The Chicago & Northwestern referred to their commuter trains as "Scoots". The commuter train "rush hour" period is known as the "dinkie parade", which pretty well describes the progression of the commuter trains. During both the morning and evening "parades" all 3 main tracks are in use on the "Aurora Racetrack" and believe me, trains are really moved around on all 3 tracks. If one is working an inbound freight to Cicero Yard or some other Chicago destination, Dispatch will try to keep you moving so that you get in before the "parade". Should that be not feasible, chances are that your job will be killed somewhere out on the C & I and you either sit there until you outlaw and are relieved or sometimes transportation will be sent to retrieve you from the super boonies. The whole idea being that dispatch doesn't want slow moving freight trains tying up the railroad for 70mph commuter trains filled with people going to work or home. METRA doesn't like that idea either. Charlie
I worked a day commuter job for several years before retiring(#1232). One of the best paying(3rd or 4th)commuter jobs on the schedule but also one of the biggest "workers"(3 all-stops locals 1 semi express). When new hires were trained,our job would always get students since it demonstrated all the phases of commuter operations(all the stations,cash fare collection,ticket sweeps after departure,yarding and picking up new trains etc). We were paid an extra 10% for handling the trainees. Oftentimes I would get students(BTW all three trainmen would work with the student throughout the day)who had been "informed" by some of the yard monkeys that they(the student) wouldn't like to work commuter trains. I would inform them of what there was "not to like" ie. higher pay than yard work, clean,dry work for the most part, we were only out in the weather going to/from our trains and when we stepped onto the platform at the stops. No 3rd shift work. The opportunity to take a decent meal break and for most of the day jobs, a several hour "respite" to relax, take a nap, maybe go home for I while(I did) or possibly work a 2nd job(a bunch of guys did have p/t jobs during respite). In summertime the "scenery" was excellent(if you get my meaning-we had a lot of women riding the trains). Most of the students agreed with me. and a number of them preferred the work. Railroading...What's not to love??? Charlie
Due to inaction on the part of the PAPUC, STB and FRA, startup has been pushed back to the more-realistic May 1. The bright spot in this? I get more time to save for my move. Dieter Zakas
In honor of Dieter, got any more stories about working with rookies, mistakes, lessons learned, "initiations", etc. ??
I was working an afternoon commuter job,summertime, nice weather. I was the only regular member of that job that night, everyone else was extra board. The conductor was a woman who was chasing her seniority all over the railroad due to furloughs and slack traffic. She had just finished a couple of qualifying/training trips and came to the job with a sort of " I don't need any help, I know what I am doing" attitude. Bad Start!. I offered her my help but she sorta spurned my offer. Well I dont need to be told twice. On our first EB trip into CUS we pull our alloted track and our "confident" conductor opened the doors on the wrong side of the train and a couple hundred passengers walked down the service platform into the lower level(read basement)of CUS. I quickly opened the doors on the correct side of the train,got on the P.A. and told the folks to exit the train on the "other"side. People being the sheeples that they are, just followed the crowd and wound up bewildered in the bowels of Chicago Union Station much to the bewilderment of the employees who worked in the service areas in that locale. During the evening the other brakeman pulled some sort of stunt that fortunately didn't end badly but could have. On our last Westbound trip, the Trainmaster(a woman I had worked with often)came over to me and told me, "Chuck... you MUST be on the platform at every stop and make sure everything is alright. You are the only one on the job who knows what they are doing"! Sadly, I already knew that but that green conductor never did speak to me the rest of the evening. The job ended well,meaning we got the train in the yard without damage or injury to passengers or rolling stock. Charlie
I recall a foul-up that a new brakeman made... On passenger trains an airbrake test is to be performed whenever power or the "ends" of a commuter train are changed. this is done at the respective end terminals. In most instances it is performed by a trained brakeman and engineer. This is not a rule, just a general procedure, approved by the company, to save time. Some engineers don't like others to do it. With me they didn't care since they knew I was a set-back engineer. Anyway the procedure was to have a trained brakeman either in the loco cab or control car cab, whichever was applicable,upon arrival at the end terminals. Once the train was stopped at the terminal, the engineer would cut out the brakes on the loco or cab car(whichever applied),after cutting out the brakes the engineer would give a signal to the brakeman via the communicating bell to cut in the brakes at his(or her)end. The engineer would step to the ground and give a bell signal to the brakeman(1 buzz)to apply the brakes. He would ascertain that the brakes were applied at his end and then give 1 buzz to release the brakes. After ascertaining that the brakes had released he would give 2 buzzes to the brakeman and the test was done. It was really a time saving measure. Fast forward to our "green" brakeman. He was excited about having to perform the break test on this job and we went over the procedures prior to leaving. He was told that we would make a stop at the "Zephyr Pit" to drop off deadheading crews and then continue on into the station. Well.... he was so excited that when we stopped to discharge the deadhead crews, he cut in the brakes at his end in the loco. Well this disabled the brake system in the cab car and the hogger couldn't move the train! He gets on the radio and starts yammering for someone to go check the loco and find out what was wrong(that,of course would be me!). The green brakeman has gone into panic mode cuz he thinks he broke something and now the train is delayed. I knew right away what happened and I got into the loco quickly and undid what he had done. Now the hogger(a VERY excitable guy)is yelling over the radio for me to do this or that. I am telling him that I corrected the problem but he wasn't buying it. After about a half dozen time of me calmly telling the hogger that I had solved the problem and he could move the train, he relented and discovered that he really could move the train. I didn't want to say anything over the radio that would indicate that my newbie brakeman had screwed-up. He was almost in tears from fear and panic!!! If you put something out over the radio about a new guy making a mistake it gets all blown out of proportion and a lot is said and done that needn't be said and done. I just wanted to make it easy on the new guy. The hogger kept giving me a ration of BS once we got into the station, until I pointed my finger at him and told him to settle down. He knew then that he had pushed my envelope too far. He was a good engineer but he thought he knew better how to run the job. I had to give him the ultimate put down once. I told him he only needed to know 3 things... "go east", "go west" and "stop". Just another day in Suburban Service! Charlie
Not sure if talked about before: What about some of the worst people you've had to idea with? Interesting stories, of what it's like!
This may sound funny but the most difficult were actually young lovers! Now since this is a family board, I can't go into detail but there were things that occurred with young couples that are best left behind closed doors. When impropriety is observed it is a very delicate situation to handle, you just can't go up to them and tell them to "knock it off" or "get a room" because that is a really subjective judgement decision to make. If clothing comes off or flesh is bared, then there is a valid reason. Most of the time, and I say MOST of the time it never gets that far. I have had several instances where eyebrows were raised, gasps and stares began and tongues to wag. In a couple of instances the oblivious young couple actually had quite an audience. Of course with the trainmen, this was a good scene of amusement and speculation as to what was going to happen next. On one occasion on an evening westbound I had a group of younger teens(14-16) riding the gallery of the hi-levels and they were enraptured by the antics of a 40something couple on the main level below them. This couple was just about to get a strong suggestion from me but they realized they were pulling into their stop and they detrained. After the couple left I went over to the teens, looked up at them and said "Are there any questions"? This prompted a good laugh from the adults who had unwillingly witnessed this little tryst. The youngsters had a good deal to say mostly along the lines that what they saw was what their parents told them NOT to do. One young man made a rather graphic statement about his disposition but again...this is a family board. I have heard some really hair curling tales about what "lovers" have done on the trains from other crews. I have personally witnessed some hard core hanky-panky from a passing freight train but that is only for back channel. Some of the young adults were difficult to deal with due to their suburban brat attitude that they were superior and destined for glory and success. They looked on us as low wage blue collar grunts. Little did they know! When I was working, our household income was equal to or greater than that of half of the 'burbs we served! I mostly ignored them except when I asked for their tickets. Mostly people were indifferent about their commute as long as they got to work or home on time. I became friends with a lot of regular riders and knew a lot more by sight. This was helpful when they forgot their ticket or passes since I knew they were a regular and I could "overlook" their unfortunate situation. As an engineer I didn't get all that personal contact but I did get a better view of what was going on outside! LOL Charlie
Reflecting back on my time on the River Line between North Jersey and Selkirk, New York... I had the pleasure of working with a couple of engineers who were themselves railfans, but not "buffs," which was a pejorative term we rails used for non-employee railfans. One fellow, a tall guy named Vinny, liked to mess with buffs' photographs of the engines he had. Railfans generally prefer certain things about locomotives to be a certain way for their photos, so Vinny liked to mess with them when coming upon a known railfan spot. One of his faves was to prop open the front door on the engine. Another was to really mess with fans who had their DSLRs up to their eyes, framing the shot. He'd yell to them that the lens cap was on, they'd lower the camera to check the front of the lens, and consequently lose the shot. Another fellow, Ralph, with whom I even worked regular on a pig train out of Little Ferry, sometimes liked to hang out of the cab window as though he were dead. :-D Then there was the time we brought our cameras along. One thing about working on the railroad is that you're essentially working in a fishbowl, as Ralph described it. You get it from all sides, from management to the railfans along the right-of-way. This one day, when we brought our cameras, we kinda had some fun with the buffs trackside. On one occasion, as we approached a railfan on my side of the train, I got my camera and aimed it at him aiming his camera at me, as though I were going to photograph him photographing me. Dieter Zakas Recovering Railfan
Steve Lee, who used to head the UP steam program, would do things like that. On an excursion south of College Station returning to Houston in 1995, we had a photo run by. Everyone who wanted, got off the train and made a well organized photo line. The train backed up and came roaring by. Steve stuck a cardboard cutout depicting Bartles and Jaymes is in the cab window.
Great stories here , some one should compile them all into a reader and the profits go to the author/s , and to support TB . Especially Charlie and Russell , in fact, all of us could contribute a story or two, else we loose these to the past and the future never know how much fun we had growing into retirement, how much fun rail fanning is and what the " rails " were like " back in the day " ... Thanks again to all that have shared these " moments in time " with us .
Howdy everyone! Just to let you know that Lent is over and I'm back. A very Happy Easter to those of you to whom it is relevant! I'll be right over here in the corner if you need anything! Charlie
Charlie: I have a lot of reading to do to catch up. Always great stories. This time, instead of just reading, I am going to tell a second-hand story. One of the UP engineers who lives here in San Antonio came by the club and told me this story. I was asking if engineers and train crew get sufficient time off after an accident. His answer was "yes" and that he had to have some time off himself. In fact, one time he did not have time off was when he was running the midnight switching job at a local industry. He was transiting the area to the job and ran over some guy sleeping between the tracks. Well, this is bad. He and the conductor knew thew were going to see a mangled body along the track plus call the authorities, etc. In sum, the job was probably over for the night. They walked along the track and could find nothing! Search everywhere and there was nothing. This was a big six axle SD40-2 engine. They walked back to the front steps and he finds this guy wedged between the back of the front truck and the front of the fuel tank! He had a few scratches but was otherwise unhurt. They wanted to call for some paramedics but this guy refused help and just went on his way to find another place to sleep. He was very skinny and had gone all the way under the plow and the first truck. Great relief and unbelief for the train crew. Anyway, I thought that was pretty amazing.
