Pan Am Trainmasters

How many Trainmasters does Pan Am have at each location? Are the like a traditionalTM or more like a YM? How many work at each location (yard). Any info is appreciated.

Traditionally on Guilford there was one at Deerfield, another in Ayer, and one in Rigby. They were more like regular Trainmasters and not yard masters. The clerks believe it or not acted like yard masters even though they officially could not govern train movements. The Trainmasters were/are responsible for a good amount of distance or territory.

There also were Road Foremen who had the same authority as the Trainmasters with the addition of running company trains, giving check rides and qualifications, etc.

I always related the Road Foremen to Engineers and Trainmasters to Conductors. Road Foreman delt more with train movements and Trainmasters delt with operations.

To make it even more interesting, there also were "Area Managers" mixed in at several locations. Rotterdam Junction had one and Deerfield also had one when I worked there. There were basically watered down Trainmasters.

This was all 6 years ago, I am not sure how things have changed. I think current employees may be able to answer the question better!

Anbody else?

Ayer has 1, Lawrence has a day trainmaster and a night trainmaster. The Lawrence trainmasters also handle Nashua, Lowell (even though there aren't any jobs there, but they handle the traffic that goes in and out of the sidings) and a couple other areas.

What are the duties of a trainmaster?

obienick wrote:What are the duties of a trainmaster?

To get yelled at.

obienick wrote:What are the duties of a trainmaster?

The actual punchers would probably actually wear gloves to avoid coming into actual physical contact with anyone down the hierarchy.

Mick's post of the punching bag was probably the funniest I have ever seen.

Could someone actually post the duties of a trainmaster vs. a clerk?

The clerk keeps track of all the cars coming in the yard...As each train comes in,he will list the cars by hand as they do at Rigby and he will make up the switch listfor the yard crews and enter into the computer as to what track they will be on.
The train master or Yard master,who is incharge of the yard itself assigns the work weather it be switching or locals to the crews, assigns the engine,make sure they have the right paper work,i.e. speed summaries and wheel report for road and locals,assigns the track for incomming trains, calls for transportation if needed for crews, co-ordinates between North Billerica and other assignments, call for track or engine maintainers etc...The yard is his territory...and when all goes wrong be it his fault or not, gets chewed out...He has alot of responsibility....Most locations on the main line have automatic car readers that will list the trains, but they don't always work.

When I was a clerk at E Deerfield back in 2006, I had to assign incoming trains to their tracks and gave outgoing crews their wheel reports speedos. Tim is right about the car readers not always working. Whenever WJED returned to the yard, I used to have to jump into my vehicle and drive to the west end of the yard and manually write down all the car reporting marks, hurry back to the yard office and get them in the computer. You are all right about train masters being there to get yelled at. I particularly remember one Saturday night where a train was delayed for hours and Billerica (specifically a certain dispatcher who always drove me nuts) wouldn't stop calling asking me about it. I honestly got so sick of him calling me every 15 minutes that I told him not to call me again that night about the subject and that I would call him when the situation changed. However, my wording was not as nice and polite as I wrote it here and I'm sure it made interesting listening for those replaying it on the recorded line. The trainmaster was nowhere to be found that night during this time, and I remember coming in for my shift the next night and heard how bad he had gotten chewed out for the events of the night before!!!!

Benny

Heh I bet I know which dispatcher you're referring to.

I bet I know to!...Got kind of a winey voice?....I know the clerks did alot more in Deerfield than Rigby...Actually I think they did just about everything!

Yeah - he definitely had a whiney voice. Of course, I thought that way about any voices from Billerica!!!

Hmmm let me guess. There's nobody dumber than the ...... lol.

Yes, the clerks at Deerfield pretty much ran the show as the Trainmaster was nowhere to be found and the Area Manager at night was usually just taking the motions.