Nostalgia & History > What happened forty years ago, July 10th?

Just curious if the date stands out to anyone else?

Yep, I got married in 1971 and we celebrate 47 years today.

Is it this?

Five Hurt as a Train Crash Halts Baltimore Washington Service
SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES    JULY 11, 1978
 
BALTIMORE, July 10 (AP) — Commuter trains between Baltimore and Washington were halted today after freight train collision slightly injured five persons, and officials said they did not expect service to be restored until tomorrow.

Two freight trains collided near here last night, derailing at least 25 cars and forcing Chessie System officials to provide buses for morning commuters between here and the nation's capital.
 
James Haynes, supervisor of transportation for the Chessie System, said that a 61‐car freight train loaded with grain had rammed into a 75‐car freight train that had pulled, in front of it. Five persons involved in the accident were treated for minor injuries, the authorities said.
 
 
 
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/11/archives/five-hurt-as-a-train-crash-halts-baltimorewashington-service.html
 

tomstp Wrote:
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> Yep, I got married in 1971 and we celebrate 47
> years today.

Congratulations. That is pretty impressive.

But what happened in the railroad industry on your 7th anniversary?

Jack

ldstephey Wrote:
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> Is it this?

That is interesting, but that is not what I had in mind. Thanks for digging that out,

What happened had, in my opinion, a much bigger impact on the railroad industry.

Jack

Ricky Gates made history for running a red signal at Gunpow?  I'd verify that online but internet response onboard train 141 at Wilmington is worse than dismal at the moment...3-5 MINUTE response times!

BRAtkinson Wrote:
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> Ricky Gates made history for running a red signal
> at Gunpow?  I'd verify that online but internet
> response onboard train 141 at Wilmington is worse
> than dismal at the moment...3-5 MINUTE response
> times!

A bit later - 1987:

https://ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Pages/RAR8801.aspx

All Amtrak SDP40F's removed from service?

TJY

icancmp193 Wrote:
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> All Amtrak SDP40F's removed from service?
>
> TJY

I don't know.

In 1955 I was born

holiwood Wrote:
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> In 1955 I was born

Happy Birthday!
 

I hope you will eventually tell us!

TJY

icancmp193 Wrote:
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> I hope you will eventually tell us!
>
> TJY

I will this evening.

The Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks went on strike against the N&W.  In the following months the strike was expanded by the clerks against many other railroads.

BoostedFridge Wrote:
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> The Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks went
> on strike against the N&W.  In the following
> months the strike was expanded by the clerks
> against many other railroads.

We have a winner. Toward the end of September was when the actions against other railroads came into effect I believe, with the strike ending on September 30. The strike mutual pact by the railroads  was the reason that the strike could be expanded to other railroads, triggering the back to work order because of national emergency.

The lasting impact was, in my opinion, showing that the operating methods of the FEC were not a special case, but could be applied to major railroads. From the first day, the cabooses came off , runs were extended, and trains were operated with mostly two man crews. Though the old work rules came back into effect post strike, by the early nineties, most railroads were operating similarly to what the N&W did during the Clerks Strike. Would those changes have been made without the strike? Quite possibly, but maybe not so soon.

Jack


 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/18 15:32 by ts1457.

BoostedFridge Wrote:
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> The Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks went
> on strike against the N&W.  In the following
> months the strike was expanded by the clerks
> against many other railroads.

If I remember correctly, that was the one in which a manager forgot to unlock the bridge locks on the Ballard Bridge and tried a lift anyway, burning out the motors. A Chief Dispatcher who wasn't qualified on the territory (BN had a habit of promoting guys from the extra board to have experienced dispatchers for strike duty, some without having enough working days (60) in to get a date), ran a westward train into Interbay Track A (not knowing that it hadn't been the westward main since about 1952) against a tied down opposing train. The engineer of the west man (Asst Supt if I remember correctly) ran blithely by the Restricting signal (at that point meaning any track except the main) and used a 90 lb reduction to get stopped.

Back in the 60s, when I was working McCook, a Santa Fe Shopton dispatcher I worked with told me that one manager playing dispatcher managed to get four motor cars (of managers) run over during his strike shift. Nobody was hurt but there was a lot of bent iron.

TAW

Yes, the BRAC (Brotherhood of Railroad and Airline Clerks) strike of 1978.  I was a fairly new transportation supervisor on the N&W, on the former Nickel Plate, in the midwest at the time.  We had come through a very bitter winter after the blizzard in January 1978 and were finally getting some days off when the strike started.  I had no idea at the time what the strike was about.  Like in many events there was good and bad, and yes the ugly too.  I learned a lot and survived a lot.  We got along well with the picketers in our area but that was not the case on some locations on the former N&W, with violence at Portsmouth, Ohio, and other locations.  Once the strike spread to other railroads it was over in a few days.

It's hard to believe in 2018, forty years later, how few clerks are left on the railroads compared to 1978.

Was the end for Clerks at Oakwood yard, and Portsmouth,  due to violence .
went from 300 clerks to 50 in a few years..
oakwood was the last yard i believe that was still carding trains and doing a lot of old fashion railroad paperwork,, the pickle yard came about a year later and the clerk jobs starting going away.
 

SandPatch1 Wrote:
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> Was the end for Clerks at Oakwood yard, and
> Portsmouth,  due to violence .
> went from 300 clerks to 50 in a few years..
> oakwood was the last yard i believe that was still
> carding trains and doing a lot of old fashion
> railroad paperwork,, the pickle yard came about a
> year later and the clerk jobs starting going
> away.

The Clerks were in decline as result of new computer systems. Sounds like Oakwood  decline in clerks was just the normal progression.

Portsmouth Yard was already losing its usefulness prior to the strike. Before the strike, a covered hopper shop for there had been announced. After the strike, that shop was canceled because of the violence and everything that could be taken out of there was.

The clerks had been upset because of the work of Proudfoot Associates for several years at N&W doing studies which cut their ranks. That had them primed with a "we are going to show the railroad" attitude, but they ran head on into hard-headed N&W upper management. It was a bit like two great armies stumbling into each other and having a big battle in a location that neither wanted.

Jack