Re: Excess NR Locos for Sale

["Rod [comtrain]" <freight_man@hotmail.com>]

"Pumbaa" <jcostello@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
news:PTyQ6.1952$Yr1.85268@ozemail.com.au...
>

> > Mate, you may have a bit of a problem......................
 > > [ read wanted to]drive trains?
>
> Liking my job as a train driver and being a gunzel are 2 diferent things,
> toot toot.

A Gunzel is still someone who likes Trains, whether he chooses to be a
highly paid Dentist, and dream about Trains, or like me to be a fully
Qualified Accountant, who just could not stand to sit in an airconditioned
office, after my return from Conscription in 1970, so I decided to work at
my hobby...and Drive the bloody things. The Dentist gets his big income[Hi
Yuri ;o) ], I get my job satisfaction, and dream about what I could have
done had I taken the big income too....(not really..I'm happy)
I admit their are Drivers out there that don't like what they are doing [my
experience tells me they are a minority]...just can't find a job that pays
as well elsewhere ;o)

> > > I was throwing shit at small time ops like LVR not our state mates.
> Doing
> > > things that are unsafe and breaching OH&S guidelines to keep their
ship
> > > afloat.
> > most of these guys were put out of jobs by National Rail, or could not
> cope
> > with  working for National Rail.
>
> Bullshit, these blokes took VRS packages mostly and then came back to it
at
> reduced wages and conditions.

I suppose I could be cruel and remind you that most N.R.Enginemen "who
jumped ship" from the State Railways failed to get redundancy packages from
their former employers, as of course they went straight into the new
Corporation, which was owned by the same State Governments anyway. How was
this so?
Well in Victoria it was easy to see this, because all the Union Bosses
jumped ship, with redundancy packages, and signed this off as part of their
repayment for being so well looked after.. [ok ok I cannot prove that, but
this is what we all thought back here anyway]
Now it can always said that in this case, you would be a bit envious of thes
e crews.
Imagine some of them would have got more than $250000, to salt away, and
still take $75000 a year ..........


> I am talking about one case with LVR where one of our crews spoke to an
LVR
> crew on at 0700 and then booked off and met the same crew at 2300 still
> waiting for releif.  You call that acceptable.
Of course it is not!
But I suppose working for a limited operation does put you under a lot more
pressure! As I imagine that they had no body that could relieve them!
I wonder who would be available to sit on their train had they spat the
Dummy, and hitch-hiked home? And would you then be whinging that these
bloody LVR crews had dumped their train out in the sticks, because of the
paultry reason, no one was able to relieve them!
How far were they from home? Could the train be secured and made safe? Did
Train Control threaten them if they jumped ship and were they being delayed
by Train Control for proper reasons?[ I have heard the horror stories of
Foriegn Engines dealing with T C in NSW], Did they drive after these long
hours, or just act as security on the Loco, protecting their equipment and
their customers goods? Did they take 24 hours or more off after this
extraordinary shift?
More importantly, in NSW the Lucky Engineman treat their more unfortunate
ex-mates worse than they treated Lepers in the old days.
Haven't any of you guys made a mistake in your lives? [I mean if working
after collecting redundancy is a mistake]
NSW Train Controllers continually put LVR crews away for little reason, and
they do it to Freight Australia trains working in NSW as well.
Train Controllers tell lies to the crews, and also to ARTC, every day. THis
is not likely to be Freight Corp policy, just that old stuborness that we
have seen since the Willingale times, when as a Fireman and leading the NSW
AFULE he made those famous statements about NSW crews being the most highly
trained crews in Australia, and you guys choosing to believe this elitist
crap.
Most of us thought it was pretty funny, particularly in Wodonga, when Vic
Rail crews continually used to get into the Electrical Cabinets and fix NSW
locos, because we were trained to manipulate, and fault find all our Locos.
PTC Inspectors used to know less than us about Fault corrections. You guys
had your ways, we had ours. We all did a pretty good job. But NSW crews just
did not talk to Melbourne Crews, and barely were able to give Wodonga Crews
who worked every day in Albury, a nod, much less the time of day.We used to
get locked in at the Turntable for up to 3 hours as two crews of shunters
ripped apart and rebuilt trains whilst we waited to get off the turntable.[a
2 min gap was all we needed!!] And this was after returning ex rest from
Melbourne, and no relief available. I have arrived at Albury many times with
9 hours in, and signed off with 11 1/2 !
So you see I am not surprised at all, that you tell us that NSW crews still
like to find fault with anybody else, that don't belong in their own little
elitist group or State. Nothing much seems to change.
NSW used to bring a train into Albury about 2150 hrs week nights. The
engines would be uncoupled, by the Cootamundra Crew and taken out past
Albury South, run back to Loco for refueling. This day  a through engine was
on the train, and after cutting the rear of the train, we were to run to
Melbourne with this Loco.
I waited under the canopy, gave them a wave as they pulled in, threw my kit
on my engine, and thenwent to help uncouple, maybe try for a chat (always
the optimist). This train arrived at about 30 kph, slid to a stop, and
before I had time to put my bags aboard, the lead engines took off, leaving
all the air lines uncoupled, air escaping every where, and my fireman , with
a cut to his forehead, where the MR had flicked up, as he attempted to close
the taps. He had been in between as this crew took off.
The old driver, never looked us in the eye, as he roared down the through
road, at about 40 kph in this 10 kph shunting yard.
We sorted out the hoses, Peter, my mate had stopped bleeding, so we blew the
whistle, and attempted to depart. I took us an hour to work out the problem
and after bleeding the train thats what we did, depart. We found out that it
was common practice for Coota crews to screw the brake pipe pressure up to
80 pounds per square inch, but they would bring the pressure back to 70
before arriving Albury. Our Engines were not adjustable, and we had no way
of fixing this problem from the Engine [ easy fix would be to screw it back
up to 80 ;o( ]. We were told not in future to take any train presented in
this manner, and we didn't again! Our Engineers were perplexed by the high
rate of hose bag failures VicRail bogie exchangeable stock were
experiencing. Wodonga crews, knew the reason. Our Hosebags where eventually
upgraded, after the Engineers decided that this would be the only way of
fixing the problem. Later at the Commercial Club, I overheard a story by a
Junee Driver, how they fixed up Victorian Engineman.....So nothing has
changed, except that now LVR and Northern Rivers blokes share the
harrassment as well. And of course Wodonga crews are the ones that shunt
Albury Yard...all the poor Albury blokes are gone...(to NR and LVR I
presume?)

 Rod [comtrain]