This time we learn how to keep the customers satisfied.
Coming north on MEGL, we had to set out and pick up at Markham. In our pick
up were two commuter cars built by Bombardier enroute to Seattle via Union
Station and Amtrak. I casually told Charlie that they are supposed to rear
end cars and not in the middle like they had planned for us.
Let the fun begin.
We are informed that we will have a rider with us to escort the two commuter
coaches. He informs Charlie that they are not to be in the middle like is
planned, but must be no more than five cars from the rear. So, being that
Charlie wants to keep the customer happy, he informs the Assistant Super of
this dilemma. Assistant Super is not pleased. He starts into a tirade on the
radio about AAR designs and how these cars don't conform and blah blah blah.
The rider hears all of this and now he is not pleased. I decide to show up
Assistant Super because 1), I'm a natural born stir shit and 2), I figure he
needs a little educating about the practicallities of railroading.
I respond that these are commuter cars not boxcars and they are not designed
for having 10 or 12,000 tons of train pulled behind them. Thereforem they
must be handled at the rear end of the train. He wasn't too happy with me,
though he didn't state so on the radio. But I could sure detect it in the
tone of his voice.
Having once been a railroad official in operations, I know for a fact, that
when these types of special handling loads come through, they don't just
"show up." There is normally documentation that arrives well in advance of
them, usually by at least several weeks. It gives all the information,
routing, handling instructions and restrictions on them. Everything you need
to know is at your finger tips. All you have to do is read it. Notice the
key words here.
Included in the restrictions for these particular cars: "Do not hump, do not
couple to a car equipped with shelf type couplers, must handle within rear
five cars of train only." This all seems pretty straight forward and concise
to me. Anybody with any railroading experience and a lick of sense would be
able to understand these restrictions pretty easily I would think. Well,
there I go thinking again.
The cars that they planned on putting in the middle of our train were also
coupled onto a tank car with shelf couplers. This resulted in the one end of
the northern of the two cars having some damage to the end platform. Two
strikes already. And just think, they pay these people to lead us.
"So it goes."
So now, Assistant Super is annoyed by the whole process and has already come
up with two plans for how we will make the move to get them on the tail end
of our train. (Not bad, two plans in the course of about 2 minutes. At that
rate, he'll have the entire alphabet played out in less than half an hour).
Then he becomes more disgusted and proclaims on the radio, "They'll just
have to move some other day." And then those even higher up claim "the
customer is our top priority." This goes hand in hand with "our employees
are our most valuable asset." They sound really good, but mean very little.
After hearing this remark from the one in charge, the escort gets on the
phone and calls someone in Canada. I would guess a few more calls are made,
a certain Assistant Super is contacted and what do you know? The cars not
only make our train, but on the tail end just ahead of one empty covered
hopper. The empty was there so as to hang FRED. He doesn't attach to the
drawbars commuter cars use, so yet another extra move had to be made to get
the empty on the rear.
The cars make our train, get to Glenn, and will go out on RGL-30 in the AM
and arrive at Union Station in time to be added to Amtrak #7 for his
afternoon departure. Everybody will be happy and satisfied, except Assistant
Super. The escort performed what duties were required of him to see certain
that the cars were not delayed, weren't wrecked, well... and continued upon
their journey across North America. These cars arrived at Markham on
Saturday afternoon, so their dwell time on the CNIC was relatively short.
Considering how congested everything has been here lately, this is
incredible.
By the way, on the paperwork for our train out of Markham, it showed these
cars being placed 33 and 34 behind the engines and ahead of 90 cars of which
50 were loads of coal. This 90 car segment weighed in around 10,500 tons.
And next to the two commuter cars was the notation "Must be handled on rear
end of train only."
On another customer satisfaction note, the western Canada cars we set out
for CN at 31st St on Friday were still there tonight. A northbound
(westbound on WC and CN) WC train probably has not been notified to pick
them up yet. I wonder how long they will sit there? Maybe we should start a
pool. Here's hoping there are no shutdown cars in this cut.
Tuch
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