Just wondering about when the abolute worst time you railroaders out there got called to work. Did you miss something, had no sleep, sick, whatever…
After tying up ten times out with nothing showing then going out with friends/family for a “night out”, walk in the door and the phone rings…Six hours (on my “rest”) .
To add to the experience, the call is for the all-nighter wayfreight, and the caller telling me the conductor is marking up on his first trip.
Did I mention that it is 34 degrees out and heavy rain is falling, expected to change to snow overnight, with 6-8"expected, with winds of 40+mph.
Have a nice day.
1AM-
The worst time in the world-
Two realities of railroading.
Expect movement in any direction on any track at any time.
Expect to be called on your rest at your Home Terminal - no matter how many times out you where when you put off!
34 degrees is pretty warm …try -34 deg. So cold the skin on your hands will freeze to the handrails.
Randy
The worst time I ever get called is when I don’t want to go .
Randy
I have been called at so many bad times, I really can’t pick just one…
Probably what’s worse is when you are at the away terminal and they don’t call you for 60 hours or so…
LC
no time is ever a “good” time to have to go to work…lol
csx engineer
Well, like, duh–use gloves.[:D]
Coldest I ever experienced was -28F, with wind chill of -80 (65mph breeze).
Seriously, though, I have read in various survival books that more people freeze to death in temperatures between +30 and +50 degrees farenheit. Supposedly because at the colder temperatures one does not get as wet due to the precipitation being frozen already. But a rain at 34 degrees will soak you with a cold so numbing that in a short time hypothermia sets in. Granted, the books were targeted more towards the average person away from his office job going out for a mountain hike, as this type of person would not be as familiar with the effects of weather on the body in extreme conditions as those of us with real outdoor experience.
Much like these other folks, the worst time I ever got called was when I had family over all day and I was probably 10 times out. After a long day I am tired and go to lay down…RING!!! I’m called for a train, luckily it was just a solid and empty sulftur train going back to Canada, so all I had to do was ride.
I waited for a call and no one called!
Moo…
LOL, that never happens to me…“LC, NS crew dispatcher…where can I send you tonight?” is more typical…
LC
Mid-night, 6 inches of snow, and the trouble call is over 60 miles from home because the HBD is alarming on all the trains.
Anytime after you get home and you decided on that night to watch a little tv, go to bed at 11pm, called out at 11:30pm, because now, according to the Hours of Service Rules, “you’re rested” and ready for a new 12 hour shift. [xx(]
I can sympathize with the railroaders on worst times for a call… My fire/EMS pager can’t tell time. Sleep, dinner, a good movie, whatever. No 8 hours rest, either. And the worst part is that it’s not notice to show up in an hour - when it goes off you’re already late.
I had to go to the bathroom so I missed KCS unit on a train. Not work related but railfan related.
9pm was the worst time for me. Just in enough time to not go to bed. But let me tell you a story from when I was on the engineers’ board on the South Shore Line.
I was in the company of a young lady one Sunday evening. I called the dispatcher around 11pm and he said, “4 times out, nothing showing until next afternoon.” Whoopie! I said. We concluded our date around 2.30am. Just as sweet repose crossed our eyes around 3am the phone rang. I answered,'Ye eee ss." The dispatcher yelled,“Surprise!” and called me for the 2nd passenger job out in the morning for 4.30am.
Mitch
9pm was the worst time for me. Just in enough time to not go to bed. But let me tell you a story from when I was on the engineers’ board on the South Shore Line.
I was in the company of a young lady one Sunday evening. I called the dispatcher around 11pm and he said, “4 times out, nothing showing until next afternoon.” Whoopie! I said. We concluded our date around 2.30am. Just as sweet repose crossed our eyes around 3am the phone rang. I answered,'Ye eee ss." The dispatcher yelled,“Surprise!” and called me for the 2nd passenger job out in the morning for 4.30am.
Mitch
If you keep at this for a long time, you can’t hardly begin to name all the bad times but I have to agree with whoever said 1 AM. Anytime from about 8PM until 1 AM is a terrible time, early enough in the evening that you haven’t gotten to bed yet or couldn’t go to sleep because you couldn’t do anything but toss and turn, or just a little later so that you’ve had a brief nap and all you can think of is how you wish you could get more.
How about being roughly 100 miles from your reporting location and trying to make it on a hour-and-a-half call, when you weren’t really planning on getting out. That’s a bad time to be called, too.