I have said it before, and I guess it needs saying again. I would rather watch a guy sleep all night, than to be alone on a train. Every place I have worked, I had to get my own bulletins, review them, etc. The CNDR can get the work orders, or he can leave it to the ENGR, his discretion, I guess. I wouldn't try to be a "cab conductor", and I have no care, really, about whats going on, outside, as long as guys aren't going to get hurt, or we aren't about to get fired. Sometimes, a clueless FNG is the perfect thing, for those days you need 12 hours pay, for 2 hours work. We on the right side of the cab (geographically speaking) have had no positions, we "traded" away, for our own, personal selfish gains. The left side, though, has seen the loss of: cabooses, flagmen, switchtenders, swingmen, rear brake and head brakeman, as well as firemen. (yes, they were under the "other" contract, not the engineers) Those same new guys , who seem to despise the union, and old heads (and really, who could blame them
) don't seem to mind "playing engineer", with the Idiot Boxes, out there in the yards. Why should I give a rats ass about you, and yours, when you obviously don't care about mine? We were waiting for safety rules to come into effect, with certified training, before determing if the boxes were going to be used. You other guys just saw another chance to sell out your "brothers", for a few extra pennies a day. Now I am supposed to think you are the "boss" of the train? We can be equal, but if you can't run it over the road, you certainly can't be "superior" to me. I would never tell a Cndr how to work, that's not what this conversation between the two engrs started as. I have to have every piece of paper, and info, the Cndr has. "You fly together, you die together" used to be the saying on the railroad. Nowadays, it seems more like "Every man for himself". Not really what the brotherhood of our crafts was supposed to be about. I am still the first guy to buy coffee, whan we stop in a good spot, whether it's my turn, or not. I have no desire to conduct, and never had. Those who think it's about "ego", or something similar, are either not reading carefully, or they just don't get it. Slowly, but surely, the carrier is using all of the new "tools" to remove power from the union, remove the self-thinking worker, and remove motivation and ambition, from the workplace. What's left, are a bunch of carrier drones, who do what is told of them to do, in contrast to rules, contracts and law. The one poster up there must be one of the lucky few, that hasn't had a guy with 30 days in service, conducting his train over the road, and onto a connecting carrier. Just sitting there, in wonderment, asking ME every single thing to do, for the entire trip, while I ponder who the hell was stupid enough to qualify this guy for road service, and why he wasn't even tested on physical characteristics. (remember those?) I hope that one day, I might have learned as much as some of the old heads have forgotten. Some of these "shake and bake" guys today, just don't know how much they don't know, and have cost a lot of other guys their jobs. Sometimes I feel sorry for them, but I guess the sentiments should really be RAGE, directed at the carriers, for doing what they are doing now. As usual, nothing but respect, for Brother UPRR Engineer, who started this with me, in another thread