiently indicates that over a great many years employes have been assigned to "boarding cars" as their "home station," the bulletins not specifying particular outfits; and that men so assigned have been shifted from one outfit to another as the work necessitated, without any claims for expenses or protests until the present claim arose. Instances were shown by the employes of a few bulletins which designated a particular boarding car gang by number, but it appears from the record that in those instances the gang was the only one on the division.

Under all the circumstances we conclude that the past practice has been sufficient to give to Rule 14 an interpretation contrary to that here contended for by the claimant.

FINDINGS: The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, after giving the parties to this dispute due notice of hearing thereon and upon the whole record and all the evidence, finds and holds:

AWARD