Post by chops on Jun 28, 2016 16:59:16 GMT -5
On Hank's Class One railroad, assignments are posted on a board, called, wouldn't you guess, "The Board." In pre-digital days this was done with a rack and index cards, now its on everyone's smart phone. As your name inches up the rows of names, you can guesstimate how many trains are out there, how far away they might be based one where they are coming from, and the likelihood of your next assignment. After years of practice Hank can narrow it down to about a four hour window.
I asked why the railroad didn't just assignment scheduled times for a given train, wouldn't that be possible with existing technology, even allowing for inevitable problems and delays? This once was common practice even in the telegraph age. "Stupid people," Hank surmised, "management offered us all this option some years ago, and the membership voted it down so they could all work at odd hours, all days, all year long."
So Hank was compulsively scoping out The Board, and low and behold he was surprised to see his name on the top of the engineer list, but he had not received a call from the Crew Caller, who's job it has been since time immemorial, to roust the various crew members to work. Back in the old times, you might know, crews, if not staying in a caboose, would hang their kerosene lanterns outside of the lodging house they were staying at. This gave way to the phrase, "Red Light District."
"Missing call is like a Federal crime," remarked Hank, "so I jumped in my truck (Hank has a peculiar attachment to a bucket-of bolts
Ford 250 with about 500,000 miles on it) and got there five minutes late, which isn't bad. But I was never called." So I hung around for half an hour and began to wonder where they conductor was because usually he is early; a very reliable guy." After some time of peering at his locomotive, he decided to ask the Yard Master where the conductor might be, and lo, he had indeed not received his call, either, and was oblivious.
"So, they 'broke my call' (cancelled the trip) and the next crew got my train, and I got their train, which wasn't due for another six hours, so I got paid $100 for doing nothing and went home to sleep. I had like three Thermos of coffee, so thank Heavens I didn't drink that our I would have been awake all night!"
I asked if the Crew Caller would get a **** chewing, but Hank grumbled, "oh heck no, that's just for us line guys. Management doesn't get in trouble like that." Hank rang off saying his train was being called, with a certain note of glee in his voice. Hank
complains incessantly about the rail road life, probably as a talisman to ward off bad luck, but I think he enjoys it and looks forward to the unique challenge of driving a new train on an albeit familiar route.
