Safety: RE: [R-390] Now *this* is a really nifty idea...

[William J. Neill]

I can't resist any further.  This has carried me over the edge.

I spent 35 years in the railroad business between 1965 and 2000,  
beginning at age 19 as a telegrapher and yes, I did Western Union  
business as well as railroad business.  That being as it may, I went  
through a remarkable transition of technologies over 35 years into a  
significant level of computerization of operating control and  
communication processes, including real-time status reporting of  
locomotive conditions from anywhere on the system to a centralized  
mechanical desk that was alerted to anything varying from design  
specifications.

Following service as a telegrapher, I also ran locomotives for a few  
years and then settled down to the craft of train dispatcher and  
later chief dispatcher, supervising operations on increasing lengths  
of railroad.  Ultimately, I ended up overseeing operating policies  
and practices for half (6,000 miles) of the system and four years  
later, the entire system.  All with nothing but a high school diploma.

Now, in the railroad business, men can and do get killed and I was  
witness to two deaths, both of which were ghastly and one due to a  
case of dumb ass and the other a case of management stupidity.  The  
first 27 years were relatively stable with the business being run by  
those who came from the ground up and therefore there was a hands-on  
familiarity with was was required to run the railroad at 245AM on a  
cold and rainy Sunday morning.  And, 31 years, nine employee  
fatalities occurred.  However, in mid-1995, the MBAs showed up and  
began running the railroad by "metrics" with everything packaged  
neatly to fit on very pretty and colorful spreadsheets.

And in late 1996, as a high school graduate at a senior level of mid- 
level management, I was demoted and replaced by an MBA who expected  
me to reveal all of my techniques that allowed me to work my magic  
learned over some three-plus decades.  Four months later, two  
additional MBAs had been added to the roster, trying to do what I had  
been doing and many of my tasks were eliminated because they could  
not be measured and made to fit within computer programs that could  
be "connected" to other programs that ran in other company departments.

However, during calendar year 1996, two employee fatalities occurred;  
1997, six; 1998, five, 1999, three; and 2000, three.  I left with a  
suprise early retirement in April, 2000, because I was a trouble  
maker and not a team player (I know this because my supervisors told  
me this).  In so many words, the MBA management viewed employee  
fatalities as a public relations fiasco rather than as a failure  
internal policies, practices, and knowledge.

End of  my story.

Bill Neill
Conroe, Texas

On Jan 4, 2009, at 4:43 PM, Robert Nickels wrote:

> Bill wrote:
>> It is not just freshly minted engineers.
> I'll second that!  Not to pick on MEs, but years ago I was a pretty  
> new employee and was sent to talk to a senior ME about a design  
> review issue.  He evidently wanted to make sure I knew the pecking  
> order as when I pointed out a problem in a prototype housing, he  
> assured me that the drawing was fine.  I asked if he had  a  
> prototype so I could try to assemble it, and he said "See now,  
> that's the difference between us and you sparkie types.  We don't  
> spend half our time messing around in a lab with prototypes, we  
> just *think* things out".
>
> It was my pleasure a few days later to take him a prototype that  
> couldn't be put together so he could *think* up an ECO to fix it!
>
> 73, Bob W9RAN
>
>
>
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