John H. Dorsey, Referee


            (Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen PARTIES TO DISPUTE:

                        (The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company (Chesapeake District)


            STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood of Railroad

            Signalmen on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company (Chesapeake District) that:


            (a) Carrier violated the current Signalmen's Agreement, particularly Rules 59 and 27, when it did not reimburse Signal Maintainer Hal Harlow for meal expenses he incurred on December 21 and 23, 1969.


            (b) Carrier now pay to Signal Maintainer Hal Harlow the amount of $3.30 as reimbursement for the expenses and as a consequence of the violation. (Carrier's File: 1-SG-280)


            OPINION OF BOARD: Claimant, an hourly rated employs, was employed by Carrier

            as a Signal Maintainer with Headquarters at Allen, Kentucky a prescribed assigned territory. His hours of service were 7:30 A.M. to 4:00 P.M., inclusive of a 30 minute meal period. Saturday, Sunday and holidays were his regular days off duty.


            At 2:15 A.M., Monday December 22, 1969, Carrier experienced a derailment in the vicinity of R. C Claimant's assigned territory.


            At 2:45 A.M. on December 22. Claimant was called to perform service relative to the derailment. He continued to work that day until his regularly assigned quitting time for a work day: 4:00 P.M.


            On the following day, December 23, he reported for work at his regularly assigned starting time day until after 7:00 P.M.


            At the end of December Claimant filed a Monthly Expense Report in which he made claim for: (1) $1.45 for breakfast for the day he was called at 2:15 A.M.; and (2) $1.85 for dinner for the following day when he was in service from his regularly assigned starting time of 7:30 A.M., until after 7:00 P.M. of that date. He and Signalman, in the handling of the Claim on the property, cited Rule 27(b) as contractually applicable. That provision, in pertinent part, with emphasis supplied, reads:


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                            Award Number 19739 Page 2

' Docket Number SG-19441

                  "(b) Hourly rated employees performing service requiring them to leave their home station and no the same day sent out or who leave before 6:00 A.M. and/ or return after 7:00 P.M. on the same day, will be paid _ , Necessary actual expenses will be allowed for all meals, lodging, and sleeping car accommodations secured while sent away from home station under this section,"


          It is Carrier's defense that: (1) there was an emergency -- this is not questioned --; (2) the work performed by Claimant was not off his assigned territory; (3) the words "home station" and "headquarters" are not synonomous; (4) Rule 27(f) is a specific rule which prevails over Rule 27(b) and, therefore it is the applicable Rule; and (S) since Claimant did not perform services off his assigned territory he was not entitled to be furnished meals or actual expenses in lieu thereof.


                  Rule 27(f), with emphasis supplied, reads:


                  "In emergency cases such as derailments, floods, snow blockades, fires, and slides, employees taken away from their camp or boarding outfits or off their assigned territories will be furnished meals and lodging by the railway company or actual expenses in lieu thereof."


                  We call the attention of the parties to; (1) the Claim as filed

          on the property was for breakfast on December 21 and was not questioned in the

          handling of the case on the property -- Carrier in its Submission gives the date

          as December 22; but the date of occurrence, we find, is not a fatal variance

          in our adjudication of the ultimate issue -- we have accepted the date of Decem

          ber 22; and (2) Carrier has raised a number of issues which were not handled on

          the property in the usual manner; but were responded to in Signalmen's Rebuttal

          Submission -- such we dismiss.


            The instant dispute involved a derailment but did not involve an employs (Claimant) being taken off his assigned territory.


            A comparison of Rule 27(f) and Rule 27(b) does not convince us that it is a specific Rule which unequivocally prevails over Rule 27(b).


          Rule 27(b) specifically provides that "Hourly rated employees performing service requiring them A.M., and/or return after 7:00 P.M. on the same day, will be paid "Necessary actual expenses .., for all meals while sent away from home station under this section."


          There is no evidence in this record that there is a distinction on the property between the meaning of "home station" and "Headquarters". Both convey the idea that each is a point at which an employs reports for service


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                  Award Number 19739 Page 3

                  Docket Number SG-19441


and is relieved from service. This is a rebuttable presumption; meaning, it can be overcome only by substantial evidence of probative value to the contrary.

 In the instant case the record supports our finding that Allen, Kentucky, was Claimant's "home s Consequently, we find and hold on the basis of the facts of record that Rule 27(b) -- not Rule 27(f) -- is the applicable Rule.

        FINDINGS: The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, upon the whole record and all the evidence, finds and holds:


        That the parties waived oral hearing;


That the Carrier and the Employee involved in this dispute are respectively Carrier and Employee within the meaning of the Railway Labor Act, as approved June 21, 1934;

 That this Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction aver the dispute involved herein; and

        Carrier violated Rule 27(b) of the Agreement.


                      A W A R D


        Claim sustained.


                          NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

                          By Order of Third Division

ATTEST: erd · J ~I
        Executive Secretary


Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 11th Say of May 1973.

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