midland sub wrote:It sounded like they were trying to put a Norwood Turn together late last night with the empty cars from Lowes and Domtar. If they did go Norwood I doubt they made it back and either the A or B Jobs will have to recrew it. Haven't heard anything so far Saturday morning.
@Midland: What is a physical location of Fayne? I can't find it on my Delorme.
Truth be told, the IORY is an operational NIGHTMARE!
The way things are now, one would think they'd move the Lima North Local to Delta, and put an extraboard up there that would also staff Lima. Lima, which doesn't seem to see near the amount of switching anymore, should be relegated to 1-2 jobs that would handle local switching between Leipsic and Jackson Center / local, IMO.
That might take care of the crew issues on the north end? Doubtful, until they hire another half-dozen people.
Springfield should be the new local base with a "north local, and a south local. If necessary, having the Springfield North Local meeting a proposed DSL
This retarded method of putting 3-men on a 2-man turn job to give them rotating days off is another abortion dreamt up by management. In theory, it probably sounds good, but there is no regularity. Rather than running a job 5-6 days per week, and covering it off the extra board on the "rest" days (of the regular crew; or even instituting a relief job), they have the men working odd cycles. Shortlines can be run far more fluidly than the IORY has displayed. For as much traffic as they've gotten in recent years, it's a sin that SOMEONE at the local level can't make it work A LOT better.
The IORY needs a focal point of operations, and it sure as hell isn't Norwood. Norwood is good for one thing, local switching. Just like the silliness of doing all CFE-CIND-IORY mechanical work there in years passed. What an abortion. WCH and the open space out there would be ideal for a 15-track yard, but I don't even see RailAmerica investing a dime in such a venture. They'll just base locals every 30 miles and "switch" their cars out in a siding. Someone in Jacksonville needs to visit a classicication yard sometime to get an idea what is necessary to run a railroad fluidly.
Lastly, the local management seems to misunderstand or outright abuse the concept of deadheading. I saw a job bulletin posted for Springfield at the end of December, which violated the terms of the Hours of Service Act. I also just heard about an issue involving a trainee. They ought to teach them this stuff in Jacksonville along with all the other worthless "core safety rules" they throw in their lap.
