Several years ago I was working a weekend "dinkey"(METRA commuter train on the BNSF "Aurora Race Track") as the rear collector(brakeman/flagman) it was on a Saturday about 2 or 3 weeks before Christmas. The conductor was called from the extra board. Myself and the middle guy were regulars. The hogger was extra board too. METRA was running a series of special trains on weekend called the "Polar Bear Express". This was a series of trains that would allow a visit with Santa at the Aurora Transportation Center where the children would be given treats. Some of the trains even had volunteers providing entertainment on board the trains to large groups who had pre-reserved for these "Polar Bear Expresses". The entertainment would be carolers or dancers or a youth performing group. This particular Saturday our train was to be picking up a group of 150 persons,adults and children,at the La Grange Road station in La Grange Illinois(a rather affluent,mostly all-white western suburb)who would be taking advantage of one of these special trains. Our weekend line-up sheet told us we would be handling a large group,but didn't say specifically which train it was. The Trainmaster also told us, at the platform at the ATC,that we would have a group pick-up but couldn't remember which train it was. Prior to our leaving Hill Yard we had our job safety briefing, and this is a crucial part to my story. By rule crews must have job safety briefings before beginning any job and at any time when the job has any changes to it. The job briefing is especially crucial on weekends because the engineer wants to know where to spot his train. Not all of the cars are necessarily open on all runs on any given job so it is critical for the crew to be aware of how many cars will be open and when. This way the hogger knows if he can spot any cars off the platform and spot his train where the passengers are. When the TM reminded us about the group movement, we had another briefing with the crew,including the hogger! This is another crucial part. At any rate, on a WB run we were deadheading the last car. We were holding this car free for our anticipated group. We pulled into La Grange Road and sure enough there was a group there. It didn't appear to be a very large group from my vantage point at the rear of the train. I was on the platform and was heading toward the rear car. I was going to activate the emgergency trip on the door control and board the group that way. We had the doors controls cut out for the last car since it was deadheading. This was normal and SOP. Also it is desirable to have the door controls disabled when operating a "private" car to prevent anyone from boarding or leaving the special car. As I was heading to the rear car, I heard the middle guy tell me to forget it, that this was not our group. I headed back to my car. We pulled away without picking up this group of people and continued with the rest of our day. Later that day when we were tying up the job, we got a call from the TM wanting to know why we left our group behind at La Grange Road. Well, needless to say, the stuff hit the fan. We all got investigation notices. We were to discover that the middle guy asked the group leader if they were the group that we were to pick up. This group spokesperson said that they were to take the "Polar Bear Express", our guy said that we weren't an "express" train but we were to pick up a group at La Grange Road. The spokesman said "Oh No! we want the "Polar Bear Express" and then looking east and seeing an approaching headlight said,"Oh there it is". Our guy said "Well, you don't want to ride with us then? The spokesperson declined. At any rate this WAS the group we were to pick-up,but you cant force someone to ride if they dont want to AND nobody ever mentioned that our train was a designated "Polar Bear Express", which it really wasn't, it was just a cute name given to any train which was taking folks to see Santa Claus at Aurora. These folks had to wait another 2 hours for another train to take them to Aurora,which they didn't realize until someone had the smarts enough to check the printed public timetable. The approaching headlight they saw was a freight train not the "Polar Bear Express" they were expecting to ride.Needless to say they didn't go to see Santa and the EASTBOUND train they were to ride left Aurora without them. This train was one that had entertainment scheduled for this group. These performers played to an empty house! At the investigation we learned that the suburban matron who had organized this group(allegedly containing "underprivileged" children) called every person on the railroad she could talk to PLUS she called the local consumer advocate on a local TV station and was going to expose the railroad as a heartless corporate criminal. We also learned that the carrier was able to squelch the story and also made SIZEABLE donations to the group organizing the tour and the Girl Scout troop that was to provide the entertainment on the EB trip. What the carrier neglected to tell us was how they expected to run 100+ children past Santa Claus and dole out the goodies in the 20 minutes that elapsed between our arrival at Aurora and the scheduled departure of their EB train.(BTW we arrived on time). While the company officials were telling us about the headlines they managed to avoid, I was tempted to tell them that I had a headline they could use, ie "150 Overprivileged White Suburban Children Denied Chance to Visit Santa by Heartless Railroad" . I wanted to tell them that they could take that headline to "The Chicago Defender"(a black advocacy paper) or "La Raza"(an Hispanic publication)and see how that would go over with them! I surpressed that desire! The Carrier was trying to get us for failing to hold job safety briefings. That went out the window after the first 30 minutes of the investigation. The rest was all a fact-finding mission. There was no disciplinary action taken. The carrier realized that their instructions were too vague and not even the TM knew exactly when or where we were to pick up our group. Our particular crew took a lot of ragging for that fiasco and the carrier tightened up on their weekend line up briefings. It is amazing the crapola that some affluent,bored suburban do-gooders can cause when things dont go the way they want them to. My Grinch story... CT
The general public can be quite a bunch of duds.... mg: :sad: But they definitely made a lasting memory for you. Boxcab E50
Thank You to all for your gracious replies to my stories. A Most, Happy,Healthy and Prosperous New Year to you and yours! Charlie T
