An end to CSX Rochester Yardmasters?

sd80mac wrote:Yes, I heard a lot more stories about EVERYONE.. from the van driver all the way to Division GM.

Yup! The train crews can tell Yardmaster stories, and the YM's sure can tell train crew stories.

Sadly, or maybe fortunately, depending on how you look at it, things are quite different today than in the "good old days" of even just 40 or 50 years ago. Stuff went on back then that would cause heart attacks for today's "do it by the book" supervision.

It's been known to happen that the midnight YM calls the shanty to get the Base Line crew going. A brakeman answers, and the YM asks for the foreman. "Oh, well, he.....um...he isn't feeling well, he went to lay down in his truck. Just give me the work and we'll get it done." And so the YM might alter the plan a bit and give that crew some easier switching or some random moves. A couple hours later, there were 3 lanterns out there instead of two, and everything got done just fine. (not that it always went well, but that's a different story )

Used to be a guy got hurt he was taken care of. Not anymore.

C2629 wrote:Both those cases you cited above would not be yardmasters that were responsible for what the train crew was angry about. I would think both engineers would have been taken out of service. Running through a banner is not going to sit well with a roadforman or a train master, which would be the persons behind the banner test. And dumping the air way short of a stop signal and getting a bunch of flat wheels is another bad career move.

That's correct. I was just replying to other comment that there's hundreds of story which YM would say something about T/E. I was just mentioned that I had heard stories about engineers and/or conductors as well.

Oh yeah, that guy that ran through banner was either suspended from the job or was fired. I cant remember. This happened in frontier yard.

the one who got flat spots on her engines was called "Wheelie" or something like that. Or it was slang for which engineers had done like what she did. There were something else crazy that she did and I cant remember what it was. Conductors would cringe when they find out that she's their engineer. It was back in late 95's or early 2000's that someone were telling stories in email group which I was in. I cant recall what group it was and wish that group was still alive that I would still hear more stories. I think that few of you know what group I was speaking of. It was full of information!!!

BR&P wrote:

sd80mac wrote:Yes, I heard a lot more stories about EVERYONE.. from the van driver all the way to Division GM.

Yup! The train crews can tell Yardmaster stories, and the YM's sure can tell train crew stories.

Sadly, or maybe fortunately, depending on how you look at it, things are quite different today than in the "good old days" of even just 40 or 50 years ago. Stuff went on back then that would cause heart attacks for today's "do it by the book" supervision.

It's been known to happen that the midnight YM calls the shanty to get the Base Line crew going. A brakeman answers, and the YM asks for the foreman. "Oh, well, he.....um...he isn't feeling well, he went to lay down in his truck. Just give me the work and we'll get it done." And so the YM might alter the plan a bit and give that crew some easier switching or some random moves. A couple hours later, there were 3 lanterns out there instead of two, and everything got done just fine. (not that it always went well, but that's a different story )

Yeah.

Don't forget that my grandpa was YM at Fayette Yard during overnight. These stories did often made me wondering what kind of YM my grandpa was. But I was told that he prefer overnight because he can get crews finish their job real quick and be done with it early. I would believe that he was happy to work under DLW/EL than Conrail. He retired in 1970. There's often poker games at crew lockerroom and he would sleep on top of the lockers when he knew that he cant drive home. He would often join with local trains that went up to Oswego for lunch. There was a great place up there that crews love to eat there and something else that CR wouldn't allowed. Good old days back then... I would say that that he had great bunch of guys working with him. After retire, he always take me to the yard and go on the ride - in yard or out on local trains. People were very friendly.