There was a time in labor history, when such a shutdown would (upon negotiation) initiate what was known as "New York Dock protection". That's a whole nother story. Those protections have been watered down ever since. So, some may now get the Washington protection modifications of NYD. Most nowadays get told to exercise their seniority. No protection at all. A whole story about the changes, but not appropriate in this forum. Plz carry on my friends.
Anyone with a pre 1998 seniority date got bumping privileges. Some few were allowed to transfer to other shops. Most were just told they were laid off, thank you for being an employee. BNSF doesn't treat their employees like assett's, they are treated as burdens or liabilities.
Much like our society today. Everything and everyone is a throw-away. Very few companies actually treat their employees as if they are valuable. They do spend efforts upon superficial, (read that as 'public relations'), gestures to make themselves appear wonderful in front of an ignorant general public. Such funds are then written off by the bean counters for a better bottom line... I do believe that is part of the labor troubles we are seeing now. The people are tired of being used, then flushed. I was just talking with a furloughed RR person in my area, who keeps atop what is happening here. They told me when the RR does try and recall anyone, almost none are returning. Sick and tired of the merry-go-'round. All those years and decades of experience, lost.
The nexus of this corporate mentality began when the "ladder" no longer allowed "railroad" employees to climb to the top. SThe CEO's and such are generally just college educated business or accounting or legal folk that only know the railroads by paper or from a spectators point of view. They have low customer relations experience, and no knowledge of the life that railroad employees live. That started the decline and the loss of humanity in the companies, I think. Profits are good and necessary, but it must be balanced with a lot of other factors. People experience, infra structure, operational sensibility and many other little things.
Exactly. So you end up with people running the show, who too many have no clue what a railroad is, except for making a hiking trail or as an annoyance when it stops them at a crossing.
And so we got our first snow on the 13th, heavy wet stuff that took down trees and power all over. It had been such a dry year, the trees were weak and couldn't handle the stress. Anyway, these three little bucks frequently hang out in my yard, And the 14th, the snow was mostly gone by evening. But the trains were still here, And the video. They do a 10mph crawl into or out of any yard track to the mainline now, which makes for long vids, but great fanning!
Watched a couple today, and no FRED on the DPU's. Figure somebody thought that was an easier way to transport it, or the CPRail thing had issues? Will try to see it on it's next trip through.
It was online. It has been on the rear of that same train for a month or more now, paying back hours, I suppose.
Caught a couple of coal trains at the same time yesterday, a load slowly starting east while the empty it was waiting on blew into town fast!
We had a different type of power here this week! And a nice set of well worn power on an eastbound tonite,
Had to go out a bit early today for a septic issue at a park I maintain. As we left, we noticed that there was a double long coal train putting it's mid-train power together. Hoped to catch it after we investigated the priority issue. And we did! It turns out the train had broken apart on the east end of the yard, where we saw it, between units 9095 and 6138. I didn't hear why, but did hear that there was no knuckle or coupler damage. They got it back together and we first caught it at Curry, just a bit over a mile and a half east, and around a long curve and over a hump! Then I went east to Hodges, MT and caught it dragging the middle of Beaver Hill on it's way to Wibaux and points east,
