Back in the early 70's the Milwaukee Road, to cut costs, implemented a situation on a smaller mileage scale. The LaCrosse Division East End freight pool was 92.9 miles between Milwaukee and Portage,WI.. The pool ran first in first out both ways with five trains each way with two transcon freights,two Twin Cities/Chicago freights and the Wisconsin Valley trains. There were patrol assignments between Portage/Madison and Portage/Watertown/Sun Prarie,WI.,the later being west end crew work. The Milwaukee decided ti eliminate the Patrol assigned crews and used east end crews on their layovers at Portage....hence, if you worked a pool freight west out of Milwaukee and were first out at Portage at 0700 the next morning you would be called for a trip to Madison or a trip to Watertown...both returned to Portage. At Portage you again went to the bottom of the heap and if the next morning you again were first out at Portage (the away from home terminal) this invaribly could and usually did continue all week until the off days of the patrols which were SAT and SUN. Needless to say, the situation was a week away from home, pissed off crews/wives and an issue that the east end was doing west end work. The situation lasted only a few months as a section six notice(strike) was served on the carrier and things went back to normal. If I remember the reson the carrier capitulated was not that they could not assign side trips to pool crews(they could)but that the Milwaukee board crews were taking Portage board work and I believe that was the issue that saved the day. Nowadays...don't know if the end result would have been the same.