While at one of my favorite train watching spots today, I noticed the engineer of a BNSF locomotive smoking in the cab. Is this OK?
I have never seen a railroad rulebook that prohibits smoking in a locomotive cab. I guess if it is ok with the other members in the cab then it is okay to smoke. You have to check with the individual railroad.
Probably wouldn’t even be noticed in a lot of GE locomotives.
It’s against the rules on CSX and probably most railroads. I know of one case where a conductor got time off for a violation although it’s not enforced very strictly,especially if both crew members are smokers.
There have been fistacufs over it on CSX, both participants were removed from service.
Especially understandable, in this day, and time when militancy on an issue seems to be the rule rather than the exception. Smoking has become a cause celebre in many quarters. The smoker is isolated, and somewhat ostrasized from others, who do not enjoy the habit. My little brother was a militant smoker who most likely earned his own unhealthy reward from the habit. [sigh]
Thanks for the insights. I smoked a pipe for more than 30 years; I gave it up 27 years ago. I don’t have a problem with smoking; I was just interested in learning what rules if any applied to smoking in the cab of a locomotive.
On my last cruise, which was a one week cruise that turned into a two week cruise thanks to Harvey, I frequently sat close to a guy who was smoking a cigar. I love the smell.
The Union Pacific policy on smoking (which I can no longer connect to from my home computer) at least used to be that there was no smoking–period–on UP property. Hardly enforcible, and undoubtedly the cause of many blind eyes being turned. But that was meant to include all offices and locomotive cabs, as well as outside areas.
A couple of anecdotes. When the CSX’s Dufford Dispatch Center was opened in Jacksonville, smoking was permitted at the dispatch consoles. With the center’s original
There was a similar progression at the federal facility where I worked - smoke at your desk, then to the break rooms (one for the admin folks, one for the wire people), then down to one break room, and finally outside, where they got a “bus stop” enclosure to keep them out of the weather (an important consideration in the dead of winter). There are still smokers, but their numbers seem to be dwindling.
One bone of contention on the topic was the heavy smokers, who seemed to take a 15 minute break every hour, while the non-smokers toiled away at their desks.
More than once I heard stories in the army that guys started smoking when they saw that smokers were getting breaks that they weren’t.
Depends on what they were smoking…[:-,]
Here in Ontario, no. And as usual… we’ve taken it to the illogical extreme. A couple of years ago an owner-operator truck driver got a fine for smoking in his cab. His truck… he was the only one in the truck… [*-)]
I remember reading on the Reading and Northern website they have a strict “no smoking” policy, both on the property and on the trains.
Who knows, it could be for practicality. Maybe it gets them a break on employee health insurance costs?
I was talking to a crew member on a ferry boat in Canada this summer and his theory is that if someone smoked in the 1930s, 40s and early 50s it was due to ignorance. They didn’t know that smoking was harmful. Now if someone smokes it is just ignorant.
New Jersey Transit has a strict policy against smoking by train crews, and it’s enforced. Since many engineers may operate several trainsets during their worday, it would be easy for someone to notice a violator.
Posted by runnerdude48 on Saturday, September 16, 2017 10:13 AM I was talking to a crew member on a ferry boat in Canada this summer and his theory is that if someone smoked in the 1930s, 40s and early 50s it was due to ignorance. They didn’t know that smoking was harmful. Now if someone smokes it is just ignorant. |
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There is a song from World War 1 that includes " if the Camels don’t get you the Fatimas will". Both popular cigerate brands.
Tried both - back in the day!
I remember reading an item in a 1970s era issue if Railroad Magazine. The item dated to the early 1900s. It seemed that some railroads would not hire and might fire cigarette smokers. Other forms of tobacco use were OK (pipe, cigar, chewing tobacco) but not cigarettes.
Jeff
One must remember that at one point, cigarettes were being advertised as being more or less healthy.
Credit Stanford University for both of these images.
