Railroaders' Nostalgia > Only on the SP, again!

About 40 years ago, a train was moving on the main track at speed when a car about five ahead of the caboose derailed, and the rest of the train followed it off. The caboose with a brakeman and conductor inside turned over, but fortunately neither was seriously hurt. The caboose looked really bad, and the claims department offered the conductor and brakeman a fairly large settlement, just from looking at the amount of damage to it, regardless of the fact that they weren't hurt.

All was well until a couple of months later, when the brakeman needed more money than he earned, and remembering the amount of the settlement he had just gotten, he decided to file another accident/injury report. It worked, the claims department settled with him again.

Since that worked so well, three or four months later, he did it again! This claim paid off too , but he didn't know it also put him on the Claims Department "list."

Three months later, Ray went to work as the head brakeman in the LA-West Colton pool about 4am on a Saturday morning in LA, with a train to set out at C of I. At Industry they left the train from LA and picked up another train to take to West Colton, departing for WC just about the time I came to work at 7am.

Shortly thereafter I got a call from the Claims Department looking for a particular SP boxcar. This car turned out to be in the train that just arrived from LA, and the Claims people wanted me to hold it at C of I until they could get there and photograph it. No problem to hold it, as it got there too late to be switched into today's hauler, which was just leaving.

The SP boxcar was older, with a high handbrake and no roof walkway. The "B" end of this car was coupled to the "A" end of a tank car, and the "A" end was coupled to the "A" end of the car behind it. When the Claims Department arrived, they had the accident report the brakeman had turned in before leaving LA. It read in part: "Standing with one foot on drawbar, the other on cut lever, pulled release lever and felt pain in back." Of course it was prohibited to stand on drawbars or cut levers, not to mention the car had a high brake which couldn't be reached without climbing at least part of the end ladder. It was also not possible to write the car number next to the one you were hurt on, by mistake, because both brakes were on opposite ends of the adjoining cars.

The Claims agents immediately left for West Colton where they took Ray out of service and drove him back to LA in their car. When they talked to him at WC he said to "forget it, just tear it up, I'm OK now." Needless to say, it was a little late.

Monday when the Superintendent and staff were at work, it was decided to cite him for an investigation, and a citation notice was prepared, to be delivered by Dennis the ATM on duty at the yard nearest to where he lived.

Dennis drives up about 11am to find all of the blinds drawn, and when he rings the doorbell, Ray comes to the door in his pajamas. Dennis gets invited in to find two candles burning on the mantle in front of a picture of President John F. Kennedy. Dennis hands Ray the letter, and after reading it several times, Ray goes into the back room, is gone for several minutes, then comes back into the living room. A couple of minutes later, the doorbell rings again, this time its a Deputy Sheriff who is looking for the "trespasser." Ray points at Dennis, and says "he's right there." Dennis explains to the cop that this is a company discipline manner, he was let in willingly, and has not been asked to leave, which he will gladly do.

The SP should have paid more attention to this little happening!

The investigation was held, and it was decided that Ray should be dismissed for filing false accident reports. Consequently the TM and another ATM take the dismissal letter out to his house. The blinds are still pulled, and he's still in his pajamas, even though he hasn't worked nights in two weeks. The candles are still burning in front of JFK, and Ray invites them to have a seat on the couch. After having them explain the letter several times, he again says he will be right back. This time he returns with a phone on a long cord cradled in one arm, and a loaded 38 in the other hand. The TM and ATM can tell its loaded because they can see the bullets in the revolver. Ray phones the police and tells them he has two hostages.

Pretty soon the SWAT Team pulls up and gets on a bullhorn with: "man with a gun come out, etc."
Ray goes to the door with his gun and tries to look out which is hard to do on a bright day when the blinds are all drawn. Finally he is half out the front door with his gun, and the guys realize he can't see inside in the dark any more, so they sneak out the back door, right into the SWAT team guarding the back of the house! "GET ON THE GROUND!" "We're the hostages!" "GET ON THE GROUND," with the end result that they are laying on the ground in their suits in Ray's back yard. Eventually the SWAT team figures it out, the guys get up and dust off, and finally the backyard SWAT gets hold of the front yard SWAT team that the hostages are safe, and to get the guy.

SWAT came up to him ostensibly to go in and get the hostages, grabbed his gun and cuffed him. The "hostages" enjoyed seeing him put into the back seat of a police car, handcuffed, and barefoot in pajamas.

All is not over yet!

Well over a year later, Ray gets his letter from the Superintendent denying his return to duty. When he gets out of jail, he runs the Supt's letter through a copier with the body of the letter blocked out, so he has a copy of the SP Supt's letterhead with the Supt's signature on it. He changes the body of the letter to instruct the Chief Crew Dispatcher to return him to work on a leniency basis, and mails it to the crew dispatchers office. Needless to say, when somebody reads this thing, the first question was "Wasn't this the guy that pulled a gun on Mike and Pete, and you're putting him back to work?" Obviously they said heck no, we don't know anything about it, and put a message out to all points advising them of what was going on.

Since that didn't work, everything was quiet for another year or so, until he gets his denial letter from the Labor Board. Same thing again, cover the body of the letter and run it through a copier. This time the letter on the Labor Board's letterhead, over the signature of the Neutral reads that he has decided to "re-think his decision, and return Ray to work on a leniency basis."

That didn't work either...
G

Can't blame a guy for trying... lol

Posted from Android

Pathological.

What a story!
Not only the SP but all railroads.

Uncle Joe
Retired car foreman CSX.

I thought they gave up on that case and hired him as an officer. Maybe I was thinking about another trainman around the Bay Area that they promoted to an Audit 1 position.

Nudge

I remember that guy. He was a prior-right PE man, who always thought he was smarter than everyone else, but the opposite was actually true. Worked with him a few times. I understand that after the Labor Board turned him down, he found a job driving logging trucks somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO

spnudge Wrote:
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> I thought they gave up on that case and hired him
> as an officer. Maybe I was thinking about another
> trainman around the Bay Area that they promoted to
> an Audit 1 position.
>
> Nudge

NO! The CSX hired him as a company officer. He just got promoted to Atlanta Division Manager.

On a couple of occasions I heard of guys a little like him on the SP. But your "Ray" has to be among the very worst!

Nudge,
Brian is right. Ray was a Los Angeles trainman, and the SP didn't have to put up much of a fight, as he was still in jail when his appeal came up. Not to mention that charges of kidnapping and aggravated assault against company officers were sufficient to withstand an appeal.

They didn't even have to hold a second investigation for failing to protect his employment because he was in jail.
Then there was the little matter of dishonesty in forging the two letters...
G

Come on "Pete", chme in. You were there.....

And now we know the requirements to be a Union Pacific corporate officer.
Dreamer

Posted from Android

There is some good humor here! Pete must be out of town, but I'm sure we will hear from him soon.
B and V, weren't Ray and AB Casey cousins? (If so, that explains it all!)
G

ExSPCondr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There is some good humor here! Pete must be out
> of town, but I'm sure we will hear from him soon.
> B and V, weren't Ray and AB Casey cousins? (If
> so, that explains it all!)
> G

George, "Ray" was a cousin of JD Smith, not Casey. Ralph Lee and I had just finished a weeks holddown with Ray as the Condr when all this took place.

Incredibly F'ed up.
Ray needs to be locked up.
TAH

90mac Wrote:
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> Incredibly F'ed up.
> Ray needs to be locked up.
> TAH



You are right about that Tom. He was a real nut case.

You were right! I have been out of town! George, you tell the story pretty well after all these years. Only a few minor details left out that only Mike and I could add. First, it was a Saturday that Mike asked me to accompany him to the house in Wilmington. Nothing better to do in life on a Saturday other than delivering dismissal letters! Second, the moment we were let in the house by Ray, I immediately knew something was amiss. The candles, the picture of JFK, the pajamas and all the blinds and curtains closed. We handed Ray the dismissal letter. He stated it didn't match what the Superintendent had just mailed to him. Mike asked him to go get the letter. Ray exited the living room. I told Mike we had to get out of there because he was going to come back with a gun. Mike told me to settle down, nonsense he said! Out comes Ray with a hand gun pointed at us, moving it back and forth between us. I may have wet my pants... My life flashed before me. Ray said he was going to have to shoot us as we were trespassing on his property. Mike turned beet red, redder than I had ever seen him turn red, might have been because he hadn't taken his daily does of Maalox that morning. After a couple of minutes of back and forth, Ray called the police and said he was going to have to shoot a couple of trespassers in his house. The police asked Ray if they could talk to the trespassers (us)! They asked us if we were trespassing. "NO"! Are you guys in trouble? "YES". We'll be right there! It wasn't but two minutes before we heard the bullhorn, "WE UNDERSTAND THERE'S A MAN IN THE HOUSE WITH A GUN! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" Ray doesn't go out for awhile. We hear the helicopter. Ray still points the gun at us and says he's going to have to shoot both of us. I might have wet my pants again! We could NOT see if the gun had bullets in it at the time. Finally, Ray decides he's going outside to talk to the police. He puts the gun inside his pajama waist band and walks out the front door. Mike and I dash to the back door. Shotguns to our face, we're told to hit the ground. "We're the hostages", we proclaim. An officer states, "I don't care who you are, hit the ground!" We comply. After the LAPD determines we're safe and they have handcuffed Ray, we are allowed to go into the front yard. A Lieutenant is picking up the hand gun off the grass. Mike asks him, "was that thing loaded?" The Lieutenant opens up the gun and shows us inside. There was a bullet in every chamber! "Does that answer your question, sonny?", the Lieutenant responds.

Postlog: Mike and I press charges against Ray. We have a meeting with a Deputy District Attorney. She concludes that the two of us, entering Ray's home, posed a "threat" to Ray, even though we were invited in. He was subsequently charged with a disturbing the peace misdemeanor.

Conclusions: From that day forward, I never entered another employee's home with a discipline letter, in fact, I think Thruston changed the process and everything went certified mail after our event. Oh, and never again did I accompany Mike on a Saturday to do anything on the railroad!!!

You're right George! Only on the SP!

Pete

A friend tells me that years later when SP was hiring again Ray called him and said he was ready to come back to work, no hard feelings, he had forgiven everybody!

JBWX

What a story! How have I never heard that?! So glad you’re still here after that ordeal!
If 40 years ago, I’m guessing my dad, RG Thruston was the superintendent at the time. I wish I could hear the story from him as well. Dad just passed away last week... He was the best storyteller!

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