Railroaders' Nostalgia > Conversations with the boss - 12

The Bellingham MILW agent went on vacation for two weeks. The Chief told me that there was no relief; I'd work both jobs. I complained to no avail. He had nobody to cover the agency.

I lived four blocks from the station and had almost no time to go home during the week for two weeks. Saturday was a kind of short day with a break between the local leaving in the morning and arriving that night. During the week I'd sleep a little on the floor under the telegraph table (desk) or in the hallway leading back to the office of the traffic guy I never saw. There wasn't so much time available for sleep that I would want to waste any walking or driving home and back. I did a lot of creative timeslipping with a lot of one minute long two hour calls to list tracks, copy orders, etc.

The yard crew frequently complained to me about the yard. There were debris and holes along every track. Several of them tripped and we were lucky that there had been no serious injuries. Writing up the yard as a safety hazard attracted no attention. Filing an accident report for tripping attracted seriously negative attention...and you'd better not lose time over this or there'll be an investigation! (for the non-rails, that means that you are found at fault for something and thrown out of service to the tune of Rolf Harris singing Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport)

The condition of the yard was partly the crew's own fault. A lot of the debris was broken banding and chains, and blocking and dunnage as a result of their propensity to 15 mph coupling. That notwithstanding, the yard was still in pretty bad shape.

One night the switch foreman came up to the window to the register room. He was pissed. He stepped into a hole that was full of water, so he couldn't see it. In catching his balance, he tripped over a piece of tie, broken off in some derailment, and fell against the moving cut next to him. He wanted to know if I might be able to get something done about the yard. Maybe if an operator turned it in instead of a switchman, there might be some action. I told him I'd try.

Later, I was checking the yard and uh...tripped...yeah, that's it...tripped in a hole and didn't catch myself until my knee hit the ground and a piece of banding tore my pants. That's more or less what happened and that was in the report I filed.

The agent called the next evening right after I showed up at the station.

You wired an accident report?

Why?

Because when there is an accident or injury, you file a report.

You weren't injured!

Not really very much, but I had to file because it happened. This yard needs to be cleaned up before somebody is a lot worse than injured.

No! You don't do that! G------ (the trainmaster...that trainmaster) is on the warpath. This report has been cancelled and don't ever do that again.

Not long after that, it finally happened - Saturday's train from Tacoma that was due at Bellingham in the morning showed up late in the afternoon. The local left in the evening, stayed on the railroad for the whole trip (!) and got back to Bellingham at around 3a on Sunday. The operator/clerk contract called for a minimum 2 hour call except Sunday. A minimum call on Sunday was five hours. Until that day, I would go on duty for the local on Saturday night and put in for my two hour call plus whatever additional time it took for rerailing and/or dogcatching. This time, the local got in on Sunday. I actually worked less time than I would get paid for the call. I turned in my timeslips for the week before I left the depot Sunday morning.

Monday evening, there was a wire for me from the Chief. My timeslip for Sunday was declined. I waited for the agent in the morning. The wire from the Chief was on the telegraph table. I slapped my palm down on it.

What's up with this?!

Sunday is your day off. You don't get paid for your day off.

Saturday's train showed up on Sunday!

But your job is bulletined to work a call on Saturday.

Bullsh--! I was here running the train on Sunday. There was no train to run on Saturday.

That makes no difference. The policy is no overtime or pay on days off.

I grabbed the wire off the table and stormed out of the depot before I had a chance to something I might regret...except for slamming the door on the way out so hard I thought I might have broken the window.

The exact same thing happened the next Sunday. Another timeslip cut wire was waiting for me Monday when I got to work.

Tuesday morning I had an animated discussion with the agent. This time he was a little more understanding in a condescending way.

Look, it's policy. They'll pay it, you just have to file a grievance with the union and they'll pay.

What?! You're out of your f-----g mind. You didn't need to call the union to get me to run your train Sunday or do anything else I've been doing around here to keep this wooden axle outfit running and you want me to file a grievance to get paid? Bulls---!

I grabbed the wire off the table and was out the door.

That night, the first thing I did was send a wire to the Chief:

Effective (whatever the date was 30 days in the future) I am terminating my seniority. TA White

I went on about the night's work and went home. I came to work that night to find a wire for me from the Chief:

You Can't quit. No one to relieve you. DWP

That was it. DWP fixed the whole situation with one short wire. Good show. I still have that wire in my archive somewhere.

The night after my last one, I walked on down to the depot to see what was up. The engine was parked next to the depot. The crew was across the street at Cap Hansen's bar (where the waitress recognized the trainmaster and could exchange beer for coffee in a flash). I walked in and sat down with the crew.

No operator?

Nope. Surprised?

Nope. See you guys around.

Years later, a BN (former Tacoma) dispatcher told me that the Tacoma BN Chief was a good buddy of the MILW Chief. The MILW Chief told him that if I were to show up looking for work, don't hire me. I'm unreliable, troublemaker, and didn't bother showing up for work. The Tacoma Chief told the Vancouver Chief. The Chief in Seattle didn't like either one of them, so he paid no attention when he took me on as a train dispatcher.

First, I had to get hired by BN as an operator.

I got a call one day from the BN second trick operator in Bellingham. He wanted to know if I needed work. They were having trouble getting their days off and vacations. They needed operators. He was sure that I could start the day I hired out. He gave me the name of the guy at King Street Station to go see.

I was pretty disgusted with railroading, but wasn't making a lot doing odd jobs. OK, yeah, I could use the money.

I went down to King Street Station to talk to AL, the assistant manager of Telegrapher Control, the office that handled all of the operators on BN on the GN west of Bainville MT to Sandpoint ID and all of the operator jobs in WA, OR, CA, and BC. He gave me an application to fill out. I did. He handed it to his boss, GF, at the desk next to him. As the GF looked through the application, AL told me that they weren't hiring. They had already started the winter layoff.

OK Thanks.

I headed for the door, but GF said

Wait a minute. You worked for Frank Bannister? (my Chief Dispatcher in Bakersfield on the SP)

Yup.

Fired?

Nope.

You worked for Bannister and didn't get fired?

Right.

Just a minute.

He started dialing the phone, calling Frank Bannister. It turns out that the two of them worked together on the NP in the Spokane dispatchers office many decades ago.

He chatted with Frank for a bit and checked out my story. Frank gave me a glowing recommendation. He hung up the phone and told AL

I don't want to lose anybody who can work for Bannister and not get fired. Find something for him to do and put him to work.

TAW

I know that you are glad these days are long behind you, Tom, but I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed reading them. I've spent bucoup dollars on many, many books, and was bitterly disappointed by the time I finished them. These priceless vignettes are worth their weight in gold.

Thank you so much for relating them - it makes me realize that I would have never lasted on the railroad.

Take care,

Bob Finan

ATSF100WEST......Out

Another great installment. And another tale of how personal relationships seem to make all the difference in this business.

I always thought D W Peterson was a decent guy in an impossible job (Chief Dispatcher of a RR going down the drain). His predecessor, Wayne A Smith, was even better but quit the Chief job (I suspect because he could not stand the BS). In consideration of all the help they and their staff gave me over the years, I gave both of them large photos before the doors closed for the last time.

Best regards,

Rob L.

TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> He started dialing the phone, calling Frank
> Bannister. It turns out that the two of them
> worked together on the NP in the Spokane
> dispatchers office many decades ago.
>
> He chatted with Frank for a bit and checked out my
> story. Frank gave me a glowing recommendation. He
> hung up the phone and told AL
>
> I don't want to lose anybody who can work for
> Bannister and not get fired. Find something for
> him to do and put him to work.
>
>I had a similar experience when hiring out on the BN in 1979
but didn't learn of the details until much later. Seems that
somebody in the division hierarchy at Seattle found out that I
was looking to jump-ship from the SP in Los Angeles.
A phone call was made by BN folks in Seattle to SP's Portland
division offices trying to check out my 'story'. Apparently, the
SP person either knew me or of me through the railroad grapevine.
When my name was mentioned, the SP side of this conversation perked up
and asked the BN counterpart to confirm that it was really me.

SP: 'Is that guy trying to hire out up there in Seattle?'

BN: 'Yep'

SP: 'Well, hire 'em!'

And as they say, the rest is history.

I have no idea who the SP guy was but it worked out OK. I never missed a
day to furlough and never got force assigned to such places as Klamath Falls, Bend,
Hoquiam, Pasco or Spokane as many of those immediately ahead of me on the roster did.

Another fine post, Tom. "Ya, sure yew betcha"

Charlie

I will always remember your coolness in handling the Seattle Terminal DS job.
One day the radio conversation went something like this:

Inpatient Hoghead: "Dispatcher, we've got a red signal here!!.

TAW: "Well now, that's just fine. That means the signal system is working as
intended and if you stop for it you won't run into the train
that's coming against you."

Hoghead: Silence

I was almost rolling on the floor in laughter!!

Always a pleasure working with you, Tom.

Charlie

cewherry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I will always remember your coolness in handling
> the Seattle Terminal DS job.
> One day the radio conversation went something like
> this:
>
> Inpatient Hoghead: "Dispatcher, we've got a red
> signal here!!.
>
> TAW: "Well now, that's just fine. That means the
> signal system is working as
> intended and if you stop for it you won't
> run into the train
> that's coming against you."
>
> Hoghead: Silence
>
> I was almost rolling on the floor in laughter!!

One conductor told me that if I told him to stop on line and switch his train to sort the cars numerically, he'd do it because he knew I had a good reason. Most of the track guys knew that if they got a CTC permit expiration time of 238p instead of 235p, I wrung it out for them down to the flashing yellow. They always cleared on time. Most of the train and engine and MofW I worked with were good rails and good guys. There were, as there are anywhere, some real jerks. I didn't have a lot of patience with them, one might say.

Here
<http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1292720,1294708#msg-1294708&gt;
Date: 12/05/06 22:53
Re: Railroad Radio Humor...5 years later

In the first paragraph, Blackie Mosier was the first one to start announcing that he was stopped by saying "Well, we're here stopped at Kelso South preventing a train wreck and ready to continue at your pleasure." After a bit, several of the good guys were doing it.

I had one of the Vancouver BC jobs out of Stacy Street at the coach wye wanting to come out. As usual, I couldn't get a word in edgewise on that overcrowded radio channel. I refused to send over anyone else (as prescribed by the rules). That caused a lot of idiots to start catcalling me on the radio, making it worse. This guy was one of them. The harassment went on for several minutes. The city phone rang. It was Howard Green, the conductor on that job. He asked me to please ignore the idiot on the radio. He was about to walk up to the engine and make sure that he never touched the radio again while on his crew.

TAW

>
> Always a pleasure working with you, Tom.



Likewise.

TAW
>
> Charlie

Thank you for the great stories. I really enjoy reading them.

Great reading Tom. Say, have you ever worked Seattle East during the BNSF era? Steve Coberstine of Pullman talks about a DS that he used to listen to that was unshakeable. It didn't matter if it was a train stopped for a red signal, or one scattered to the four winds due to a derailment, the response was always kinda of a cheery acknowledgement.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

funnelfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great reading Tom. Say, have you ever worked
> Seattle East during the BNSF era? Steve Coberstine
> of Pullman talks about a DS that he used to listen
> to that was unshakeable. It didn't matter if it
> was a train stopped for a red signal, or one
> scattered to the four winds due to a derailment,
> the response was always kinda of a cheery
> acknowledgement.

Last I handled trains was Jan 1992, then went on to assignments scheduling, capacity, passenger planning, IT and a few other related things.

TAW