Western Railroad Discussion > UP's Operating Excellence Training 2024

The attached image was of several posted to LinkedIn by a Union Pacific manager who attended this training session. (It was the only one that showed some of the material--the others were general pics of everyone in the rooms.)

Among the beauties are explanations of what a hump yard is, hours of service, train blocks and blocking, and what the "X" means in a train symbol.

This is the state of "Operational Excellence" at UP? The person who posted it has roughly 10 years of experience with UP,  all in operations. He offered these comments:

"Operating Excellence 2024! So grateful for Union Pacific Railroad to invest in me to attend this training. Definitely an outstanding growth and developmental experience. I have some new tools in my arsenal that I will be able to utilize in my everyday operation."

I suspect he was being sarcastic and included this page to make a subtle point. Could the people in charge of these training sessions be that out of touch? I imagine most of the attendees were rolling their eyes and muttering, "Beam me up..." under their breaths.


 

---

Yes, they could open this to the public to better educate railfans (see your sarcasm and raise you one)

Out 

Did they have the wood train with the magnet couplers out for people to "block" trains or did they think blocking trains was just for crossings?

I think that the audience for this is the fresh out of grad school masters of the universe that are phobic about actually talking with working people.
They are the ones that have created a lot of this management language like "a tool" instead of a skill.
Back in the day new hires would learn from trips made with old heads, plus reading the rules, general orders, and timetable.

Absolutely lame, totally lame. New hires need to get out in the real world. You can't switch cars, handle kickers, couple and uncouple cars connect brake hoses, set switches and derails, replace a broken knuckle from a computer, or cell phone, etc (at least not yet, God forbid),
So freaking scary to see this!!!
Gonut

10 years of service for this?  This is all stuff that should be learned in a persons first month or two of working for the railroad in any operating position--scheduled or management.   BSB

railstiesballast Wrote:
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> I think that the audience for this is the fresh
> out of grad school masters of the universe that
> are phobic about actually talking with working
> people.

Agreed, sounds ridiculous for experienced people, but then again they don't really want managers up from the ranks but newbies they can indoctrinate with the PSR mantra. And with the hump yard going the way of the dinosaur, in a few years only the folks who actually work at one will know what they are, if any are even left.

You can hear the newbies in a few years at class, "Um, does the landscaping department cut the grass in the hump yard?"... ;^)

JG

Term - BS
Description - None required.

Term - Timely service and delivery
Description - Something the Union Pacific is no longer capable of.

Term - DAIORTABAOTC
Description - Does Anyone In Omaha Really Think Anybody Believes Any Of This Crap.

S_W

Posted from Android

I kinda like Hostler defined as a position.   Is that a person,  or a location?   And cars being humped into a bowl.  Might be a song lyric there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/24 07:54 by masterphots.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,5706170

"On Sheet" was the consensus for the definition of OS in the link above.

It seems "On Station" (which was also mentioned in the thread) is the modern definition accepted by UP's Operating Excellence Training? Sorry for not being sarcastic or snarky. :-)

How do you say Dai.........what???


Stevo_Weimario Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Term - BS
> Description - None required.
>
> Term - Timely service and delivery
> Description - Something the Union Pacific is no
> longer capable of.
>
> Term - DAIORTABAOTC
> Description - Does Anyone In Omaha Really Think
> Anybody Believes Any Of This Crap.
>
> S_W
>
> Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/24 12:27 by SP4360.

A mouthfull of marbles would certainly help...

S_W

Posted from Android

cchan006 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,
> 5706170
>
> "On Sheet" was the consensus for the definition of
> OS in the link above.
>
> It seems "On Station" (which was also mentioned in
> the thread) is the modern definition accepted by
> UP's Operating Excellence Training? Sorry for not
> being sarcastic or snarky. :-)

It doesn't look like there is a consensus on that linked thread.

jgilmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> railstiesballast Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I think that the audience for this is the fresh
> > out of grad school masters of the universe that
> > are phobic about actually talking with working
> > people.
>
> Agreed, sounds ridiculous for experienced people,
> but then again they don't really want managers up
> from the ranks but newbies they can indoctrinate
> with the PSR mantra. And with the hump yard going
> the way of the dinosaur, in a few years only the
> folks who actually work at one will know what they
> are, if any are even left.
>
> You can hear the newbies in a few years at class,
> "Um, does the landscaping department cut the grass
> in the hump yard?"... ;^)
>
> JG

I won't bother posting it here, but from a photo in the meeting hall with all the participants makes it clear that they weren't newbies, but on average probably had about the same amount of experience this guy has. It almost makes me wonder whether it was some sort of humiliation ritual intended to sour the experienced people on the company, so they quit or retire early and can be replaced with the right demographics.

Bandito Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It almost makes me wonder whether it was some
> sort of humiliation ritual intended to sour the
> experienced people on the company, so they quit
> or retire early and can be replaced with the right
> demographics.

There's a tendency for us to misintrepet stupid people's actions as something clever, especially when there's lack of transparency on how they think and operate.

Usually, there's incentive before nastiness when induced turnover (layoffs) is implemented. Silver and bronze parachutes are deployed first, where people who are eager to leave are paid off. Then things get nastier to push out people who don't want to leave (yet).

We had a separate thread discussing the retirements of UP's regional VP's few days ago. I think it's too early for nastiness, so you can continue to mock this as corporate stupidity... but we shall see.