As they used to say in Illinois, "Bleepin' Golden"!

[CShaveRR]

I should have posted this yesterday, the actual golden anniversary of my seniority date. I didn't write this yesterday, but rather two years ago.

Fifty years ago this evening, I was probably coming back to Proviso from Wood Street in the cab of a Geep, with the first of two transfer runs we made that night). There was a bit of snow on the ground, and I remember wading to a few switches once we got into the yard.


I just realized that it was 48 years ago today (a Saturday) that I established my brakemen's seniority at the Chicago & North Western's Proviso Yard. This was after hours of testing—including a physical—at their employment office downtown (“why would you want a job like that?”), and five days of learning the rules and basic tasks, learning where the yard offices were (five in Proviso alone!) then taking a test on the operating and safety rules we’d covered, I had to go home (my Dad’s cousin’s row house near Lincoln Park), and wait for my turn to be called. It came in less than a day, for a 3:59 job at “the Middle”. I got there in plenty of time (face it, they never saw anyone show up that early!), and was overwhelmed just listening to two channels’ worth of radio chatter. The yardmaster was cordial enough, but he wasn’t the guy I had to work with. My yardmaster seemed awfully young to me, but I never really got to know him.

The crew with whom I established seniority were people who are no longer with the railroad--indeed, some who are no longer with us!--and I have to admit that even though I knew what I was doing as far as getting down and throwing switches, coupling cars, etc., I didn't have a clue as to what the bigger picture was. It seems crazy now, but I guess I could have used a map back then. We were taking cars out of Yard 5 (the yard into which they rolled off the hump) and pulling two or three tracks' worth of them east, then shoving them west onto the departure tracks. And the two or three times we did that on that day I was always surprised that we wound up right at the yard office where we started.

Turns out that this was a kind of unusual crew. There was Carl (the engineer), Carlos (the foreman), and Carl (me--the "pigeon"). I don't know who the fourth guy was, but he didn't have much more seniority than I did.

When the day was done (we got a "quit", so I was surprised by that, too), Carlos complimented me on how well I'd done for a first-timer. I was flattered, but I still hadn't known what exactly I was doing. I went home realizing that I was over 30 bucks richer (this was a while ago...$4.16 per hour is what I started at).

The next day I was called again, and caught a transfer job. This time I knew what I was doing--moving the freight. I just didn't know where I was all the time. We made two round trips from Proviso to the Wood Street yard...one taking cars out of the yard itself and one picking up a train from the west on the main line. I remember our second trip coming back we had problems--I had to walk back (in knee-high snow!) to check for a leaking train line while the other brakeman walked up from the waycar (never a caboose on the CNW!). This was on the Rockwell line, where nowadays you never walk it alone! That second trip was a struggle for our two Geeps. The droning of the engines at full power the whole time, just to get back to Proviso, was sleep-inducing, and I have to admit I don't remember leaving the main line to go back into the yard, nor much of the trip "around the horn" to get to the receiving yard. Once there, though, I had to assist with separating the train which barely fit on two long tracks, and we got back to where we started with very little time left to our legal limit of 14 hours. In spite of all of the work I'd accomplished, and the rough stuff I'd had to do (there was a bit of snow on the ground then), I was still amazed to realize that I made 'way over twice as much the second day as I had the first, thanks to the overtime. Those were the only two days that showed up on my first paycheck (the five training days, at a $1.60 minimum wage, were also on that check), but I was beginning to think that pursuing my hobby might be a good way to make a living as well.

[Jjohnieray]

          thanks Carl,And today the elite want $15.00 an hour to start. Wow.Enjoyable piece.Thank you for your time .

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Jjohnieray

          thanks Carl,And today the elite want $15.00 an hour to start. Wow.Enjoyable piece.Thank you for your time .

 

Everything cost less in those days.  I know someone who just retired from a $240K job with just a high school education.

[BaltACD]

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Jjohnieray

          thanks Carl,And today the elite want $15.00 an hour to start. Wow.Enjoyable piece.Thank you for your time . 

Everything cost less in those days.  I know someone who just retired from a $240K job with just a high school education.

Just remember when the minimum wage was instituted in 1938 the naysayers were saying civilization would end be cause of the exhorbitant 25 cents an hour minimum wage.

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BaltACD

 

 

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Jjohnieray

          thanks Carl,And today the elite want $15.00 an hour to start. Wow.Enjoyable piece.Thank you for your time . 

Everything cost less in those days.  I know someone who just retired from a $240K job with just a high school education.

 

 

Just remember when the minimum wage was instituted in 1938 the naysayers were saying civilization would end be cause of the exhorbitant 25 cents an hour minimum wage.

 

Yeah, my wife calls it the grouchy old man syndrome.  They don't make enough and everyone else makes too much.

[tree68]

BaltACD

Just remember when the minimum wage was instituted in 1938 the naysayers were saying civilization would end be cause of the exhorbitant 25 cents an hour minimum wage.

According to an on-line inflation calculator, that 25 cents comes to $4.65.  

Conversely, that $15.00 today comes back as 81 cents in 1938.

In 1968 I was working for a buck an hour, first at a liquor store, then at a park concession stand, so Carl's $4.16 makes sense.  Today that would be $28.15.

As an aside - in the fall of 1968 I joined USAF at $93 a month...  That did include room and board, if you will.

All that said - neat account, Carl.  

[BaltACD]

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BaltACD 

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Jjohnieray

          thanks Carl,And today the elite want $15.00 an hour to start. Wow.Enjoyable piece.Thank you for your time . 

Everything cost less in those days.  I know someone who just retired from a $240K job with just a high school education. 

Just remember when the minimum wage was instituted in 1938 the naysayers were saying civilization would end be cause of the exhorbitant 25 cents an hour minimum wage. 

Yeah, my wife calls it the grouchy old man syndrome.  They don't make enough and everyone else makes too much.

Bingo, Bango, Bongo - we have a winner.

[MP173]

Carl:

Great reflection on your earliest days.  I think you should put pen to paper, so fingers to keyboard and write some memiors!

There is an article in Trains on a clerk at Proviso, interesting article.  

I still recall fondly the "tour" you provided.

 

Ed

[MMLDelete]

Carl, I really enjoyed your account of those first days. Thanks for sharing.

[Electroliner 1935]

Carl, Loved your story. When will you be serving at the Sheldon Peck Homestead. I would like to meet you. 

[samfp1943]

Thanks, Carl for sharing your story! 

A tale of how Youth and exhuiberance

                       morphed into old age, and cunning...   

 Reaching that 'emeritus' status with all your pieces, and health,

                                      more or less intact.   

       

[Shadow the Cats owner]

For all those that want to jack Minimum wage to 15 an hour.  That comes out to at 40 hours a week to right around 2400 a month.  The average SS amount is less than 1/2 of that for a senior citizen.  Are they going to raise SS to cover the inflation that will hammer those that can least afford to pay for it.  Most people on SS do not have a nest egg to fall back on anymore as there were no pension plans to tide them over.  So what about the largest voting block are they going to get taken care of also or will they be forgotten like normal.  Just thought I would put that out there.  My MIL gets less than 1400 a month for her SS.  My husband on SSDI gets a little more than 1600 a month.  Just wanted to put that out there to show you what will happen if they do ram that through.  

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Social Security was NEVER intended to be a standalone pension equivalent.  It was intended to be a supplement to private pensions and personal savings.  Thank Wall Street for the disappearance of private pension plans.

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STCO--a few points.  The average SS amount is about $1500.  You're also forgetting that the person earning wages has to pay federal and state income taxes, along with SS and Medicare from their pay.  $15/hr is probably too much but the current minimum wage is far too low.

[tree68]

CSSHEGEWISCH

Social Security was NEVER intended to be a standalone pension equivalent.  It was intended to be a supplement to private pensions and personal savings.

A point I regularly make in such discussions.

Far too many people go through their working careers thinking it's a retirement plan in and of itself.

 

[SD60MAC9500]

 

Wood Street..  Isn't that the old potato yard? 

 

 

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tree68

 

 

CSSHEGEWISCH

Social Security was NEVER intended to be a standalone pension equivalent.  It was intended to be a supplement to private pensions and personal savings.

 

 

A point I regularly make in such discussions.

Far too many people go through their working careers thinking it's a retirement plan in and of itself.

 

 

Another misconception is that if you fully contribute to your 401K/IRA, that you'll have enough to retire on.  You might, but you might not.  Nobody did the research and decided that it was an amount that you could like on, it's merely the amount the govt decided that they would let you defer taxes on.  It's best to have Social Security, retirement accounts and a regular investment account.  Then, you might have enough...

[CShaveRR]

SD60MAC9500

 

Wood Street..  Isn't that the old potato yard? 

It was.  But for the purposes of that prticular transfer job, it was the place where interchange cars for the C&O, EL, Chicago Junction, and possibly others, were switched out.  We used to make a "mine run" Wood Street block at Proviso...I suspect that taking that down was the first trip we made that night, with the second trip being a road train (254? 256? 258?) that had the same type of car from points west.

[jeffhergert]

My wife brought this news clip to my attention.  It deals with the RRIF used by short lines and regionals to finance rail projects.  Watching the railroad action, what got my attention and is relevant since Carl worked on the Proviso hump, was the hump yard action.  The hump action begins about 1 minute in.

Carl, is that about how fast they humped cars when you were still working? :)

Soy Transportation Coalition on new agricultural rail line bill - (rfdtv.com)

Jeff

[CShaveRR]

jeffhergert

Carl, is that about how fast they humped cars when you were still working? :)

Soy Transportation Coalition on new agricultural rail line bill - (rfdtv.com) Jeff

They only wish!  When I hired out, they could do four cars a minute on a given shove.  When I retired, they culdn't do half that.  Reasons?  Safety rules, reductions in crewmen (think one RCO pulling pins, on a job that used to have four members...five with a fireman), reductions in trains being operated (face it--to hump the cars you need places to put 'em), and--and I fought for this!--better accuracy in car classification.  We used to have people who didn't car where the cars went as long as they went over the hill.