Is it just me or....

[Anonymous]

As a railfan I can't stand UP. But as a UP stockholder I've gotten a decent return on my investment. Uncle Pete does have a tremendous public relations problem, but like the Southern Pacific in California, they just don't give a damn. When you are the onlt game in town and you've got to ship, what are you going to do? I can see the day when the big mergers will be broken up, just like at the beginningh the the 20th century, i.e. Standard Oil. It won't come too soon to suit me.

[Anonymous]

Poeple on this page should checkout "UP Breakdown", they're talking about the same thing, many good comments.

[Anonymous]

"Crisis Management" - Wait for a crisis, then manage it!!!

"Mind over Matter" - If you don't mind, it doesn't Matter!!!!!

As you grow older, you learn more and more about less and less, until you know everything about nothing!!!

[route_rock]

Over managed over working employees.Hell who knows. I will say one thing Nature abhores a vacuum.Therefore we will not just have one great big rail system or two for that matter.Balance in life is cruicial(sorry to get Zen on you all but this is some deep stuff)so catnip is to be sniffed and choclate cake eaten or do I have that backwards?Anyhoo I have eaten the catnip and I can see that if its just UP and CN there will be one outcome.Collapse of both parties and the biggest tourist railroad ever seen.Top heavy companies cant exist and we still have anti trust laws.Look up some history we all act like this is new but youd be suprised how much the old saying of"the more things change the more they stay the same."Anyhoo have to run be well all and for goodness sakes dont eat the catnip!!!!

[philnrunt]

Paul makes a good comparison- but when you think of it, isn't this becoming a problem in ALL facets of life? We focus on UP because railroads are a big part of our lives, but oil companies, banks, insurance companies, etc etc ad infintum give less and less service for more and more money. I have friends building a new house and over the last 3 months I have heard numerous times that workmen didn't fini***he job, didn't come prepared or didn't bring the right thing.
UP is a microcosim - well maybe a MACROcosim, of a problem that is spreading across the entire world, increased prices for less services and companies shooting themselves in the foot by incredibly STUPID means.
Remember Coke II? Vegas, Pintos, Corvairs, Edsels, the Hubble T'scope, NASA missing Mars because someone didn't convert yards into meters, 2 shuttles lost due to frozen O rings and lost tiles, and now UP. All companies seem to go thru times when every decision they make is bad. I'm sure all of you have other examples.
Good leadership, training and treatment of employees has been proven tima and again to put a business on top, but it seems that lesson is lost in today's cutthroat world.
[soapbox] I'll get off, the soapbox is open. Next!
but then again, it could be just you[:P][;)][:P][;)][:D]

[Anonymous]

I tried catnip once.....didn't feel a thing. Maybe I was gyped!

[locomutt]

YOU have to buy Catnip,or they won't let you out!!!![:)]
Not exactually sure about the chocolate cake,maybe
Mookie can help you out[:D][}:)]

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Puckdropper

QUOTE:
I just started here, can somebody point me to the lunch room? Oh, and when do I get my first star?

The lunch room is located in Lincoln, Nebraska. There is a minimum of TWO chocolate cakes to get in, and perhaps a bit of Catnip.

Don't understand? You will when you get two stars.

See how brilliant you have become since joining the forum?

Moo

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jruppert

I'm sorry, I didn't want to imply that I work anywhere. I just wanted to mention that I am posting here for the first time in a humorus way.

Never apologize for a good sense of humor. But don't ask for chocolate cake, either!

Mookie

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AlcoRS11Nut

Zing!!! (It's true!)
The WC, then the DM&IR, B&LE, when will this monster be stopped!!!![}:)]

I'm sure that if some people had their way, it will probably be when the motto "Be specific, ship Union Pacific" becomes redundant, as there is no one else to choose from.

[AlcoRS11Nut]

QUOTE: Originally posted by macguy

QUOTE: Originally posted by Train Guy 3

I don't hate UP.... I hate that railraod with the yellow locomotives that kills all the cool railraods.

I didn't know CN had yellow loco's......[:-,]

Zing!!! (It's true!)
The WC, then the DM&IR, B&LE, when will this monster be stopped!!!![}:)]

[Paul Milenkovic]

All I know is what I read in the Wall Street Journal, but the UP analogy is less to the old PRR and a lot more to the old Penn Central. I heard that in swallowing up a lot of other roads that they are having a lot of indigestion. You have a Pennsylvania RR, the Standard Railroad of the World, with a stodgy way of doing things, and then you have a New York Central, trying new things with Flexi-Van intermodal. Each is a functional in its own way, and you would think by merging the two you would have all kinds of savings, but instead you have a clash of cultures and the merged network is nothing but chaos. I get a sense that UP is going through some of that.

I think the way to go is more along the lines of Daimler-Chrysler where you have Chrysler and you have Mercedes, and you pretty much let them do their own thing, but over time you let Mercedes technology filter over into Chrysler products to build up the value of the Chrysler brand, and I suppose you take a Chrysler, stick a Mercedes badge on it and sell it for twice the money (not! Although there is a Jaguar model that is a restyled Ford Mondeo as part of the Ford-Jaguar combine).

The notion that you don't overnight replace Chryslers and Mercedes with a single car model and try to sell it out of both Chrysler and Mercedes dealerships. I think the analogy between auto manufacturing and rail lines is apt because at least with autos, there is a big duplication of capabilities -- engineering, engines, assembly -- among the auto companies, but you have a lot of cultural history in how each original company designs and builds cars along with customer brand loyalty and dealership networks, and you want to merge companies in little baby steps to not wreck all of that.

[Anonymous]

Thankyou sir, I'm on my way.

[Anonymous]

Jruppert you get the stars at 50/100/500/1000/2000 etc...
If you click on your name you get a history of your posts, how much you post per day, personal info, etc.
Good luck

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry, I didn't want to imply that I work anywhere. I just wanted to mention that I am posting here for the first time in a humorus way.

[Anonymous]

probably getting a lot of flak from people who work there! when i worked there from '96-'01, I complained a lot myself, until I decided to do something about it instead of sound like a blow-hard![8D]

[Anonymous]

So that's how you get your stars!

[Puckdropper]

QUOTE:
I just started here, can somebody point me to the lunch room? Oh, and when do I get my first star?

The lunch room is located in Lincoln, Nebraska. There is a minimum of TWO chocolate cakes to get in, and perhaps a bit of Catnip.

Don't understand? You will when you get two stars.

[Anonymous]

Lets see:

1. They buy up too many railroads

2. Eveybody (at the time) seem(ed) to like them

3. The large engines they owned were a piece of junk

4. They are too worried about sueing model railroad manufactores (making an already expensive hobby worse) to worry about running their own railroad.

[Anonymous]

Is this a joke Question?
BNSF railfan.

[Anonymous]

I just started here, can somebody point me to the lunch room? Oh, and when do I get my first star?

[Train Guy 3]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cpbloom

If your reason for not liking the UP is because they "gobbled" up your favorite fallen flag, maybe you should be asking just how/why your favorite RR let itself be gobbled up?

Hmmm... Good point.

Atleast my black (well technically white) horses are still rolling.

[cpbloom]

If your reason for not liking the UP is because they "gobbled" up your favorite fallen flag, maybe you should be asking just how/why your favorite RR let itself be gobbled up?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AlcoRS11Nut

Is it just me or is there a lot of dis-like/hatred for Union Pacific. If so, WHY?!

UP has its detractors and a lot of people are mad at them now (again) over issues ranging from poor service to suing model makers over trademarks. See thread on NYT article too.

LC

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jruppert

I know a young guy who had a chance to work for the UP but turned it down because he knows an old guy who used to work for the UP and all of his complaints about working for the UP and that's a shame.

If I could work for the railroad I would do so gladly, but I have kidney failure, and even though I am young (35), I know that for me this is not a reality. Before I had kidney failure, I was a diesel mechanic on marine and power generation engines. So many other guys that I went to school with were holding out for the money, I knew as long as I was out there every day pushing iron the money would come and I never had trouble finding work.

That same old guy I mentioned says the young guys that he worked with adopted a screw it attitude very quickly because of the way management treated everyone. The collective concious of the poeple in a company is a microculture. Problems of moral and comunications become self perpetuating, and that's a shame. Maybe in time it will get better, until then keep the lights on and the wheels turning.

As for the lawsuite, somebody has too much time on their hands.

UP sounds like they are having very similar problems as CN has been having since privtization, there doesn't seem to be a sinlge happy RTE working for CN.

[BaltACD]

I have worked in an around a number of terminals over a larger number of years.

The employees of Termina A that were lousy employees , 30 years ago are still lousy today, despite the fact that very few if any of the employees for 30 years ago are still there; however, the current employees were trained and indoctrinated by the old employees. They were taubht the same bad habits and attitudes by the old heads and have adopted them as their working norm

UP has been very 'heavy handed' in their dealings with their employees and everyone else they have a business relationship with. Some of the heavy handedness is necessary, more of it is not. People, both employees and customers, resent the regal heavy handded tactics and bad mouth UP.

[Anonymous]

I know a young guy who had a chance to work for the UP but turned it down because he knows an old guy who used to work for the UP and all of his complaints about working for the UP and that's a shame.

If I could work for the railroad I would do so gladly, but I have kidney failure, and even though I am young (35), I know that for me this is not a reality. Before I had kidney failure, I was a diesel mechanic on marine and power generation engines. So many other guys that I went to school with were holding out for the money, I knew as long as I was out there every day pushing iron the money would come and I never had trouble finding work.

That same old guy I mentioned says the young guys that he worked with adopted a screw it attitude very quickly because of the way management treated everyone. The collective concious of the poeple in a company is a microculture. Problems of moral and comunications become self perpetuating, and that's a shame. Maybe in time it will get better, until then keep the lights on and the wheels turning.

As for the lawsuite, somebody has too much time on their hands.

[Randy Stahl]

I think they should adopt the WC paint
Randy

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by macguy

QUOTE: Originally posted by Train Guy 3

I don't hate UP.... I hate that railraod with the yellow locomotives that kills all the cool railraods.

I didn't know CN had yellow loco's......[:-,]

I'm not a big fan of Cn either-

they could use another paint scheme.