CliqueofOne wrote: Murphy Siding wrote: CrazyDiamond wrote: When you asked that question, I had kind of envisioned a masked crusader with a cape!No need to be confused if someone had read my previous post.Caper;
Murphy Siding wrote: CrazyDiamond wrote: When you asked that question, I had kind of envisioned a masked crusader with a cape!
CrazyDiamond wrote:
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Murphy Siding wrote: CrazyDiamond wrote: CliqueofOne wrote: CrazyDiamond wrote:CliqueOfOne......are you a Caper?Not yet. Being retired kind of makes it a useless endeavour. It's too bad there wasn't a government committee of some kind that wouldn't fold under pressure from CN. Where the members would refuse to be intimidated, impressed, bought out, muzzled, etc. A committee with the teeth to tear into the culture of the 'New CN' and rip it to shreds. I'd love to be a member of such a committee. Being a former employee with 37 years of actual down and dirty on the job experience, they couldn't pull the wool, I mean cotton over my eyes. The Harrison regime never impressed or intimidated me when I was employed on CN and since retirement I'm certainly not impressed by his lack of business ethics and social morality even now.When I asked if you were a Caper I meant are you from Cape Breton? When you asked that question, I had kind of envisioned a masked crusader with a cape!
CrazyDiamond wrote: CliqueofOne wrote: CrazyDiamond wrote:CliqueOfOne......are you a Caper?Not yet. Being retired kind of makes it a useless endeavour. It's too bad there wasn't a government committee of some kind that wouldn't fold under pressure from CN. Where the members would refuse to be intimidated, impressed, bought out, muzzled, etc. A committee with the teeth to tear into the culture of the 'New CN' and rip it to shreds. I'd love to be a member of such a committee. Being a former employee with 37 years of actual down and dirty on the job experience, they couldn't pull the wool, I mean cotton over my eyes. The Harrison regime never impressed or intimidated me when I was employed on CN and since retirement I'm certainly not impressed by his lack of business ethics and social morality even now.When I asked if you were a Caper I meant are you from Cape Breton?
CliqueofOne wrote: CrazyDiamond wrote:CliqueOfOne......are you a Caper?Not yet. Being retired kind of makes it a useless endeavour. It's too bad there wasn't a government committee of some kind that wouldn't fold under pressure from CN. Where the members would refuse to be intimidated, impressed, bought out, muzzled, etc. A committee with the teeth to tear into the culture of the 'New CN' and rip it to shreds. I'd love to be a member of such a committee. Being a former employee with 37 years of actual down and dirty on the job experience, they couldn't pull the wool, I mean cotton over my eyes. The Harrison regime never impressed or intimidated me when I was employed on CN and since retirement I'm certainly not impressed by his lack of business ethics and social morality even now.
CrazyDiamond wrote:CliqueOfOne......are you a Caper?
When I asked if you were a Caper I meant are you from Cape Breton?
Crazy D
Sorry for the confusion.
I was referring to the management when I referred to returning the BCR to those who know how to run it. I had friends in management in the communications/signaling department of the BCR. They had years of experience and many of them left BCR when CN took over. The new management (if I may call it that!?) was out of their depth here and certainly had a steep learning curve to contend with. IMHO they still do. I believe that railroads, no matter how we look at them, are directed by their management in the final analysis and not by the running crews. The Lillooet derailment occurred with a CN unit which was not equipped with dynamic braking. In the 'good old days', the BCR management would have been all over a situation like this. A unit with dynamic braking capability would have been the unit switching the mill spur east (and significantly upgrade) of Lillooet. CN, as I said previously, is a 'flatlander's' railroad without the corporate (and thus management) ability (or will) to adjust to these mountainous operating conditions. The crews know how. Their management cannot or will not do so. Sad, but there it is. Line staff are the ones who do the work. As in many other corporate situations, their input and knowledge are ignored all too often. The consequences are obvious.
charlie
Murphy Siding wrote: Are CN's *big* problems only on the former BC Rail lines?
Charlie, that knowledge or learning does exist inside the CN today. Those with BCR that are now CN do know how to do this....they did it years and years before. Therefore, because they are not doing it now, implies the upper 'brass' mangement has dictated to them to not do what they did before, and thus the increase in these ridiculous events. It appears CN has choosen to choose profit over safety.
lenzfamily wrote:They have not learned, in my view, to deal in a satisfactory corporate manner with sharp curvature, steep grades and distributed power matters as well as other techniques necessary to operate successfully in this particular (and very mountainous) environment......... Let's hope CN learns its operating lessons soon in these specific instances, or better yet, return the BCR to those who actually know how to run it and with the personnel, equipment and money necessary to do so. CharlieChilliwack BC
They have not learned, in my view, to deal in a satisfactory corporate manner with sharp curvature, steep grades and distributed power matters as well as other techniques necessary to operate successfully in this particular (and very mountainous) environment......... Let's hope CN learns its operating lessons soon in these specific instances, or better yet, return the BCR to those who actually know how to run it and with the personnel, equipment and money necessary to do so.
Charlie
Chilliwack BC
Cliqueofone
I was talking with one of your craft just this afternoon. Among other things we talked about the state of railroading, CN style. To say the least it is a sad story. It appears as if the company has some more lessons to learn about safe train handling on the BC Railway, which it will always remain as far as I am concerned. CN (in my personal view) is still a primarily 'flatlander's' railway as far as operating procedure is concerned. They are about running as much tonnage as possible with as long trains, as little power and as few crew as they can get away with (as far as I can see). This is all in aid of the bottom line. IMHO they will have to learn (even more than they might have done so far!?) to adjust their operating methods to something different than the specific operating conditions of the Edson, Albreda, Ashcroft and Yale subs if they are going to do better in this particular area of operation. They have not learned, in my view, to deal in a satisfactory corporate manner with sharp curvature, steep grades and distributed power matters as well as other techniques necessary to operate successfully in this particular (and very mountainous) environment. The accident at Lillooet last year (2006) with the runaway power (without dynamic braking ability) and a loaded centrebeam car on one of the steepest grades on the subdivision (NE of Lilloet) is a case in point. In another area of concern, a recent example is the bridge collapse just east of Tete Jaune Cache on the Edson sub two years ago. The TSB report and its description of how bridge inspection and maintenance slipped through the organizational 'cracks' (because of reorganization and expansion of bridge engineers territory at Kamloops) is sad yet instructive reading. Let's hope CN learns its operating lessons soon in these specific instances, or better yet, return the BCR to those who actually know how to run it and with the personnel, equipment and money necessary to do so. BTW, the BC provincial government 'lease' of BCR to CN is an ongoing and rather sad piece of news, even now, in BC.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/08/04/train-burning.html
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070804/train_derailment_070804/20070804
This only days after they get charged for enviromental damage, and in the same week as an inquiry into CN's safety has begun.
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