Railroaders' Nostalgia > how not to run a railroad part 1

In December of '08 i hired on the Central Illinois Railway in Ames Iowa. The CIRY was a shortline that contracted with industries in Chicago and Illinois,and Iowa to switch there plants. Motive power was about half a dozen or more SW series switch engines, my engine was the 1204 an ex-SP SW1200.

My first day of employment i had no clue what to expect i was green as hell, I did have a few years of experiance in train and engine service but that was on a local tourist railroad and that line also served 2 industries but that was on a volunteer basis. I had just quit my job at a home improvement store where i had 5 years of service with to go work for the CIRY wich i never knew existed till i saw there help wanted ad in the paper.

So i report for duty at the huge pasta mill plant in Ames where the CIRY had its Ames operations. About 15 minutes early then the 8am start time and introduce myself to my new crew and the DSLE/trainmater. I wont share any names to respect there privacy. I first met my engineer a tall black man in his late 40"s from Chicago, my conductor a short lanky white guy also in his 40"s. Both these men have spent time on various class 1 and 2 railroads. Next steped in our DSLE/trainmaster a short stocky guy with long hair that he tucked under a milwaukee road hat he always wore backwords. So with introductions out of the way we headed out of our little trailer that we used for a yard office. I think it was warmer outside then in the poorly insulated trailer with only 1 space heater for warmth. We head out to our engine and climb aboard, no one gives me any instruction on what exactly Iam supposed
to do so I stick close to my TM. We were shoving some coverd hoppers down a track me and the TM were riding the shove and he was giving car counts via his radio to our engineer when out of the blue he starts to chew ME out for not giving car counts. I still dont understand what he meant, He was giving the car counts,no job briefing was done where it was supossed to be me doing it. After that point i was getting frustrated with him and the lack of sharing knowledge of this job.
I will post sime more storys about my short career with this shortline later.
JC

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I assume from the story that it was 'your' crew and maybe that is why 'your' TM was upset. Their is probably a good reason he was chewing out there new boss. Will be interesting two here more.. . . . .