How To Kill A Truck

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year, Happy Nothing if that is your choice and Happy all of the other things that I forgot. 

      I have been happily employed as a Signal Engineer for about 3 months now, it is challenging, interesting, and I like the people I work with very much.  The problem I seem to be having is keeping my work truck road worthy.  Now it isn't really a truck, it's a Chevy Tahoe, but still, it is a bigger than average vehicle.  One that say a deer could see before it SLAMMED into the drivers side door! 

      That is what happened the first week I had the truck.  I believe I had it for about 6 days.  There I was driving along and I see a deer standing on a high bank on the drivers side of the road.  I slowed down in case he ran out in front of me, but I guess I screwed up his timing, because he ran into the drivers side door, took out my drivers side mirror, used his little spike antlers to carve a scrape in my window, spun around hit the drivers side rear door, and got up and ran off.  So not only did I have to do an accident report 6 days into my new job, but I didn't get any venison out of it either.  This type of incident will also allow you to test your heart functions and your vocabulary, as your heart rate rapidly increases and some colorful language follows. 

     So I got the truck fixed while I was on vacation in November (see shameless brag photo below) and all was well, or so I thought.  Just before Christmas I was cruising up route 81 and dash lights start flashing and the engine starts making a god awful noise. Not good.  I pull into a Sheetz station and called the fleet service.  (A Sheetz station is a gas station + minimart + deli, kind a like a super WaWa for those of you in the northeast) 

     The shop got to it the day after Christmas and low and behold I needed a new engine, there is a piece on one of the lifters that tends to wear out, or so the man at the shop told me.  So in the span of 3 short months I have had to replace a door, a mirror and now an engine.  If this keeps up I am going to have a whole new truck in a year.  They have given me a Toyota 4 Runner to drive in the meantime, if I break this one I might be in trouble. 

     As I mentioned I also went on vacation in November, and we had a blast.  We went to a resort on the Estero Bay in Florida and I went on my first private fishing charter.  Oh so worth it! So here are my shameless brag pictures.  (I did catch the biggest fish!)

My Yearly Whine: Womens Winter Clothes

     I whine about this every year, and to be fair it has improved, especially in the women's hunting gear area.  However, it still has a long way to go.  Most of the time women's winter clothes are half as thick and twice the price as men's winter clothes. Men also have a ton more options. When I go to the Cabela's website and click on long sleeve shirts for men I get 3 options; light, medium and heavy weights.  On the same site I click on the long sleeve shirt for women, and that's the only option I have.  In the men's section there is also a tab for flannel and chamois shirts. 

     Even in Tractor Supply today there were 2 racks of long sleeved shirts for women, one with really thin shirts, one with some slightly thicker shirts.  There were about 6 for men and they were all thicker with the exception of the sale rack from their summer shirts.

    
Lets look at some examples.

This chamois shirt is a light weight cotton for $39.99

For the same money you can get a medium weight men's chamois shirt

For another $5 you can get the men's heavy weight version.

Here is a better example of the money doesn't equal fabric equation.
Women's version $79.99 Flannel with Sherpa lining

Men's version $50.00 (granted this one might be a close out)

     I should probably also mention that I hate clothes shopping, and in general find women's clothing to be outrageously priced.  Marshals is probably my favorite year round store, but there is no way I am going to find real cold weather gear in Marshals.  So guys, this may be one of the reason that your girl is freezing while you stay toasty.

     Normally this would just lead me to wear men's clothing all winter long, but now that I am a supervisor I am supposed to look professional, not like a grunge kid from a bad Seattle band.  So this year will be particularly challenging.  My goal is to stay warm, not go broke and look like some type of professional.  As always, I am always open for suggestions. 

Goodbye Transportation, Hello Signals

      So another chapter begins.  This week will be my last week as a train master, next week I will be back to the signal department as a signal construction engineer. Actually next week I will be on vacation, but I digress.  I am very excited to be back on the signal side, the signal department brings some great challenges and the technology tickles my brain in just the right way.  I am also looking forward to sleeping on most nights. Working all night is probably what I have had the hardest time with as a train master, I guess I am not as good as I once was. 

     My experience as a train master has been great and I have really learned a lot through this job, both personally and professionally.  On the professional side, I feel like I have learned that preventing fires is much easier than putting out fires.  On the personal side, the biggest thing I have learned is to shut up and listen.  There is tons of great information out there and you don't learn anything with your mouth open. I also know I probably need to work on that one some more.

     So now that that's out of the way lets talk about some of the other things that have been going on.  First I need to add something to my list of strangeness from my last post.  Ever have someone call in late because of exploding cantaloupes?  Yea, it happened.  There is only one large highway in Cumberland, and many of the guys use it to get to work, but when a cantaloupe truck catches fire, the cantaloupes heat up, the juice begins to boil, which creates steam and BOOM! exploding cantaloupes.  So for fear for their own life and the life of others, the fire department shut the entire highway down, causing a several mile back up in both directions.  The ensuing back up of course caused some folks to be late, so then you get, late for exploding cantaloupes.

      We also had a steam engine come in on a flat bed to go to the Western Maryland Railroad to be refurbished.  Wow there were a lot of really excited people out there about that thing.  Sorry foamer friends, I did not get any pictures.  Once it is refurbished I promise I will get a few pictures of it. 

     And just a few random things that I have come across.

 This is my new favorite meme

  

This is what the dispatcher writes when he doesn't know how to spell your name

The Day to Day

     Sorry I haven't written a new post in a while, my only internet access at the campground is in the bar and well, I don't do a whole lot of writing in the bar. 

     I have been wanting to write a post on what I generally do day to day because I get a lot of questions on what exactly trainmasters do.  There are a lot of days that have me looking like this

 

  But there are a few things I do everyday no matter which fires spring up.  

 

      There are 3 things you need to run a train; engines, a crew and a built and air tested train.  Part of my job is coordinating with the power desk, the ready track, crew management and the car department to make sure these trains go out as soon as I have all 3 of those things. 

 

     Another big part of my job is making sure the yard is fluid.  I work in a hump yard so we bring trains into the receiving yard, hump them according to where they need to go, and then pull blocks of cars from the bowl and build new trains.  I keep track of what is coming in and going out, keep the division updated on how much traffic we can handle and give the yardmasters a plan to get the trains built and the cars humped in order of importance (and sometimes they even listen!)

 

     I do have to say though, I am a supervisor and the guys in this yard do a pretty good job of getting all of the hard work done.  Many of them know the job better than I do and only a few have tried to take advantage of my lack of experience in a hump yard.  Those that have tried have just helped my learning curve along and as the saying goes fool me once....

 

    There are also problems that seem to crop up every day that I have to deal with in one fashion or another. 

 

Power breaks down, daily.  Sometimes on a through train, sometimes on an originating train.  It always has me scrambling to find some way to get another engine so that I don't waste the crew and the train is not delayed. 

 

To many trains not enough room.  This is a good problem to have, it means our company is doing well.  However, sometimes there is just no more room at the inn.  I have to get creative on ways to get trains in and out or move things around to make more room.  The afore mentioned guys that know more than me have been really helpful on this one.

 

No crews. For the yard, this usually means holding over guys to work part of the next shift, and then finding someone to come in 4 hours earlier.  This is crew managements job, but I need to let them know what I need, who I am holding over for what job, and what job is the most important to fill if they don't think they will find enough people.  For road crews, this means convincing the division that my originating train is more important than their through train.  We share pretty good, but on weekends and holidays it can get pretty sticky.  (See to many trains not enough room)

 

     As for some of the stranger things that have happened here is a short list.

1. The hump tower got hit by lighting and did actually start a fire (real firemen came and everything!)

2. Guy fell in the shower and couldn't come to work that day after he accepted his call.

3. Major rain storm caused a washout on the Cumberland sub.

4. Same storm caused a landslide in Baltimore.

5. 3 minor derailments in the yard in one day.

6. Guy got on the train, went a few miles and reported that he was to tired to continue?

 

I could go on, but you get the idea.  No two days out here are the same, which is one of the things I like about this job, but some days, when everything is going great, you are just waiting on that other shoe to drop. 

 

I promise I will try to get in a few more post, and throw in a few odd ball ones as well.  The pictures on this post are a few of the extracurricular things I have been doing.

 

 

 

 

Horse Trailer Living

      One thing that is well known about the trainmaster jobs in this company is that they tend to move you around a lot.  This is great for you professionally, you get exposed to a wide variety of management styles and issues that come up on different parts of the railroad.  In training I saw 3 different terminals (Avon, IN, Willard, OH and Baltimore, MD) and I came away from each place having learned some valuable lessons (occasionally the hard way).  I am hoping to get a chance to do a little bit more line of road work as time goes on, and learn a little bit more on how the divisions work together (and sometimes separately) to make our freight move smoothly. 

      Personally, it can be a little bit tougher, especially when your spouse also works for the railroad and wants to have a say in his living situation.  So since I expect to move around some, and I am a little on the crazy side anyway, I bought a horse trailer with living quarters (something that I have wanted since age 4 or so) and moved into it this weekend.  I am staying at a campground and have all the amenities a girl could really need.  The trailer has a full bathroom, stove, fridge, freezer and bed.  The campground has a bar and restaurant and a creek to fish in, and I found a spot for my horse a few miles away from the campground.  So I am quite literally a "happy camper"!

      After moving in this weekend, I briefly debated on starting a blog on horse trailer living, but I am hoping that it will be more mundane than interesting (everyone has a tambourine playing hippie neighbor right?!?)  I may change my mind as the seasons come and go.  I expect the summer to be annoyingly busy, and the winter to be challengingly cold (please God don't let my pipes freeze!), but I am hoping it won't be interesting enough to write about. 

     

The Girl Dinner

Last Thursday I attended the "Diamonds in the Rough" dinner for female leaders of CSX.  You may remember my previous post in which I was not particularly excited about the prospect of going to this dinner.  This post will involve me eating some crow. 

The evening started with a meet and greet game where we had to find similarities among us.  I was really nervous and went to the bar first to get a glass of wine. Turns out the 'cash bar' actually meant, cash.  Not card, not charge it to the room, cash.  So immediately, there were several of us that had something in common, we were thirsty and had no cash.  After playing the game for a few minutes, myself and another girl named Angela (who won a prize in the meet and greet game) limped down to the atm.  I say limped because well, I wear heels about twice a year, and she didn't seem to be fairing much better.  After much complaining, short stepping and praying, we got our cash and our wine. 

There were 82 women attending the dinner and they ranged in occupation from a clerk to the VP of operations.  The seating was assigned, which I was happy for since I only knew a few people in the room.  The seating seemed to mix the very new and the very experienced and there was much laughing and learning at the table.  Some of the older women commented how they are starting to notice a line at the women's room, and this is the one time they don't really mind. 

The VP of operations got up to say a few words, and she really struck a cord with me.  She told a story of a job she had in NYC for the bridges and roads department.  She said she wanted to talk to the guys working and see what they were doing, the man she said it to smiled and told her to wear boots and they would take care of the rest.  The next day the smiling man took her to the Brooklyn Bridge, the guys were working at the top, and she had to walk up the cable to the top of the bridge to the work site.  She said she knew if she didn't do this, she might as well just quit this job. So even though she was terrified, she walked to the top of the bridge. Folks in case you think you read that wrong, our VP of operations has walked to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge! The lesson was it's okay to be terrified, but overcoming it can help you grow in more ways than you can imagine.  I thought it was a pretty awesome story. 

In short, I learned that the ladies of CSX are not hot house flowers.  They are tough, strong women and I was honored to be among those invited to be a part of the girl dinner.

YUM CROW

 Proof that I was actually wearing a dress and heels.

It's Official....I think

     Well I think I need to change the title of this blog to "A girls life as a trainmaster" instead of signalman.  I am in Cumberland and have received an email that told me I have been approved for transfer and I am participating in the pre-decision process.  I really don't know what that means....  I think it means I am placed in Cumberland, MD as an official trainmaster, but I don't know if it's official yet or it will be official once all of the red tape is cut. I also am not sure how to go about receiving some of the benefits that come with the upgrade in title.  The division manager did shake my hand today and tell me "Congratulations"  so I think that is a good sign. 
   
     This corporate stuff is a little hard to navigate sometimes.  I am not well versed in the what to wear, what to say and why we need 6 forms for one thing.  For example we had a performance management class today, and since all mangers are required to attend, there were a wide range of attendees.  I felt a bit lost, not sure exactly what was expected of me, but I sat there, shut my mouth (yay me!) and listened. That seemed to go over well, so I made it out of there without any major foot in mouth episodes.

    I have also been invited to a 'diamond in the rough' dinner for female leaders of CSX.  Hmmmm CSX wants to fly me to Jacksonville to have dinner?  I figured I better call my boss on this one.  He was encouraging and told me of course I should go!  Nice guy that one.  So I have sent in my acceptance that I will go to dinner in Jacksonville with a bunch of other women leaders.  What in the world am I gonna wear!?!?  I don't think jeans and work boots are right, probably not kakis and work boots either.  I don't even know if my dress cowboy boots will work.  I will be calling my best friend and fashion consultant on this one, any reasonable suggestions are also welcome.

Disclaimer!  The following statement are views completely personal to me and in no way reflect any views held by CSX.
So here is the thing....I hate the whole girls only dinner idea.  I mean if you wanted to have a boys only dinner everyone would be up in arms.  I think it is great for networking but I want to be good at my job, not 'good for a girl'.  I don't want promotions, jobs, raises etc. based on anything other than my job performance or potential to do a good job in a new role.  I don't want it to have any thing to do with the fatty lumps on my chest. 


Ok rant over, and since my last post was sorely lacking in winter railroading fun I made sure I got brave and took my gloves off to catch a good winter picture.  This is Cumberland yard with a remote engine headed back up the hump.

Railroading in the Winter

And not just any winter, a particularly bitterly cold winter.  Facebook is full of posts about the freezing cold and how no one can believe how cold it is!  This really got me thinking about my childhood winter memories versus my absolute hatred of the current winter temps.

I can remember snowy winters and cold winters but never anything dreadful.   We bundled up and did normal kid things, sledding and snowball fights.  My aunt even had a snow mobile that we tied sleds behind and went flying off through barren snow covered fields, flipping off our sleds and giggling as we went.  I remember stinging cheeks and cold toes with a strange fondness.  We were always so tired coming inside from our fun that pulling our boots off seemed like a giant hurdle we may never overcome. By the time we finally got all of our layers off, someone always had a hot cup of cocoa or Ovaltine waiting for us.  I don't think I ever slept so soundly as I did coming in from those snowy winter days.

However, the sound sleep is about the only thing that hasn't changed.  I am sure that winter held challenges for my parents that I had no idea about,  and now I have to make my own cocoa, but wow! Railroading in the winter is a whole new challenge.  There are the things that can happen in any industry like busted pipes.  (Two separate terminals have had underground pipe issues causing a lack of water in the buildings)  But this industry depends heavily on equipment and anyone who has ever tried to start their car in the winter knows that equipment and cold weather don't go great together.

This winter has proved more challenging because of the extremely cold temps.  Frozen switches, broken rails, drained motors and of course all of the people that have to work out in this cold.  Add a little snow and ice, and now no one can get to work, or if they can the snow and ice cause more problems.  We all look like the kid from A Christmas Story who can't put his arms down and when it gets up into the twenties with a little sun we are all thinking spring is right around the corner!  The track and signal departments are working round the clock to keep us up and running and our conductors are trudging through snow and ice building our trains.  I think the only ones that don't mind are the engineers sitting up in the cab snuggled up to their sidewall heaters and even they might get a little cranky if this stuff keeps up much longer.

So here is to the ground hog predicting an early spring and to all the folks out there battling frostbite for their jobs.  CHEERS!

PS.  I know this post should be accompanied by beautiful snowy pictures and perhaps a few silly pictures of some people wrapped up like mummies but there was no way I was taking my gloves off to push the button!

Happy Holidays!

The holidays are over and it's time to get back to work.  I hope everyone had a great holiday season and not to many of you need another vacation to get over the craziness of the holidays.  Amazingly the railroad was kind enough to give me Christmas week off and I took full advantage.  Family came down and I cooked a huge meal.

No Christmas would be complete without a visit from the local PD and ours was completed thanks to my ex-sister in law.  She reported that her son, who was down at my house, was dying and very sick and we were neglecting the little man (because there are no doctors in Virginia you know)  The officer showed up to find a happy little boy playing with his new trucks.  No further action was taken, but as the good hostess I did offer him some brownies and coffee. 

The rest of the week was rather uneventful and I was only mildly exhausted by the end of the week.  The kids were a great help and did their share to keep the house up and took care of the dessert course for the big meal.  Two helpful teens in the house, yes God was smiling down on me!

I am of course back at work and have gotten a nice change of scenery, no more Ohio for me, I have been transferred to the Baltimore division and have been working right in Baltimore.  The people here are great and there are still a lot of industries in the area which gives me hope for both the railroad and the nation.  Baltimore is a huge port, much bigger than I ever thought driving through on 95.  It is great to see the amount of industry here and how much new or reused areas there are along the bay.

Speaking of the bay, holy crabs batman! If you are a crab fan you need to schedule a trip to Baltimore.  If you have ever seen Forrest Gump and heard Bubba talk about shrimp (shrimp scampi, grilled shrimp, shrimp salad, broiled shrimp.....)  that is how the people of Baltimore feel about their local crabs. They are serious blue crab fanatics   I am not a seafood eater, but everyone else seems thrilled with all of the options available here.