Safety Vests

The main reason for the so-called saftey vest, is so the shake and bake management who is sneaking around in
the brush spying on the troops can easily spot you.

"Saftey" as is practiced on todays railroads is just a management tool for the intimadation and harassment of
contract employees.

trapper wrote:The main reason for the so-called saftey vest, is so the shake and bake management who is sneaking around in
the brush spying on the troops can easily spot you.

"Saftey" as is practiced on todays railroads is just a management tool for the intimadation and harassment of
contract employees.

most railroads have gone to blaze orange and florescent yellow shirts with reflective stripes on them as they won't snag as much as a vest would while getting on and off of equipment.

trapper wrote:The main reason for the so-called saftey vest, is so the shake and bake management who is sneaking around in
the brush spying on the troops can easily spot you.

"Saftey" as is practiced on todays railroads is just a management tool for the intimadation and harassment of
contract employees.

SAFETY is for all. not just for harasment of agreement people, from cab of a moving locomotive(specially passenger) its hard not to see a person.
with PPE at least we can see who is employee and who is just tresspassing.

Amtrak has not implemented a safety vest program as the other Class 1 RR's have. I will say that the vests are useful when we are rolling down the tracks at 79MPH as you can spot the UPRR guys doing a roll-by or the MOW guys out and about as well.

trapper wrote:The main reason for the so-called saftey vest, is so the shake and bake management who is sneaking around in
the brush spying on the troops can easily spot you.

"Saftey" as is practiced on todays railroads is just a management tool for the intimadation and harassment of
contract employees.

That sort of attitude makes it hard on anyone who likes to look at a railroad. If one is so paranoid that they are violating a rule or not doing their job correctly then getting caught is the least of one's worries. There are worse penalties for not following rules and being safe.

The high visibility vest is so everyone who could kill or maim you if they didn't see where you are can see you. This includes drivers of regular vehicles on roadways. People in harm's way need to be seen.

As the saying goes, the rules are written in blood.

slchub wrote:As the saying goes, the rules are written in blood.

Now they're written in advance to protect the stupid and "chronically good decision making challenged".

I remember while on a visit to Ukraine and Russia the Railroad workers had uniforms the cuffs of there pants and belt line had a orange and white or White and Yellow reflective stripe on them and the cuffs on the sleeves of there shirts also had reflective stripes on them. The Yard and MOW staff wore Bright orange jump suits and matching hard hats also with Reflective striping They did how ever have a small 2 inch by 2 inch red flashing light that was attached to the back of there jump suit that that was turned on at night that also provided a little extra safety when wondering around doing there jobs in the yard they also had something that looked like a minors helmet with half the lens being red and the other half was clear this light did not blink but the red half acted as a safety while the clear half of the lens was for seeing what they were doing. Railroad Passenger conductors wore a dark Blue uniform with a Bright red-orange color visor hat engineers often wore a simple orange vest only when they were walking to and from the Locomotive in the yard.

All Staff had to report to the company doctor every day for a physical and to make sure they had not been drinking or doing drugs before they could start there shifts This was mandatory with no exceptions to the rule!

I for one am a fan of reflective/safety garb as worn in Europe. While it does not provide 100% protection (only you as a human being can act and work safely) it does highlight you as a person who may be working in/around a dangerous environment.

Go figure... train and engine service employees have to wear them, yet the MoW guys, whose job it is to work between the rails, don't. They get a simple, non-reflective white hard hat.

On former Illinois Central territory, we didn't have to start wearing the darn things until CN took over. Everyone here hates them. They are especially useful at 3:00 AM while making a set-out/pick-up in a dangerous part of town.

EMD567 wrote:On former Illinois Central territory, we didn't have to start wearing the darn things until CN took over. Everyone here hates them. They are especially useful at 3:00 AM while making a set-out/pick-up in a dangerous part of town.

Anyone not wearing the vest is a bogey.

jgallaway81 wrote:Go figure... train and engine service employees have to wear them, yet the MoW guys, whose job it is to work between the rails, don't. They get a simple, non-reflective white hard hat.

UP MOW guys wear a nice fluorescent orange vest. Came in handy yesterday morning as I was rounding a curve at 55 MPH and I immediately saw them around a dog house at the west end of a siding.

The white jeeps are the dead give-aways out here on NS

jgallaway81 wrote:The white jeeps are the dead give-aways out here on NS

white trucks are nice maybe down south but wrong idea and Color in the North during the Winter just shows the southern education system of It don't snow down here that only happens in Canada.