Pete,
I totally support Petes discussion of the intimidation factor. MY
recollections of getting my "axx" ate out for various missteps by"the old
heads" is
still very clear. While the "rules are the rules" the quickest way to get
yourself labeled as a problem or smartaXX was to question an old hoggers or
conductors judgment. It's just a fact that newer men are still trying to figure
out
who,what,how and why much less make rule judgements.
I'll never forget the chewing I got at the CNW xing at Rochelle one night. I
was still getting ripped when we went by Oregon. Those things stay with you.
Shoot ! My own grandfather intimidated me one day at age 8 or 9 when we were
in the "Alley" and I was nieve enough to say that I couldn't understand how
they could have worked so much O.T. with so little to do ???!!!!!!!
I think that was my first "shanty education lesson" before I even was old
enough to be employed.
I still recall clearly a certain (unnamed old heads') response when asked
about his thoughts on the cause of the of the Naperville wreck. He knew the
brakeman who pulled the air on the lead train; because"he thought he heard
something under the train,the dumb aXX".
The there was the time we went around the "horn" from Savanna and a certain
father/son engine crew got in a family fued about Ebner and missed the
"meet". They and the two deadhead crews onboard would have all been dead if
the
west bound train had been waiting on the main.
More times than not the rules worked. This is a true incident from the C&I
in the mid 70s w/a much less traumatic outcome. We went to work at Cicero on
one of the westbound night semi hotshots. We had a rare 6 man crew this night
with a fireman and student engineer. So I was riding the second unit due to
lack of seats in the lead unit. There had been an eastbound wreck of an ore
train a few days before at Milledgeville causing a 10MPH slow order on the
west siding switch. We came past Kraft cheese at the east end of town with
the
needle pointing right at 60 mph. I agonized over whether to pull the air or
not. As we swayed across the east siding switch I made up my mind that
regardless of the fallout I had no choice but to dump the air as we were never
going
to get down to anywhere near 10 MPH on the west end. As I stood and
struggled across the swaying cab the air went into emergency. When the hogger
asked
the waycar "did you do that" there was a one word answer. "Yes" Nothing more
was said until we got to Savanna and there was a "frank" discussion in the
locker room.
Leo Phillipp
**************Who's never won? Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on
AOL Music.
(http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?ncid=emlcntusmusi00000001)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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