I’m a foamer and have never worked on a RR. I’ve been on several excursion trains and have learned some on this board. But what are common bad habits of RR employees?
Historically -
Alcohol - Nicotine - Caffeine - Profanity - Complaining
Can’t imagine they’d be any different than the bad habits of any other kind of employee.
Worst habit? We keep working for a railroad…
Got the whine, who has the cheese and crackers?
People are people and they have bad habits. Probably no different from any other employers problems.
Not being a RR employee, my guess is the worst “habit” or trait is not being thankful they even have a job in these times.
Probably fraternizing with foamers.
Ah, yes…the good old days–when railroading was fun.
You never heard any @#$%^! *&^%$! profanity from this @#$%^! railroader! [C] You guys always keep stereotyping us [B] upstanding [B] (cough! hack!) guys and gals!
Oh, yes, we’re terrible! I should be dead by now, but real railroaders are survivors!
If you really want to hear Whining just go to a truckstop and listen to the Drivers in the Lounge for a few minutes. Then you hear Whining ask them about the DOT and cover your EARS. Better yet say your a DOT trooper but be wearing your Asbestos Underwear.
probably no different than the bad habits of the population at large…although railroaders are probably more punctual and more detail oriented than most people… they have to be…
I’m curious about why you would call yourself a foamer…isn’t that a derogatory term?
From the ones Ive worked with, the majority of the guys just in it for a job (dont like trains) hate their job, constantly b***** about it, and are rather ornery. The guys that do like trains are GENERALLY alot more upbeat and dont whine so damn much. I will say there is nothing better than a rail b****fest though!
Same in any industry though. Hate your job=complain. Love it=not so much.
I took the question to mean more like bad ‘operating’ habits, such as failing to set hand brakes, “short flagging”, careless operation of the locomotive, not allowing enough time for switching, goofing off, etc.
But here’s what I think of the latter part of BaltACD’s list from above - which are not bad habits, but necessities ! (IMHO) [swg]
Caffeine - to stay awake and alert;
Profanity - to demonstrate that one is awake and alert;
Complaining - to demonstrate that one is paying attention.
Someone once wrote that “After the requisite amount of [female dog]-ing and moaning”, they proceeded to get to work. That was written by a person who’d been around the railroad - it comes with the territory. Often the guy you should worry about is the one who isn’t complaining - either he’s not paying attention, doesn’t understand, or he’s about to leave you, etc. By complaining you at least know that 'his head’s in the game". But then, I learned early on to not take it personally . . . [:-^]
- Paul North.
Yep, what Paul D north Jr said.
I didn’t know that being thankful for a job means you can’t complain about it’s bad parts…
One thing about bad operating habits is that they tend to catch up to you. Sometimes the results aren’t pretty.
For that reason, you won’t find a lot of people with bad operating habits. They may complain about rules and procedures, but at the base of it, they want to go home and have a job to come back to. So they’ll ‘take the safe course.’
Bad life habits, yes. Personal hygiene comes to mind…
There are worse jobs than RRing. In the 1980s I was working in a meat packing plant and one morning I walked into the locker room and said “Hey did any of you guys see America’s Most Wanted last night?”
The whole plant emptied out and half of them never came back.
I do not know how many passenger conductors would be guilty of violating Rule H now, but I recall an MP conductor who had a can that he used as a cuspidor at his seat. I’m sure he was very careful when interacting with the passengers tht his violation was not evident.