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I Hate Hunter Harrison

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Posted by trainboyH16-44 on Tuesday, September 25, 2012 4:38 PM

Hold the phone, CP isn't already boasting mostly GE power?

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Posted by blownout cylinder on Monday, September 24, 2012 11:59 PM

Murphy Siding

Mr. Railman

Here's a tiny update...

Sounds like He's going to spend more money on new GEs, instead of continuing the uopgrade on the SOO SD60s AND the reintroduction of the SD90-43MACs. Sounds like sooner than later the CP will be boasting mostly General electric power, while the identity of the SOO Line and the DM&E slowly crumble.

     Just how much do you think the identity of the Soo line and DM&E add the the bottom line?

I guess with some, 'image' is more important than the bottom line.

And, to top it all up, if GE power is better for the bottom line then I see it as fine....Smile, Wink & Grin

Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry

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Posted by blownout cylinder on Monday, September 24, 2012 11:56 PM

mudchicken

HH is safe for now. "He" is only hated, not loathed.

I think someone is on the verge of loathing....Whistling

Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Monday, September 24, 2012 10:14 PM

Mr. Railman

Here's a tiny update...

Sounds like He's going to spend more money on new GEs, instead of continuing the uopgrade on the SOO SD60s AND the reintroduction of the SD90-43MACs. Sounds like sooner than later the CP will be boasting mostly General electric power, while the identity of the SOO Line and the DM&E slowly crumble.

     Just how much do you think the identity of the Soo line and DM&E add the the bottom line?

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Posted by Mr. Railman on Monday, September 24, 2012 8:56 PM

Here's a tiny update...

Sounds like He's going to spend more money on new GEs, instead of continuing the uopgrade on the SOO SD60s AND the reintroduction of the SD90-43MACs. Sounds like sooner than later the CP will be boasting mostly General electric power, while the identity of the SOO Line and the DM&E slowly crumble.

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Posted by Ron Hill on Monday, September 24, 2012 8:38 PM

 

There is no perfect railroad president. Some are very good, some have ideas that are better left in their heads than applied in the field. Wayne Johnston was president of the ICRR from 1945 to 1967. He increased the size of the ICRR and made it one of the great railroads of America. His predecessor William Johnson '67 to '69 was the man responsible for bankrupting the REA express. The UPS of its day. His philosophy was to dismantle as much of the ICRR as possible by divesting the secondary lines. This was done by providing poor service and then after the customers went to trucks, abandon the lines. This idea was also carried on by Alan Boyd. This may have been good for the stockholders, but it was a disaster for the railroad.

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Posted by beaulieu on Friday, September 14, 2012 8:33 PM

AgentKid

zardoz
Progress is always change, but change is not always progress.

Amen, brother.

I hesitate to bring it up, but I have been wondering about this for a week or so.

EHH and Bill A. have said that the release of the "big" plan for CP will be delayed from mid-October to early December. That would put the release date past the one year point of Bill A.'s announcement that he had taken a position in CP. I'm no securities expert, but would that then enable him to turn this whole thing into a "pump and dump" and sacrifice the CPR and EHH in the process? And he will be the only one to make any money in the process.

Bruce 

It's one year since he bought stock, but it's not one year since his people have had the ability to make changes(Date of the annual stockholder's meeting). At this point I doubt that he could get enough of a premium over his purchase price to be worthwhile. He needs to get the price higher, say around $90, and he needs to get the company's P/E ratio right so that just his selling doesn't drive the price lower.

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Posted by Ulrich on Friday, September 14, 2012 8:28 PM

I don't think so. The long term viability of CP is not tied to what any one shareholder does.. he may decide to dump his shares and that would likely cause others to sell too..but over the long term the share price will continue to reflect the true value of the property. Ackman's involvement with CP is really of know concern to me... as a shareholder I'm more interested in the metrics and how well the people who are running the company are performing.

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Posted by AgentKid on Friday, September 14, 2012 6:25 PM

zardoz
Progress is always change, but change is not always progress.

Amen, brother.

I hesitate to bring it up, but I have been wondering about this for a week or so.

EHH and Bill A. have said that the release of the "big" plan for CP will be delayed from mid-October to early December. That would put the release date past the one year point of Bill A.'s announcement that he had taken a position in CP. I'm no securities expert, but would that then enable him to turn this whole thing into a "pump and dump" and sacrifice the CPR and EHH in the process? And he will be the only one to make any money in the process.

Bruce

So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.

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Posted by edblysard on Friday, September 14, 2012 4:32 PM

Was reading about the Higgs Boson particle…so it seems Yoda was telling the truth, there is a force in the universe that binds it all together…go figure!

So, if HH figures out how to work it, we can have the HHHB principle and no longer need diesels?

23 17 46 11

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Posted by Ulrich on Friday, September 14, 2012 11:08 AM

That's right...and progress or no progress, people generally don't like change. I'm not a big fan of change either unless there's a payoff involved. The trouble with change sometimes is that the people who have to make the changes aren't the one's who get a direct payoff... i..e." we're going to lay YOU off so that the railway can run more efficiently".. So change breeds fear, and fear breeds anger, resentment, and even hatred.  That's especially true if you've got a few decades invested and you're within striking distance of retirement..who wants to go through change then? Not many do,  unless you're supremely confident and capable...sort of like Harrison himself. Otherwise, duck, take cover, and lay low, and hopefully the changes won't nail you before you retire.

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Posted by zardoz on Friday, September 14, 2012 10:37 AM

Ulrich

... Its not so much that people don't like him, it's that they don't like change.

Progress is always change, but change is not always progress.

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Posted by Ulrich on Friday, September 14, 2012 9:39 AM

I like Hunter Harrison. He got CN on the right track and now he's doingthe same  for CP... Its not so much that people don't like him, it's that they don't like change.

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Posted by mudchicken on Friday, September 14, 2012 8:29 AM

HH is safe for now. "He" is only hated, not loathed.

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by Falcon48 on Thursday, September 13, 2012 11:47 PM

CNSF
Sorry about the big block of text - I can't figure out how to get my paragraph breaks to stop disappearing when I post.

  I had the same problem a couple of months ago, and I wrote TRAINS about it.  Unfortuantely, I didn't save their response, but it worked.   It had something to do with selecting a "compatibility" mode on my computer.  You might want to contract them.

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Posted by zardoz on Wednesday, September 12, 2012 7:01 PM

Murphy Siding

     What if a hobo posts that he hates graffiti?

I hate when that happens.

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, September 12, 2012 3:33 PM

     What if a hobo posts that he hates graffiti?

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Posted by blownout cylinder on Wednesday, September 12, 2012 3:19 PM

zardoz

Ulrich

Just to be clear..its okay to post that you hate someone...but anything about hobos or graffiti is off limits... Got it.

But what if the post is about hating hobos or graffiti?

Or what if it's about hating someone who hates someone who hates hobos?

Or...

       Laugh

Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry

I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...

http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/

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Posted by zardoz on Wednesday, September 12, 2012 3:13 PM

Ulrich

Just to be clear..its okay to post that you hate someone...but anything about hobos or graffiti is off limits... Got it.

But what if the post is about hating hobos or graffiti?

Or what if it's about hating someone who hates someone who hates hobos?

Or...

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Posted by Ulrich on Wednesday, September 12, 2012 11:03 AM

Just to be clear..its okay to post that you hate someone...but anything about hobos or graffiti is off limits... Got it.

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Posted by greyhounds on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 7:43 PM

CNSF - thank you for the informative and knowledgeable posting.

These decisions are made based on facts, reason, experience, knowledge, projections, etc.  They're not whimsical.

I can only wish people would realize that before they fly off the handle.  Are the decisions ever wrong?  Of course some are wrong.  No one has pefect knowledge.  But such decisions are based on the best judgement of the available facts at the time.

It has become wearisom reading emotional postings from people who attack without understanding or knowledge.

"By many measures, the U.S. freight rail system is the safest, most efficient and cost effective in the world." - Federal Railroad Administration, October, 2009. I'm just your average, everyday, uncivilized howling "anti-government" critic of mass government expenditures for "High Speed Rail" in the US. And I'm gosh darn proud of that.
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Posted by CNSF on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 2:12 AM
Sorry about the big block of text - I can't figure out how to get my paragraph breaks to stop disappearing when I post.
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Posted by CNSF on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 2:11 AM
Will add only what I know from first-hand experience in CN's intermodal marketing department. The bulk of WC's pre-CN intermodal business consisted of Schneider trailers that interchanged at Chicago - mostly with CSX. It was all loads out, empties in, and was marginally priced with terms that were favorable to CSX. The reason it made sense for the standalone WC to go after it was that they had unused capacity and it was incremental revenue that made a slight contribution above its out-of-pocket cost. Nothing wrong with that. CN didn't purchase WC to get this business, though. As others have stated, CN had different designs for WC's excess capacity. We didn't close the WC ramps immediately - we waited a year or so, and only took action after it became clear that the shippers had nothing to offer in the way of longer-haul traffic moving to points on the CN system other than Chicago. I doubt this seriously hurt the major shippers as the traffic was being drayed between Chicago and WI before WC got into the game and it simply went back to moving that way. Interestingly, at about the same time we also shut down a similar long-standing short-haul intermodal operation at St. Louis on the IC, where we were providing haulage for Conrail. This was an operation that Hunter had blessed when IC was a standalone. The lesson here is that the value of a particular piece of business can be perceived quite differently, even by the same individual, depending on the railroad's overall context and the availability of other opportunities. As for CP's Milwaukee intermodal operation, I suspect it's a bit different, and that CP is hauling the traffic all the way from Vancouver or Montreal. The questions I would ask myself if I were the market analyst responsible for that business are: 1) What are the extra switching/handling/loading/asset utilization costs of maintaining a seperate Milwaukee block versus mixing those loads in with my much higher Chicago volume? 2) How much rate premium am I getting for going into Milwaukee versus Chicago? 3) If I close Milwaukee and try to force the traffic through my Chicago ramp, what are the chances I'll lose the business altogether? I'm sure Hunter is the one now asking CP's marketing folks these questions, but I also used to work at ATSF and I can tell you that if Carl Ice had taken over CP he'd be asking the same questions.
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Posted by beaulieu on Wednesday, September 5, 2012 3:13 AM

Well I think it's safe to say that the Holiday trains will run this year. The local organizations have been notified of the dates and approximate times of their stops.

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Posted by cptrainman on Tuesday, September 4, 2012 7:12 PM

WC#3000

Yes its true. Reality might be slightly different..

Canadian Pacific General Order A-17 (US East and West Regions) August 17, 2012:

"GCOR Rule 6.29.2 added to as follows:

When a train stops enroute, a walking and/or roll by inspection of as much of the train as is possible must be made as time and conditions permit. This does not apply to passenger trains.

Note: The objective, to ensure their train is in good order, with no obvious evidence of hazardous conditions. Inspections are not to be performed between adjacent main tracks or sidings. Information provided by the Train Dispatcher relating to the expected delay is to be used to determine how much may be inspected without delaying the train. If such information is not provided, crews should request same from the Train Dispatcher."

 

 

 

We've got the same rule change here, nearly word for word. If the dispatcher says the delay is 30 minutes, then you walk for 15 minutes, turn and come back. Also, the crew knows what is happening if the train(s) they are meeting are within radio range.

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Posted by zugmann on Tuesday, September 4, 2012 7:01 PM

That system doesn't let a DS change his mind, does it?

On one hand, the rules allow dismounting moving equipment to speed up operations, and on this other hand, you are taking the conductor far away, making it impossible if conditions change and warrant giving a train an early light.   Maybe they should put cabooses (vans in Canadienspeak?) back on the road trains?

Walk your train one way, hop on the caboose.  Next stop, hop off and walk the train back to the engines.

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by cptrainman on Tuesday, September 4, 2012 6:57 PM

coborn35

cptrainman

Well, of course there are going to be people mad at EHH because of the changes he is making at CP. People get comfortable and resist change. Myself, I welcome a stronger RR that will continue to provide me with employment until I retire.

Regarding those old SD 40s. Get rid of them. Having run CP's old SD 40s, I can personally state that they are a maintenance headache. They are too old and the parts are harder and harder to come by. Most parts are refurbished. I have never run a SD40 or GP38 that is all in working condition. There is always something wrong them.

Aside from that, the question whether EHH is cutting too far was also the question at CN. Unhappy customers may become normal but I believe they can live with a little less service if the price is right. I can atest that CN is doing it right. I see daily how much traffic CN has taken from CP over the years and the quarterly reports prove what I see.

All these reports of dissatisfied customers maybe true, but the RR and their customers all have one thing in common. It's all about the money. If CNs marketing people can bid on a contract that is 10% to 20% less in cost than CP, which way will the customer go? Of course they will go to CN and put up with a little less service. The proof is there for all to see today. 

 

Well now hold on a second. I think you need to clarify some things. You are talking about canadian GP38's I presume as every one I know loves the SOO GP38-2's. Pull hard, dont slip easily like the GP40's, and are in good shape.

 

Yes I clarify. Canadian GP 38's.  Traction motors cut out, db inoperative, constant wheel slip. All normal. However, today I had a couple of good ones.

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Posted by Ulrich on Tuesday, September 4, 2012 6:52 PM

zugmann

If you know you are going to "x" to meet a train, then the conductor could drop off a mile beforehand, and let the train roll by.  Then he could walk to the head end.  

Doesn't allow for options for the dispatcher to change his/her plans, though.

 

That clears it up for me...thanks..

 

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Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, September 4, 2012 6:16 PM

zugmann

If you know you are going to "x" to meet a train, then the conductor could drop off a mile beforehand, and let the train roll by.  Then he could walk to the head end.  

Doesn't allow for options for the dispatcher to change his/her plans, though.

 

Your going to X to meet 192 - should be a headlight meet.  ie. you don't have time to inspect!

Your going to Y to meet 460 - 462 & 464 - 464 is still working at Z.  ie inspect to your hearts content.

 

Todays single track operations do not have the closely spaced, short sidings that existed a generation or two ago.  Depending up the carrier and the territory, sidings are nominally 8000 to 10000 feet in length and spaced every 15 to 30 miles.  It is not unusual for 'inferior' trains to be stopped for a hour or more in making train meets.  Many train meets are dictated more by train length than they are by train priority - at least one of the trains must be able to fit in siding.  Not all sidings have the same length and many sidings have road crossings which further limit they effectiveness to the Train Dispatcher.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by zugmann on Tuesday, September 4, 2012 5:56 PM

If you know you are going to "x" to meet a train, then the conductor could drop off a mile beforehand, and let the train roll by.  Then he could walk to the head end.  

Doesn't allow for options for the dispatcher to change his/her plans, though.

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

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