Well Joe I do appreciate your response and am amused by
your description of me. I'm not a tyre byter so you won't
find me trackside. Working for a railway never entered my
mind. Heck I'm not even a modeller, although I do tinker
with some N Scale CP models. I was, and still am, enamoured
with the history of the CPR empire. The tale is fascinating
and having read the biographies of Donald Smith and William
C. Van Horne hasn't changed that. I'm a strong proponent of
rail transportation but don't get involved, so I'm not sure
what that makes me, but Nerd it does not. I've focused my
efforts at creating an all time CP roster, with emphasis
on paint schemes to assist those who do want access to roster
and paint information for their modelling efforts. It could
be a waste of time but heck I've got time on my hands and
have my calendar marked for next February when I get OAS.
While my work experiences may not parallel yours, I experienced
21 years of labour surrounded by questionable management and
some damn dumb co-workers. However, I tried my best over the
years both as shop steward and otherwise to improve the work environment. In
the end, I hope I made some small difference.
Regardless, keep your posts and occaisional rants coming, it
beats discussions of rail cars and blueberry expresses.
Rainer
--- In cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "KVRailway" <kvrailway@...> wrote:
I didn't mean to take a strip off you, Rainer, so humble apologies. However,
as I'm speaking from the standpoint of one who fought in the trenches and
survived the evil empire ... sorry dude ... youse (sic) is a rail-nerd!!
Anybody who is a rail-fan, but who has never worked in the business where you
are actually involved with the movement of trains or maintenance of the
place, automatically qualifies as a rail-nerd and that's all there is to it.
In your case, you qualify also as a foamer. You not only pay attention to
details, but you can get into lively discussions about them. That's the
qualifier that puts you over the line and further defines you from a simple
nerd. Youse is a nerd AND a foamer!!
Now: Please don't feel that you are unkindly or maliciously branded. I too
am a foamer - of the first rank. I still don't know that I now qualify as a
rail-nerd because even though I'm no longer an active rail, I don't chase
trains or take photos of them or anything silly like that. I will have you
know that I stay well away from closets of all sorts.
As for the pride business: I didn't take the same type of pride in
carknocking that I did in putting out KETTLE VALLEY RAILWAY MILEBOARDS. I
cared about my job because I had to ... it was a matter of survival,
literally. It wasn't only paying the bills, but it was a matter of physical
survival on the job. Rail yards are by nature incredibly dangerous places.
They are the sort of place where it is easy to be lulled into complacency
sometimes. Safety really was my first priority on the job. It was a
self-preservation thing on the job, because too many people really didn't
care - and that included supervisors too. Most particularly in the early
years, alcohol abuse was still a huge problem and a very high percentage of
the men I worked with were routinely in a condition where they shouldn't have
been on the job.
There was also an overall attitude issue: When I started in the North
Vancouver railyard, the yard masters and terminal supervisors would not allow
carmen to put up blue flags on the tracks we were servicing. They expected
to be able to switch into the track at the same time with the proviso that
the yard crews would be warned. Well, that ended for me the day that the
yard crew came into the track, the yard foreman saw me on hands and knees
gauging a wheel about ten cars down and made the joint anyway. The wheel hit
me in the face when the slack came in. That was the start of my union
involvement. You wouldn't believe the fight I had over that issue and it
took some years before a vice-president finally put out an edict that put the
Terminal Supervisor in his place once and for all. Even then, it took more
years before the blue flag rule was truly observed in that yard. Ironically,
quite recently, a couple of very senior men (dating from my time) still
working in that yard, got disciplined quite sharply for not using the blue
flags.
So, in summary: Rainer ... this time I am taking a direct shot at you ...
you're a nerd and a foamer. Millions of wives will sadly agree that there is
no medication to cure the affliction. (Most will agree that it beats having
a bar-fly in the house.) If you're corresponding on this and other similar
lists, you are out of the closet and even if you weren't, most of the world
is still wise to ya anyway. If you get the feeling that the term 'nerd'
implies 'weird and somewhat fanatic' ... well, you're right - it does. But
I've already told you, you can't be a real railroader if you aren't already
at least a little bit strange in the first place. So why be upset about this
terminology when you're simply manifesting a slightly different dementia than
that of the average rail-roader??? It's nothing to be ashamed of. After
all, this is a support group for nerds and foamers and your participation in
this support group is quite public.
(as is mine)
Joe Smuin
1. - "Joey, the secret to telling a good railway story is to always try to
stick just as close to the facts as possible." --- (the late) Cliff
Inkster; CPR Engineman, raconteur and philosopher.
2. - The secret to contacting Joe by email is to be sure to insert "Joe" or
"Smuin" into the main text portion of any message you send to him, and thus
your message should percolate through his spam filters.
