Canadian Railroads > one for "on this day"

Ten years ago today at Exeter BC, this was our power for the day, "pride of the fleet". Generally on the Exeter switcher we had the same unit for the week, perhaps two weeks, then it was swapped out for another unit.  Doug

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How was the Exeter switcher running then? From Lillooet or Williams Lake? No DB on that unit.

The crew was based in Williams Lake, working Monday to Friday. It was intended to operate as such: run from Williams Lake to Exeter, do the yard work in Exeter and then run back to Williams Lake. With CN running the show it did not work that way, quite often we would run south to Exeter Monday morning, once the Work Order Center had the switch lists & billing done, we could finally proceed to do our work in Exeter. 9 times out of 10, we would run out of time to make the return trip by train and we would taxi back to Williams Lake. Usually we taxied back and forth the rest of the week, occasionally we would have time left to do the return trip to Williams Lake.  When BC Rail was operating it's efficient way, the switcher crew would be able to run to Exeter, do the work there and run back to Williams Lake, quite often less than a 8 hour day. The CN way of organizing the paper work for the switcher crew involved work order centers in Prince George, North Vancouver and the billing was done in Edmonton. A question about the switch list involved a phone call to all three offices, hurry up and wait for an answer and corrected paper work.  4 hours work in Exeter quite often turned into 8 hours.  Doug

Doug,
Your insight is very interesting.  What a difference to a Railroad!

Rick

hoggerdoug Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The crew was based in Williams Lake, working
> Monday to Friday. It was intended to operate as
> such: run from Williams Lake to Exeter, do the
> yard work in Exeter and then run back to Williams
> Lake. With CN running the show it did not work
> that way, quite often we would run south to Exeter
> Monday morning, once the Work Order Center had the
> switch lists & billing done, we could finally
> proceed to do our work in Exeter. 9 times out of
> 10, we would run out of time to make the return
> trip by train and we would taxi back to Williams
> Lake. Usually we taxied back and forth the rest of
> the week, occasionally we would have time left to
> do the return trip to Williams Lake.  When BC
> Rail was operating it's efficient way,
> the switcher crew would be able to run to Exeter,
> do the work there and run back to Williams Lake,
> quite often less than a 8 hour day. The CN way of
> organizing the paper work for the switcher crew
> involved work order centers in Prince George,
> North Vancouver and the billing was done in
> Edmonton. A question about the switch list
> involved a phone call to all three offices, hurry
> up and wait for an answer and corrected paper
> work.  4 hours work in Exeter quite often turned
> into 8 hours.  Doug

A perfect example of how a locally managed short line is much more efficient then a mis-managed mega railroad.

PHall Wrote:
>
> A perfect example of how a locally managed short
> line is much more efficient then a mis-managed
> mega railroad.

Tell that to guys like Ackman and EHH ....

 

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

Always enjoy your pictures Doug.  Thanks for posting.  About the quality.....JUST KIDDING!  Referencing another thread.