A supplier told us that a carload of lumber that is shipping to us from western Canada "will be a week or two late, on account of the big train explosion up in N.D." I told him that someone was giving him some bad information. Lord help me, I tried to explain about unit trains of oil not having a car of lumber tagged on the back, and the fact that N.D. probably has more than one rail line. Heck- they even have more than one railroad! He said he would check it out further. This afternoon, same supplier called, and said he got some clarification. He was told that the one to two week delay was "because the train involved in the big train explosion was the same one to be bringing our car, and they were having troubled getting the engine restarted". From time to time on this forum, we discuss how the average Joe doesn't know or care much about the railroads. It's kind of scary how deep that river of ignorance can run.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
If it were April 1st I be LMAO! But here in the depths of winter, I can only be sad and angry. Sad that railroads still feel they can take advantage of their customers' ignorance about railroads and shipping and that the customers are still that ignorant. And angry for same reasons. If this is common practice, it is no wonder the rails can't get shipper and public support for their causes. I can see why the shipment could be delayed by the derailment but not for the reasons given. It's not too different from a conversation I was having with a friend about how little car salesmen and dealers really know about how cars work and what can go wrong or be able to tell what is wrong before they go to sell it. It is as if the whole world resembles a stereotypical used car lot complete with the shifty salesmen!
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To be fair, I believe it is the mill lying to my supplier that is the problem. My supplier is just too naïve, ignorant, or dumb to catch on. No fault of the railroad in this case.
Murphy, I am inclined to side with you. I seriously doubt that anyone connected with the railroad would have told the shipper such a preposterous tale. They can't get the engine started, so it will be two weeks yet before you get the car? Utterly ridiculous, and made out of whole cloth.
Johnny
DeggestyThey can't get the engine started, so it will be two weeks yet before you get the car?
They were waiting for a fresh load of coal.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
Where from? the coal mine under the Museum of Science and Industry?
Murphy,
Is it possible for you to trace the car? Maybe see if it's actually been shipped yet.
Greyhounds- We could, but we probably already know the answer. Last time we traced back to see where a car of lumber was, it was still in a forest, providing recreational opportunities for squirrels. Lumber supplies are tight right now, and there are a lot of games being played by mills, wholesalers, and middlemen. I thought it was kind of creative, that someone thought to use this particular railroad problem as a scapegoat, assuming- probably rightly so- that most folks don't understand railroads, and would accept the excuse.
Their check for the invoice was in a truck headed in their location involved in a chain reaction collision at [pick a location]....
Jeeez, just phone the president or CEO of the railroad and tell him what was told to you, ( the most insane response ever) you will be surprised how easy it is to reach these upper floor guys, any responsible corporation will allow access to management, if you can't get the 'pres, they will filter you down till your problem is solved, I got hold of the pres. of General Motors Canada, about a $1.15 switch GM was charging $130, I got my switch free and told her I would never buy another GM product and promised her I would inform 100 people about the incident and convince them not to buy also.
tatans- It's not the railroad that's telling the tall tale, it's the mill, or a broker.
I am aware of a rail customer in Wellston Ohio who orders flour in Indianapolis Indiana that is routed via Louisville and Cincinnati. It sometimes takes three days to get the flour from Indianapolis to Wellston Ohio; an easy day drive for a trucker. I wonder how long the B&O took go get flour from Indianapolis to Wellston? This customer has been using the railroad since B&O days
Personally, I don't think anyone is "lying" (deliberately or otherwise).
Have you ever played that party game where someone whispers a sentence in one person's ear and that one repeats it in someone else's ear and it gets transferred around the room until the last person has to repeat what was said and everybody gets a good laugh at how it was transmogrified in the circuit.
I bet the question was put "up the line" from you, the customer, to the distributer or broker, to the shipping department of the RR customer relations person, to the expediter and the answer was something like, "Oh my, that accident sure has made a mess of things here, I am swamped with re-routings and running kind of slow, we will get to that as soon as I can, but I am making no promises."
That answer had to traverse the chain back to the customer and along the way, each person maybe didn't fully understand what they were told and had to make sense of it in their own mind and may not have a good working knowledge of the RR operations.
Yes, the accident may have slowed some things... Maybe the carload of lumber was in a following train and had to be moved back along the line to some junction where it could be re-routed to another line. That would take time to fit that train into a new schedule just to get it moved back to that point. Then it has to be fitted into the schedule of trains on the alternate route back to the original destination.
But that is too much to explain from one person to the next, so it is just said that it will be delayed. But we humans have a need quantify the imprecise "delayed". One person thinks it might be a couple of hours and then adds, "Maybe more"... that is not a lie! It COULD be more. The next person hears the Maybe more and quantifies that amount to "several hours, or more". That becomes "A few days, or more" and that becomes "Weeks!" And that could all happen in ONE person's mind; it does not require multiple people, all it takes is a short period of time for a human to confuse themselves.
Now that "delayed" is out of reason, so it needs a reason of its own. Why would it take "weeks"? And so "reasons" are grasped at by those that have no real knowledge of what the reason could possibly be. But they heard of that wreck and the damage to the locomotives. So, plausible answers are formulated by those that have no idea what is happening and that information is passed along to those that should know better, but still have no real knowledge of what is happening, so the answer is again transmogrified to better fit their understanding of what could possibly be happening.
It is NOT "lying"! It is simply trying to justify to the customer why they have not received their shipment yet.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
See John Kneiling's column on Page 5 of the January 1967 issue of Trains, titled "No Monopoly On Error". In it a lumber buyer - 7 carloads a year - told of the transit time from Oregon to the East Coast of the US for a 3-carload order. It was 21 days for the first car, 27 days for the second, and the 3rd had not shown up yet; he was told (by the railroad ?): "You should receive it in 21 to 60 days."
More in a few days.
- Paul North.
Murph: Right you are: direct my tirade from the railroad to the supplier, and find another supplier, there are plenty here in Canadaland.
Murphy Siding tatans- It's not the railroad that's telling the tall tale, it's the mill, or a broker.
Well, what do you know! The poor, lost carload hit town today. Nothing inspires confidence in a vendor like having a spokesman who talk out of orifices other than his mouth. Appears they must have gotten that one railroad track in ND patched up..
Murphy Siding Well, what do you know! The poor, lost carload hit town today. Nothing inspires confidence in a vendor like having a spokesman who talk out of orifices other than his mouth. Appears they must have gotten that one railroad track in ND patched up..
Now let's take bets of when it gets to your dock...
Probably a weather related delay.. but a week or two is a stretch. I'm not sure why your supplier would lie when he could simply refer you over to the railroad for further clarification. Maybe they loaded it late and don't want you to know about it.
Actually, a production based delay at the mill. It's a pretty common occurrence right now, due to supply and demand. The middle men have figured out to simply blame it on the railroads, as they are a big, nondescript entity, and most people don't really know much about the railroads.*This car shipped into one of our local vendors- one whose switch faces the right way.
THANKS FOR THE GOOD NEWS
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