What ARE the typical / traditional "indoctrinational" pranks conducted on new railroad employees ?

Question

When I was in the Navy, it was tradition to send "newbies" on such wild-goose-chases as: to suppy for 100 yards of "flight-light" or 5 gallons of "prop-wash". Also popular was putting them on "Mail-Bouy Watch".

I'm just curious if there were or ARE such traditions in the Railroading community.

Thanks ahead of time to Skidderback and all the rest.

Answer 1

I saw a few funnies when I was a student, some of these things happened to my classmates.  In one case, everyone was working yard jobs, the same job everyday for two weeks.  The oldhead foreman on the job snuck a spike into his grip, one a day, and by the end of two weeks, his grip was really heavy, but with the gradual increase, he didn't notice.  Another was when a conductor told a student that the receptacle for the sand on top of the nose of the engine was the fill for the radiator, and told him to put a six pack of water in it to help cool the engine.

Answer 2

I can't think any either.Like Rango said we usually just wait for them to pull a good one,then lay into them.Once you get a nickname on the railroad you NEVER get rid of it.

Skidderback will probably remember this one.

We had a guy named Steve in Calif. that was made foreman for the first time because the regular foreman got sick and went home.Well he needed to use the restroom but didn't and ended up crapping in his pants.Well he ended up getting the nickname Stevie Poo Poo.That name was wrote on engine cabs,signal boxes,box cars,etc.You name it they wrote on it.Land of Stevie Poo Poo.I've even seen it wrote in New Mexico and Texas

Rango i'll make this one an answer for your clone's question of the week.

Answer 3

Plenty of pranksters, but the only thing I can think of relative to your question is to send someone to find a tarp to cover a gondola load of feathers.

Answer 4

None that I can think of right offhand.

There are a number of pranks that come to mind we have pulled on one another but they have never been limited to newbys.

The problem with that is, most of us want to get done and go home and if we were to give newbies some silly thing to do, we would have to be there longer too. Most rails are much too impatient for that.

The railroad used to use "torpedos" which were small explosive charges placed on the rail, they were a means of warning trains of a possible emergency ahead and to stop or be prepared to stop, as you can imagine they were used a LOT for pranks but they have been banned, alas.

There are so many ways to make a mistake and feel foolish that we usually just wait for something to happen and then in a good natured way make darn sure they dont forget.

For instance if an engineer has his train tear apart, whether it is his fault or not, someone will invariably stop their train and with a can of spray paint put that guys name on the peice of broken coupler laying alongside the track.

Nicknames are another one, I remember a kid came to work one time, he said "Hi, my name is *** but my friends call me tiger.

A crusty old switchman looked him up and down and said "kid, you WILL get a nickname but you dont get to pick it"

If someone is unusually boastful or seems to talk abou tthemselves too much, they are usually taken down a notch in short order.

Railraoders seem an awfully crusty hard nosed lot but that is not so, for the most part anyway.

Answer 5

The only time we menace a new person is when his or her head is a little too big. For the most part, you want to teach a new worker how to do the job safely and correctly. That means no s******g around.

Our pranks are usually focused on the new engineers. Some people are itching to get into that seat, and they go way over the top. They want to blow the horn all the time, make lots of smoke, and go fast. And there are lots of ways of slowing them back down. If they're making couplings too hard, we'll  jam a torpedo in the knuckle. If they're going too fast, we'll tell them they have two cars to a stop. When they panic and make a ten or fifteen pound set, we wait until the train grinds to a stop before we tell them they still have half a car to go. And of course, nicknames and open criticisms are always a help.

But that's all reserved for bad apples. The real criticism takes place between the veterans. Any respectable, fast-learning person who is open to pointers and who owns their shortcomings will do just fine. But yeah, it helps to have a thick skin.