Railroaders' Nostalgia > The Untouchable Part II

C is now on a Local working out of Stockton, and apparently isn't getting along well with his brakeman, so rather than explain the moves to him in detail, he tells him to just stay home, and C will do the work.  The work all gets done, which takes exactly 12 hours every day, but evidently something was said by somebody.  One day C notices a company car with two people in it watching him.  To do all the work by himself, he has to kick cars and get on and off moving equipment, both of which are prohibited.  A prudent person would have called CMS and marked the brakeman off sick a couple of hours before, then called the brakeman and told him that he had just marked him off, and to mark back up after the job tied up.  C didn't do that, and continued to get on & off the moving equipment, and of course claimed the missing brakeman on the timeslip for the whole day.


The company car left, and nothing happened during the rest of the shift.  Apparently something had been said, as the regular engineer laid off the next day, and as the Stockton engineers extra board was exhausted, by coincidence or not, an extra engineer was deadheaded out of Roseville.
 
C and his engineer gather up their train and leave town, and a couple of hours later, two cars of officials drive up.  Two of them are from Roseville, and have 'Division' in front of their titles, the other two are from Stockton.  The train gets tied down, C and his engineer get a ride to Stockton in the back seat of the company cars.

The engineer was put back in service a couple of days later, as he had no knowledge of what had been going on.  C remained out of svc. pending investigation on charges of getting on & off moving equipment, kicking cars, and the biggy, dishonesty for claiming the brakeman's pay on his timeslip every day while the brakeman was at home.

C's representation suggested he resign before the investigation, as that would leave him the opportunity to try and hire out on another Class 1,  He didn't take the advice,  supposedly hoping that the Labor Board would grant him leniency.  With four eyewitness' testimony, to both the moving violations, and to the stealing time, he was dismissed.  A year later, the Labor Board upheld the dismissal...
G

No one is un touchable, IF they want you bad enough, they WILL get you! An unfortunate lesson learned by Mr C. We had a guy come down and work at BNSF's Watson yard. They did not like him or his style and hinted for him (not sure how) to go back to Hobart yard.  A few months later he bid back and was gone within a short time.
JB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/19 18:21 by 3rdswitch.

Since I know who C is he made an easy target for UP. RIP Bill Lewis

I also know who C is! I always wondered while working the pool to Bakersfield we NEVER received a
roll by by C's brakeman or saw him. C paid him a pittance to stay home most of the time! I personally
feel they both got what they deserved, The brakeman was ex WP and retired when this all came down.
This is the sort of stuff that puts jobs at risk No one shed a tear for either when it was all done.

Last I heard his 2nd railroad career didn't work out too well either. After that supposedly he was trimming trees. Good place for him.

Ah, yes Mr. C.  Could I tell some other stories!  One that I remember was a trip from Roseville to Sparks.  Just before arriving Sparks the train dispatcher called and told us upon arrival to deadhead to Portola, about a 50 mile drive.  It was Labor Day weekend and the BBQ competition  was going on at the Nugget Casino and he wanted to hang out at it.  Mr. C said let’s tie up in Sparks and we can figure out how to get a ride when called on duty at Portola later.  His reasoning was the railroad was paying for a room so where did it matter where we got our rest.

Well, with my experiences with Mr. C I did not go for it.  I could see us getting called in the middle of the night and end up struggling to get a ride to Portola.  So I left in the carryall and tied up in Portola.  The next afternoon we were on duty about 5 pm and I figured he would be terribly late.  I got a ride to the depot, dropped of my grip and went to eat.  Got back to the depot at our on duty time and ran all the paperwork.  After about 30 minutes on duty low and behold Mr. C shows up and has ribs to eat for me.  One of the few times that his shenanigans left all unscathed.

Ah, a nice stay in the Sierra Motel, and some fine dining at the Cardboard Cafe!

Thanks gentlemen for the replies.  It is obvious that you all know him, in spite of my concealing his name.  I deliberately didn't mention his second employment, as I didn't want to cause him any trouble.  It appears that his disregard for his fellow employees went along with him to the ST&E.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/19 12:05 by ExSPCondr.

We used to call guys like this "sharpshooters".
Exploit stupid rules and management decisions.
I've done it myself.
You don't make any friends.

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/19 08:16 by 90mac.

90mac Wrote:
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> We used to call guys like this "sharpshooters".
> Exploit stupid rules and management decisions.
> I've done it myself.
> You don't make any friends.

Not to mention they usually ruin things for everyone else at some point.

Exactly.

Posted from Android

Sharpshooters still exist.....everyone does it to a degree. Some people are true professionals though.