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Papers, please.

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  • Member since
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Posted by zugmann on Friday, March 20, 2020 12:45 AM

jeffhergert
P.S. Hey Zug, has your company deemed you essential yet? 

We get those papers every time they call for a snowstorm over 2".  So yeah, we got the latest ones.  

 

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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Posted by mudchicken on Thursday, March 19, 2020 10:40 PM

Yankees or PSR question will get you a whuppin' most places.

Lithonia Operator

 

 
Paul_D_North_Jr

Back during WWII if the GIs were suspicious of someone they encountered (i.e., Nazi spy or soldier in disguise), supposedly they'd ask a question about something only a true American would know, such as "Who plays shortstop for the Yankees?"

What would be an appropriate question for modern day railroaders? Mischief

- PDN.   

 

 

 

Who invented PSR?

 

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 Convicted One on Thursday, March 19, 2020 10:05 PM

Paul_D_North_Jr
What would be an appropriate question for modern day railroaders? 

Ask them if they have a microwave available in the caboose?

Just in, California governor just ordered the entire state to self confine....40 million people.

except for those mentioned in this list of businesses permitted to remain open in Los Angeles, I'd asume that similar exemptions are available throughout the state.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-19/coronavirus-garcetti-how-safer-at-home-order-works

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, March 19, 2020 9:57 PM

Lithonia Operator

 

 
Paul_D_North_Jr

Back during WWII if the GIs were suspicious of someone they encountered (i.e., Nazi spy or soldier in disguise), supposedly they'd ask a question about something only a true American would know, such as "Who plays shortstop for the Yankees?"

What would be an appropriate question for modern day railroaders? Mischief

- PDN.   

 

 

 

Who invented PSR?

 

There'll be a name given, then a profanity-laced tirade.

And the questioner will say, "Yeah, he's a railroader.  Let him pass!"  Wink

And I'm sorry folks, I truly am, but I can't resist this one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiQL71kV4t8  

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Posted by MMLDelete on Thursday, March 19, 2020 9:41 PM

Paul_D_North_Jr

Back during WWII if the GIs were suspicious of someone they encountered (i.e., Nazi spy or soldier in disguise), supposedly they'd ask a question about something only a true American would know, such as "Who plays shortstop for the Yankees?"

What would be an appropriate question for modern day railroaders? Mischief

- PDN.   

 

Who invented PSR?

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, March 19, 2020 8:37 PM

Paul_D_North_Jr
What would be an appropriate question for modern day railroaders?

First you'd have to find someone (besides railroaders and railfans) that even knows that railroads still exist...

And I have no idea who plays shortstop for anybody any more...

 

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by Paul_D_North_Jr on Thursday, March 19, 2020 8:34 PM

Back during WWII if the GIs were suspicious of someone they encountered (i.e., Nazi spy or soldier in disguise), supposedly they'd ask a question about something only a true American would know, such as "Who plays shortstop for the Yankees?"

What would be an appropriate question for modern day railroaders? Mischief

- PDN.   

"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)
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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, March 19, 2020 8:33 PM

My gold chief's badge will be in residence in my vehicle, unless I'm driving a fire truck, in which case I don't care what they think.

Besides, I know most of the LE folks around here...

If things are stil shut down, our tourist railroad won't be running anyhow...

 

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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    September 2003
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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, March 19, 2020 8:09 PM

jeffhergert
As of March 17, all employees are to print out and keep with them a letter that exempts them from travel restrictions.

i find this highly ominous for two reasons.  First, because it implies strictly-enforced travel bans, perhaps in the immediate future, and second, because it implies that much of that enforcement will be ad hoc without knowledge of a given employee's importance.  Shades of being pulled over repeatedly for driving on 'officially discouraged' trips during WWII... only with much more 'socilly sanctioned' pseudojustification.

Very likely, also, that this will be enforced the way New Jersey tried with drivers' licenses at traffic stops.  Failure to produce the valid document was what the summons was for, the judgment based on, and the copious fines assessed on.  Didn't matter if you had a valid license, never mind if checking the computer verified the validity -- "failure to produce" was the offense in the motor-vehicle code.  

What'll be interesting is what happens if a called railroader is detained or turned back due to failure to carry his little propusk in its appropriate wear-proof case.  Oh wait, I know already -- discipline because you were instructed to carry your letter at all times.

Meanwhile ... how many days, or hours, or milliseconds from this decree becoming known will it take for 'believable' copies to be produced and perhaps peddled for 'the rest of us' ... and the result being excuse letters on special banknote paper with embedded magnetic information, smart chips, and dancing holograms... different each week.

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, March 19, 2020 3:46 PM

Use to get similar letters from CSX during Hurricane Season.

The worst thing is that when the wind gets above 40 MPH they close the main bridges around Jacksonville - and there a lot of high bridges over navigable waters that get closed.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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  • From: Central Iowa
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Papers, please.
Posted by jeffhergert on Thursday, March 19, 2020 3:41 PM

I'm important, and I have the letter (generic-to whom it may concern type) to prove it.

As of March 17, all employees are to print out and keep with them a letter that exempts them from travel restrictions.  As employees involved in transportation we are "performing services that are essential to the health, safety, and security of the nation,..."

 

The letter states the continued operation of the railroad is necessary for delivery of food, fuel, medicine, and other supplies that are vital to the nation's ability to respond to the current pandemic emergency.  It doesn't say if any or all of that is "appropriate business" as defined in the PSR plan.

I may be important now, but just wait.  I'm sure once the emergency is over and things are back to normal, I'll go back to being one of the many who are only viewed as deadwood, "train trash" dragging the company down that needs to be eliminated to get the operating ration down to nothing. 

Jeff

P.S. Hey Zug, has your company deemed you essential yet? 

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