Railroaders' Nostalgia > What do you do when you're boss and get bullied by your conductor

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Author: PlyWoody An example of what to do when your the Assistant Train Master and get bullied by your best and senior conductor. I was boss at a yard that interchanged trains from two other railroad.  One day I received a train of about 8 historic old cars, several wooden with broken windows and other junk.  My agency office would only move these car as a special private train rate.  (that was about twice what the Historical Society had to pay on the delivering railroad).  I tried to get the waybill made at a per car rate for the Historical Society but was overruled. 

We had one high and wide car in the yard that needed to go to a station that was on the same route of the private train so I ordered the yardmaster to attached it to the train of junk, which he did.  I arrive in the yard when the private train was due to leave and discover the conductor setting this high and wide car over. Disagreement soon followed with the presence of the owner of the train of historic equipment and the conductor insisted that this train owner was paying for a private train and he felt the company was stealing from him by using this train to move the High and Wide revenue car.  So I turned to this owner of the train and ask him what he wanted me to do: "So it is your train, do you want to take the car or not?"  He replied he saw no problem handling the car to its destination with a quick drop off en route.  So I ordered the conductor to put the car back onto the train and they departed.  Surprisingly we had no defects or troubles on the trip but the car owner who had a ticket to ride with the train, said he sure got a cold treatment from that conductor the whole trip.  I was on the head end till we set the H&W off and then the train owner got a cab ride out of it most of the way.  
Later the train owner said he felt the conductor only wanted to reject the car so they would have to order another special train to move it ASAP. He was just feathering his union. 

So I had been bullied by many trainmen when Train Master for ten years but then I got advanced to Supervisor of Train Operations and controlled the division dispatchers, and later moved into a Regional position and got away from the bullies. (except for the ones found here on TO.)

Actually the conductor was right!

Back in the middle 70s when I was an ATM for the SP at Anaheim, Douglas Oil would order an extra job when they had a large order of asphalt.  They could only load six cars at a time, and our Bellflower Local only ran six days a week.  Consequently, they would order an extra job on duty about 8am on Sunday morning whose only job was to take six empties from Anaheim and the siding at Crutcher, pull and spot the refinery, and get the loads back to Anaheim in time for the outbound hauler.

When the Agent told me there would be an extra, I suggested we use it to catch up with some other work, and he explained to me that if we used it for other work, we couldn't charge Douglas Oil for the job!
G 

That’s nothing compared to what most crews deal with when dealing with most normal managers every day!!!

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The Historical Society who was paying for the train told the conductor to put the car back into his train as he wanted to move the High & Wide along with him and the speed restriction were the same for both services.  I, as the railroad officer did not order it done that way after the conductor refusal to initially move it. The conductor was right taking the car off the private train but the owner felt things were going wrong with railroading and gave our railroad the break of his gift, even though he had to pay twice what he expected to pay, and was initially quoted.

ExSPCondr Wrote:
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> Actually the conductor was right!
>
> Back in the middle 70s when I was an ATM for the
> SP at Anaheim, Douglas Oil would order an extra
> job when they had a large order of asphalt.  They
> could only load six cars at a time, and our
> Bellflower Local only ran six days a week. 
> Consequently, they would order an extra job on
> duty about 8am on Sunday morning whose only job
> was to take six empties from Anaheim and the
> siding at Crutcher, pull and spot the refinery,
> and get the loads back to Anaheim in time for the
> outbound hauler.
>
> When the Agent told me there would be an extra, I
> suggested we use it to catch up with some other
> work, and he explained to me that if we used it
> for other work, we couldn't charge Douglas Oil for
> the job!
> G 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/20 12:22 by PlyWoody.

Wow. I'm sure that made sense to someone. Who though, I have no idea.

You clearly have an axe to grind with labor.

PlyWoody Wrote:
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> So I ordered the
> conductor to put the car back onto the train and
> they departed.  

At that moment, the train became non-private and the historical society would have had the right to legal recourse to demand a partial refund of money paid.

        Sometimes being a nice guy is the wrong thing to do in business. Makes sence sometimes to try to help out but in this case, if the higher ups in the company paying the high fee found out someone got a free ride on the HW, the you know what would have a very good chance of hitting the fan. Obviously if the man paying the high fee was there and ok'd it, great. However, one can set a real unhandy precident by helping out too. 

To even think that the Higher Ups did not know the High & Wide was on the extra train is stupid.  The Dispatcher, Chief Dispatcher, and STO plus the Superintendent surely knew.  The CD approved my ordering the car on the train initially.  When the owner of the train said he wanted to handle the car with his train, the body language said it all as the conductor made movement to couple onto the H&W car, indicated he lost his fight with management and no further instructions were necessary. 

Your incessant use of the term "ordered" (and it's variations) is very revealing.

Do High and Wide shipments typically pay for their own train or movement? If so, then I doubt either got a price break for the combined movement, right?

The historical group person got to decide on his train makeup, but not the High and Wide person? Is that typical? Meaning if I’m moving a huge transformer and arrange a high and wide movement, is it then up to the railroad how that moves or do I have some say in it, either before or after whatever agreements are signed?

Seems like the historical group person was put in an awkward position and tried to do what was expected by the higher ups in authority, and gave the company some savings for free. Too bad that moving the equipment for free, or reduced cost, or sharing cost with the High and Wide, didn’t happen, especially since he helped the company.

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Jared Hamilton
Scott Depot, WV

Why go after Plywoody?  Seems like he came up with an efficient move, and without evidence, it's wrong to infer that the customer was pressured into it.
There are other stories recently posted that talk about sleeping on the job and playing practical jokes that could have caused an injury and they are laughed off.

Quick question have you worked on a RR before?

RRTom Wrote:
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> Why go after Plywoody?  Seems like he came up
> with an efficient move, and without evidence, it's
> wrong to infer that the customer was pressured
> into it.
> There are other stories recently posted that talk
> about sleeping on the job and playing practical
> jokes that could have caused an injury and they
> are laughed off.

Posted from iPhone

Yes!  Track Department on a Class 1, thanks for asking.  See my story a few threads down about Amtrak buses.  I was in management but am a union supporter.  My son is an active IBEW union member.
Question for you: what does it matter as long as I have a valid point?

RRTom Wrote:
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> Seems like he came up
> with an efficient move, and without evidence, it's
> wrong to infer that the customer was pressured
> into it.

Well, we're only hearing one side of the story. I'm sure the conductor had a whole different position on this but we will never know what that was.

It matters cus you’ve never dealt with idiot trainmasters before.


RRTom Wrote:
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> Yes!  Track Department on a Class 1, thanks for
> asking.  See my story a few threads down about
> Amtrak buses.  I was in management but am a union
> supporter.  My son is an active IBEW union
> member.
> Question for you: what does it matter as long as I
> have a valid point?

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