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A crazy day, but at least it was short!!!

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Hello all, ready for another bout of rambling? No, well you're getting it anyway!![}:)] <br /> <br /> Not too long ago I caught the south local off the conductors extra board. The engineer was also off, so there was an extra board engineer on as well. That left the brakeman as the only regular crew member working. The brakeman is not a pleasant person to be around and he works very dangerously and could get himself killed at any moment. He also has a bad habit of telling engineers how to run. "You're going too slow!" etc, etc. We had a very short day ahead of us. I was hoping that we could make it the few hours without any excitement, but that would be too much to ask. The first incident, which was actually the fuse, ocurred when I was tying onto a track. I had asked for three step and was making the air tie. I came back out from between the engine and car only to have the brakeman say "release three-step." I was stunned and was about to say something, but the engineer beat me to it. Over the radio he rightly announced that is was not his three-step to give up and what was he trying to do was against the rules. The brakeman replies: "this is how we do it on the locals." After the air test of our six cars we climb aboard and head off down the runner track to the junction with the main line. A signal pops up for us and we begin to move when a roadway worker in charge calls us and asks for our engine number. The engineer and myself look at each other and the engineer brings the train to a stop. The limits of the work authority are only on the main track and we were already south of the limits. As the engineer stops the train, the brakeman yells "what are you doing, we don't have to stop, we're getting on the mainline outside his authority. Indeed we were, but Iwe still wanted to make sure why we were being given permission anyway; the limits ended a half-mile north of us. I saw a few men and a truck and all they were doing was setting up the advance warning board. The brakeman continues to berate the engineer and throws his work order in his direction. The engineer says i can stop and will stop if I am uncertain, then the brakeman tells the engineer he doesn't know spit about running engines. Then the brakeman pulls the emergency lever and crosses his arms and just sits there. I couldn't belive the display I was seeing!!!!! The engineer snapped and got up out of his seat and so did the brakeman both screaming at the top of their lungs at each other nose to nose(kinda like a baseball manager and an ump). In the meantime the roadway worker in charge keeps calling us. In the meantime I'm just sitting there passively hating myself for not putting an end to this. Then my engineer says to me that I better leave the cab because things are going to get ugly and I should not see what's about to happen. I had enough at that point. I stood between the two and said I know that the roadway worker in charge is trying to give us permission outside his limits but he's probably doing so because he has men putting up a board and he feels responsible for their safety. I said we were going to appease the man and get "permission." Then I said the both of you will sit down and we'll get our work done and go home; take it to the parking lot when we are finished. On we went and we finished with no more outbursts or anything. As we pulled our engine onto the pit the brakeman got off and I turned to the engineer and said you know if you hit that man you would have been fired, right? He said he knew, but just lost it and even thought about apologizing to the brakeman, and I said for what? <br /> <br /> Anyways, I was wondering if our course of action was appropriate in dealing with the work limit situation.
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