Here's a rhetorical one . . . . . . . ?

Question

I've noticed quite a few trainees in the last few classes don't even wear a watch, they use their cell phones for time but that doesn't give them seconds, most don't know how to check a speed recorder until I yell at them a time or two, I get "it's all computerized, no need to check" My question: am I just getting old and crotchety??

Answer 1

Let me squeeze you and find out.

Answer 2

No your not Rango.The new generation of railroaders are a different breed of cat with very few exceptions.Most think they know it all after they have worked for about 2 years.I'm glad my career is winding down instead of just starting.This c**p we do now isn't what i consider true railroading at all.I laugh when i hear them whine about how they were cut off for 2 months last year.My first 8 years on the railroad i never got to work over 6 months a year.Don't get me wrong i feel for them as it's tough in this day and age to go without a paycheck,but they really have no clue about the life us old heads went through and what true railroading was like.

Answer 3

Old and crotchety?  Perhaps.

It's much more likely that you are the true professional from the "old school," such as myself and many other contributors here.

It is not a matter of "old heading" someone.  You either know your $hit or you don't, and no one comes out of a classroom as a qualified anything.  It is up to you to complete the inadequate training that the carrier has instigated.

I always wondered why the old heads were "crotchety."  Now I know.  And, now you know.  They were working with us dummies.

I wouldn't leave anyone with less than five years' seniority (working, not furloughed) unattended in my garage...  It is just as well that I'm no longer runnin' an engine, as I'm sure I'd be known by many as one of the old dinosaurs I used to hate to work with...  but they'd sure as h**l learn something...

Case en pointe:  The second paid trip I made as a brakeman in '72 was with some old f**t conductor on the Sacramento Swing.  He was at the yard office, flippin' through waybills to see how they lined up with the wheeler.  I looked at the board to see my conductor's name.

I went over to him and asked, "Are you conductor so-and-so?"

"Yep."

"Well, I'm one of your brakemen for this trip off the extra board," as I extended my hand for a shake.

He didn't stop... didn't look up...  But, he did say, "You got a pencil?"

I said, "No, but I've got three or four pens, in case one of 'em runs outta ink."

He said, "Well, you better get a pencil, or you ain't goin' with me."

I found a pencil and wished I could stick it in this a$$holes eye.  The lesson learned?  Ink is permanent....  if you're gonna write something down, you did it in pencil...  no evidence.

They didn't teach me that in brakeman's class.

Answer 4

its just a sign of the times.

Answer 5

Do you think you're old & crotchety ?