Steam & Excursion > More Bad News - Work On WM #1309 Has Halted Once Again!

Out of money again. All work stops.

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2017/11/17-western-maryland-nov-17-update

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/17 13:13 by LoggerHogger.

Well there you have it! However, no comment about the dismissal of Kevin Rice?

Screw John Garner and his piss poor management of this project. Won't be visiting WMSR ever again. Hope 1309's fate is better than 1361 but I'm not holding my breath. This situation is HEARTBREAKING

Buttons2013 Wrote:
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> Screw John Garner and his piss poor management of
> this project. Won't be visiting WMSR ever again.
> Hope 1309's fate is better than 1361 but I'm not
> holding my breath. This situation is HEARTBREAKING

Take a look at the Trains article; excuses at every turn. Funny that you are out of money after you spent it on Private Car trips (to examine how to do first class service--from their Facebook page), painted freight cars, repainted passenger cars, bought cabooses, bought and moved a wood-sided car from Colorado, acquired and moved bus stops, fired your own staff to replace them with contractors, and the list could go on and on. Mismanagement is the exact issue. And yes, the CMO (Kevin Rice) was just fired and yes, the letter going around is the real letter; misspellings and all.

Darn shame. Let's hope it can somehow be revived. Obviously anyone who has not yet gotten a refund ain't gonna get one.

Ross Rowland

Having let them keep my $500 in anticipation of a future trip with the 1309, I wonder if they will now send me a receipt for a charitable donation since now it is obviously a bad debt.

JBWX

Wow, if that was the actual letter that was sent out by the railroad it really is being run by children. Wow, this is incredible. As a Maryland taxpayer I am pissed. As a rail-fan that has followed and visited the WMSR for the last 25 years I'm at a loss for words.

Very happy I demanded a refund for the never run Fall trips instead of opting to let them hold it for the now never to be run planned January trips. What were they thinking in the first place selling these trips with no hope of the loco running anytime soon. Lets hope they get their act together and get this loco out on the road.

John Garner sounds like the eastern equivalent of Ed Dickens - firing staff, blaming everyone, excuses for everything.

Cumbresfan Wrote:
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> John Garner sounds like the eastern equivalent of
> Ed Dickens - firing staff, blaming everyone,
> excuses for everything.

At least Trains mag is reporting on the WMSR mess and not ignoring it like they have the mess in Cheyenne. Of course Trains did promote the 1309 trips which is probably the reason.

Posted from iPhone

Interesting article on the same Trains news-wire page:

Amtrak growth is impressive, but details are suddenly scarce
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/posting.php?10,reply,4419383

Bottom line, Amtrak has begun hiding performance numbers of individual routes and trains:

... analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of individual routes across Amtrak’s network is increasingly opaque. From the numbers released, there is no way to know how Amtrak allocates costs to achieve $194 million in unaudited, adjusted earnings.

That’s because sometime in early October, the company removed its monthly performance reports from the “About Amtrak” portion of its website, replacing them with “Host Railroad Reports” which only outline who has been "naughty" and "nice" in the timekeeping department.

(Going to paste the article link on the passenger page)

Cumbresfan Wrote:
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> John Garner sounds like the eastern equivalent of
> Ed Dickens - firing staff, blaming everyone,
> excuses for everything.


Can anyone in the know refute or agree with this? Honestly this observation does not seem too far off, but maybe we are looking at this wrong.

I am shocked to hear about Kevin Rice. Does anyone Know the reason why he was fired. Kevin and I got our start at the WMSR back in the mid 90's, he was a mech/welder and I was their electritian. its hard to believe there was a legitimate reson to fire him. it has to be politics.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/17 10:02 by wmry202.

An interesting quote I read from the previous GS that started the 1309 project, cut and pasted from a Facebook post:

"Here is a basic fact of 1309. When I was at WMSR and we started on 1309, we had a shop of 10 people earning an average of $15/hr plus benefits. My understanding is that Diversified has 4 people on the job at $13,000 per week, or $81.25 an hour. When the plan was shifted from doing work internally at WMSR to using contractors, it radically shifted the economic planning. Also, when you hire a contractor, you allow them pretty much full control on how they complete a job, otherwise you run into IRS rules between the definition of employees and contractors. So, I'm sure Gary and his team had a path they wanted to follow which was likely different then what WMSR had. So in the end, both the economic planning and project management plans ended up in the trash."

When your labor costs increase between 400 and 500%, that certainly explains the significant cost overruns! Especially, when it is your own choosing to employ contractors versus your own tried and proven shop team.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/17 14:55 by wpfan.

Anyone hiring some outfit that increases hourly pay over 500% deserves what happens to them. Again, full financial and performance audits of both DRS and WMSR should be demanded by the State of Maryland and other relevant parties. What's that old expression...."follow the money"

I was wondering when this whole "outside contractor" deal would come back to bite them in the a$$!

Another management mistake at the WMSR, in my opinion.

HotWater Wrote:
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> I was wondering when this whole "outside
> contractor" deal would come back to bite them in
> the a$$!
>
> Another management mistake at the WMSR, in my
> opinion.


Again, follow the money folks

I just sent them a check for $100 and hope others do also.

ATsf2921-4-8-4 Wrote:
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> I just sent them a check for $100 and hope others
> do also.

Wouldn’t send them a dime since they’ve proved so far it would be wasted

Posted from iPhone

They have really taken a bite they couldn't even begin to chew.
1) They should have had previous funding before the tear down even STARTED.
2) They should have at least had it rebuilt, done, and had at LEAST the hydro done before they released ANY dates.
Have any of those guys looked an at articulated up close and begun to study lubricator lines?
Did they even have any idea of how much this would be? Work and money?
The WMSR has got to be the laughing stock of everyone right now. It is poorly managed. I simply don't understand their logic with the way they did this. Does anyone on this railroad know what their doing?