Railroaders' Nostalgia > Damn Yankees!

I'm not a railroader, but this was told to me by one. 

I posted this about five years ago on another board but thought some of you that hadn't seen it might get a laugh for the day. I think it shows what happens when corporations centralize operations. It is not meant to be an offence against Southerners (I lived in the South for part of my life). When I studied business in college, they told us that corporations are constantly centralizing and decentralizing, depending on who is at the helm, and railroads are no exception.

The story was told to me by a retired C&O/Chessie/CSX railroader. Unfortunately, I forgot his name (perhaps just as well) but recall he worked as a clerk at Plymouth, Michigan. Hopefully, I remember the story correctly but perhaps not in his exact words.

The story:
One weekend, (I think he said it was a Sunday), our clerk friend received a call from someone in Jacksonville, Florida with a heavy Southern drawl.

"Hey, you-all got some engines up tare that need maint-nance checks, so send 'em out right away, you hear!"

But the clerk replied, "Can you send me some power right away to replace them?"

"No, why?" asked the Jacksonville man.

"Because, we need that power Monday morning", replied the clerk. [I think I recall the units in question were switch power for automotive customer business.]

"Well, send them anyway!" retorted the Jacksonville man.

The conversation went downhill: "No, I can't" "Yes, you will!" "No, I won't". "Yes, you will!" "I won't!, I told you we need that power."

And this went on for a while until the Jacksonville man finally yelled: "DAMN YANKEES!, you think you guys are real smart don't you!"
With that our clerk calmly (but gleefully) replied: "Well...... we won THE WAR didn't we???"

So ends the conversation, with the Jacksonville man slamming the phone.

Our clerk friend's supervisor was not in at the time, but as soon as he got back, he told his boss about the conversation in good CYA protocol to make sure his boss knew what happened--in case he received a call from headquarters. They both had a good laugh over it.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/21 14:30 by wabash2800.

What you do when the power bureau wants your engines and won't send you some more...agree to deliver them but don't promise a date....then wait til the next shift starts and call the power bureau and get whomever...explain you have engines that need to be Q'd...but you can't release them without replacements....you will probably get a few engines coming in....it's all a game and how you play it. And a road foreman told me once...more or less off the cuff.....it's not our resonsibility to ensure inspection schedules are met...if it's in your consist or on our yard, and we need it for power...we will use it...send it out to the shop when you have a replacement.