Not to ‘pour gasoline on the fire’ of this subject - or to offend the personalities here - but by way of explanation, this most excellent joke (even my wife understood it !) has its origins in the following:
“Trainmen, conversely, were fond of pointing to their lanterns and saying to the engineers, ‘‘See this light, well it’s yer brains’’, referring to the fact that, when switching, the engineer’s job was to follow signals and not make any independent decisions to move.”
The vest rule went in effect Aug 1st for BNSF train crews. The garments are orange, plastic mesh, tear away type and are required to have reflective tape of a X pattern on the back. Each worker is only given one vest. When these were handed out a couple wks ago, the only sizes ordered at my location were large and small. Neither safely fits me. I need either a regular or medium . I was told its going to be a couple wks before these sizes are received. Real good advance planning. For the time being, I’m not wearing a vest and not yet a member of the glow stick club.
Glow stick club. [#dots] Seems like RRs are the last holdout where people around heavy machinery are not wearing hi-viz gear. At least the last “large” holdout.
I was talking with a hogger about this and he told me that a reflective radio belt probably saved someone’s life he was working with. This was a new guy, wearing a green reflective radio belt, that went between the engine and cars without proper protection or letting anyone knwo what he was doing. The hogger was about to take slack, but luckily, saw the belt reflection and stopped.
I have to wear a vest for the remote job… and I don’t mind it. Many of the hoggers do like them because, as int he example above, it is easy to see where the remote guys are from afar.
CP is the only Class 1 with good vests up here. The BNSF ones look like they were bought at the convenience store and the CN ones are crappy mesh ones.