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Hello Omaha We've got a Problem

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Hello Omaha We've got a Problem
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 18, 2004 4:35 PM
Uncle Pete is having more issiues Trains are still back up especially on the West Coast and in Texas also on the Sunset Route Auto Racks are still sitting there I wonder if crews are in those Locomotives they must be hot as Horse also UP needs 3,600 more crews but guess what a ton of people are being regected alos their is a power shortage and yard capacity is being cut when they put millions into track also their has been a ton of early retirements so guess DAVISON AND CLOWNS HAVE STRUK AGAIN[:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)]
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 18, 2004 6:04 PM
Crew shortages have gone from something the railroads knew was going to happen, to something that was an inconvenience, to a problem and now it's starting to become a crisis.

I heard that up here in Canada CP has leased 41 new loco's form GM for the second quarter to try and ease backlogs, but they don't actually have enough crew to run them all.

Grain shippers are starting to get really PO'ed.

More or less the same problem everywhere else....

Trains just sitting on the tracks with nobody to run them.
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 18, 2004 6:42 PM
Line'em up.............UP! Their new motto , When will we deliver ?
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Posted by dharmon on Thursday, March 18, 2004 7:04 PM
So in five years I can retire with 20 years from the Navy, hire out with UP, still get to drive an expensive piece of equipment, work nights and weekends, get called in the middle of the night, and spend lots of time away from my family, have an opportunity for people to shoot at me or crash into something.......oooh sign me up!!!!!!

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Posted by kenneo on Thursday, March 18, 2004 7:36 PM
When the UP first came out with "We Can Handle It", we, at the SP, said, yes, they certainly could. They would handle it and handle it and Handle it and handle it, and finely, when they tired of handling it, they would give it to the SP and we would do the job right the first time.
Eric
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Posted by dharmon on Thursday, March 18, 2004 7:42 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by kenneo

When the UP first came out with "We Can Handle It", we, at the SP, said, yes, they certainly could. They would handle it and handle it and Handle it and handle it, and finely, when they tired of handling it, they would give it to the SP and we would do the job right the first time.


Boy do you sound ungrateful for everything that UP has done for SP since the "merger"....I mean they....no you had that already, ummm. and they...no not that either........but they met you half way on the the new company name......their Union, SP's Pacific..[:)]
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Posted by csxns on Thursday, March 18, 2004 8:00 PM
Trucking is short of drivers now Railroads are short of engineers now what.

Russell

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Posted by rrnut282 on Thursday, March 18, 2004 9:08 PM
Must be a left coast problem. I haven't seen any parked trains on NS.
Mike (2-8-2)
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 18, 2004 9:10 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by csxns

Trucking is short of drivers now Railroads are short of engineers now what.


I guess nobody wants to work for a living anymore.
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 18, 2004 9:31 PM
Grain Shippers will be crabby as can be

DOGGY
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Posted by dknelson on Friday, March 19, 2004 7:54 AM
Power shortage huh? Maybe they wi***hey had retained some of those Chicago & North Western locomotives that were discarded because the colors weren't the right shade of yellow ....
Dave Nelson
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Posted by StillGrande on Friday, March 19, 2004 1:29 PM
Maybe they can send all the loco driving jobs to India.
Dewey "Facts are meaningless; you can use facts to prove anything that is even remotely true! Facts, schmacks!" - Homer Simpson "The problem is there are so many stupid people and nothing eats them."
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Posted by broncoman on Friday, March 19, 2004 2:27 PM
Be careful.....UPs got quite a few remotes on the west coast. I can just see a GP15-1 remote running on the point with 3 SD70Ms behind it, being run from a cubicle in India...If there is a way I am sure UP would try.

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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 19, 2004 5:44 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by macguy

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxns

Trucking is short of drivers now Railroads are short of engineers now what.


I guess nobody wants to work for a living anymore.




Where I live if you don't have "family" already working for the railroad you might as well not even waste your time trying to get a rr job. [:(]
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 19, 2004 11:11 PM
QUOTE:
Where I live if you don't have "family" already working for the railroad you might as well not even waste your time trying to get a rr job.


Most of the railways up here are getting away from that now (Western Canada anyway).
One of my friends dad's works for the shortline, southern railway of BC, and when there was an opening they wouldn't even give him an interview. His friend ended up applying for the job and getting it. It's reverse Nepitism up here!!
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 19, 2004 11:38 PM
ADVICE NEEDED

I am 23 have a college degree and been trying to get hired on by the UP. I lift weights with an engineer on the UP and he told me I for sure would get hired. Only problem is I can't even get an interview. As short of crews as they are especially in Iowa what and who are they looking for. Do I have to have military experience before they will consider me?
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, March 20, 2004 12:12 AM
Down here the "good ol buddy" system is tried and true. Relatives are thicker than degrees.
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Posted by wabash1 on Saturday, March 20, 2004 5:39 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by rrnut282

Must be a left coast problem. I haven't seen any parked trains on NS.


your not around here on the weekends . plenty of parked trains. around here 2 trains and 1 crew what do they do.....combo them
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Posted by kenneo on Saturday, March 20, 2004 11:42 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by brucemac14

ADVICE NEEDED

I am 23 have a college degree and been trying to get hired on by the UP. I lift weights with an engineer on the UP and he told me I for sure would get hired. Only problem is I can't even get an interview. As short of crews as they are especially in Iowa what and who are they looking for. Do I have to have military experience before they will consider me?


Have no idea where you live. but go to www.uprr.com and go to the employment section. There are plenty of openings in Washington, Oregon and California, and now starting to open up in Texas, also. You will have to be able to move to the job location.
Eric
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, March 20, 2004 1:37 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by dknelson

Power shortage huh? Maybe they wi***hey had retained some of those Chicago & North Western locomotives that were discarded because the colors weren't the right shade of yellow ....
Dave Nelson

Dave,
Keep C&NW units be expensive and repaint them

DOGGY
GO KENTUCKY
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Posted by citidude on Saturday, March 20, 2004 2:58 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by rrnut282

Must be a left coast problem. I haven't seen any parked trains on NS.


I've seen NS trains parked on the Pittsburgh line 1-2 miles east of the Amtrak Station. But I dont know if the cause was crew shortages or traffic congestion.

Dave in Pittsburgh
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Posted by Saxman on Saturday, March 20, 2004 5:03 PM
The whole crew shortage problem with the UP and other railroads plays like a tragic comedy. It's tragic that upper management has been so slow to recognize the fact that they were reaching a critical shortage of men. Comic because lower management predicted it. It's tragic that upper management did not "belive" those in lower management as to what the needs were in their respective terminals. Comic again because the men saw it coming. I know from my Road Foreman days, that informing the "uppers" about the impending shortage of men was an excersise in futility. Even after showing them the average attrition rate for the previous five years plus the number who could go with the new retirement was presented all I ever got was a polite; "Thank You." The General Manager said to me: "We do not hire people or promote engineers until we need them." My reply was: "When you discover you need these people it's too late." Somehow I did not understand the "intricacy" of operating a business and why I am back pulling a throttle today. (Being an engineer IS an honorable profession.) It also reminds me of when I was teaching school in the eighties and the elementary principal reported that there were 120 kindergardeners signed up for the next year. The superintendent all but called the principal a liar as his "studies" showed that there would NEVER be a class that large as all future classes would be in the 50 to 60 range. Guess what? For the next five years there were kindergarden calsses in the 90-100 range. That district is still absorbing those non students as they move through the system.

So what does it take for the "uppers" to acknowledge there is a shortage? Trains dead everywhere. Plain and simple. Of course the taste of humble pie as you, the CEO, tell the stockholders and the board of directors you screwed up is a hell of a motivator too!
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Posted by traingeek087 on Saturday, March 20, 2004 9:39 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by StillGrande

Maybe they can send all the loco driving jobs to India.




That's pathetic. DON'T YOU SEE IT'S KILLING OUR COUNTRY?!!!!
Rid'n on the city of New Orleans................
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Posted by traingeek087 on Saturday, March 20, 2004 9:41 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by wabash1

QUOTE: Originally posted by rrnut282

Must be a left coast problem. I haven't seen any parked trains on NS.


your not around here on the weekends . plenty of parked trains. around here 2 trains and 1 crew what do they do.....combo them






No it's simple, get out and push.
Rid'n on the city of New Orleans................
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, March 20, 2004 10:03 PM
If the Railroads don't have enough crews to move the freight, mabe they should consider hiring senior citizens, who have an excellent work ethic.
Garwood Heine
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Posted by edblysard on Saturday, March 20, 2004 10:08 PM
Trust me, down here in the swap, they have them parked in every siding they can find.
The same empty autorack train has been sitting at Galena Junction for four days, no crews to move it.
If it isnt a top priority train, they park it and get to it when they can.
Bulk, unit and grain trains run first, then everything else.
Ed

23 17 46 11

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Posted by broncoman on Sunday, March 21, 2004 10:18 AM
The beauty of being a CEO is that when you go up in front of the board and the shareholders you blame the failure on middle management since they are not present to defend themselves...and usually in a shareholders meeting they only answer the questions they want to, they even have some people removed whom they feel are starting to ask the wrong questions.
It would seem that most CEOs seem to suffer an acute form of a GOD complex.
Any UP employees hearing anything from the inside, i'm sure you aren't hearing from your CEO that there was a "miscalculation" or anything like that!
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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, March 21, 2004 1:42 PM
Eugene Yards is having more problems now trains are backed up they are also still in Roseville

DOGGY

GO KENTUCKY
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Posted by jeaton on Sunday, March 21, 2004 8:03 PM
Doggy-Sorry. My son is upset, too. Ooh, did I say UPSET?

"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics

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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, March 21, 2004 8:44 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by jeaton

Doggy-Sorry. My son is upset, too. Ooh, did I say UPSET?

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? If he's upset about the problems I am not pleased if UP invested millions in capacity whey are having problems DAVISON AND CLOWNS STRUCK AGAIN[:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)][:o)]

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