It will soon be a craft of the past. Replaced with utility workers who will do most of the yard duties.. Bnsf did it and the cost reduction is significant. Work more with less.
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Conductors are lazy and should be gone
I used to go number two inside the battery box of an old 1990's eot. The look on the ole frogs face was priceless
All they do is watch tv in the shanty. Eat peanuts and tell the yard master they're working on car's on the rip or have to change wheels. The craft has everyone fooled.
Carmen , isn’t the name of an opera. ?
Utility workers are lucky if they can get air through the train, basically useless.. Oh and scabs
Carmen don't get walked off the property let's get that straight right now. The Carman stays in the same spot and the earth moves under his feet. So he doesn't move, the property does.
@1azt, not sure what financial reports you are reading, but UP hasn’t failed horribly at PSR like you say. I don’t like all the layoffs and how PSR works either, but the fact is all the railroads using PSR are profitable. UP is not going to go back to how they operated before PSR, if any changes are made you can bet it will include more downsizing and leaning out of the company. Everyone should come to grips with the realization that the industry had changed and will continue to change, whether we like it or not.
Hmmm.....work more with less? OK, how's that going for the UP right now? They have less employees everywhere, and LESS(not more!) work is being done right now. I'm not sure if this has been said yet but the UP failed horribly in the PSR game. People aren't losing their jobs nearly as fast or at all, as people are quitting. I have Carmen friends at the BNSF, so I'm not real sure how or where you got your info from. I'd be checking the validity the information first before you post though. Just a thought for you.
I once saw a carman lift a tank car with only his pinky to save a little puppy that was trapped underneath. Then UP determined his job wasn’t necessary, so they fired him and walked him off the property.
New names were on up webpage 2 weeks ago. Old names were brakeman , repairman , signalman , chief, etc,,,.
OK are the utility people changing wheels too? Are they replacing drawbars when they get ripped out? Are they doing single car air brake tests? Are they frogging the cars after an axle goes on the ground? What exactly was the point of this post? People have been saying for the last 3 years that the conductors would be "gone in a few months in favor of one man crews"! What's interesting is that the UP seems to be trying to panic hire a lot of conductors for many locations. Do you have real time inside information about what the BNSF is doing or just going by a story you heard from a so-called "reliable source"?
Ha add conductor to that list too. Once train is together to go from point A to point B why have a conductor sitting there???
They’ll need to keep some Carmen to clean up the knuckles after the engineers take a dump on them.
I saw a carman kick a knuckle with his foot one time trying to straighten out a skewed drawbar. The force of that kick derailed the car!
I knew several carmen that could put in E50's one handed, and knew at least 2 that could put in an E60 by hand.. They are beasts.
Carmen are the straight up back bone of the railroad. Way to many weak bladders in the other crafts to ever think about doing that work. Carmen do the heavy lifting
Not sure what Carmen do at your location, but utility employees could light a torch, weld, fabricate, inspect or do any work of a Carman. Most utility employees can barely get to work without marking off fmla. They couldn't physically or mentally do Carman work. Only the strong should even think about becoming a Carman.