Re: Where have all good times gone?
Author: BS
Date: 12-21-2020 - 19:00
GRD Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Maybe your the one being deceived here BS. This
> isn't the same UP Railroad it was in the 60's and
> 70's and into the early 80's. After the MoPac took
> over the day to day operations, it all went down
> hill from there. No more "real" railroad men
> running the show. They prefer their School boy,
> Management Trainee's over boots on the ground, up
> thru the ranks managers unless your a Road Foreman
> (MOP as UP calls them now), you got to know how to
> run an engine but even that's questionable at
> times. Railroading has changed and will continue
> to change as technology advances. Some for the
> better, some for the worst. Not just UP, but the
> entire Railroad industry has, and will continue to
> change.
You are a bit beyond your depth here, GRD.
The '80s, 90s, and ear;y '00s were the best of times
for UP Steam. Far more trips were run annually than ever
before, freight trains, double-headers with SFSF and SP
locos, etc. Shop rebuilds, E9s, Mini-Train, more and more
cars, Complete overhaul of 844 (including a brand-new firebox)
and many other things.
Since then, 3985 has been retired, as has the Mini-Train, the
shop cut back to the old way of no heat and no insulation.
How many fan trips have been run since 2011? How many had
8-10 run-bys each? How many freight trains have been pulled?
And I'm not talking about 18-20 empty cars, either. How many
Super Bowls or National Political Conventions has UP provided
trains or locomotives for since
That program made a few people jealous (not all exMP, either)
to the point they would allow anything, real or imagined, to
cut it back. They brought in someone who could do just that, and
he did. Yes, he will be there until he retires, because he is
doing just enough weird, expensive and useless stuff to keep them
off his back.
Has it occurred to you that the exMP management people you disparage
are all, with a few exceptions, long-gone now? Replaced by those
degreed,inexperinced folk you talk about now?
BTW, I agree whole heartedly with the your descriptions of Top
Management as it exists now.
MP management had nothing to do with it or in somde . Of course,
that was then, and this is now, and your point abut now