Railroaders' Nostalgia > The Word Came Down, "Fire him!"

I am not a railroader but I had a very good friend who worked in the engineering department on the New York Central. He was involved with installation of recording tapes in locomotives, installation of CTC, and other projects. He related this story to me many years ago. It went like this. The Central hired a young man with a brand new degree in marketing from Syracuse University and installed him in an office that overlooked the mainline. A couple of weeks later, the new man went to his superior and said, "I look out my window and I see coal going west and coal going east. And, I see empty coal cars going east and empties going west. Wouldn't it be more efficient if the coal in the east was kept in the east and the coal in the west was kept in the west?" His superior pointed out to the young man that the railroad was, after all, in the business of moving things and didn't give a rat's behind where it originated or where it went. If the customer was paying for it, the railroad would move it. Apparently, the story worked it's way up the chain to the president of the railroad, Al Perlman, who sent the word down, "Fire him!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/14 15:29 by birdman.

I don't know how many times I've been on a bare table train between Kansas City and Wellington and met another just like going the opposite direction. One time I got called at KC for a baretable, took it to Wellington and yarded it, laid ten hours or so, and got called for the exact same train back to KC. Another time it kinda made sense, I took a manifest junker to Wellington, yarded it, and 16 hrs later got called for the same re-arranged train back to KC. We heard KC was plugged as usual, and they had to take it somewhere else to switch it. A 450+ mile round trip to little old Wellington, because the 93 million dollar state-of-the-art yard at KC couldn't handle it. I guess I just wasn't seeing "the big picture".

Same thing with the beets. Some came from LA and went to Salinas and some went to Guadalupe.

The same thing going south, some would go to Salinas and some to Guadalupe. You would have a meet at say San Ardo and north & south loads would pass each other. Same with the mtys. Thats when the SP owned all the beet racks, before they sold them to Union Sugar and Spreckels Sugar.

But that is another story. Boy, did they ever buy that "Bridge" that the SP was selling.



Nudge



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/14 18:15 by spnudge.

One day at Walong I saw a load beet train going east/north and then a load west/south. SP could have made more money by not running the trains over Tehachapi.
Dennis

ddg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't know how many times I've been on a bare
> table train between Kansas City and Wellington and
> met another just like going the opposite
> direction. One time I got called at KC for a
> baretable, took it to Wellington and yarded it,
> laid ten hours or so, and got called for the exact
> same train back to KC. Another time it kinda made
> sense, I took a manifest junker to Wellington,
> yarded it, and 16 hrs later got called for the
> same re-arranged train back to KC. We heard KC was
> plugged as usual, and they had to take it
> somewhere else to switch it. A 450+ mile round
> trip to little old Wellington, because the 93
> million dollar state-of-the-art yard at KC
> couldn't handle it. I guess I just wasn't seeing
> "the big picture".

Sometimes called "Storage-in-Transit"...LOL!!!

Also, I think things are GRADUALLY improving, but then sometimes not. As I viewed the excellent old RR movie "Danger Lights" Friday afternoon, the otherwise very dedicated RR supe character shouted into his phone: "What do you think this is, a BUSINESS?!?" Among a tirade of many other gruff statements. This movie was in the 1930s or 40s. And while it's not cool for RR mgrs to SAY this now, a lot of them still THINK IT. Look at what E. Hunter Harrison is doing on the CP now? I don't know if it is right or wrong. But it does seem to have a certain anti-customer approach to it?

While railfanning in Tehachappi in 2000, I could have sworn I saw a BNSF loaded coil train going north, then a southbound one a few hours later. I need to locate my slides to confirm at this point...

Jim Montague
IRVINE, CA
Train and Nature photo Art

Somewhat like the current BNSF between Alliance and Northport Nebraska. Loads and MT's meeting each other. Seems strange, but I understand why.

Mike

You have to remember that the loaded trains you see are moving at the direction of the shipper. For instance, when Barstow's hump yard first opened, we received coal trains from the UP destined to the new power plant at St. Johns, Arizona. These trains would roar out of Barstow Eastward, and meeting the York Canyon coal train going West! We laughingly called this the coal train East meeting the Coal train rushing West. Truth was, the coal from Utah to St. Johns was steam coal, with low heating values, to make electricity, and the York Canyon coal was "hotter" metallurgical coal for Kaiser Steel at Fontana.
As far as the empty bare tables go, there is simply no room to store several trainloads of empty containers flats or trailer flats, in Southern California, so after the few parking places are filled, then its time to run them East, even as far as Texas, to park, and return when needed. Both the big railroads in California damned sure don't want to run out of cars or turn away business. There is a chronic weekly cycle of TOFC and container loadings, and more containers move East from the LA area than arrive Westward, resulting in a shortage of container flats at times. Remember, all those containers behind the barn on a Kansas farm probably arrived in LA loaded, and moved East on rail, never to return to Asia.

Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

aronco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You have to remember that the loaded trains you
> see are moving at the direction of the shipper.
> For instance, when Barstow's hump yard first
> opened, we received coal trains from the UP
> destined to the new power plant at St. Johns,
> Arizona. These trains would roar out of Barstow
> Eastward, and meeting the York Canyon coal train
> going West! We laughingly called this the coal
> train East meeting the Coal train rushing West.
> Truth was, the coal from Utah to St. Johns was
> steam coal, with low heating values, to make
> electricity, and the York Canyon coal was "hotter"
> metallurgical coal for Kaiser Steel at Fontana.
> As far as the empty bare tables go, there is
> simply no room to store several trainloads of
> empty containers flats or trailer flats, in
> Southern California, so after the few parking
> places are filled, then its time to run them East,
> even as far as Texas, to park, and return when
> needed. Both the big railroads in California
> damned sure don't want to run out of cars or turn
> away business. There is a chronic weekly cycle of
> TOFC and container loadings, and more containers
> move East from the LA area than arrive Westward,
> resulting in a shortage of container flats at
> times. Remember, all those containers behind the
> barn on a Kansas farm probably arrived in LA
> loaded, and moved East on rail, never to return to
> Asia.
>
> Norm

Granted Norm, there's always some distorted logic in most cases.
But let me share with you a story about my youngest son who was
driving truck for the state of Oregon dept. of corrections. My son
worked out of their warehouse next to I-5 in Salem and delivered to
all the state correction facilities. The state has a facility at Umatilla
called Two Rivers. Scot(my son) was sent to Two Rivers with a load
one morning and after he was unloaded, since the warehouse had enough
mt pallets to fill six 53ft. trailers, he loaded up. The warehouse foreman
thanked him telling Scot how badly he needed the floor space. Scot then called
his boss in Salem to tell him he was on his way back, and "by the way, I'm
loaded with mt pallets".

His supervisor went berserk! "What the hell are you doing?" "I've got a driver
already dispatched with an empty trailer to pick up those boards, so unload
your trailer and deadhead back to Salem." My son told him how many
pallets there were, but he insisted that he should just unload his load and
deadhead back mt. Needless to say my son quit 2 weeks later and went to work
for a food distributor that didn't do this senseless crap that defies common
logic.

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

truxtrax Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> aronco Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > You have to remember that the loaded trains you
> > see are moving at the direction of the shipper.
>
> > For instance, when Barstow's hump yard first
> > opened, we received coal trains from the UP
> > destined to the new power plant at St. Johns,
> > Arizona. These trains would roar out of
> Barstow
> > Eastward, and meeting the York Canyon coal
> train
> > going West! We laughingly called this the coal
> > train East meeting the Coal train rushing West.
>
> > Truth was, the coal from Utah to St. Johns was
> > steam coal, with low heating values, to make
> > electricity, and the York Canyon coal was
> "hotter"
> > metallurgical coal for Kaiser Steel at Fontana.
> > As far as the empty bare tables go, there is
> > simply no room to store several trainloads of
> > empty containers flats or trailer flats, in
> > Southern California, so after the few parking
> > places are filled, then its time to run them
> East,
> > even as far as Texas, to park, and return when
> > needed. Both the big railroads in California
> > damned sure don't want to run out of cars or
> turn
> > away business. There is a chronic weekly cycle
> of
> > TOFC and container loadings, and more
> containers
> > move East from the LA area than arrive
> Westward,
> > resulting in a shortage of container flats at
> > times. Remember, all those containers behind
> the
> > barn on a Kansas farm probably arrived in LA
> > loaded, and moved East on rail, never to return
> to
> > Asia.
> >
> > Norm
>
> Granted Norm, there's always some distorted logic
> in most cases.
> But let me share with you a story about my
> youngest son who was
> driving truck for the state of Oregon dept. of
> corrections. My son
> worked out of their warehouse next to I-5 in Salem
> and delivered to
> all the state correction facilities. The state has
> a facility at Umatilla
> called Two Rivers. Scot(my son) was sent to Two
> Rivers with a load
> one morning and after he was unloaded, since the
> warehouse had enough
> mt pallets to fill six 53ft. trailers, he loaded
> up. The warehouse foreman
> thanked him telling Scot how badly he needed the
> floor space. Scot then called
> his boss in Salem to tell him he was on his way
> back, and "by the way, I'm
> loaded with mt pallets".
>
> His supervisor went berserk! "What the hell are
> you doing?" "I've got a driver
> already dispatched with an empty trailer to pick
> up those boards, so unload
> your trailer and deadhead back to Salem." My son
> told him how many
> pallets there were, but he insisted that he should
> just unload his load and
> deadhead back mt. Needless to say my son quit 2
> weeks later and went to work
> for a food distributor that didn't do this
> senseless crap that defies common
> logic.


Classic example of COMMON SENSE done gone bye-bye............


V

SLOCONDR

3751_loony Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> While railfanning in Tehachappi in 2000, I could
> have sworn I saw a BNSF loaded coil train going
> north, then a southbound one a few hours later. I
> need to locate my slides to confirm at this
> point...

Southbound were likely cold rolled galvanized rolled steel from USS Posco to Budway in Fontana for distribution and northbound were likely hot rolled from California Steel Industries in Fontana headed north for distribution.

2 different types of steel.

And coal definitely comes in different "flavors"--with variations of BTUs per ton and sulfur content.