Just heard on the line. Wow. Anybody have any details?
Well this has been a long time coming. Probably inevitable once the WC takeover happened. There were a lot of skilled craftsman who worked in North FDL who kept the Soo and the WC going.
This is an excerpt of an article from the FDL newspaper from last November:
November 27, 2002
“About 84 employees in Canadian National’s locomotive shops in North Fond du Lac and Stevens Point were informed Tuesday they are losing their jobs. About 30 of those workers will be able to get jobs at the company’s repair shop in Homewood, Ill., said Mark Hallman, a spokesman for the company. Rising labor costs and a slumping grain hauling market in the United States and Canada prompted the cuts, he said.”
Dave Nelson
Dave Nelson
CN is also curtailing operations at Battle Creek, on the former GTW. Westbound trains will no longer be classified there, and about half of the yard has been taken out of service as a result.
Gee, it a good thing the CN is so profitable…otherwise news like this could make one thing that they are losing business.
Sure sounds like typical management mentality: let’s get ride of all of these skilled technicians, never mind that these are the techs that kept the old WC units running as well as they did. We can worry about tomorrow later.
Wasn’t CN expecting an increase in business through Wisconsin once the purchase of the EJ&E goes through?
I’m pretty good friends with a couple of conductors there. Both have said that this story will surface from time to time as a rumor to get folks fired up to keep their jobs (work harder). According to what they’ve told me it’s rumor as none of the crews there have seen anything official on this.
How would CN make/break trains for points beyond? Neenah isn’t big enough to take up the volume. That means Milwaukee or Green Bay I think.
Makes me wonder what will happen to the shops… 2 roundhouses, and shops with a transfer table. Any locomotive rebuilders out there???
Phil
This is more of the rumors of Fondy - the place is haunted by hordes of them.
Even TRAINS magazine printed a “farewell” photo of the N FDL tower in, IB, January 2007 issue. Of course, the tower is still being used - wears the marooon awning stamped with the golden WC crest. [(-D]
The “new” digs for those tower employees near the shops buildings only existed on paper - no drywall, phone lines or bottles of Excedrin! [#oops]
CaNoodle manglement also tried shifting the crew change point to Neenah months ago. Believe that experiment got flushed down the porcelain throne by reality. [censored]
The tiny yard in Waukesha is gone - there’s NO CN yard in Milwaukee. Not unlikely CN will barter the few remaining Milwaukee county customers on the Saukville sub to the WSOR geese.
They won’t - Neenah, while far more efficient with the upgrades of teh past 2 years - does not, as you said - have the capacity to break, classify, and build all the traffic currently done in the twin yards of Shops.
Where does CN plan on classifying their westbounds then? There is at least 4 that go to Toronto that I know of.
CN seems to reduce Battle Creek operations about every 2 years then they figure out it doesnt work, so it is re-opened. I am not familiar with the operations at Battle Creek, but am wondering if the reduced auto business is a factor in this.
ed
Well, I can understand maybe the auto sector not requiring as much rail service due to restructuring as so forth but I have seen pictures of other stuff besides the strings of auto parts and auto racks in there and some of it must be going toward Chicago and likely enough for at least one train-can’t all be going east can it? There are some stuff in that yard I have noticed that have had to be made up in Chicago because of the company names on the covered hoppers for example. Plus, isn’t Battle Creek their main yard facilities in Michigan?
I’ll see these guys tonight and ask what they know.
This is a sad story for me as hanging out with a McDonald’s burger at the old Soo Line shops in Stevens Point was one of my very early railfan experiences back in the 1970’s. Since then the Milwaukee Road and it’s Wausau facilities have closed down, the GBW is no more, the old C&NW shops in Wausau are closed (I think), the ex-Milwaukee Road main line down in southern Wisconsin no longer is double tracked…AND NOW THIS!!! Bad day at Black Rock my friends.
This will definitely hurt. Having gone to college and lived in the Fox River Valley (in the "real world) for 3 years, I spent quite a bit of time watching the action around the North Fond du Lac facility. Steve Singer, a great guy and a maintenance foreman for the WC gave me a personal tour of the WC shops and everyone I met there was so upbeat and full of optimism about how well WC was doing. They’d just acquired the ACR (a former ACR SD had just arrived on the head-end of a mixed freight from Chicago), and things were looking great. Now this. Waiting for WC freights at the downtown grade-crossings in FDL and Oshkosh was never an irritation for me (not even the really slow FRV freights that seemed endless in length). I may have to get out there for one last look and one of those jumbo cheeseburgers at Friar Tuck’s.
Perhaps this is the fallout from CN executives missing out on their annual bonuses, after the OR rose to 63.6 from 2006’s 61.8.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080204.RCN04/TPStory/?query=cn
If any changes come to CN yards once the EJ&E merger goes through, it will be more reductions. They are already planning on significantly reducing operations at Glenn, Hawthorne and Schiller Park yards in the Chicago area with business moving to Kirk and Joliet Yards. The rest of the non-intermodal part of Homewood yard will also most likely be turned to intermodal.
Here’s what I heard tonight:
Apparently the crew morale at Shops has plummeted. Some of the reason for that is pay, some they wouldn’t say. Apparently the crews are ‘choosing’ what and how things are geting done and these behaviors have gotten to the point that it’s interfering with operations. It’s caused problems elsewhere on the lines. What those problems are and what the crews are doing/not doing wasn’t specified. I was told: “The guy right under Hunter (Harrison) was at Shops today (2/7) observing, and he’s pretty upset with what he saw in the yard & heard from crews he talked with. Sounds like some folks may be out of work soon.” The folks that told me this say these rumors float around from time to time but “They’ll (CN) never do nothin’.”
That’s all I know.
The Railroad is too busy to actually cut back on workers. They can try purging employees, but the company will become anemic. The Top CN Management must always think the company is too fat when in fact the company is too thin. They must have a distorted view of their company’s body.
Andrew
WIAR … Friar Tuck’s, Now that’s good eating, and drinking also. Have you heard anything about an overhead going in on Pioneer Road ? Don’t get back that often any more.
I’ve not heard anything to that detail - assuming you mean overhead crossing signals on Pioneer Road? I’ve been away from Fond du Lac since 1993 with my last visit back around 1997. Maybe the WC guy on the forum from FDL can answer that question.
I also have a question about the WC/CN in Oshkosh: The CNW had a small yard located on the east side of Oshkosh, south of the Fox River bridge near the marina. Did the WC or CN close that yard, or is it still there? The FRV (while it was still limpin’ along) stationed an old, low-nose GP7 still in its CNW colors there for switching the local industries.
I am going to have to get out that way again soon - those cheeseburgers are beckoning.
That yard is still there, I drive past it daily. There’s usually not any power ‘stationed’ there. Most of the cars haven’t moved in a while and are storing things (pellets?) for some industries south of town or are sitting empty. A very under-used site IMO.
On a side note I thought it was stupid for CN to rip up a lot of the siding from New York Ave NB as I see trains south and north of town sitting waiting for a hole in traffic to move. Seems that CNW, FRV, and even WC were better at moving trains thru here!