Hey Jen, as you brought up the subject of parties,
since you are rather centrally located, perhaps you might consider hosting a party for you fellow forumites. We could all kick in an appropriate amount of $$. I’d be willing to drive from Wisconsin… Perhaps if there was a county park somewhere near the tracks we could rent?
Probably a dumb idea, but that has never stopped me before.
Thanks Jenny.
Bring a shovel.
Ok, heres the short version. Night time yard crews screwed up.
Friday night top end crew shoved a track out into the side of the bottom crew, who came on duty right after me. The top crew shoved a tankcar of corn sweetener/syrup into the side of a cut of covered hoppers, loaded with plastic pellets, that the bottom job was dragging out to switch. The tank rode up on top of the first hopper, destroyed the hopper and derailed it, then the tank rolled over the next two in line, destroyed them also, fell down parallel to the track, and ripped the sides out of the next six hoppers, all the time leaking syrup all over the place. The bottom crew was still dragging the track, because the cars never fell over, just derailed, but kept on rolling on the ties, so we ended up with plastic pellets, covered with syrup, everywhere, three destroyed turnouts, 300 feet of ties and rail twisted beyond salvage.
Of course, the FRA has to come out and see, and they bring a EPA guy with them, because of the corn syurp. Seems if all that had gotten spilled was the plastic, we could have dug a pit and buried it, no problem, according to the EPA guy. But, the corn syurp is attracting bugs, ants and such. And the gulls form the ship channel, along with a few million dumb pigeons, are flocking all over the place, eating the bugs, and the sweet plastic pellets. Seems it is a hazzard to the wildlife to bury the stuff covered with the syurp. So its ok with the EPA to bury millions of pounds of non- degradable plastic pellets, but a bio- hazzard to bury the corn syurp with it, because it will create a huge ant pile, and the brids will eat the bugs and few stray pellets left. So we have a contractor out there, with a huge tank truck, vacumeing up all this crap, and hauling it away to a EPA certified land fill. So we can bury plastic, that wont decompose for a 100 years, but cant bury corn syurp, which will decompose and be gone in a month.
Oh, and we have to wa***he ballast also, to re
[:D]Bureacrats, can’t shoot em, and can’t barbque em.
And their ugly as all get out when you stuff them and mount them on the wall.
Stay Frosty,
Ed[8D]
Isn’t this just a hoot! Poor Ed - a true blue collar working man! I thought this might help relieve a little stress on YOUR job! Mine looks like sandbox play, now.
Kevin - like maple syrup - it is used as a sweetner. It was possibly corn syrup - all in the same family. I do hope you do eat pancakes up north? Karo is actually a brand name for a sweet syrup.
You know something Joe,?
If we were allowed to decide on the disicpline given out, we might fire these guys outright. the part that makes me, and most of us really mad is, they did it the correct way in one track, providing point protection. And then went to the very next track, and shoved it blind, even after being told it was full.
Now, what if someone had been riding on the side of the hoppers, or had been standing there next to one of the switches, waiting to line it for the first kick, and the hopper had fallen over, not stayed upright.
What these kids did was risk the life of the bottom end crew, to save a few minutes work. Not to mention the total cost of all of the repair and clean up, the lost business, because the people who need the plastic are out of luck, and either have to wait for another shipment, or buy it somewhere else, and wait for our insurance to pay them.
Of course they are out of service right now, awaiting the invistigation, which will be short and sweet, (ha ha) they both have admitted to shoving blind, but claim they never heard the radio call telling them the track was full. but the tapes show them acknowledgeing the call, so…
I dont take risk with other peoples lives, and take a dim view when others risk mine. But I wasnt there, so what I feel is just that, my feelings. But if I was one of the night crews on the yard bottom, I would be really POed at them, and let them know about it.