[:D][:D] This is funny, Recently while at my friends house his dad called from kansas city missouri (he works for UP) and told him that the van driver took the other crew back but forgot to take their crew! His dad used to work for a shortline (K&O) and they were never late to go out or get in! even with sharing a 2 tracks with UP and BNSF![^]
I am not surprised. It is easier to organize a small organization than a large one.
Also remember the van is a contractor, not part of the UP. The railroads are often at the mercy of the van company and their efficiency.
Dave H.
just like waiting for the city bus, sometimes you’re early, sometimes it’s late, sometimes it never shows up…happens every now and then, good or bad.
Most of the Railways around here just use Taxi’s.
I always see crews heading down to Roberts Bank.
It’s always the same Cab company, so I would assume that they have an agreement.
Many times I have waited for a van that was ordered by the railroad, but the contract van company never dispatched a driver.
Jeff
Ha ha ha ha…the ppppooooowwwwweeeeerrrrrr…I loooooove to make the railroad wait for meeeeeeeee…
…no, not really, I’m usually on time except when I get a call telling me I have to be 30 miles away in 15 minutes…
Geez Nora…it’s only 120 mph…get a grip…it’s not like it was 150 or something…
Nora-
What’s the latest on your return to training?
LC
On one of my transcontinental train travels, while the RGZ was still running, I had a sleeper Oakland - Ogden, and the D&RGW was suppossed to have the van waiting for me and any other passengers at the Ogden station. The SP got Amtrak into Ogden on time, I had about a two hour wait alone on the wood bench very early in the morning before the van’s schdule departure, and after 15 minutes after its scheduled departure time the ticket agent told me he would call me a cab. The cab driver said “This happens frequently. Would you rather go to the airport?” I said “Let’s try and make the train in SLC.” He said he had an account with the van company, and I need not pay him a cent, but I gave him a dollar as a tip, anyway. He drove directly onto the station platform and I got out of the cab with my hand luggage in my hand the very moment the D&RGW conductor was lifting up the stepbox to put it on the vestibule floor of the dome-obs car at the rear of the train, with the other doors already closed! Was it Silver Sky or Silver Planetarium? I’ll have to check NEVER ON WEDNESDAY to be correct.
Two states, side by side, with towns named the same within roughly 100 miles of each other, more than one town named the same within the same geographic area, both on the same railroad but not the same district. More than once, a cab dispatched to a town went to the wrong state.
Another scenario is getting a cab driver who knows more than the crew does, to the point of risking an ugly argument. Usually, the cab driver is insistent on taking the crew to the wrong place but, if he wants to argue, you let him do it because you don’t want the argument to turn ugly.
These things don’t happen too often but they do happen.
Nora is right, It’s just a big power trip. “I don’t care if my prime mover is smaller, I’m in charge now”.
LOL.
Jay
LOL, Mark, that is a good one…
Flashback to 1997. An OIBU pulls up to the old Erie Division point at Port Jervis, NY. Next to the looming gables of the old station is the Conrail crew terminal in the old brick freighthouse. The Gang Mills based crew is just off its rest and includes an Engineer, Conductor and two trainees an Engineer Trainee and a Conductor Trainee and stands outlined in the light from the open door. As the train pulls up it is obvious that the Tier has again been provided with the scrapings of the Oak Island (pronounced Joke Island on the Tier) engine house. A GP40-2 in faded Conrail blue leads followed by a cabless B30-7A in BN green. No room at the inn for the whole crew. As least senior, the Conductor Trainee puts his grip in the cab (van) and assists the Conductor with a quick roll by and set and release and EOTD test.
Then for the long ride home (206 RR miles). The driver assigned by D&T Transportation to the outlying point of Port Jervis was a quirky fellow with stringy hair and odd glasses. He has arranged to meet a van from Gang Mills enroute to transfer his passenger as he must return to Port Jervis to handle a crew expected to arrive there the following morning.
Off the intrepid pair go into the night. Exhausted from the previous night’s trip (a whole other story) the Conductor Trainee nods off as they travel scenic NYS Route 17 through the Catskills. He awakens with a jolt just as they stop at the famous Roscoe Diner (with the NYO&W museum by the off ramp) in Roscoe, NY. Back on the road after a sandwich and cup of coffee, the conversation turns to the Driver’s belief in extraterrestrial life and episodes from various Star Trek and other Sci Fi genre movies. Just about the time when the Trainee is convinced that the driver is likely an alien himself, the radio crackles to life with the D&T dispatcher advising a meet somewhere in the Deposit area is likely. We stop in Deposit, NY some 20 minutes later and wait, and wait and…
Aft
That’s quite a story, Mark, I would have to wonder about his faith after that.
Scary thing is, all the D&T drivers went right to Renzenberger when D&T went under.
Had a crew one night called out of their away-from-home terminal to relieve a train at Point A, Indiana about 100 miles away. Within 30 miles of the Away-From-Home, is the town of Point A, Ohio. The driver insisted to the point of ugly argument that he knew where Point A was, even though the crew told him he was taking them to Point A, Ohio. He took them to Point A, OH, then he couldn’t find a railroad track anywhere. Meanwhile, the crew being relieved were very unhappy to find out the driver had been out riding around needlessly. And, the conductor got told by railroad supervision that the driver was in charge of the cab, even if he’s wrong, ridiculous though it may be. Go figure.
I have something that a CN engineer told me. He was getting a crew change in Jordon and he was waiting for a taxi. It was snowing so it was pretty bad road conditions. The first taxi was enroute to get them but the taxi ran off the road. The train crew called dispatch and told them that the taxi hasn’t come yet. The taxi company sends another taxi and it gets stuck into a snow bank (no snow plows have gone through yet). Finally another cab comes to pick them up but can’t get to them because their train is fouling a crossing that should have been cleared a long time ago. They end up having to walk to the taxi. Mean while, the taxi with the new crew was trying to get toward the train.
He told me that a year ago so I can’t be sure I remember it right but it took them an hour and a half to get a cab to the train and another 2 for the relief crew. Not the railroad’s fault really but I thought I would share the story anyways.
As to what’s going on with my job search, I interviewed for a jitney driver position with NS today. Guess I’ll know by Monday how that went.
I’ve been told all kinds of weird things when I’ve gotten called to work. I’ve been told to go to Enon, OH (which is near Dayton and not even in the territory I normally travel) when what they meant was Enon Valley, PA (about 10 miles from me). I’ve been told to go to Sharpsville, PA (which I’ve never even heard of) when they really meant Sharpsburg. I’ve been told that CP WOOD is in Conway Yard, when it is actually in the town I live in, 15 miles north of Conway. I always check if something sounds fishy, and if the crew says they’re going somewhere different I get my dispatcher to check with the railroad. More often than not the crew is right, and I don’t get paid for extra mileage on the van, just for the set mileage to wherever I’m supposed to be going, so I don’t want to waste time and lose money.
Once, I got to Harrisburg on a trip, dropped off the crew, and called in to work. At the time I had only been to Harrisburg twice and it had been a case of drop the crew off and drive back home both times. This time, they had another trip for me. They wanted me to pick up a crew coming off a train in New Cumberland, which turned out to be a suburb of Harrisburg, as far as I could tell. I work out of Conway Yard and I am really not familiar with Harrisburg, other than to get to the yards and back out.
My van does not have a road atlas in it, and the map book of RR locations that is kept in it didn’t include any detailed maps of Harrisburg, since I don’t work out of there. I called up my dispatcher, who put me through to someone who gave me directions. I found the routes they were talking about, but the route they told me to go north on was an east/west route, and the route they told me to take east was a north/south route, so I was already confused – and the person giving me the directions is in Kansas City so they had no other info to gi
AHA Another reeeeally good reason for scheduled railroads!! But then, what would be the fun?
Jay
I heard this second hand. One time a few crews were deadheading from Boone to Clinton, Iowa. They were about 20 miles from Clinton when they were pulled over by a deputy sheriff for some reason like a tail light out, something minor. Anyway, the driver sitting in his seat, gets into an argument with the deputy. Some of the crew try to tell him to calm down. The officer finally gets disgusted and starts to walk back to his car to write a ticket. The van driver, gets out (without being told to) and starts back toward the officer. The officer tells him to get back in the van. The driver dosen’t, keeps arguing with the officer, pushes the officer a bit. Big mistake. They said that deputy had the driver on the ground and the hand cuffs on in nothing flat. One of the crewmen called to report the situation, to get a replacement driver. The officer had another officer come out and he waited with the crews until they were able to send out a replacement driver.
Needless to say that driver no longer is with the company.
Jeff
That’s part of the problem, those dispatchers are in Kansas and they’ve never seen Pennsylvania, most likely, or Kentucky, nor do some of them realize that the remote places that crews go to don’t have payphones to return calls every five miles (talk about something disappearing from the American landscape!) Also, they seem to think that it’s as flat everywhere as it is where they are and “It’s only that far on the roadmap” seems to be their thinking
The Class I’s or at least CSX in their efforts to ‘drive out costs’ have contracted to third party ‘transportation’ companys to provide for the ‘over the road’ crew transportation needs of the corporation. What a farce!
A multi-billion dollar corporation having it’s operations held hostage by a ‘gypsy cab company’. A company that is understaffed by third world nationals with US drivers licneses and are on call for minimum wage or less and have the geographic knowledge and understanding of a turnip. Yes they are ‘driving costs out ot the operations’…in their dreams, once you start ot factor in road overtime, and the other waste factors associated with having crews hung out on thier outlawed trains, or dog catcher crews waiting for transportation to their dog lawed trains, all the while the clock is ticking on the dog catcher.