Nostalgia & History > Hou74-76 Houston flashback

!.) Carmen at Houston preparing #16 for departure April 18, 1976.  Is that you Hou74-76?
2.) The conductor gave me the train orders out of Temple on that trip
3.) Here's a Form 1000A dated 1-3-1979, also known as a MAP 21 defect report from Hi-level car 9916.
It wasn't from that my trip, but that coach was definitely a regular on 15 & 16.  I thought maybe you would
recognize some of the HOS initials-RMW.

---

---

---

Interesting post!

RC Lundgren
Elgin, TX

There ya go... :^)

---

"No Time To Repair" and "NIS" (parts Not In Stock) were the favorite replies written by mechanical when they didn't feel like doing anything. Sometimes it was legit, but more often than not.... There has always been a serious lack of accountability.

mp51w Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> !.) Carmen at Houston preparing #16 for departure April 18, 1976.  Is that you Hou74-76?


NOT ME, THAT IS WOODY LATHAM, MECH. SUPVSR. Looks like he is carrying a back-up hose to a storage spot.


> 3.) Here's a Form 1000A dated 1-3-1979, also known as a MAP 21 defect report from Hi-level car 9916.
> It wasn't from that my trip, but that coach was definitely a regular on 15 & 16.  I thought maybe you would recognize some of the HOS initials-RMW.


RMW = ROBERT(BOB) M WOODS.  He started work at HOU in Nov. 1975.  He was from Little Rock AR and worked as an IBEW diesel electrician for MP and possibly the ROCK.  When he hired on as a journeyman with Amtrak he made it clear he was going to challenge me and my seniority.  Long story, I learned the hard way how the unions can actually work against you.  As it turns out he did win, but only because I quit in August 1976...which I do not regret.

The "No Time to Repair" phrase was not my typical language, reply or explanation.  The Lone Star had to be over 4 hours late for us to start using that excuse. And it had very good ontime performance.  The parts thing was a real issue from day one.  As I wrote earlier I went up to Chicago and made a deal (w/ Mr. ?? Ryan at the old ATSF coach yard) for Steam Ejector AC motors & pump parts, generator V belts and steam traps.  The real on-going problem we had was window parts.  We had lots of broken and or damaged windows of which we could only tape & cover with whatever.

Appreciate seeing the old FORM 1000.  They were like what Twitter is now.  Lots of dialog with some becoming long rants.