I hate to see this forum gathering dust and my buddy Watash has been after me for months to post some of my trips soooo.... Going back to the first days of the NS/Conrail merger (or meltdown, depending on your point of view), I was an extra list engineer and sometimes conductor. The phone never stopped ringing and we were out on our rest every 8 hrs. for months trying to undo the gridlock. I was called one morning for a dogcatch job just to go out and relieve parked trains up and down the line, wherever the hours of service law had killed them. I knew we were in for it. First order of business was to taxi me and my conductor 40 miles west of the terminal to drag in a coal train that went belly-up early the night before and had tied up a siding ever since. Found the train after a short search (incorrect location info). Had to wait a couple of hours for a window to open so we could go east but eventually got a green and hopped ahead 2 sidings where we tied the train down again and got back in the cab for the next phase. After a long caucus with the dispatcher and the yardmaster, we rode out to another dead eastbound. This time only a few miles to a stack train with a long-gone hrs. of service crew still aboard. They sure were happy to see a taxi as they'd been sitting for about 5 hrs. after their 12 and were just about to start foraging in the woods for something to eat. The engineer casually mentioned that only two of the 4 engines were running, one was out of fuel and another had so many electrical faults that it wouldn't load. So much for a fast trip, good thing we only had to take it 70 miles to the next terminal. Once again, we waited an hour or so for a light to go east. Finally the last westbound sailed by and we got moving. Not too far as it turned out because I looked back out my window and saw sparks from about the 6th car, stuck brakes and a sliding wheel. The conductor went back and cut out the brakes and got things rolling again. At least the wheel didn't get flat spots, we caught it before it got that far. At last we pulled into the terminal and handed off to another crew. Now the question was how to get home? Another long conversation with the powers above got us a taxi but in the wrong direction. The STO ordered us to go about 90 miles further east to get another outlaw and bring it west. A heated discussion between him and the conductor about our rapidly dwindling time got nowhere and into the taxi we went for another ride. After a lengthy search (incorrect location info again) we found the parked stacks and saddled up with about an hour left to work. You could almost hear the dispatcher shaking his head as we told him we were ready to go...but not very far. We got right out this time but only managed to get to the next siding about 20 miles away before we got too low on time to go any further. Tied the train down and then the fun part started. We were in the middle of nowhere, our taxi was long gone, no more were available except for the local cabs that didn't have RR radios and so would never be able to find us. Hours went by until the conductor decided to walk out to the nearest road to see if he could flag a ride to a phone to plead our case. (no cell service either). He came back a short time later out of breath and claiming that he thought he'd walked onto the set of 'Deliverance' before he got a quarter mile into the woods. So much for that idea. Eventually a beat up old Chevy taxi drove right up the right-of-way and told us he'd been looking for us for about 2 hrs. but nobody knew how to get to us. He finally just drove along the tracks until he found a likely looking cowpath and went cross country. Hey, it was ugly, the exhaust leaked into the car, the guy really, really needed a shower, but it was a ride. It did quit before we got home but at least he could talk to his dispatcher and we got another van to meet us and take us the rest of the way before all the oil drained out of the old Chevy. That one call set a record for me that stood for a long time...21+ hrs. on duty. It took a coal train from hell that only moved 3 miles in 12 hours to break it, but that's another story.
By doggies railroadin' hasn't changed too much! The Management isn't any smarter, just younger! (snicker snicker) I often wonder whatever happened when the Canadian "Zebra Striped" power pulled his entire double stack string under several over-passes and bridges that were smashing all the containers as he went?
How true. Sad. Four or more years of alleged higher education. Then directly placed into managing a business. With no idea what the business is about. If RR leadership ever awakens, and starts using brain cells again, they'll re-institute the internal promotion ladder. Moving people slowly from the bottom up. Until then, we'll be reading these stories. Boxcab E50
A rumor? Is it true that a certain railroad is seriously considering hiring High School graduates that are proficient in MSTS to train on a simulator to run the remote controlled engines soon? They would be non-union since they would NOT be engineers, because they would only "Control" engine movement in repair facilities (to start), then be promoted to "Controllers" limited to controlling engine movements within yard limits only. Mainline "Control" would all be done from a main office computer for from point "A" to "B" as full trains (called "Transport Modules") which eliminates all need for human "Engineers" all together since there would be prime power at both ends. If this is true, then they are farther along with the DCC of real trains than we were expecting the systems to be developed when we were designing them. They were not to be on-line until 2008! Would that mean seniority would be the guy who had the oldest remote control box? Wow, progress? [ 13. November 2003, 18:48: Message edited by: watash ]
