Railroaders' Nostalgia > Conversations with the boss - 15

A few years later, mid-late 80s, a similar scenario ( http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,3704070 ) presented itself. As Yogi Berra said, it was Déjà vu all over again.

An overheight truck (backhoe on a trailer) struck an overhead bridge in Sandpoint ID. The bridge, which carried the BN main track, moved laterally. No 3 (nowadays something like ZCHCSEA9) was moving across the bridge when the bridge moved, resulting in No 3 failing to maintain contact with the rails and coming to an abrupt stop. Abrupt stops can make some of the train travel a path that is not parallel with the track. Part of the train took out the bungalow at Sandpoint Jct. and along with it, the CTC between Boyer (GN)/Kootenai (NP) and Athol.

The line was to open on 1st trick Sunday. The General Superintendent of Transportation developed and published a plan. He told the Superintendent at Missoula to call crews for everything that was tied down. Westbounds would fleet and would move through first, as soon as the line was open. He issued instructions for Whitefish to call crews for westbounds and Spokane to start calling east trains so they would be ready to move as soon as the west fleet got by. Then he went home. I came to work and sat down to this.

Let's see: no CTC between Boyer/Kootenai and Athol, 5 mph past the wreck and hand throw 6 control points, and miles of Restricted Speed because of the red signals. A little time figuring told me quickly that would be a disaster.

By this time, I no longer cared about getting fired for doing the right thing. (Not long after this, I (and some colleagues) bid into a trick job and never went back to working chief.) So, I did the right thing. I called the Missoula chief and told him to bust the calls on the west men; I would call him back and let him know how to call them. He objected, telling me about the orders. I told him that this would all blow up about the time we came to work tomorrow and we'd spend a couple of terrible shifts trying to fix the cratered railroad. He agreed that it would be better to fix it the right way now, and a lot less work too.

I did the same at Whitefish and Spokane. I spent some time working out a detailed recovery plan, which included running trains alternately east and west with a meet at every siding affected by the wreck: Athol, Cocolalla, Algoma, Boyer and Kootenai - full capacity utilization. My running times included all of the hand throw, restricted speed, slow track, and some time for radio congestion and such. For every east man that showed up at Boyer or Kootenai, the trick man would have one west there ready to go. For every west man that showed up at Athol, the trick man would have one east there ready to go. Every east man would see a west at Cocolalla and Algoma and every west would see an east man at both places. How they made all of this happen was up to them. That is what being a train dispatcher is about. I wired the plan to Missoula. We started calling crews and running trains.

Shortly after taking the transfer the next morning the chief (we had an assistant chief job (union jobs) for each division , Pacific, Portland, Spokane, and Montana and a super chief (management) on each shift) told me that the boss came in, read the morning report, and remarked that his plan worked without a hitch. The result was fantastic and the railroad was in good shape. The Chief said that he told the boss It wasn't your plan. Tom cancelled the whole thing right after you left. He did all of this. The response was Oh.

I never heard another word about it.

TAW

I love these true but humorous stories.


Uncle Joe,Seffner,Fl. 

So do the rest of us!
Thanks, great stories!

KR

In my career (another industry) I had two kinds of good bosses.  The one that had done the job for years and could sit in my chair and do the job, and the ones that didn't have any idea how to run it and would ask for my opinion about it and then tell me to take care of the problem.   On the other hand, I had the ones that didn't know what they were doing and would tell you how to do the job.  I would either do it exactly like they wanted it done, or I'd listen to them yap for a few minutes and I'd do what was needed.... they never knew the difference.  If I did what they wanted and it didn't work (and usually it wouldn't) they would then ask for my opinion and I'd get the job done.

Love your stories Tom.  Always interesting and good reads.

John

TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------


> The Chief said that he told the boss It wasn't
> your plan. Tom cancelled the whole thing right
> after you left. He did all of this. The response
> was Oh.
>
> I never heard another word about it.
>
> TAW

Sad that is a normal reaction. No thanks, no wow, no attaboy, just oh.

jst3751 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> TAW Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
>
> > The Chief said that he told the boss It wasn't
> > your plan. Tom cancelled the whole thing right
> > after you left. He did all of this. The
> response
> > was Oh.
> >
> > I never heard another word about it.
> >
> > TAW
>
> Sad that is a normal reaction. No thanks, no wow,
> no attaboy, just oh.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2350325,2350337#msg-2350337
Date: 12/25/10 22:50
Runaway - part 8

4th paragraph from the end:

Sure enough, the next morning, the General Superintendent of Transportation came into my Seattle East office to read me the riot act
and tell me how my irresponsibility caused BN a lot of bad publicity. He
said that they were upset with me through all levels of BN management
and were going to deal with me accordingly.

...same guy.

TAW

TAW Wrote:

> Runaway - part 8
>
> 4th paragraph from the end:
>
> Sure enough, the next morning, the General
> Superintendent of Transportation came into my
> Seattle East office to read me the riot act
> and tell me how my irresponsibility caused BN a
> lot of bad publicity. He
> said that they were upset with me through all
> levels of BN management
> and were going to deal with me accordingly.
>
> ...same guy.
>
> TAW

Great story, all of the above.  I had to go back and reread the runaway story in particular the part titled, 'First liar don't stand a chance.'  My friend and fellow engineer (here at Portland & Western) Chris M. was the newbie conductor on 91 in your story and he has told me some of the stuff that went on on his end of it.
 
Thanks for posting everything, TAW, it's priceless!