Heard today from a conductor from Birmingham the carman are doing just a bleed off in the receiving yard not even blue flagging the tracks . Is this the next step in PSR , no more inbound inspections to keep the bad orders down ? I don’t get it ,that would mean more bad orders to set out of a outbound train. Here we still have to blue flag every track per the FRA . Can NS get a FRA waiver to do away with blue flag ? Or is this just another great plan from NS management trying to keep bad orders down to lay off more people out of the shop ?
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I was in Birmingham for a while and you do walk your a– off, they also had 200+ bad orders when I was there.
It's because of sh–ty management though. Not sure what it is about that place that makes supervisors need an a– whipping but they abandon all empathy and common sense as soon as they show up on property.
Yes, when "bleeding" just the air off its permissible to not blue flag the track. Just know that the FRA does require the cars to still be "inspected" sometime while the cars are at the terminal..
No offense to Roanoke. Maybe we are some damn fools in Birmingham, but what was said about Birmingham is true. You walk your a– off for nearly the whole shift. Many people have came to Birmingham from other states including Virginia. They will vouch that Birmingham is a different animal.
"Roanoke's car count ain't sh– compared to Birminghams. In Birmingham you walk until your feet bleed and that's a fact."
Well then.... you're just a damn fool.
We always (that is until PSR) just pulled the Bleed Rod no flagging. That is how I was taught many moons ago. Now we flag because we are Inspecting them also.
Roanoke's car count ain't sh– compared to Birminghams. In Birmingham you walk until your feet bleed and that's a fact.
Roanoke ain’t doin any inbounds at all. Only outbound inspections
They will train furloughed conductors to be cross trained as Carmen or just contract the work out !
Total bull. Birmingham does a blue flag inboind because they want no outbound bad orders. Without blue flag on the inbound, carmen would be free to set out anything in the outbound causing massive outbound delays. They don't want outbound bad orders.
Also you do not need blue flag to pull a bleed rod period. The problem comes if you break the plane and you are then working between the cars.
This is not true we blue flag in Birmingham stop make up sh– it Hard enough as it is not knowing if you will have a job the next day!
up until a year ago we were just bleeding inbounds with no blue flag, inspected in outbound trains but many bad orders, we now inspect inbound to reduce bo's in outbounds. I can't see them switching it back especially since we don't get the outbound trains until an hour before call time or even after crew is on duty
I’m soooo wore out with company you when get rid of us all why doesn’t the FRA step in and how they have destroyed a once great company
Bleeders are inbounds no need to blue up inbound trains
Flagging and doing complete inspection in Bham. Bleeding a car is not blue flag violation by the way. But we do have ZA camped out up here building a parking lot for their equipment at entrance.
PSR started the inbound inspection. Before that it was always bleed only... former Conrail location. Fyi
If you are pulling a bleed rod you have to blue flag. The FRA needs to be notified about this.
If they are not fouling the track no need to flag it. NS doesn't want shop cars...at all. The upper management has put the farce "dwell time" on shop cars for 1 reason, to fail. If shops can not meet the dwell then they just shut them down. Soon this is all going to be a thing of the past as there will no longer be any Carmen on the system.
They did that for a short while in Chattanooga 12 years ago or so. It didn’t last long...