Re: Excess NR Locos for Sale

["fatboy" <fatboy64@yahoo.com>]

Rod,
You  seem to direct a lot of resentment towards  your fellow ex workmates
( be it Ex Vic Rail or State Rail),  and  maybe that's why you no longer
work on the footplate.

Did you actually apply for a job with National Rail and miss out I wonder.

Happy Motoring,
Glenn Don
Loco Driver
National Rail Sydney.
"Rod [comtrain]" <freight_man@hotmail.com> wrote in message
3b138e3e$0$25521$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au">news:3b138e3e$0$25521$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au...
>
> "Pumbaa" <jcostello@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
> news:PTyQ6.1952$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]
>
>
>