Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD Award No. 27700
 THIRD DIVISION Docket No. MW-27223
 89-3-86-3-298
 The Third Division consisted of the regular members and in
 addition Referee John C. Fletcher when award was rendered.

 (Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes PARTIES TO DISPUTE:

STATEMENT OF CLAIM: "Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood that:

 (1) The Agreement was violated when Sectionmen D. R. Finch, J. W. Miller and J. E. Asmussen were not called and used to perform overtime service on their assigned territory (Hammer Section 6190) on February 23, 1985 and the Carrier instead called and used sectionmen assigned to Glenna Ferry Section 6189 and King Hill Section 6184 for such service (System File M-133/013-21035).

 (2) Messrs. D. R. Finch, J. W. Miller and J. E. Asmussen shall each be allowed fourteen (14) hours of pay at their respective time and one-half rates."

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

 The carrier or carriers and the employe or employes involved in this dispute are respectively carrier and employes within the meaning of the Railway Labor Act as approved June 21, 1934.

 This Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the dispute involved herein.

At 1:00 AM on Saturday, :~bruazy 23, 1985, an Engineer on an Eastbound freight train reported wz This location is within the territory of Section 6190. The Foreman for this Section was ordered to the site to investigate the matter and noted that track ballast was washing away by water entering-the right-of-way through on old culvert. He contacted the Several Sectionmen from adjacent Sections 6184 and 6189 were called to come to work and reported to the site within 45 minutes. They worke·i fourteen houvs, at overtime rates, that day repairing the tracks. Claimants, who were assig.:--d temporarily to Sect resided too far from the site of the problem and the Foreman needed assistance from employees who could respond in the shortest amount of time.
 Form 1 Award No. 27700
 Page 2 Docket No. MW-27223
 89-3-86-3-298

 There is no question that the Agreement reserves to employees a preferential right to perform the work of their assignments when it is required on an unassigned day that when an emergency exists the Carrier may utilize extraordinary measures in securing employees to undertake remedial action. Accordingly, was Carrier justified in not attempting to call Claimants to report to the site of the emergency?

 Two of the Claimants reside 74 rail miles distance from the site of the problem and one resided 120 rail miles away. These distances, on their face, would seem to support Carrier's contention of unavailability. In some of our other Awards we have ruled that Claimants that resided 65, 50, 47 and as near as 33 miles from the trouble site were deemed to be unavailable.

 In an attempt to minimize time delays inherent in the distance Claimants' would have had to trav Organization points out that the employees used reported 45 minutes after being notified and the driving time from two of the Claimants' residences to the work site was but 45 minutes longer, ergo, an additional 45 minute delay in arriving to work on a project that took 14 hours to complete would be minimal.

 This argument ignores the fact that the individuals used were at the site 45 minutes after being notified. The interval between the time of notification and arrival at t appropriately for work on a winter night as well as the time necessary to travel to the site. On the other hand, the Claimant residing closest to the work site would have needed an hour and 35 minutes just for driving time, if he had operated his vehicle at legal limits on the interstate, to say nothing of the one living the furthest away needing 2 hours and 18 minutes.

 Accordingly, on this record we do not find an Agreement violation when Carrier failed to call Claimants located 74 and 120 miles distant from the site of the emergency for the work required to correct the situation.




                          By Order of Third Division


Attest:~,C4 .Nancy J ver·- Executive Secretary

 Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 2nd day of February 1989.