Railroaders' Nostalgia > Crew Calling & Excuses to Lay Off

I called crews on the Chicago & Northwestern and the Toledo, Peoria &
Western. Usually these railroaders would call to lay off with no
problem, unless there just were not enough men to cover the job. It
was times like these that some pretty innovative excuses came to
surface for laying off.

Some with little imagination included the guy whose grandmother had
just died for the tenth time. I remember of a crew caller trying to
get a conductor to come to work, on a job other than his own, and his
wife told the caller he was out getting a haircut-this was 3 in the
morning! The best one that happened with me was the engineer that
called and said, "I have to lay off-my sister just got hit by an
airplane!" I marked him off, and wrote down the reason he gave me on
the crew sheet. The traveling engineer just had a fit when he read
it! The best one I heard of was on the Toledo, Peoria & Western. An
engineer notified the caller months in advance that he would have to
be off on a certain date for his daugher's wedding. When it came time
to lay off, the caller told him that he could not, as there was no
one to cover his job. A few hard words followed, especially since the
hogger had given the railroad plenty of notice. Finally he asked the
caller, "What would you do if I was dead?" The caller replied, "we
would have to find someone else." "Fine," said the engineer, "mark me
off dead for 24 hours!" And that is what they did!


Roger Holmes

While furloughed on the Soo Line at Shoreham in the early 80's I went over and worked for a few years on the CNW out of the Twin Cities until the Soo needed me back. Once, while braking on a CNW "Omaha-West" Chain Gang pool turn, my Conductor called the Crew Caller upon our arrival back in the Cities after being gone for about 4 straight days and wanted to lay-off for 24 hrs upon our tie-up. At that time, you could be gone on the road for up to 6 starts at a time on those Omaha-West turns before returning home to your home terminal, and with grain running, many of the crews had worked upwards of 90 straight days without a day off. Upon hearing his lay-off request, crew-caller Carol said she didn't think she could do it, but asked for his reason for wanting to anyway. My Conductor, who's name was Roger, replied..."I wanna get my wife pregnant.". Carol laughed hysterically and said..."Ya know what, that's the best reason I've heard yet, you're off!!". Upon hearing this the Engineer, standing nearby, said to the Conductor...."Hey Rog, gimme the phone when you're done." So, Roger said goodbye to Carol and handed the phone to the Engineer who promptly told Carol..."I wanna lay-off too." Carol asked what his reason was for his request, to which he replied..."I'd like to help Roger!!!" Carol again laughed hysterically, but told the Engineer he'd have to let Roger go solo on that request. True story.

I have worked around some who were dead,while at work!

Uncle Joe-Seffner,Fl.

The crew-callers always snickered a bit when I would lay off as an Engineer to go chase a train... === === = === JLH

Regarding the last entry: One can imagine a crew caller responding, "Whatsa matter, our trains aren't good enough for you?"
Also, the term crew caller evolved from "call boy", an "entry level" job which got many young fellows their first railroad employment. Now, "call girl" is something else entirely! When I worked for the railroad, we had a female crew caller on second trick (there's a word with multiple meanings for you); if anyone had identified her as a "call girl", she probably would have decked him.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/12 19:09 by DNRY122.

This is good stuff. I've used excuses during my career, but nothing as outrageous as what we've heard from Q4960 and SooLineHoghead. Let's hear some more.

We had a conductor, "Sarge" Brown who worked out of SLO. He was a "bit" over pension age, short and big. His voice matched his nickname.

Well, one night he was called to go west to Wat. Jct. He asked who the brakeman were and it turned out to be two gals that had just marked up a few weeks previous. Well, old Sarge told the crew dispatcher, "Lay me off". The crew dispatcher, Renwick, (who would turn his own mother in) refused. Sarge told him to mark him off sick, Renwick refused. Then Sarge told him to go F### himself. He told him, "In that case,I quit!" and hung up.

Well, a few weeks later Sarge got a letter of investigation at his home, citing him for failure to protect his job. He drove down to the office and went upstairs to the TMs office. He tossed the letter at him and said, "I told Renwick I quit. Are you as dumb as he is?". He turned and left. He had filed his papers weeks before.

I ran into him in the PNW a few years later on his way to see a Ralph Elliott a retired conductor in Fall River/McCarther. Sarge had been in Vegas and was going to Reno, his regular haunts. He lived a few more years and died in his motel room in Reno. He had over $22 K on him and had been with a young gal. That's what he liked to do and that's the way he left.



Nudge

DNRY122 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Regarding the last entry: One can imagine a crew
> caller responding, "Whatsa matter, our trains
> aren't good enough for you?"
> Also, the term crew caller evolved from "call
> boy", an "entry level" job which got many young
> fellows their first railroad employment. Now,
> "call girl" is something else entirely! When I
> worked for the railroad, we had a female crew
> caller on second trick (there's a word with
> multiple meanings for you); if anyone had
> identified her as a "call girl", she probably
> would have decked him.

Sounds like a very tough lady in my opinion!

Have any of yal seen the video on you tube of a fella that gets called for a train on the CP railroad and he first lays off then just up and quits, then changes his mind and just marks off sick? Its really funny. Its mainly just audio but the audio is funny as heck. I can post a link if anybody is interested.

batterymule7 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Have any of yal seen the video on you tube of a
> fella that gets called for a train on the CP
> railroad and he first lays off then just up and
> quits, then changes his mind and just marks off
> sick? Its really funny. Its mainly just audio
> but the audio is funny as heck. I can post a link
> if anybody is interested.


Please do. It sounds sort of comical.

V

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