I am a reporter in Wyoming working on a story about the recent carmen layoffs in Green River Wyoming.
If that is you, I would love to hear your behind the scenes take, at Renee@CowboyStateDaily.com.
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But are the shareholders ok ?
Was Matt a pin puller or a pin receiver at Conway? Who loved the man tunnel?
Norfolk southern started this year rushing through insp .firing everyone that complains we went from 70 men to 30 men at a hump yard in Conway out 2 bosses were caught sleeping together and Matt resigned the other guy still there .
Carmen used to multiple inspections of cars as they were processed through a hump yard.
Trains received a roll by inspection inbound checking for dragging equipment, flat spots, stuck brakes, and sparks. The engineer would do a 70 lb brakepipe reduction so the carman could check a set before bleeding the cars off. A switchman would look for safety defects and stuck brakes as the cars went over the hump. When cars are dragged out of the bowl for makeup of outbound trains they would be observed for sticking brakes or dragging equipment. When the cats are out on an outbound train a carman would check a set and release and safety inspection on each car among the many other things a Qualified Mechanical Inspector was trained for. Often the carman would roll the train out of town checking again for dragging equipment or stuck brakes catching the ones that stick for a short period of time.
Let's just say it's a lot less than six inspections now...
Everyone knows how cr-ppy the railroads are, the job cuts, nothing new.
Donrlt forget to mention the previous ntsb letters that talked about the extreme concern over the defective fleet of cars and locomotives, the reduction of employees, management yelling and screaming at fra to remove themselves, and having legal withhold data. Government better wake up to the fact their going to approve the merger of a railroad that has blown up a small town and damaged how many families with a company that has flirted that line for years now. It's a question of when not if. It's all out there to find but UP will make you earn it searching between the paid for feel good articles and all the 4014 big boy articles to bury and distract.
The exact same thing happened in Kansas City.
Carmen were kicked out of the train yard.
Utility men now doing inbound and outbound inspections.
Bootlegging air tests.
Pencil whipping air slips.....
Only a handfull of Carmen left.....
I'm a switchman in Denver. About 2 years ago they got rid of all the carmen and now the switchman are doing that work as utility employees. The previous comment is 100% correct. We don't have time to do a thorough inspection or any maintenance of the rail cars. In fact, we don't really have time to do any legitimate inspections on this equipment. Our managers hurry us and threaten us to get it done so fast that we pretty much cut every corner and then some. When the train is built, we couple the hoses, make sure theres air through the train, fill out a slip and send it. No actual inspection even gets done. And if we do find something we think might be a bad order on the train, we're told to send it. They threatened to fire us if we bad order any cars.
There should definitely be a major public safety concern with the amount of defective equipment rolling on the rails these days through out communities. Its just a matter of time before another East Palestine OH or worse happens.
I think, but not sure, a few of the carmen that were here in Denver went to Green River after they were laid off here.
Here is something a nonrailroader can understand. Everyone knows wheels are supposed to be round. One of carmens duties is to replace wheels. Carmen also used to “work” tracks BEFORE freight cars were “switched” in yards to build new trains. Few years ago carmen positions were eliminated, switchmen were supposedly gonna “work” the freight cars instead of the carmen
(do more w/ less =
more productivity,,, supposedly)
Anyway the switchmen dont have the time to do both jobs so the freight cars dont get worked before ‘switching’. The switchmen just drag the cars with brakes applied causing the huge flat spots on the trains wheels. Just observe any train go by and you will hear a bam bam bam that is the wheels flat spot. (dont confuse the sound of flat wheels w/ the clickity clack sound of jointed rail, mainlines dont really have jointed rail anymore so there should be no clicks or bangs on mainline rail) So now millions of wheels are no longer round, and there are less carmen to one prevent the flat spots from occurring in the first place and two less carmen to fix the millions of wheels with the flat spots. It is very basic and easy to understand, and that is how the entire railroad is run in this current time. The needed amount of work that carmen do is growing, but management is just eliminating carmen w/ no regards to what needs to be done.
The comments you're seeking can be found at the UP HQ in Omaha, Nebraska. Walk in and ask for Jim Vena. He'll have all of the details.