Railroaders' Nostalgia > screwed up switch list

Last night at work I was assigned to get the next mornings pull all together and placed so the local could pull it from our plant.
Todays pull had 19 cars mostly covered hoppers and a few tanks, all loads. There was 2 blocks of these cars on 2 diffrent tracks and when all said and done I need them on 1 track all in order of pull that was written on the switch list from day shift.

Ok no problem I can get this done I thought and my enginner was competent and a great guy to work with so I figured we would make quick work and be done for the night and get back to loading more cars. As we pulled the block of cars ahead that were to be the tail end of our pickup I quickly noticed according to my switch list all 9 of these cars were out of sequincil order. Uh-oh!, quick phone call to our shift supervisor telling him of this and he confirmed all cars were already billed to the railroad and they had to be exactly in order even though the list was written up backwards from the guy on dayshift screwing it up.

So for the next hour thats what we did, shoved the cars into an adjoing empty track, and since our operating rules forbid "kicking" cars and other moves I had to shove/pulln1 car at. a time into the next track to reblock these cars in order. Then when that was all done I had to get the other block from a totally diffrent track and rearrange some tank cars from that.
Did I mention this was all during a steady rain? LOL. But at end of it all cars were back in order and were ready for the pull when shift change came this morning.
The day shift guy who screwed up the list order even came in with an applogy donut for me lol.

Anyone else have a good switching story that they had to fix because of a previous shifts screw up?
JC

Posted from Android

JasonCNW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Last night at work I was assigned to get the next
> mornings pull all together and placed so the local
> could pull it from our plant.
> Todays pull had 19 cars mostly covered hoppers and
> a few tanks, all loads. There was 2 blocks of
> these cars on 2 diffrent tracks and when all said
> and done I need them on 1 track all in order of
> pull that was written on the switch list from day
> shift.
>
> Ok no problem I can get this done I thought and my
> enginner was competent and a great guy to work
> with so I figured we would make quick work and be
> done for the night and get back to loading more
> cars. As we pulled the block of cars ahead that
> were to be the tail end of our pickup I quickly
> noticed according to my switch list all 9 of these
> cars were out of sequincil order. Uh-oh!, quick
> phone call to our shift supervisor telling him of
> this and he confirmed all cars were already billed
> to the railroad and they had to be exactly in
> order even though the list was written up
> backwards from the guy on dayshift screwing it
> up.
>
> So for the next hour thats what we did, shoved the
> cars into an adjoing empty track, and since our
> operating rules forbid "kicking" cars and other
> moves I had to shove/pulln1 car at. a time into
> the next track to reblock these cars in order.
> Then when that was all done I had to get the other
> block from a totally diffrent track and rearrange
> some tank cars from that.
> Did I mention this was all during a steady rain?
> LOL. But at end of it all cars were back in
> order and were ready for the pull when shift
> change came this morning.
> The day shift guy who screwed up the list order
> even came in with an applogy donut for me lol.
>
> Anyone else have a good switching story that they
> had to fix because of a previous shifts screw up?
> JC
>
> Posted from Android

Double and triple switching will happen....but so far as an industry or shortline giving us a cut of cars...they bill them out to us....but we never assume that the order in the list is presented it the order we will find them on a track....so it is always our responsibility to see what order things are in...be prepared to stage haz mats approriately and so on....it's nice if the other guy preps everything right....downright refreshing....but we never expect it. 

Unless cars were out of block, assuming you even block them for pickup, wouldn't a simple phone call/email/FAX to the railroad showing the new order have been more effective? Lord knows how many interchanges from a Class One railroad to a shortline have been all jumbled up on paper.

irhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Unless cars were out of block, assuming you even
> block them for pickup, wouldn't a simple phone
> call/email/FAX to the railroad showing the new
> order have been more effective? Lord knows how
> many interchanges from a Class One railroad to a
> shortline have been all jumbled up on paper.


Probably would have been, but switching them around is what our shift lead wanted us to do,so we did.
JC

Posted from Android

JasonCNW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> irhoghead Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Unless cars were out of block, assuming you
> even
> > block them for pickup, wouldn't a simple phone
> > call/email/FAX to the railroad showing the new
> > order have been more effective? Lord knows how
> > many interchanges from a Class One railroad to
> a
> > shortline have been all jumbled up on paper.
>
>
> Probably would have been, but switching them
> around is what our shift lead wanted us to do,so
> we did.
> JC
>

Your switch lead and industry deserve a very nice Christmas gift basket from your serving railroad!  That's above and beyond anything I've ever heard.

Don't you have the GUI or the UP hand held device to reset sequence the cars by hand?

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/25 23:29 by SanJoaquinEngr.

Kick'em uphill/both directions barefoot in the snow!

I have tons of those kinds of fix the list set, up a real plan stories but prefer to forget them in retirement. A lot of good experienced yard Conductors un-did what inexperienced or less than competent train masters tried to do and sometimes took hours to get things straightened out and get the work finished. In both my switchman days and yard engineer days learned to appreciate the good trainmasters and the good yard conductors. Missed the days of full switch crews and smart crews who knocked cars out like you’ll rarely see on a class one today. It was becoming a lost art before I retired.

Posted from iPhone

wpdude Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Kick'em uphill/both directions barefoot in the
> snow!

We still kick uphill....it's an art.....occasionally banned unitl not doing it kills productivity....

engineerinvirginia Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wpdude Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Kick'em uphill/both directions barefoot in the
> > snow!
>
> We still kick uphill....it's an
> art.....occasionally banned unitl not doing it
> kills productivity....

"If our standards are too high, we'll lower them!"

mapboy