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RR Carriers Bring One-Person Crews to the Table

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They put me in a automatic transmission equipped class 8 truck. I swore up and down that they cannot match the strength and precision of the Manual. (I'd die with a manual and so forth...) When I sat thru rush hour traffic with the stop and go, the feet did not hurt so much as they normally would. My wife appreciated the technology as it enabled her to drive. Only then did I accept that autos in class 8's are to stay. While trucks are not trains, I must point out that equipping trains with technology that will sometimes fail or is mishandled by a tired or undermanned crew on a given train and situations will be created that will cause damage and possibly death like the recent incident elsewhere in the forums of someone who apparently was not equippted per saftey rules. I recall reading in a book some time ago that aircraft now have the ability to generate a solution to execute a take off or landing without the pilot or crew's interaction at airfields properly equipped. This does not mean they will just have one person passing out soda and peanuts on the plane with 300 souls aboard.. oh no sir! This then should not be applied to trains of any size doing what ever task that it may be needed to do within the great workday that may be needed. Anything from taking a boxcar to a place to be loaded with paper or hauling 110 cars double stack 300 miles across your division. You NEED people to do this work. I say at least 2 the more you can get on a task the faster it will get done. Now I have accepted long ago that you can tie a pusher to the lead consist with wireless and computer control that you dont need a crew on the helper. That is ok. You can manuver a engine about the yard pushing 3 cars or whatnot... that is ok too... as long you have PEOPLE on the job. If the day comes that there are actually too few people on the job across a given railroad there is a real danger that a meltdown maybe reached and the monies that are lost will probably destroy any short term investors profits that they may be seeking. Railroading is FULL of stories seeped in tradition about how fast one can get across the country coast to coast or gather up little bitty loads from all over and assemble it into one train (Or several) and do it day in and day out 365/ without too much problem. The day we start stripping men (women too but speaking fugitevly (Spelling?) from that train for the sake of a few dollars savings (Profit) is the day everything is going to run slower because only so many people can turn wrenches, throw switches, pull couplers etc...
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