Report of the Discipline Committee

Prolog

As a result of several angry calls from customers and the resulting responses by the railroad to provide customer satisfaction to those calls, a number of events have come to our attention; all related to the actions of one of the previous day’s operating crews. This report is the result of the investigation into those events as detailed below.

Sequence of events

A crew was called for the regular turn from the main yard to Claremont, via Abbot Junction and return. The crew consisted of Conductor Mike H. and Engineer Barry. There where no special orders or operating notices in effect.

The train left the yard on time but later investigation determined that the train arrived after considerable delay into Abbot Junction. Technically it was not late as there is no requirement for a time stop at Abbot Junction, running under extra orders. Subsequent discussion with the train crew and line side observers revealed that several unsuccessful attempts where made to climb the grade into Abbot Junction, before the crew doubled the hill. The train then continued on to Claremont without further incident.

Another crew was called for the regular turn to Newport. The conductor and engineer was Bill and Stan for this train. While preparing to depart, the crew was unable to locate the single car for the consist, a Milwaukee road box with an expedited load of live chickens. Following standard procedure the crew left the yard as a caboose hop to Newport, and later returned with three pickups. This train ran without incident, other than the missing box car.

The turn to Claremont returned to the yard and tied up, the crew leaving the property.

The first angry phone call was from the Newport Chicken Growers Co-operative when their load of live chickens failed to materialize, knowing from contact with their suppliers that the shipment had reached Claremont Junction earlier that day. A quick check of the waybills at the yard revealed that a Milwaukee box car had been transferred from the junction to the yard, and had been marshalled for Newport. A phone discussion with the conductor for the Newport turn indicated that the box car was not in the yard when the train left for Newport.

The yard crew contacted the operator in Claremont on the chance that the Claremont turn had taken the car in error. He reported that ‘there were complaints of an “odour” downwind from his location’. His call back revealed that the missing car was indeed in Claremont, and as a result of the cool temperatures the chickens were still alive, although making their displeasure known, water could and would be supplied.

The second angry phone call was from the Monson Slate company, who made it known that they were not appreciative of not having the last shipment of a special order transferred to the Claremont Junction and as a result payment to them from the customer would be delayed and possibly reduced.

With all regular crews off the property by now, management crewed a caboose hop to retrieve the car and move it to Newport with as much haste as possible. During this exercise a number of events occurred that will result in discipline to the crew of the Claremont turn. When entering Claremont, the management crew traversed a switch that had been left in the incorrect position; this nearly resulted in the impact with a propane car on the siding (this is an especially sad situation as the engineer of the Claremont turn is a principle on the Safety Committee!) Although there were no further near misses as the management crew completed the job of delivering the chickens to their correct location and transferring the load of slate to the junction they did encounter a number of incorrectly positioned switches.

An examination of the locomotive used on the Claremont turn has revealed some excessive wear on the tires which may result in an early shopping for the unit, an investigation of the track at mile post 1.98 has revealed that approximately 200 yards of rail will have to be removed and replaced as a result of the wear of the running surface.

Discipline Recommendation

The Committee has decided as a result of the day’s events that the crew of the Claremont turn will be disciplined as follows;

1) a literacy test will be taken by both members, to determine if they can read the train orders and waybills.

2) each member will have to show that they can count to 10, higher is ok but since train lengths are rarely higher than that, 10 will be considered enough.

3) each member will be required to record the position of each switch prior to and after moving it, and will present the record to the shift boss at the end of the next ten trips.

4) each member will re-profile one length of the rail removed from milepost 1.89. An eight inch bastard file will be provided. The work will occur on personal time.

Committee members

Mike ‘it’s my railroad.’ M.
Sandy ‘Is Chocolate Ok?’ M.

Secretary

Stan ‘How does this blog thing work?’ C.