I started with Chessie System on 7-7-77 and worked in emergencys for the first year. From Connellsville to all parts of the pittsburgh division and never had enough time to learn much about any part of the road.We would drink in Lucys All American bar and restaurant untill we were called. Then stop leaving the yard and get a couple of 6 packs os 16 oz Millers and drink untill we got to our destination. Then hit a bar and drink more and get 3or4 hours sleep and start all over again. The Officials were no different than we were. How we never killed anyone or our selves amazes me untill this day. I later went to Cumberland Md and got married and havn't had a drink in 23 years this comming spring. I still can't understand why the Railroad let this go for so many years and looking back it scares me untill this day. Arthur.
Art, just deleted your double post. Yes, it is very interesting that they weren't on top of it, and amazing nobody was hurt or killed.
Arthur, you and others were very lucky! There was a real nasty haz-mat accident in Livingston, LA a few years back that burned for close to 2 weeks. The cause was (quietly) attributed to copius amounts of alcohol together with a brand new female conductor trainee riding as #3 in the cab ....
I used to work with an older guy who was grouchy and grumpy until he had his "Breakfast" shot of "Old Crow 86". As the morning wore on, he got down right friendly. By noon, if the engine was steaming well, and no equipment problems, he was getting to be happy and fun to be around. By evening, he was allowing me to handle the engine, teaching me tricks about the Johnson Bar, and keeping her steady as slack ran in or out and so on. Most of the time he had me watching my crown sheet, how to keep my balance and handle a scoop full of #9 coal, watch my fire, what to look for, how to keep from over-working my fireman and all that. A really nice patient teacher. If I learned well enough to suit him, I could run her awhile, if not, I shoveled at the rate of about 9 tons an hour, seemed like! When we signed out that night he was feeling no pain at all, and seemed to sleep like a babe in his mother's arms. Next day, the same all over again. One day he offered me a short snort, then jerked it back as I reached for it! He clouded up and rained all over me about don't EVER take that first swallow, or I would end up just like him, and would NEVER get a passenger train of my own! It was that I realized, that must have been his goal in life; to take charge of a high speed passener run! They wouldn't trust him with passengers, only freight. I never saw him drunk out of control, he just sipped a little all through the run. I never drank, but I am a coffee toper of the worst kind to this day!
Times have changed. I would see crews board the Frisco freights at Afton, OK (crew change point for KC-Tulsa freights), and more than once crew members had to be pushed up the steps of the locomotive and into the cab. Granted, there wasn't much to do in Afton (and even much less now) than hit a club & do some drinking. Still it was real scary to imagine these guys in charge of several thousand tons of freight train. I'll bet the head-end brakies were already locomotive- certified before they tried out as engineers. Nowadays, if you're even involved in an accident where Auntie Maude's Packard gets dented by a train, the engineer gets to pee in a bottle (DOT drug screens), and if needed, a breath test (again, DOT-mandated).
