When nature calls you gotta accept the charges.
A tip of the Kromer Cap, Randy!
Some are born with it, some work to earn it, and some never find it…Chutzpah![English definition] [tup][tup][bow]
You have to be very careful how you take a leak in live rail territory.
Thanks everyone, this has been an interesting thread. Sorry if it offended or upset anyone, that was not my intent, however this is something all of us have to deal with.
Today while eating my lunch next to the rails, having my scanner and ATCS going I noticed a westbound freight not moving when it had authorozation to procede after the eastbound Amtrak had passed. After about 10 minutes I heard the dispatcher call the unit and ask if they were on the move yet. The conductor said “no my engineer is in the second unit”. Dispatcher said “I understand”, and now I do too.
Union and company rules!
Yeah, I know.
some funny comments. Sometimes they need an extra man in the cab or certainly on the rear. Feel sorry for today’s conductors who have to walk maybe a mile or more to find a problem, when they used to meet in middle with rear brakeman. I do remember finding it interesting on the trains in old days when you flushed and saw the tracks rushing by. That had to be messy for MOW crews.
When I worked on the PRR nobody in their right Cotton picking mind would use the great stink hole known as the locomotive toilet. The toilet in the cabin held spare batteries and fusses so, when nature called we would stop the train and “inspect” the air hoses…It was the same on the Chessie(C&O). For the other need we headed for the closest bushes.
There was one exception on a industrial lead where we would stop at a Burger Boy(BBF) and use the rest room and would buy our lunch or a cold pop…
A tale a conductor told me once. He’s still working out of another terminal, the engineer involved has since retired.
One day while going down the track the engineer needed to go down and relieve himself in the toilet compartment. The conductor stayed on his side of the cab. While the engineer was taking care of business, the cab signal went to restricting and the automatic train control audible warning went off requiring action to be taken. ATC gives you six seconds to either press the acknowledgement button if under 40 mph (then have 70 seconds to try to get under 22mph) or if over 40 mph place the automatic brake valve in suppression and press the acknowledgement button. I don’t recall how fast they were going, but the conductor told me he had no idea what to do in any case. So the six seconds timed out and the train got a penalty brake application. The slack adjusted and they got a knuckle and broke in two.
When the manager came out to download the engine to find out what happened, the crew fessed up. Nothing bad happened because of this to the crew. They got a talking to, especially the engineer, but weren’t taken out of service. That manager has also retired. Now a days, the matter would probably be deemed more serious.
Jeff
Perhaps the office toilets should be taken out of service, and instead a supply of porta-potties installed outside of office buildings. And then pass rules that says one must ask permission over the office intercom to stop what they were doing in order to take a dump!
After all, fair is fair.
However, as we know - Doo Doo doesn’t roll uphill.