Guys, I have to tell you one more part of the switchman equation at the
Hannibal yards. As you may recall in an earlier post Hannibal switchmen had a
daily mark up by the men who held regular jobs. We called these guys white
tickets because their name was written on a white Burlington Route hat or seat
check that was used on the passenger train so the conductor knew where a person
was to get off. That white ticket was placed on the mark up board that hung on
the wall of the yard office. Us extra men had red tickets with our name penned
on them and they were placed on the open holes we were to protect. I remember
boxes of these colored checks laying around the yard office filled with all
colors. Each regular man had assigned days off and they bid on them two times
a year. Of course the oldest men usually got Saturdays and Sunday off and the
youngest regular man was stuck with split off days on Monday and Wednesday.
Now you can imagine what he usually did on Tuesday, he would mark off or lay
off as we called it and only work four days that week. Not a very good
arrangement. Archie
----- Original Message -----
From: Archie
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 11:16 PM
Subject: Re: [SPAM][CBQ] Human Side-Forced
Leo, The way it worked for the Hannibal conductors was the oldest conductor
that didn't hold a pool turn as conductor was forced out of town to a St Louis
assignment while younger conductors got to stay in Hannibal and work on the
conductor's extra board. This was the reason many conductors gave up their
rights and became drones. This situation was finally turned around and the
youngest promoted conductors were forced out of town but not until the mid
eighties. When that happened, you should have heard the drones squall. BTW the
hog board I was refering to at Hannibal was set up for the switchman's extra
board. The oldest extra switchman was first out every day and filled any
vacancies until he got his five days in. When I transfered from Galesburg, I
was used to a rotating extra board where you went to the bottom of the board
when you finished a shift and took turns working your way up to first out
again. Imagine my surprise when I didn't get called out for over ten days. I
would call the crew caller and he would say I was three times out, and the next
day when I called he might say I was five times out. Like Phil said, a guy
could starve working like that. After a year of fighting that hog board and
three years in the Marine Corps I came home and found myself first out on the
hog board. I was moving up in the world. Archie
----- Original Message -----
From: qutlx1@aol.com
To: cbq@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 7:34 PM
Subject: [SPAM][CBQ] Human Side-Forced
Almost forgot about the biggest non incentive to take the promotion to
Condr. Once you were "examined" and if you had the lowest brkmns seniority
date in
your newly promoted group you were subject to being "forced". Forced meant
the youngest examined man was literally forced to fill the job that
absolutely
no one else would take. You stayed there until someone else bid the job
,bumped you off of it or a new group gets examined.
This usually meant filling some minimum pay night local at an away point for
extended periods of time.
Congratulations on your promotion !?
Leo Phillipp
**************The year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy
Awards. Go to AOL Music.
(http://music.aol.com/grammys?NCID=aolcmp00300000002565)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:CBQ-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:CBQ-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
CBQ-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|