Railroaders' Nostalgia > Payback

Payback. Vindictiveness.   I don't know about other workplaces, but on the RR they were an art form.  I saw superintendents spend and waste thousands of dollars of the RR's money trying to get even with someone he was mad at.  I saw other examples by the workers too of course all which destroyed hours of productivity.   Sometimes these battles would go on for months or longer and could get quite imaginative.  
    I remember being involved in a cascade of payback on just one trip.   It started when the chief dispatcher wanted to get even with my conductor for some reason. (this had been ongoing for some time)  We pulled into KC after about eight hours on duty around midnight and then, surprise, were told we were going to take a string of empty auto racks to the old rock Island yards.   We had never been there so of course he had supplied a pilot for our hours long trip.   Round one.  We crawl through the night over trackage and bridges we had never seen before, and upon arriving at the yards we find our train will not fit in the track we entered.   In order to double over, we needed a signal out of the yards through a CTC plant so we called the yardmaster there for help with the signal.   He answers he will get to us when he can,   We remind him of our DOL time and he replies sarcastically that he knows all about that.   So, after we sit for hours, ten minutes before our DOL time, we get the signal.   We dutifully pull ahead into the CTC array, go dead, tie down our train and call for a cab.  Round two.    I later realized that we had done exactly what the yardmaster hoped we would, thereby jamming up things for a long time and screwing the RR(or the DS) or whoever he was mad at.   Round three.    This is just one example I saw over the years, I am sure others have similar stories.

atsfer Wrote:
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> Payback. Vindictiveness.   I don't know about
> other workplaces, but on the RR they were an art
> form.  I saw superintendents spend and waste
> thousands of dollars of the RR's money trying to
> get even with someone he was mad at.  I saw other
> examples by the workers too of course all which
> destroyed hours of productivity.   Sometimes
> these battles would go on for months or longer and
> could get quite imaginative.  
>     I remember being involved in a cascade of
> payback on just one trip.   It started when the
> chief dispatcher wanted to get even with my
> conductor for some reason. (this had been ongoing
> for some time)  We pulled into KC after about
> eight hours on duty around midnight and then,
> surprise, were told we were going to take a string
> of empty auto racks to the old rock Island
> yards.   We had never been there so of course he
> had supplied a pilot for our hours long trip. 
>  Round one.  We crawl through the night over
> trackage and bridges we had never seen before, and
> upon arriving at the yards we find our train will
> not fit in the track we entered.   In order to
> double over, we needed a signal out of the yards
> through a CTC plant so we called the yardmaster
> there for help with the signal.   He answers he
> will get to us when he can,   We remind him of
> our DOL time and he replies sarcastically that he
> knows all about that.   So, after we sit for
> hours, ten minutes before our DOL time, we get the
> signal.   We dutifully pull ahead into the CTC
> array, go dead, tie down our train and call for a
> cab.  Round two.    I later realized that we
> had done exactly what the yardmaster hoped we
> would, thereby jamming up things for a long time
> and screwing the RR(or the DS) or whoever he was
> mad at.   Round three.    This is just one
> example I saw over the years, I am sure others
> have similar stories.

Yes sirree! Been there and done that and do it as much as I can....the whole world loves it when your train is occupying two main lines and a goodly portion of a switching lead and you have not any time to get in the clear. And there's almost never anything said,  because it's always a calamity of multiple events that everyone could see playing out but no one cared enough to prevent it. 

Been involved in it myself.

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Revenge is a dish best served up cold.