That was classic! Reminds of the whole question of physical req's for men
in teain service, actually I should say men & women because when I was with
C&NW this became an issue nationally with the Feds - i.e. discrimination
against women becoming brakemen & ultimately cndrs.
RR's led by AT&SF successfully argued that their req that a job applicant be
able to drag 'x' number of pounds 10 or 12' (the exact weight figure escapes
me but approx. wt of a drawbar) was based, they said, on the need for a
brakeman/person to drag a fallen drawbar out from between rails & away from
tracks by his/herself. The effect was that most women did not qualify but
then neither would some men if the req had been strictly enforced.
As far as not being the brightest lights in a tree, I'm mindful of a fellow
Safety Mgr who I worked with who broke his leg getting off a STANDING
caboose (C&NW thus not a waycar) in Peoria in "80 or "81 - he soon became a
Trainmaster! Scouts' honor!
As for animosity between crew mbrs, in my travels, whether talking to C&NW,
Q (BN), Rock or Milw crews, the further you got from the big cities, the
better everyone got along. Crews away from major terminals tended to see
less of officials, were given more slack in doing things their way to get
the trains over the road, etc so tended to be more team oriented. I think
too if they lived in small towns they were more likely to see each other off
the rails and got along better; ditto for big city crews with lots of
whiskers working the very best local jobs who just wanted to get the job
done with the least amount of trouble & get home @ 5 or whenever. From a
strictly Q viewpoint, as I recall the infamous Mr. Pencil (or whatever his
name was that spyed on crews & others and reported back to Hdq in the 50's)
stayed on Lines East at major terminals. A crew @ Galesburg told me of coal
being dumped on him one night & even a MiC had memories of being spied on as
did some fellows in Creston. Gerald
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