Railroaders' Nostalgia > Conversations with the boss - 13

I fought the inadequate radio on BN for over a decade. There were lots of incidents including an engineer who had a stroke, the head man screaming on the radio for help, and I couldn't make out enough to figure out who was in trouble (from which I could have figured out where)
<www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2350325,2351707#msg-2351707>
Date: 12/27/10 20:13
Re: Runaway - part 6

I would get a little testy about going to Home Depot or even a hotel, where everyone had clear radio communication, and I had to work with
<http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2350325,2350529#msg-2350529&gt;
Date: 12/26/10 11:20
Re: Runaway - part 8 - a little more
8 hours a day 5 days a week for work a lot more important than the price of a cedar 2x4 or need help with bags at the front desk.

One Tuesday, I came to work on the BN Seattle Terminal 2d trick dispatcher job. There had been track work all day and they were still out there. There were way more trains than tracks that were in service and the gandys were slowing every train passing them to 10 mph. There was a lot of radio traffic. I couldn't make out any conversation from beginning to end and certainly couldn't (legally or safely) transmit. It was way, way worse than the excerpt in the link. It was exacerbated by the idiots out there catcalling me because I wasn't answering them or giving them some railroad. Some were getting others to help with the harassment.

I had only been on duty for five minutes and had a headache and ringing in my ears. I'm usually pretty patient, but the radio and the idiots wore that out of me in minutes. I got up and walked around the hallway and outer office for a few minutes. When I got back, I tried again to call a train and get him moving. I couldn't - through his own head man blithering on with his childish rant about the sleeping dispatcher and the need for someone to wake him up. I got up and left, walking around the parking lot for a few minutes.

I came back and tried again. By now, I had been on duty for 30 minutes and hadn't moved a train. We didn't have headphones in those days (good thing) but sitting a foot from the speaker on the radio was almost unbearable. I tried moving a couple of trains and couldn't get in a word. I got up and left.

I walked around the block - a big block. For those of you familiar with Seattle, I walked up Occidental from the office to Holgate Street, over to 1st Ave S, back to Lander Street, to Occidental Ave, back to the office - https://goo.gl/maps/0ZG5t
I was gone for awhile.

It was no better when I got back. My patience was long gone. I wasn't about to try to run trains through gandys, three yards, two other dispatcher districts, and a dozen trains with legitimate transmissions plus the catcalls. I got up again and went to the chief's office.

Any time now, you're going to get a call from some sort of official complaining about me and that I haven't talked on the radio or moved a train in over 45 minutes.

You and I have written this up and worked for a long time on getting it fixed. I don't know what else I can do.

Just tell whoever it is to piss up a rope...

Hey, I can do that.

...and furnish his own rope.

Sure thing.

I went back to the Seattle Terminal office, turned the radio volume down to a tolerable level and waited.

I came to work at 245p and was finally able to start handling trains at about 415p. The young BNSF dispatchers have no idea how good they've got it.

TAW

Thanks for the continuing saga, TAW. In the time I worked the 664 into Vancouver, I thought that was pretty busy but probably is minor league by comparison. We have one or two folks where I work who talk way too much and way too loud and don't seem to understand.

Tom could you help with this one. I thought the dispatchers were on the 2nd floor of King Street Station?? When did the office on 2454 Occidental Ave S, Seattle, WA 98134 go into effect?? In addition, what time period did CTC go into effect between Wabash and Pioneer?? Enjoying your stories.

They just keep getting better. Keep them coming.

ClipX Wrote:
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> Tom could you help with this one. I thought the
> dispatchers were on the 2nd floor of King Street
> Station??


Right. The dispatchers office was the second door on the right when entering the Jackson Street entrance. The window sill at the top of the stairs showed wear from decades of entry and exit of dispatchers using the window/stairs route to the waiting room and telegraph office. There is no sign of that remaining after the rehab project. It all looks new now.


When did the office on 2454 Occidental
> Ave S, Seattle, WA 98134 go into effect??

It was late 80s, but I don't remember exactly. First, Tacoma came to Seattle in the early 80s. Then the office was moved to a completely gutted room on the east side of the building so there would be room for Vancouver and Spokane. There are some future stories in that. It was an uh...mmmm....let's say interesting time.

Dim memory tells me that we got the electronic (sort of) CTC consoles (yeah, the model board was CRTs but the field equipment was still relay code with emulators in a 286 computer driving the relays in the field. It was v...e...r...y......s....l....o....w. I regularly had trains call to tell me that they guy they were meeting was gone and asking when they were going to go - but the CTC didn't show the train that was by as getting there yet.

>In
> addition, what time period did CTC go into effect
> between Wabash and Pioneer??


That came with the electronic CTC - mid-80s. A colleague of the era has some records. I asked him to dig out some of those dates.

>Enjoying your
> stories.

Thanks


TAW

ClipX Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In addition, what time period did CTC go into effect
> between Wabash and Pioneer?? Enjoying your
> stories.

According to Burlington Northern employee timetables, the track wasn't CTC when the October 25, 1987 timetable was issued but was CTC when the next timetable was issued on October 30, 1988.