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Thanks Chuck for your perspective...As a "middle..actually quite low" management person..Asst. Trainmaster I would agree 100% with your assements of the "bad VS Good eggs"...I've got a couple of anectodal accountss to relate regarding this topic, but I don't have time to work on them right now, but here's one on the subject of "Coniving with the Cash fares"...I always strive for alliteration, but can't always make it work out.
From 1908 1917 my grandfather "traveled" as what were known as "drummers"...ie traveling salesmen for the Lincoln Drug Company out of Lincoln, NE. His territory was western Nebraska, Wyoming South Dakota. He claimed to be the first man to drive an automobile in the State of Nebraska as a traveling salesman, but most of his travels were via CB&Q passenger, freight and mixed trains. Through this early association with the Burlington he made personal friendships with many of the traimen, dispatchers, Trainmasters, Superintendents etc. These connections served him well as to "getting things done" when he was President and General Manager of the Rock Port Langdon and Northern RR from 1917-1946.
He often told the story about...One day he was on the passenger train which ran from Bridgeport NE to Guernsey WY.
The conductor came through the train after taking up his tickets and sat down by my GF. He was in a "grouchy" frame of mind and GF asked him what was the matter...
Conductor's response..."There's a show in Guernsey tonight....and wouldn't you know it that "EVER S O B on here has got a ticket'!!!!! I don't think he used the initials...but since this is a family oriented forum...I'll leave the proper interpretation to the reader.
I'll take questions from anyone who doesn't "get it"
Pete
-----Original Message----- From: Chuck Hatler <gnhistory07@live.com> To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thu, Aug 23, 2012 10:46 am Subject: [CBQ] Re: Fwd: Fire Insurance Efficiency tests Doug and All,
Random Tests or Not Random Tests?
This is from the perspective of somebody who was inside an office, involved with crews on a daily basis (crew planner, aka the ‘screw planner’). We also talked to lots of field managers daily, and very occasionally went out with train masters testing (‘fun’ the first time, a pain in the butt after that because it was on our ‘days off’).
Most testing was random, unless someone had come to the attention of the officials, then, yes, they were observing you. Not to say they were gunning for you, unless you had developed a reputation for something, ie, the cheating fare collector or the drinking crew.
And no matter how tight you folks were with your brother train and engine men, if you were consistently a bad boy, somebody was going to turn you in, for their safety, or just because your actions had interfered with their life once too often.
When I met people out in the field, they would ask if I had a little black book? Nope, did not have a list, either. However, there were certain names that kept coming up, when things would go wrong, or not according to plan. Lo and behold, in talking to the managers in the field, and even to other crews, those same names kept coming up in conversations. In other words, if you were a bad boy, and you were obstinate, or liked to break knuckles to show how you ran things, the dispatchers knew who you were, the trainmasters knew who you were, the crew planners eventually knew who you were, and all of your fellow railroaders knew who you were, and in really bad cases, your brothers would even go so far as to drop a dime to the FRA so they knew who you were. Imagine having p o’ed that many people before you even got out of bed!
The opposite of that was a fellow that called me one morning when I was a crew caller. He needed to lay off for his vacation, from a yard job. I did not recognize his name. I had never heard his voice before (and when you are only dealing with people over the phone, you learn to remember and recognize voices before you even hear the person’s name, as soon as they ‘hello,’). I had to go into the system to look him up. There on the screen was what I needed to know, and I did lay him off, and wish him happy vacation.
This fellow never laid off sick, never had discipline issues, never missed a call, he just showed up 50 weeks out of the year, no matter how cold or hot, snowing, blowing, burning hot, no matter how the fish were biting or the deer were calling, took his two weeks vacation, and then came back and started all over. And, yes, he was an older head. I don’t think he was number one on the seniority roster, but he did hold a daylight Monday-Friday switch engine job.
Chuck Hatler
KC MO
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