I've Been Working On The Railroad Part 10

17^th St Yard office

At 17^th St.  adjacent to the stairs to the Yardmaster’s tower was a large room where the manifest desks sat. They were enclosed somewhat by a counter. Also in that room was the Superintendent’s secretary with her desk just outside the supe’s door. You needed to be a Stenographer for that job so it wasn’t often that her vacations got filled.  Restrooms were to the side, with the men’s being larger of course. Ladies was just a small one stall room.  Across from the ladies room was the door to the north room where the Chief clerk, rack clerks, keypunch operators and all their equipment was housed. At the far end of the north room was a pass through window that the Carmen could put their reports.. Their offices were in the next room although they didn’t spend much time there. On the other side of the building, was the traincrew and switchcrew locker and lunch room which was quite large. Also on the south side of the building was a East west oriented room that housed 4 desks. My memory fails me as I only worked in that room once but two of the jobs were the Bill Clerk and the Demurrage Clerk.  And of course the Tower was the Yardmaster’s domain where the windows allowed him to oversee what his crews were doing.

The whole building looked like it hadn’t been painted in years, the walls covered with memos and job instructions. Early on the atmosphere was always blue with smoke because everyone smoked then so second hand smoke made me sick and many nights left work with a pounding headache. There were a couple of cigar smokers as well. I tried to combat that with incense and of course was shut down.  I was so happy when they passed the workplace clean air act and made sure the superintendent knew about it as soon as it was passed. It did clean up the air a little but took a long time and never did get the smoking out of the crew vans completely which again just added to my headaches.

17th St Yard Office 1983 Photo by Jeff Lemke

I've Been Working on the Railroad Part 9

The 1990’s -The Beginning of the End

The 1990’s began with more doom and gloom for clerical workers on the BN. Though there had been many retirements, there had not been any new hires for over a decade. Industry trade magazines pointed to new Federal laws requiring bar code scanners on each rail car within a couple of years. Additional technology made much of the clerk’s work obsolete. The rest could be done from a more centralized location. Switch crews were also given hand held computers. Morale was at an all-time low. Clerks were distrustful of former friends and coworkers. Yardmasters chatted with clerks less and less. It seemed everyone was fighting for their jobs knowing the fight was futile. Those years found me more and more on the GREB (Guaranteed Rotating Extra Board) board thankful for my Guarantee as rarely did I get 5 days of work in.  Before cell phones, you needed to be available during call hours and needed to be less than an hour from any of the work locations they were likely to call you for. My life was lived Plan A I would go to work, or Plan B, I would do something else until the next call period. If I didn’t get called during the third call period of the day, I knew that had been my day off.

By this time, most of the outlying clerks’ jobs had already been abolished. If crews needed transport, a yard clerk from 28^th St would supply the ride. The line between job duties diminished as other clerks needed to fill in for yard clerks. Most of us didn’t mind and were happy to be out of the tension filled office for a while.

Trainmasters were increasingly treating the clerks as dirt, making snide comments which in most cases we had no choice but to ignore.

Rumors of another merger came to fruition. The creation of BNSF started with the formation of a holding company, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation on September 22, 1995. This new holding company then purchased the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (often called the "Santa Fe") and Burlington Northern Railroad, and formally merged the railways into the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway on December 31, 1996.

The merger again meant more changes for the clerks. The new union negotiated agreement included separation language meant to dissolve clerks’ jobs at will. Clerks were offered a one-time lump sum severance package which by corporate standards seemed generous. Or they could take a six year buyout plan which they could at anytime during be subject to recall or risk losing their monthly payments. However, during the six years they would also accumulate credits for Railroad Retirement.  It was stipulated in the contract that employees with the least seniority would be forced back to work first.

It took the railroad almost a year to acclimate themselves to the new merger. We clerks knew the end was coming, but most of us remaining held on as long as we could just trying to do the best we could. The trainmasters continued to make our lives miserable with their comments. I felt the comments were totally uncalled for and finally spoke up with a comment of my own. Straight faced I commented, “That will look good on the harassment suit, won’t it.” I walked away.  It had the effect I wanted and at least for me, most of the harassment stopped.

The day came when we were forced to make our decision about separation with the company in November of 1997. If we wanted to continue to be employed by the railroad, we needed to be ready to transfer to Fort Worth, Texas and upgrade our skills. The separation papers allowed us to either take the lump sum or the six-year plan. Most of us took the six-year plan. We would continue to get paid full pay for the next six years or until they called us back to work.  I signed the papers knowing my life was about to change. The railroad had been my career for over 20 years. I needed time to mourn a job I had enjoyed immensely so took a long walk through the 17^th St yard. Tears flowed profusely and I was glad I was not summoned to give a ride to anybody.

Things went along for a few months and we soon realized that our union had sold our seniority out from under us. The railroad did call back a few clerks and forced the youngest in seniority to take the job or give up the severance package. Some had already found other employment so gave up the severance. Others took the jobs offered. Unfortunately, nowhere in our contract’s language did it mandate that the jobs needed to be offered to the most senior clerks first. Thus, several clerks holding less seniority than I and several others went back to work as crew haulers or yard clerks.  My final separation payment from the Railroad was November 2003.

I've Been Working on the Railroad Part 8

The 1980s

The early 1980’s brought some changes to working on the Burlington Northern Railroad in the Twin Ports area. The economic downturn found the railroad with an excess of clerks. Most of the lower seniority clerks had not worked regular shifts for many weeks. Rumor had it we were going to merge with another railroad and morale was at an all-time low with the uncertainty.

In 1980 the ICC approved the merger of the Burlington Northern and the St Louis and San Francisco Railway. After the dust settled, we found how it would affect our employment. Our Extra board would now become a Guaranteed Rotating Extra Board. (GREB) Each clerical employee was assigned a guaranteed wage based on the job he or she held at the merger. Mine was fairly high as at the time I was a keypunch operator.  The rotating extra board would no longer start at the seniority top each call period but at the next person out. When you worked, you were placed at the bottom of the board in the order of when your shift ended. They would call when you got to the top of the board again. If you didn’t work 5 days during the week, you would file guarantee claim for the days not worked and it was paid at your guarantee rate. If you worked a job with a pay scale lower than your guarantee rate, you would put in for the difference of pay.

Even though this was a union negotiated agreement, the railroad did not like paying for work not done. They tried a few things to get some of the excess employees to quit their jobs by offering them very skimpy severance packages. When that didn’t produce the results they wanted, they chose to offer the clerks a job cutting and scrapping railroad cars. I was fortunate I didn’t get involved in that program as I was pregnant at the time. The clerks that did work as car cutters often complained about the lack of training for the job they were required to do. There were a lot of injuries and soon that program itself was scrapped. The next plan was the rubber room. Not sure what it was officially called but employees were required to show up and sit in a room with supervision. Not allowed to talk, read or do anything but sit there for 8 hours. Days were long in the rubber room, and a few more clerks took a severance package.  Eventually the supervision in the rubber room was relaxed, and the clerks were allowed to spend their time freely as long as they were on the property. Most of the remaining clerks stayed with the hopes of getting a bulletined position soon. Even the GREB positions were now bulletined.

Other changes were also being made. A new rail yard was being built above 28^th St along with a new yard office.  From the outside, the yard office looked like a metal sided pole building and I suppose in many ways it was. Entering from the east parking lot, the large room was the new home for the clerks. Yard office employees were to the right while freight office employees were to the left. The outside walls were lined with offices so there were no windows in the room. The Superintendent’s office was the North East corner; next was the clerical supervisor office. On the other side of the door were the claims offices.  The room was carpeted. Noticeably missing were the keypunch machines, and cards. Desks had a CRT and a keyboard. Many of the jobs that were at 17^th St, were eliminated in the move as we moved from the COMPASS computer system to YMS or the yard management system which was a cardless system.  There was a counter leading to a door to the other side of the building which housed the trainmaster’s offices, the crew office and the train and switch crews lunch room. Restrooms were accessible from both sides of the building. There was also a small conference room on the clerical side of the building. From the switch crew’s lunch room, there was a stairway to the yardmaster’s tower. With Windows on 3 sides, the yardmaster had a good view of both the 28^th St yards and the 17^th St yard.

It wasn’t long after the move to 28^th St that management decided clerks would be more productive if they worked in cubicles. The tall gray carpeted panels were brought in and each workstation was separated from the next. I failed to see how it was more productive because if the work wasn’t there, no work could be done. Supposedly it cut down on visiting. Morale became worse as more jobs were cut, or being threatened to be eliminated. Still we did our best. Sometimes it was impossible to complete during our shift but we always knew there was always another shift.

The jobs at Duluth were not immune to the cuts. With the advent of YMS, the clerk jobs in Duluth were consolidated. The Duluth Freight office job duties were added to the Superior jobs.

The YMS system allowed for us to do the same types of reporting that we had done in COMPASS but it was all done on screen. Gone were the racks with their decks of cards, a clerk still ran the yard for the yardmaster but there was less chance of failure as there were no cards to drop. Inbound and outbound manifest clerks were combined, there were yard checkers to verify trains and transport crews. Added to the clerical jobs were crew haulers who would be sent to pickup a deadhead crew and transport a new crew to the train. Crew Haulers could be called out any time of the day but could not be penalized for not being available outside of call times. Many nights I was not available as the distance driving didn’t agree with me. While recently it had become law that smoking was no longer allowed in the workplace, many did not extend that to include the vans. Days when I was called upon for crewhauling or yard clerk, I knew I would go home with a massive headache from the second hand smoke. Yard clerks spent most of the shift in the vans waiting for trains to verify or crews to transport.

Taconite by this time had taken over the shipments of raw ore so the digital scales at the Allouez scalehouse was dismantled and stood for years as a ghost of times past. The jobs came off the dock as the new conveyor system allowed for ease of loading taconite onto the ships. Reporting was done from a small office in the Allouez yard by one clerk. Most of the small ore jimmies were scrapped and replaced by newer taconite cars.

Still, for the most part though morale was low, we did our jobs and tried to stay out of trouble. The largest shipper during this time were the coal trains coming into ORTRAN (now called Midwest Energy). Grain trains had fallen off drastically and never recovered from the strike of the late 1970’s. There were the interchanges with the other railroads but not to the degree of the 1970’s. Times for the railroad were changing in the Twin Ports.

I've Been Working On The Railroad Part 7

120 days- Answering the call to the Iron Range.

The magical number to earn a vacation per our union contract was 120 days worked. I hired out in mid-June and was placed on a non-rotating seniority based extra board. I knew it would be tough to get the 120 days in before the end of the year.

Ed Gregg called from the crew office and said he had a job for me that would be 5 weeks long. The catch? It was at the Grand Rapids depot! I could have commuted back and forth as it was only 90 miles but that would have meant being on the road by 5 am for the 7 am job. I decided that Lobo, my malamute/Samoyed cross and I would do some camping. The rational was we could always find a motel later. I packed my pup tent and other camping gear after I phoned to find a campground only 6 miles from the depot and reserved a spot. Lobo and I headed up Sunday afternoon so I could get the tent pitched and settled in before nightfall.

The next day Lobo stayed at the campsite while I went to work. I was to be the yard clerk. Small town depots didn’t have the number of employees as Superior and I soon found the yard clerk’s job entailed much more than in Superior. In addition to verifying trains as they rushed by, enroute to Superior or west, I also was the industry clerk and needed to verify cars at the Blandin Paper mill and other industries by writing a list on the cardstock cards. Coming back to the office, I had to make sure the cars were reported properly, were they spotted for unloading or were they ready to be pulled? The Grand Rapids Local was a regular train out of Superior. The train crew would take care of spotting cars for unloading and adding the cars that were released from the industry to their train for further movement. Records at Grand Rapids were kept on paper as there were no computers. It didn’t take long for me to learn where the industries I needed to check were and I spent the next few weeks enjoying the small-town life. My shift was over at 3 so I had the evenings at the campground with Lobo and other campers. It was nice not to be on call. One of my camping neighbors felt sorry for me in the tent during the rainstorms of the first week and at the weekend when his family was packing up to return home, offered me the use of their camper as they left it there for the summer. I gratefully accepted.

At the end of the 5 weeks, I returned home and received another call from Ed Gregg at the crew office. This time I was being sent to Hibbing MN where I would be a demurrage clerk. Lobo and I were off on another adventure. I found a motel that had kitchenette rooms just a couple of miles from the depot. The BN did pay a per diem for expenses but anything I didn’t spend was a plus for me.  The Hibbing depot was actually the old freight shed so was a fairly large building a couple blocks off of main street. There wasn’t much foot traffic nearby so I asked the agent Howard Linser if Lobo could spend his days tied to the dock. Granted conditional permission (Lobo had to behave) I settled in at my job. I had no idea what a demurrage clerk did or even what the concept of demurrage was. Fortunately, Brundo Marinucci had worked the job before and was generous with his help in explaining the job duties.  One of the ways a railroad makes money is to charge for the usage of the cars in addition to charging for hauling freight. The receiving industry or consignee was allowed a certain amount of time to unload a car once it was spotted. If it took the company longer to unload and release it back to the railroad, the industry was charged a daily fee or demurrage fee. There were no computers at the Hibbing depot so all the records were kept on paper. The demurrage sheets were on a large tablet with the pages about 11 x 17 inches. Each industry had their own pages for the month.  On the page I needed to record the car number, contents, date and time spotted, date and time released. The page was set up as a spreadsheet with a column for each day of the month so the time would just need to be filed in. Once the car was released back to the railroad I needed to look at the dates to see if it was released within the allotted time. If not, I would charge the demurrage rate for any additional dates and put the total in the far-right column. At the end of the month, I needed to total up that far right column and send the industry a bill. 

            Many of the smaller industries would call to release the cars back to us but every morning it was my job to take a walk to Hibbing Public Utilities and check to see which coal cars were emptied. A more experienced person probably could have been sure just by the location where they were spotted, or even by looking at the springs of the car to see if they were compressed. Giving them a bang on the side of the car was also a good clue as was climbing up the side of the cars and peering inside. Not wanting to be on a car in case it was going to move and ever mindful of my safety, I chose to climb a tall stairway overlooking the cars so I could see inside several at the same time. This worked well and I was able to bring back the information to my demurrage sheets and also to the agent who was in charge of a crew that would do the switching later in the day.

            I quickly settled into the routine of being a demurrage clerk at Hibbing, enjoying the job and my coworkers. Evenings were spent exploring the town on bicycle with Lobo at my side. All too soon, Wesley Ranta’s 5 week vacation was over and I was released back to the Superior Crew office and on call again. A few weeks later I answered the call to find my way back up to Hibbing, this time covering Brundo’s job as yard clerk. I didn’t spend much time in the office as I needed to verify the coal trains in and out of Hibbing. As the coal cars were pulled from the industry a train was made up on the tracks a few miles from downtown. Coal cars also went to the public utilities plant in Virginia but as we didn’t have direct tracks there we gave the cars to the DMIR railroad to haul to the final destination. We called this process of turning cars over to another railroad Interchange.  I was sent out to the tracks to verify the cars going to Virginia and to verify the cars the DMIR had left us during that interchange. I got to the tracks and of course they were empty. I drove to the other end of the tracks, thinking that was where they were but to no avail. I looked but could find nothing that resembled a coal train, much less two trains. I was forced to go back to the office and tell Howard I had lost two coal trains! Embarrassing!! Howard chuckled at me and told me not to worry, (Whew!) what had probably happened was the DMIR had come to pick up the cars we had left for them and our crew had already picked up the cars the DMIR had left during the interchange. A few phone calls and I was able to get the needed times.

 I settled in to the small town life of a railroad clerk, using my spare time to explore the area and the history. My coworkers were great and I have many fond memories of my times on Iron Range.  Of course, best of all was that I had fulfilled my 120 days and I would be getting paid vacation time for the following year.

I've Been Working On the Railroad Part 6

Working in Ore

In 1977, the BN was still hauling raw ore from the mines on the Iron Range to the Allouez ore docks. The Allouez yard clerk, in addition to crew hauling duties was charged with not only verifying inbound trains but getting a list and creating cards which would tell which mine the load came from and the grade of ore. On the side of the cars was a steel framed pocket that usually was used by the carmen for marking a car bad order but in Allouez the yard clerk also placed the cards they created in these pockets.  If the yard clerk was lucky, they could tag the cars as they rolled by, but often the yard clerk would need to walk alongside the track to tag the cars. Additionally, the yard clerk would occasionally be called upon to be a weighmaster. Allouez at that time had a digital scale that would allow for quickly weighing the loads. The clerks in Allouez did not have computers and did everything on paper in 1977. Train arrivals and departures were entered into the computer by the clerks at 17^th St.

Never did I dream that I would be called to work on top of the ore docks! The first day, I met my coworker and person who would train me at the base of the dock. He motioned to a rickety looking box and chuckled as I questioned the elevator’s safety. I doubt if it had been upgraded since it had been installed, but with blind trust I quickly learned how to operate the elevator and stepped off at the top of the dock where there was an extensive office building.  Here I was introduced to a ticker tape machine, the precursor to the punch cards of 17^th St. and was quickly put to work entering data while mountains of tape accumulated on the floor. The building shook as a train of ore cars shoved by onto the dock. As soon as they stopped, my partner hustled me outside for a walk down the dock. There were four tracks on the dock. It was our job to collect the tags from the ore cars and note which dock pocket the car would be emptied into. This was the data that was entered on the tapes. Other clerks were busy billing the ships for their loads, and making sure the weights were recorded accurately. I enjoyed working the dock, but as it was a 24-hour job, I mostly got called for the night shift. Shipping season was only closed a couple of months so there were many cold nights, which made it especially dangerous as the steel would be covered with frost and slippery. Later, when they first started shipping taconite, the round pellets would spill onto the walkway making it even more hazardous to walk the dock. I always had a fear of falling into a pocket and as the walkways were narrow, felt it could happen. The ore punchers would also walk by and release the cars’ loads into the pockets. If the ore was frozen, the car would need to be moved to the gantry which was a mechanism to shake the load loose. The sun offered a spectacular show as it rose over Lake Superior announcing a new day.

 

Ore Dock in Superior where I worked.

Working on top of the dock was short lived as the raw ore was depleted and taconite became the commodity shipped. The BN built a long conveyer system which could take the pellets from the stock pile in the Allouez yard to the docks and load the pockets. There was no need for grading, as taconite was a uniform manufactured commodity from the Iron Range, a combination of low grade ore and bentonite clay which is used as a binding agent. Alas, though the docks still stand, there are now trees growing on top where I once worked.

I've Been Working On the Railroad Part 5

The Rack Clerk

Most stations of Superior’s size had a yard rack clerk and an industry rack clerk.  The rack had small slots just large enough to hold a deck of IBM punch cards and had a labeled slot for each track in the yard. It was the rack clerk’s responsibility to work closely with the yardmaster to make sure there was an accurate paper representation of each track in the yard. Yardmaster shifts were 6am-2 pm, 2pm-10 pm, and 10 pm - 6 am. Before the next shift yardmaster would come on duty, the rack clerk would need to run switch lists of the entire yard using the IBM 402 and the punch cards. It was imperative that those cards stay in order, and the tracks also run in a certain order so the yardmaster was best equipped to plan the work of his switch crews. A rack clerk’s worst nightmare would be to drop a multi track deck of cards which would then need to be put back in order using the most recent switch lists.

Claudia and Dewey LaJoie were the longtime husband and wife team that manned the day shift rack positions at 17^th St. Dewey was responsible for the industry rack while Claudia was the yard rack. Both had a great sense of humor, were willing to share what they knew about railroading, and made newcomers feel comfortable. Claudia was more of a “mother hen” personality, while Dewey was quiet and reserved. The pair complemented each other well.

The yard rack clerk would receive the marked up switchlists back from the yardmaster showing the work he expected the switch crews to do.  If things went as planned, the rack clerk could then switch the cards to the marked  tracks in his rack to reflect that work. In many instances the switch crew didn’t accomplish all so it was wise to wait until the yardmaster gave the word when the tracks were completely switched.  If the crew was making up a train, as soon as it was done, the rack clerk would run another switch list for the manifest clerk so they could do their job of getting the consist and wheel reports ready for the conductors. If the switch crew was spotting an industry, or several with  a transfer, the rack clerk would take that track and hand it and list to the industry rack clerk. The industry rack clerk would need to make sure the cars were spotted on the correct track in the rack. He also received information from the industries when cars were loaded or empty. This would be reported to C.O.M.P.A.S.S. and a new switch list would be run for the yardmaster showing the crews could pull the cars out of the industry. Several of the satellite stations, Superior East end, Mikes yard, and Duluth East side, reported to their respective  industry rack clerks by way of Telecopier. The telecopier was a precursor to the fax machine. You would put your paper list into the machine, dial a phone number and place the handset in the cradle to start the copying and sending process. The receiving person would receive a copy of what you were sending on their telecopier.  Many times the list was not fully readable and would need a follow up phone call for verification of car numbers or other data.

 The industry clerk also reported the Interchange between other railroads thereby releasing responsibility of the rail car to the other railroad.  From 17^th st, we interchanged with the LSTT, the CNW, the Soo Line, Milwaukee Road. Later, after the DWP built Pokegama yard, they were also added to the Interchange list.  Before the yardmaster shift change, the industry clerk also needed to run the industry yard switch lists for the yardmaster to be able to plan the work for his crews.

I've Been Working On the Railroad Part 4

The Keypunch operator

During the late 1970’s, the BN used a  yard management software called C.O.M.P.A.S.S. which involved the high technology of the time, the IBM punch card. Every work station that had responsibility for reporting anything to C.O.M.P.A.S.S. was outfitted with a IBM 029 Keypunch machine. The machine itself had room for a stack of about 500 cards to process, as well as an output tray, catchbasin for the square dots that resulted in the punching of the holes, as well as a full QUERTY Keyboard with a numeric pad on the side. .  It also had a dupe key which would duplicate the previous card’s input data.  To make the operator’s task easier, the machine could be programmed by using a Cylindered drum with a prepunched card on it. This would automatically stop the cards at the location where the operator would need to input data. Depending on the task being performed, we had a choice of several drums.

The theory of reporting everything to C.O.M.P.A.S.S.  was to have an accurate paper record of what was out in the rail yard at any given time. Some tasks would generate a response for the next station. It was the Keypunch operator’s job to report all train arrivals and departures to C.O.M.P.A.S.S.  If you were reporting a departure, you typed the departure time and date into the header card, and fed it and the train consist cards to the printer/computer. This would read the time, and the card consist, process it so those rail cars were no longer at your station’s responsibility. A list was printed out and filed as an outbound train. The next station down the line would then receive their deck of cards from their printer/computer so they could perform the arrival procedure. If the train was merely passing through, the arrival and departure would be reported  within seconds of each other. The times were gotten from the train crew as they reported their physical location to the dispatcher. Reporting an arrival was similar and would transfer the cars’ location to your station’s responsibility.  To make things work easier, each station was designated a station code which also generated a numeric tag, an industry was designated a numeric tag. Punch cards are limited in the data you can input into them.

At 17^th St. yard office, the keypunch operator also needed to input the data from the markup of the manifest clerk for each train. This would entail putting the destination tags into the punch cards so that when a list was printed out, the yardmaster would be able to plan his work with his switch crews to get the cars in the correct destination whether they would be going to a local industry for loading or unloading or on the next train out of town.  Finally, the keypunch operator also received the carmen’s report on each train reflecting the cars that would need to go to the shop tracks for repair. Again, these needed to be reported to C.O.M.P.A.S.S. so they would print out on the track list given to the yardmaster.

IBM Keypunch Machine

17^th St  keypunch operator also did the arrivals and departures for the unit trains out of Allouez, empties going to the mines and loads returning. Since they were primarily unit trains, the BN just had 3 decks of cards (one for each plant destination, Hibbtac, National Tac, and Butler Tac) to save a little on the number of cards being used. Most nights, the keypunch operator job was quite busy and occasionally the chief clerk would send you out to assist the yard clerk with his duties of crew transport of verifying trains.

When the keypunch operator was finished reporting to C.O.M.P.A.S.S. they would run a switch list of the track for the yardmaster and give the deck of cards to the rack clerk so they could be placed on the proper track in the rack.

I've Been Working on the Railroad Part 3

Getting off the extra board

In 1977, the clerk’s extra board on the BN was strictly seniority. The jobs needed for the day would be filled in seniority order. The less seniority you had, meant the less you worked. As a clerk we had three distinct call periods during the day: 5-7 am for jobs starting from 6-8 am,  1-3 pm for jobs starting 2-4 pm and 9-11 pm for jobs starting 10-12 pm. It was before cell phones and you needed to be available during the call times in case they called. In most cases, you only had 1 hour to get to work and it could be any of the outlying stations in addition to the yard offices, freight office, roundhouse, material shop, etc. It was hardest for me to meet that afternoon call time, as by that time of the day, I would be wanting to be outside in the summer or off doing something. If you missed a call, that meant you would not work for the day unless by chance the list got down to you at the next call period.

As you can see, then, a goal would be to get off the extra board as soon as possible even for a little while. Fortunately open jobs were posted quite often and were assigned via a bidding process with the most senior person getting the bid. If you were free, you could also move on an open job (as long as it wasn’t posted) such as a vacation vacancy. Of course, it would be assigned to the most senior person. Even if you were assigned one of these jobs, you were always subject to replacement if a more senior person chose to “bump” you from that position.  These rules were quite complicated but did serve to ensure that the railroad had workers covering all their positions while retaining the integrity of the seniority system as set forth by the clerk’s union.

Nothing stays the same, however and with the acquisition of the Frisco railroad in 1980, the union negotiated some changes to the extra board. It would now be a rotating extra board with the same call periods. This meant that despite seniority, as the people older than you got called, you would rotate to the top to get called in the rotation order. Another big change was that this would now be a Guaranteed Rotating Extra Board meaning, that if you were not called that particular day, you would get paid anyway (up to 5 days a week) simply by submitting your Guarantee form.  As always, the railroad could call you outside of the designated call periods but if you didn’t answer you were not penalized. The jobs they would call you for outside of call hours would be specifically for over the road van transport of train crews.

I've Been Working on the Railroad Part 2

The Manifest clerk

It wasn’t long after I started working at 17^th St Yard office that I was introduced to the position of manifest clerk. Early on in my career, there was an inbound manifest and an outbound manifest clerk whose desks faced each other separated by a double accessible rack of papers. Robert LaGesse was the inbound clerk and Sam Goldberg was the outbound manifest. The two could not have been more different in personalities. Sam was a happy go lucky guy who always had a big smile and a friendly word for anybody. He looked like and probably did enjoy life to the fullest especially as he was nearing retirement age. He was dedicated to his work but at that time, the job just wasn’t as busy as it used to be. It was Sam’s job to get the paperwork ready for all outbound freight trains leaving the terminal. 

In those days, each rail car needed to be accompanied physically by a paper document called a waybill. On the waybill was the information such as car initial and number, shipper’s name, receiver’s name, contents, (commodity code) routing, and freight charges, special handling instructions, hazmat instructions, etc.  Most rail cars must travel through many railroads and stations to meet their final destination. The waybill accompanied the car from the beginning and ended up at the destination with the car.

The waybills were filled in the rack between the manifest desks by the last two digits of the car number. When the rack clerk gave a list of an outbound train track to the outbound manifest, he needed to pull the waybills in train order, checking to make sure all was correct and the cars really needed to be on that train, the hazmat instructions were still attached to the original waybill, etc. Once the bills were pulled, a rubber band with some additional hickey cards were attached to make a neat package for the conductor. The outbound manifest clerk then went back to the rack clerk, got the deck of computer cards that corresponded with his train, changed the circuit board in the huge bemouth of the IBM 402 to Wheel report, inserted the cards and kicked the 402 to life. In most cases the cards fed flawlessly and a Wheel Report was printed quickly. However, cards jamb and get destroyed occasionally, decks get dropped, etc. Every effort was made to insure the wheel report was an accurate accounting of train order as some of the cars had movement restrictions on them such as because of their load, they could not be placed next to certain other types of cars for safety of the train and crew.  Once done, Sam would wrap it all up and wait for the conductor to pick up his paperwork. Normally during a shift this process would be repeated numerous times as the trains were ready to leave town. General freight trains, and the smaller local trains all needed to be handled the same way.

IBM 402 that was used by Outbound Manifest to run Wheel Reports

On the other side, as inbound train conductors brought in their paperwork, the inbound manifest clerk got busy. Bob LaGesse was a very serious dedicated employee who would have made a great teacher. I was living my dream job and highly enjoyed working with Bob as he patiently took the time to not only answer my questions, but explain in detail why things were done the way they were.  Though a little intimidated by him, I respected his knowledge and tried to soak it up like a sponge. He did have a dry humor to him as well.  From my younger perspective, Bob was Mr. Railroad himself! Unlike some of the other employees, Bob treated all the women coworkers with respect. That was Bob.

When he would receive the wheel reports and waybills from a conductor, his work started. Tearing apart the large package, checking the waybills against the wheel report, (even empty cars needed to have a waybill to get back to their originating road) and making sure everything was in order, Bob would then need to mark local destination tags, on the wheel report. The local tags that were used, would designate to the yardmaster which outbound train the cars needed to be placed on to get to their destination.  Each train was also checked into the yard by a yard clerk who physically verified the numbers on the side of the cars. Bob would also get this list and check it against the wheel report for errors. All cars into the yard needed to be accounted for.  Waybills were again checked on the inbound side for special instructions, to make sure the hazmat instructions were still with the waybill, etc.  Finally, the marked up list would go to the keypunch operator so the tags could be changed in the computer systems, new cards with local tags could be generated, and the paper train could be yarded in the corresponding track of the rack clerk.  When completed, Bob would then file the waybills in his rack so they would be available for the outbound manifest when needed.  

I've Been Working on the Railroad Part 1

I spent many years working for the Burlington Northern Railroad and later BNSF. The next few posts describe a little of my job there.

I was always stressed during job interviews and the interview I had with Maurie Tessier from the Burlington Northern Railroad was no exception. I had applied for a job almost a year before but apparently at the end of the hiring season and had actually forgotten about it when the call for an interview came. Mr Tessier was a balding middle aged person with glasses and a smile that immediately put me at ease. He explained what a clerk would be doing, some of the jobs, that the pay scale was union, and a few other details. He offered insight into what the extra board was, and explained that after a couple of years on the extra board, I would have enough seniority to hold a bulletined position and would be set until retirement. Neither of us could have foreseen the economic changes that were about to occur and how his statement would be so far from the truth.  I was hired, but needed a “company physical” before I could start working so was told to schedule that ASAP and wait for my first call.

            The call came almost 2 weeks later. On June 12, 1977 I was to be a janitor at the Allouez scalehouse. Being new, and unfamiliar with the locations, I needed to ask for directions. The job worked from 7am - 3 pm and included not only the 3 story scalehouse but the switchmen’s lunch room. Everything on the railroad was on the job training so when I arrived I met the person who would be showing me the ropes: what needed cleaning, where the supplies were, timing the lunchroom when the building was not occupied. The day flew by.  It was only a one-day vacancy so the next day I was back on call on the extra board.

            The clerk’s extra board in 1977 was strictly by seniority.  A crew caller was tasked with filling the vacancy by calling people in seniority order. If there was more than one vacancy available when they called, you were given a choice. The crew caller called people until all vacancies were filled. As a clerk, we had specific call times when we needed to be available: From 5-7 am, from 1-3 pm and from 9-11 pm. They could call at other times but we were not penalized for not being available outside of our regular call times. This was before the days of cell phones so you pretty much needed to be home “in case the railroad called.”

            My second day on the job I was a chief clerk at the 17^th st yard office. It was hard for my parents to understand that despite the job title, I was not given a promotion the second day of working.  Again, it was only a one day vacancy and involved overseeing the yard office operations, answering the phones and listening to the company radio. The chief clerk directed the yard clerks to check the incoming and outbound trains and in general make sure everything ran smoothly.  . I had a trainer, which made it much less stressful. I remember my parents laughing at the so called “promotion”. Janitor one day and chief clerk the next.  Thus began my career on the railroad.