I was at the local model RR clubs weekly ‘meet’ night and nothing was out of the ordinary. Some of our members are RR employees or retirees. They usually have great and sometimes bizarre insight and stories to tell. However, this time one of the members asked a RR employee what he thought of some EMD engine he used to run that he’d mentioned once before. The resultant tirade would have made a sailor blush. I’ve never heard someone lay into another human being like that before in my life.
The constant reference was something like “If you &^*&%$$ railfans would stop @#$@ing standing around and @#$&**ing watching me work and get a job you’d notice how *&%$ing hard we work. We work in all weather conditions all &%@#ing year and you think the job is cool because all we do is play trains? GET A *&!@ing clue you stupid…”
This continued on for a while while the poor fellow who asked the question stood there dumbfounded. Finally he, the guy who went on the tirade, was asked to leave and left. My question is this: if the job is so gosh darn hard and stressful, why don’t you quit? He’s a modeler too and has been known to go on extended railfanning trips so I don’t see the difference between what he does and what the ‘rest’ of us do. Thoughts? No, he said he hadn’t had a bad day. In fact he said that he was off that day and the previous one.
How “hard” he works??? Unless he’s a ‘gropo’ (groundpounder) or a ‘mudchicken’ (track worker), he does not work hard. Operating a locomotive is stressful, but not physically hard.
Perhaps HE should get a life, or at least perhaps realize life is more than just working.
I’m sure there are a lot of RR employees that feel like this. Then again there are a lot who “enjoy the attention” I guess you would say. I guess everything has it’s ups and downs. [2c]
Railroaders are people too and just about anything can cause just about anyone to go off (even me, LOL). You don’t know his personal situation, perhaps he has bills he can’t pay or his wife is sick or told him to move out. Kids having issues or some jerk cut him off on his way to the meeting…
No way of knowing. Sounds like the question was just the straw that broke the camels back for some reason…
Sounds like he had a bad fan encounter, very recently, since his Popeye-blushing reply had nothing at all to do with the question…either way he owes the group an apology before he’s allowed back to any meetings. If he values his time there I suspect he will, otherwise why was he there in the first place even if he was so angry???
He spends his off hours in the company of those dadgummed railfans peppering him with pesky questions who get a salty antifoam treatment in return…maybe it was one esoteric question too many over his safety valve rating. Argh…we all have our moments of infamy. I am sure he would really go postal if he knew you posted his behavior for all to comment upon. Would’nt you? Update us if you find yourself hogtied to switchstand-gagged.
LC makes sense. Vsmith I hope he does. wally he may react that way, which is his choice. I didn’t speak ill of the man personally and am seeking opinions from others as to their thoughts on that behavior. That’s my choice.
I totally agree with Limitedclear, their was certainly more behind it than just the question. I have been asked many questions by railfans over the years, although sometimes at inconvenient times (switching, applying hand brakes, collecting revinue, etc.), I would always try to find them an answer.
To be honest, some of the questions forced me to look them up in the special instructions, as I hadn’t a clue as to what they were asking me lol. So in some respects, questions can be beneficial to everyone, providing the time and place is convenient.
Maybe he had a run in with a Road foreman or Trainmaster, that would certainly explain alot lol.
Hopefully the next time he attends a function, he will be in better spirits.
It’s interesting reading this right after reading the latest Trackside with Erik and Mike. The engineer in one of Bergie’s pictures was so enthusiastic and light-hearted about seeing a railfan while this character acted like he despises railfans.
I generally don’t see very many engineers and conductors that seem too crabby. Usually, if I wave I get at least a little wave back and sometimes a couple honks on the horn. This guy must have just recently had a bad experience with some railfans. Yikes!
One would think that if he was attending a gathering like that, he would have tempered his remarks. One would also think that attending a gathering like that and letting others know he is a genuine working rail, that he would want to present a positive image. Perhaps he did a Bobby Knight and had heard one stupid question too many, by his perception. He should forego the railfan meetings for awhile.
I’ll never forget the Rock Island engineer who saw me when I was a a teenager.
I was out there by myself in the early morning taking pictures of the Peoria Rocket about to leave for Chicago at 7:00 AM. He got down out of his perch, came and got me and gave me a tour of the inside of his E unit. Steam boiler to cab. Gave me some old trainorders to boot.
Your freind probably just met a railroader having a bad day. Who knows? His wife may have just walked out (been there), he may have had trouble with a supervisor, or a railfan may have messed with him.
A Very Wise Man once said “Turn The Other Cheek”. If the railroader keeps it up, you’ve got a problem, otherwise, just turn the other cheek. And accept an apology. We all need to make them from time to time.
I hope I misunderstood a sentence in the original post. It sounds as though “Dumbfounded” was asked to leave, and did. Surely it was “Meanmouth” who needed to leave.
Anyone can pitch a fit, but I imagine I, too, would be dumbfounded, even realizing that I didn’t trigger that emotional fusillade.