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Chuck
That is the same thing they would ask me as a train dispatcher out on a road trip. But you did not have to keep a black book to get to know who would work with you or not. While working the Ottumwa Div. (about 5 years on 2nd trick while in Galesburg) the company changed who was to sign the orders from the Chief DS to the dispatcher using his own initals. Mine being SJH but the problem with the radio it would come out FJH so I started to use Sam John Henry. So after coming back from a week or two vacation I give my initals and some one comes on the radio very happy and says "Sams Back" IT always helped that the train crews would work with you. Steve in SC From: Chuck Hatler <gnhistory07@live.com> To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thu, August 23, 2012 11:46:56 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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