 |
Re: UP to begin installing inward-facing Cab Cams
Author: Dr Zarkoff
Date: 08-24-2013 - 09:35
>> There's nothing wrong with efficiency testing, it's the matter in which they are carried out.
Quite agree. The FRA probably bears a great deal of the blame for the failure quota mentality. About 30 years ago, there was a story circulating that the UP (the old UP) ran 2,000 tests one year and found no failures. The FRA took exception to this, saying that it was statistically impossible (which it is). So the RR's got into a "find failure" mode. I've never been able really to accredit the story, but the statistical impossibility aspect is very real.
Story which circulated on the SP Western Div in the 1980s:
Lacey (of Lacey's raiders) to Colonel Sanders upon answering all questions wrong after being stopped in a test: "You're just about the dumbest son of a @#$%& I've ever run into."
Col. Sanders: "Well, you're in deep s**t then because I'm the best on the Division."
Colonel Sanders was so nick-named because he bore a striking resemblance to the Colonel.
Good story, but unverified. What has been verified is that Lacey insulted another engineer in a similar fashion up in Oregon, and the guy decked him. He was pulled out of service for two weeks and then put back without further "discipline".
Quite agree. The FRA probably bears a great deal of the blame for the failure quota mentality. About 30 years ago, there was a story circulating that the UP (the old UP) ran 2,000 tests one year and found no failures. The FRA took exception to this, saying that it was statistically impossible (which it is). So the RR's got into a "find failure" mode. I've never been able really to accredit the story, but the statistical impossibility aspect is very real.
Story which circulated on the SP Western Div in the 1980s:
Lacey (of Lacey's raiders) to Colonel Sanders upon answering all questions wrong after being stopped in a test: "You're just about the dumbest son of a @#$%& I've ever run into."
Col. Sanders: "Well, you're in deep s**t then because I'm the best on the Division."
Colonel Sanders was so nick-named because he bore a striking resemblance to the Colonel.
Good story, but unverified. What has been verified is that Lacey insulted another engineer in a similar fashion up in Oregon, and the guy decked him. He was pulled out of service for two weeks and then put back without further "discipline".
