3 METRA ENGINEERS SUSPENDED - LET TEEN OPERATE TRAIN

[MOPACnut]

henry6

Awesome!

 Do you think this guy is focusing?

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=257334&nseq=0

 "David P. Who says she should get a cab ride?"  Or,  "I'm kicking David P. out of my cab and..."..

  Now that could cause an engineer to miss a stop signal .

 Anyway, running a switch engine in a yard or a local on a branch line is one thing. Running a loaded commuter train on a main line is another! Real smart.

 If it had been me no way would i have posted photos or even mentioned it (until about maybe 40 years later). I've been in an engine cab on a stopped train twice, (and a couple dozen times in the cabs of ones parked at Topeka's Railroad Days). And my only cab ride was a paid for (3.00$) one on the Midland RR excursion in 1999 (back and forth a couple times in an  NW-2, about a 400' trip each move). 

[kolechovski]

Are there any archives of the pics the kid took or his myspace page?  According to this:

http://searchservice.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=sitesearch.results&type=AllMySpace&qry=Stupid+Metra&submit=Search

his page no longer exists, though it has cached a picture of a loco.  I'm curious what the pics were that caused all the trouble.  And back in the day, would the railroads have complained about cab rides?  I know of quite a few older guys who got numerous cab rides, even back in teh steam era, and they weren't even railfans!  These days, you hit the lottery if you get a cab ride!  Why such a huge change?  Sure, the lawyers helped ruin it for everyone, but still, something major had to change.  As for him operating the train, I am a bit uncomfortable about that with a passenger train flying along, without him being experienced, even if the engineer was right there with him.  Now running freight locos plodding along at low speeds if a different story IMO, and I'd guess that's the kind of thing most people that got to run the locos were doing (yes, some even got to run them).  Why are railroads having such huge problems with this now?

And what about job shadowing? I'd think letting highschoolers in teh cab for a day to watch the train crews work would be a great way to introduce them to the lifestyle, let them know what the work is like, and encourage those that might be considering a career in it.  Why don't railroads do this?

[zugmann]

 One word answers all your questions: LIABILITY.

You allow someone on your engine, then you derail and he gets hurt.  You get sued.  You invite someone for a cabride and they slip and fall on the steps climbing on.  You get sued. 

 

[Deggesty]

zugmann

 One word answers all your questions: LIABILITY.

You allow someone on your engine, then you derail and he gets hurt.  You get sued.  You invite someone for a cabride and they slip and fall on the steps climbing on.  You get sued. 

 

Yes, that's the way it is now, because people refuse to take responsibility for their own actions.

This is the way it should be: you ask to ride an engine, and you are hurt. If you had not asked to ride, you would not have been hurt: YOU are responsible for your being hurt because you put yourself into a dangerous place. You climb to the top of a car that is sitting under catenary, and you are, at best, burned: YOU are responsible for the damage.

[CShaveRR]

Latest on the story:  the engineer involved has resigned.  According to what I read, he will no longer be investigated by Metra, but may still have Fedral fines.  He will be able to collect Railroad Retirement.

[al-in-chgo]

I must be missing something -- did it come down to just one engineer's performance?

Because the news reports mention three engineers.  -  a.s.

 

[CShaveRR]

The Tribune article you cited when originating this thread read, in part:

A Metra engineer is under investigation for permitting the 18-year-old to drive trains, and he and two other two trainmen have been suspended for allegedly allowing the teen to enter locomotive cabs, according to a report filed recently with the Federal Railroad Administration.

I would assume the first engineer is the one referred to.

Here's a link to the story I saw today:

http://www.utu.org/worksite/detail_news.cfm?ArticleID=44494

Take the last paragraph with a grain of salt:  I doubt that his pension will be anything near the amount cited--more likely that's his annual pay rate.

[Deggesty]

Times have certainly changed, especially with the ambulance chasers out to get a large chunk of the damages that juries award.

I am glad that my cab rides and other experiences with hands-on railroading came before the day of blaming the railroads for any troubles. Most of my experiences came through knowing the railroad men involved, though my first cab ride came with the blessing a man I never met–the then superintendent of the IC’s Tennessee Division, who gave me permission, after I had asked for it, to ride the engine of the City of New Orleans from Memphis to Grenada 43 years ago. I had also asked the superintendent of the Louisiana Division about riding the engine from Canton to McComb, and he said that it was not done. Until I could no longer distinguish between a whistle post and mile post (same size and shape), I handled the air horn.

That December, I had an invitation from a SAL engineer to ride in the cab of his new "motor," as the SAL called its engines. On my way from Birmingham to Monroe, N. C. On #6, I stepped off at Athens, Ga., and walked up to the head end. The engineer invited me up, and while I was in the cab invited me to ride with him. I declined, not wanting him to get into any trouble.

In the spring of 1969, right after the Southern abolished the Pelican south of York, Alabama, I rode from Tuscaloosa to York and back to Tuscaloosa just to make the turn around. I boarded in Birmingham, where the train had been made up (if you had come in from the northeast and were continuing on south of Birmingham, you had to change because there was no passenger servicing facility in York) and the conductor (who knew me) expected me to get off in Tuscaloosa. When I told him what I was going to do, he refused to take my Tuscaloosa-York-Tuscaloosa ticket. While we were waiting in York for time to go, I asked him about riding the engine, and he took me up, spoke to the engineer–and I rode back to Tuscaloosa with the engine crew. When we arrived, I got off on the side away from the station, to reduce the possibility of the engine crew’s getting into trouble.

That fall, I was going to Bristol, Virginia, on the Birmingham Special, and spoke to the flagman (who knew me) after we had left Attalla (it may have been another stop), and he took me through the train (no RPO by then) to the engine–and rode there until we had gone through Lookout Mountain, and I was back in the coach before we got to the station.

My last mainline engine ride was on a steam engine. In December of 1970, the Southern was moving its two consolidation engines from Atlanta to Birmingham where they would be shopped during the winter. The Atlanta chapter of the NRHS sponsored an excursion which had the cars going back on the rear of the Southern Crescent. Several other members of the Birmingham chapter and I went over the day before and spent the night in Atlanta. On the way over, I talked with the engineer, a member of the Birmingham chapter, who was going to run the lead engine the next day, and asked him about the possibility of my riding the engine. He told me that it was not his decision to make. The next day, while the engines were being coaled and were taking water in Anniston, I (along with a few other people) was up by the engine–and the engineer beckoned to me. He may have cleared my riding with Bill Purdie, the head of Southern’s steam program, for he and his wife were both on the lead engine (she sat on the fireman’s box; he stood in the gangway). After I got in the cab, I noticed, and complimented Mrs. Purdie on her makeup–and she got me back when we arrived in Birmingham–"Your mother wouldn’t recognize you." It was a crowded cab–engineer and Mrs. Purdie on the seatboxes, two firemen, who kept the engine hot, and one supernumerary. It’s no wonder Mr. Purdie stood in the gangway, even when we went through Cook Spring Tunnel.

I also had great pleasure in the late sixties and early seventies working with the AT&N’s crews at the north end of the railroad–playing switchman and brakeman, flagging public crossings, riding the engine around the wye, running the engine around the wye, and once making their daily run with them, going the 20 miles down to the connection with the Frisco and back (two hours each way) at night. My only regret is that I never did arrange for my wife to run the engine around the wye, for she would have enjoyed it.

In April of 1974, I was on my way to Boston, boarding in Tuscaloosa. In Birmingham, I stepped off and walked up to the engine, having no idea at all as to who would be running the engine to Atlanta–it was the same engineer who had invited me up in Anniston. He told me that he would invite me to ride with him, but the company was cracking down on such. I did not insist that he let me ride.