Railroaders' Nostalgia > Have a Lousy Trip!

Back around 1978 or 1979 I was second trick yard clerk for the Missouri Pacific in Omaha.  Train 172 was the "red ball" to Kansas City that left around 7.00 each evening.  

As train time approached, I'd pull the waybills, line them up in order from rear to head end, run the wheel report and rubber band them together in a neat package.  Atop this package I'd add a hand-written tonnage sheet: loads, empties, gross weight, etc.  At the bottom of the sheet I'd write "have a good trip" and sign my name "Tom".

Often the crew from Omaha to Falls City included an engineer named John (we'll not use last names here!), who was a notorious complainer.

One night the tonnage sheet included a pickup at South Omaha and John, who wanted an easy trip home, started grumbling sarcastically.........."I've gotta pick up at South Omaha....and he says 'Have a good trip'!".

I was pissed and decided to lay for John on his next trip out of Omaha.

When that evening came, my tonnage sheet ended with "Have a good trip, everyone except John.  John have a lousy trip.  Tom".

I took the bills and orders up to the yard office and handed them to Bob, the conductor, who read my sheet, handed it to John and walked out.

Old John blew up, reading aloud "what's this...'have a good trip, everyone but John.  John have a lousy trip.'  Who's this 'Tom'???"

"That would be me", I told him, "and I've been waiting for you since your last trip".  And I told him how pissed I'd been at his grumbling about my good wishes.

"Gee", mumbled John, "I must complain a lot!"

And the whole yard office roared with laughter, knowing that's exactly how we viewed poor old John.

To his credit, I don't recall John ever grumbling again about having to pick up at South Omaha!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/25 09:39 by Tom_Greco.

I takes all kinds. The bad ones make you appreciate good ones all the more.

Fantastic story!!! in my 3+ decades of train service I ran into quite a few characters like your cranky curmudgeon John. Some SOBs that you could hand a $100 bill to and they would piss & moan because it was upside down… 🤪

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