Leo
I neglected to say in my note re your reading the orders.......? You may have
come close to committing the "unpardonable sin"...I was never guilty of such
egregious behaviour.....
That sort of "temptation', I found out later after going to work for the RI did
not exist on all railroads....On the RI two sets of orders and clearances were
delivered to both ends of the train...It was kind of nice since there were some
"old head" engineers who didn't consider those such as I "worthy" to partake of
the contents of the orders.?? I can recall more than one instance where I had
to "could I see the orders please" and the OH would reluctantly pull them out
of his pocket and allow one of the great unwashed to peruse the sacred
documents.
After picking up orders "on the fly" I always handed them directly and still
folded to the second named addressee without delay.
As I recall in the example I cited in my post I had to make a formal request of
George every time we got orders...He was reluctant to give them up and I
?thusly was, shall we say, 'scared" to offer comment or initiate discussion.?
In perusing the old ICC accident reports I observed on several occasions that
the engineer had not shared or discussed the contents of the orders with the
fireman or head brakeman...This was certainly foolish on the part of these
guys.but again...THAT'S HOW IT WAS.
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: qutlx1@aol.com
To: cbq@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, 5 Feb 2009 9:47 pm
Subject: [CBQ] Intimidation Factor
The intimidation factor also worked as a positive force for learning and
complying with the rules:
One morning I'm an extra man filling in as the rear brkmn on an eastbound
dinky out of the "Hill Yard" back when you had to check the order board at
Farnsworth Ave to confirm running orders for your train at Eola. The "middle"
man
was also an extra man and as the middle man it was his responsibility to
check the order board and grab orders at Eola yard office as we went past. As
usual all three of us were comfortably situated in the rear coach as we would
piddle along for some time before the first passenger stop. The middle man
didn't raise himself off the cushions as we went over Farnsworth and onto the
main. Here comes the positive intimidation factor.
Ed Metz"the grand pubab" was the "boss" on this job and when the middle man
didn't move Ed softly inquired as to whether he was going to "check the board
or not" the guy responded he didn't see the need "since every train got
orders". Ed proceeded to rip this guy w/o mercy quoting rule word for word and
letting him know that too many men had died not paying attention to order
boards. Further if he didn't want to comply with the rules he was free to get
off at Eola. Needless to say the board was quickly checked and orders caught.
Wish somebody would write a book about Ed. Ed was the Condrs "griever" for
many,many years.
Second positive case of intimidation:
One beautiful spring day I'm the head man on one of those tie everything but
the yard office on extra easts out of Savanna, around the horn. At Denrock
we slow and I line the switch for the Mendota branch and stay on the front
platform until I grab the orders. There's a healthy pile of them this day and I
return to my seat in the cab and read them. I then hand them to the engineer
with a comment about one or two.
I then returned to my seat.
What do you think happened next ? Clue.... Who are orders addressed to ?
I'll wait for a bit before telling "the rest of the story"
Leo
**************Who's never won? Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on
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