Nostalgia & History > When I worked the job I was Train MASTER

 For ten years when I worked the job, I was Train Master.  The railroad I worked for assigned me to Master over all the departments in my territory.  Not only did I handle train crew, job assignments but I handled all the clerks in the transportation department.  I over saw the actions of the car department, the engineering department, and the service activities of sales department.  I was the local connection of the public relation department.  And I worked with the unions of those departments.  I also had visits from the ICC who checked to see that my operations complied to our own rules and instructions.  That kind of job usually had a territory of around a hundred miles and of the size that for emergencies you could reach it in a hour or two. I had 80 mile on a double track main line and 50 miles on a ctc controlled line for freight.
One example of being the Master was when I re-advertised a traveling switcher start time.  Before I covered my boss’s job we had a freight switcher which had always taken a passenger engine off a terminating passenger train and moved it to couple on the other end for the next day.  When I covered his vacation,  I ordered the inbound passenger engineer to run his own engine around that train but not couple and to park 20 feet from that train.  Car department was upset because the air test would have to be done in the morning before departure. They had ground air for the cars.  The transportation unions were very powerful on this line from the Big Apple to the Capital and they threatened to shut down the entire Grand Central Terminal at the Big Apple if I did not restore the previous start up time of my freight job.  Our freight jobs were a different division and an operation away from the passenger operators.  I made no change and the freight crews now had to work only on freight movements and not get involved with any passenger movements.  My superiors were very happy with the changes I made.  And I reported to a Super Intendent and not a superintendent.  Titles adjusted to jerk the chain on the HotWater.
 

Sorry but, you are NOT "jerking" my chain. All you are doing is making yourself appear more and MORE uneducated.

 Wow, You must sit there all day looking for something or somebody to jump on and this time it only took you 11 minutes.  What took so Long?  By the way did you ever say anything nice, as you are always negative on every post.

I have to agree with Jack 100% here. Your looong history of purely ridiculous statements here on TO is easy enough to research. But I'll go one step further. Your claims of being a railroader sound like patented BS to me. In my entire career I never heard one single real railroader -from either side of the employee/management coin- utter such fractured terminology. As others have said in the past, the best thing for you to do would be to stay near your playpen and keep running your Lionel RR. By the way: Your never seem to tell us all which RR was unfortunate enough to have you employed as a "MASTER" of anything...

Lance/199

Being a Trainmaster is one of the most challenging, complex jobs around. In my ten odd years on both line of road and terminal positions, carload and intermodal, I never failed to marvel at the resourcefulness and good nature of 99.99 percent of the men and women I had the pleasure to work with and lead. We had a great time, overcame sometimes daunting barriers, and managed to deliver a product safely and effectively that we could all be proud of.  In short, all the folks I worked with were proud to be associated with each other and learn from each other.

We did just fine---no, we did great.

Too bad, Plywoody, your experience apparently was not the same.

Blah blah blah.  Sounds like you were a train MONSTER.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/21 14:19 by Rathole.

La dee dah !

Upon reading the first post of this thread, it is hard not to be reminded of one episode of a comedy TV show which was popular in the 1990s!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/21 15:12 by RuleG.

Yep, had my popcorn out for a whle.

I was the "Night Yardmaster in Pocatello"!

Company officers tend to establish their own reputations, be it good, bad, or somewhere in between and the good ones have no need to blow their own whistles.

The worst company officials I have dealt with in my railroad career were LEGENDS IN THEIR OWN MIND! Most never made it to retirement.

Ha ha ha...another classic Woody bloviation. 

?

Woody, why don't you just tell us what railroad(s) you worked on?  It sounds as if in this story it was the NYC/PC or Conrail. I've worked on 3 but I don't brag about my experiences on social media.

I thought that Train Master was a product of Fairbanks-Morse and Trainmaster a railroad supervisor.

ts1457 Wrote:
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> I thought that Train Master was a product of
> Fairbanks-Morse and Trainmaster a railroad
> supervisor.
Just as I  titled this post, and I don't care if Fairbank-Morse copycatted the job title. Your question is violation of rule 3  Posting critical comments of spelling, grammar, phrasing or other non-content errors made by other members is prohibited.  By the way this spell-checker on TO does not lake Trainmaster and makes it two words. 

patd3985 Wrote:
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> I was the "Night Yardmaster in Pocatello"!

In the late 80s I took a Rules Exam in LA, from a guy who once switched cars in the Pocatello Yard for the UP. He showed us his mangled finger - he had put a small hickory stick, under a gon Wheel, to prevent rolling. It got loose while he was retrieving it, and the injury happened.  I never forgot that story. Anyway- this comment just jogged my memory about the "Night Yardmaster in Pocatello."

I could say his name, and some of you old UP heads would recognize him, but I won't.