by LI Loco
Received this from a correspondent who works for Amtrak:
A nice story, really, it is. From a Boston Amtrak Conductor.
Of course, your basic LIRR employee makes about $5 ot $8 more per hour than the Amtrak employee working alongside him, doing the same thing, so they can afford to buy most of my Christmas presents, too...
From:
Date: 12/27/04 15:11:16
To:Subject: A Railroad Christmas Story (fwd)
>One good reason I am proud to be a railroader.
>
>Last Christmas Eve, I was working my regular CBN505 assignment, Acela 2159
>to NYP and return to Boston on #2166. During my short layover in
>Manhattan, I decided to run over to the K-Mart that is literally built
>into the lower concourse of Penn Station to pick up some of those gift
>bags because I hate to wrap presents.
>
>I was able to find about 10 of the bags, the last 10 Christmas themed
>version bags they had left in stock.
>
>The lines at the cash registers were very long. Just ahead of me was a guy
>with a railroad radio on his belt, wearing a Long Island Railroad ID. He
>may have been a track foreman, yard conductor, protect engineer, signal
>maintainer, hostler, carmen or whatever. Just ahead of him was a Hispanic
>man, probably about 30ish years old, who had a shopping cart with toys and
>some other Christmas related items.
>
>When the man got to the cash register, the clerk ran all of his items
>through the scanner and the grand total came to about $200.00. The man
>presented his credit/debit card to the clerk and the K-Mart clerk
>processed it. A few moments later she asked him for the card and processed
>it again. She then told the man that the purchased was denied and asked
>him if he had another card or cash.
>
>Appearing shocked and horrified, he spoke what sounded like broken English
>and replied that he had no other cards. He pulled his wallet out of his
>pocket and counted his cash, a bunch of one dollar bills, and if he was
>lucky he had $20.00 total.
>
>You could see the man's brain racing and panic was about to set in. Then
>all of a sudden the Long Island Railroad guy passed his credit card to the
>clerk and told her to pay for the man's items with it.
>
>She processed the transaction, bagged the man's items and passed the bags
>over the counter to him. Appearing even more shocked, the man reached out
>to the LIRR guy, shook his hand and said "thank you, thank you sir, how
>can I pay you?" The LIRR guy replied "you're all set, Merry Christmas."
>
>In between being on the verge of getting emotional with all of this and
>being proud of what the LIRR guy did, I just tapped him on the shoulder
>and said "I'm proud of you, you're a good man." He replied, in typical New
>York City railroad fashion, "Well if I didn't pay for the f'-in things
>we'd be in line all day."
>
>I honestly think the LIRR guy's concerns and thoughts for the man went a
>little beyond that.
>
>Happy Holidays Everyone!
A nice story, really, it is. From a Boston Amtrak Conductor.
Of course, your basic LIRR employee makes about $5 ot $8 more per hour than the Amtrak employee working alongside him, doing the same thing, so they can afford to buy most of my Christmas presents, too...
From:
Date: 12/27/04 15:11:16
To:Subject: A Railroad Christmas Story (fwd)
>One good reason I am proud to be a railroader.
>
>Last Christmas Eve, I was working my regular CBN505 assignment, Acela 2159
>to NYP and return to Boston on #2166. During my short layover in
>Manhattan, I decided to run over to the K-Mart that is literally built
>into the lower concourse of Penn Station to pick up some of those gift
>bags because I hate to wrap presents.
>
>I was able to find about 10 of the bags, the last 10 Christmas themed
>version bags they had left in stock.
>
>The lines at the cash registers were very long. Just ahead of me was a guy
>with a railroad radio on his belt, wearing a Long Island Railroad ID. He
>may have been a track foreman, yard conductor, protect engineer, signal
>maintainer, hostler, carmen or whatever. Just ahead of him was a Hispanic
>man, probably about 30ish years old, who had a shopping cart with toys and
>some other Christmas related items.
>
>When the man got to the cash register, the clerk ran all of his items
>through the scanner and the grand total came to about $200.00. The man
>presented his credit/debit card to the clerk and the K-Mart clerk
>processed it. A few moments later she asked him for the card and processed
>it again. She then told the man that the purchased was denied and asked
>him if he had another card or cash.
>
>Appearing shocked and horrified, he spoke what sounded like broken English
>and replied that he had no other cards. He pulled his wallet out of his
>pocket and counted his cash, a bunch of one dollar bills, and if he was
>lucky he had $20.00 total.
>
>You could see the man's brain racing and panic was about to set in. Then
>all of a sudden the Long Island Railroad guy passed his credit card to the
>clerk and told her to pay for the man's items with it.
>
>She processed the transaction, bagged the man's items and passed the bags
>over the counter to him. Appearing even more shocked, the man reached out
>to the LIRR guy, shook his hand and said "thank you, thank you sir, how
>can I pay you?" The LIRR guy replied "you're all set, Merry Christmas."
>
>In between being on the verge of getting emotional with all of this and
>being proud of what the LIRR guy did, I just tapped him on the shoulder
>and said "I'm proud of you, you're a good man." He replied, in typical New
>York City railroad fashion, "Well if I didn't pay for the f'-in things
>we'd be in line all day."
>
>I honestly think the LIRR guy's concerns and thoughts for the man went a
>little beyond that.
>
>Happy Holidays Everyone!
