About the Author J. D. Santucci (a.k.a. "Tuch") began his railroading career in 1978 as a trainman on the Missouri Pacific. After a round of lay-offs in 1985, Tuch embarked on a railroad odyssey, working in many different situations for different roads. This column tries to explain some of the nuts and bolts of the job and also demonstrates what we have to deal with on a regular basis within and without the industry. Tuch currently works through freights out of Chicago for Canadian National/Illinois Central. ©1999, 2003-2007 JD Santucci. Logo ©2002 The Railroad Network. By J.D. Santucci

September 16, 2005
Before we get today’s show started, I wish to extend my sincere appreciation to all of you that took the time to send a congratulatory wish to the beautiful bride and I. We really appreciate and thank you all for your well wishes. And to give you the asked for update, the bride is now in her fourteenth week. She went to the doctor last week and everything is going well. We even got the latest “8x10 glossy photograph with circles and arrows and a full description written on the back” of the little one. There is a distinct head and body now formed and clearly visible. And they are quite active as they were really bouncing around in there.

For those of you that asked, it doesn’t matter if it will be a boy or girl. Our main concern is that this child will be healthy. But I firmly believe it will be a girl. I’ve had a way of getting such predictions right over the years with expectant mothers that I know, having only been wrong once. And even then, I changed my mind from the right one to the wrong one.

As things develop and the time comes, I’ll keep you all informed.

And now on with the show.

We pre-empted the third part of this series last month, but we’ll conclude it this month. Thank you all for you patience.

Today we will embark upon a study in excuses for being late. Sometimes you oversleep, are trying to get too much done before departing for work, are trying to get tasks accomplished such as banking, shipping packages or other errands while en route to work. Or you might get caught in traffic. And on occasion there is that car trouble thing or even a flat tire. It happens. Then there are the outlandish excuses. Some are real gems such as “My wife is getting pregnant today and I want to be there when it happens. This one has also been used as a reason for marking off. Others are the kind I wouldn’t give under any circumstances and we’ll study a couple of them here.

Back in the days when I was Trainmaster, I had a little conference with the Superintendent of Transportation one afternoon. In the course of our discussions he brings up the name of one particular employee. He asked me how well I knew this guy and what I knew about him. When I asked why he recounts the following story;

It seems that the previous afternoon the Super stopped off at the credit union to take care of some financial business. He happens to run into this particular employee while there. As it would happen, the Super was aware of the fact this employee was ordered for an assignment that went on duty at 4pm. This assignment was up at Norpaul Yard which is located in Franklin Park, IL, not too far from O’Hare International Airport. The credit union is located in Hammond. There is a space of over fifty highway miles between the two locales. The time is about 3:15pm. It takes over an hour to get there from here at this time of day and depending upon the traffic volume, easily could take longer.

The Super questioned this employee about his failure to already be en route for this assignment. This guy starts telling the Super all about how he had to “have a bath and then lunch first, then had to stop at the credit union to get some cash so he would have money for tolls.

Take a bath? What, a shower isn’t good enough; won’t it get you clean enough? Know how much time is consumed in taking a bath? And then sit down and have a meal? There was the industry standard two hour call here in effect here. When driving up to Norpaul from Northwest Indiana, you needed all the time you could get to arrive there on time. You pretty much had to hit the floor running when called to work at Norpaul from our neck of the woods. Aside from the distance the traffic was a huge factor. Being that the Chicago area is one of the worst traffic corridors known to civilization (outside of Southern California that is), it was always likely to encounter heavy traffic owing to a wreck, stall, midday road work, those that tend to drive like Mr. Magoo (the blind driver oblivious to everything around them) or tourists; you know, the ones that drive around under the speed limit like they are out sight seeing.

I know when I got called to work at Norpaul while I was on the extra board there wasn’t time for a sit down meal and a bath. It was clean up, dress up, head out the door and pick up some food en route. From my house it took me about an hour and ten to twenty minutes to get there during the day. While this guy was a little closer being at the credit union, it was still going to take him at least an hour.

As the Super recounted this story to me, he told me that he was not going to tolerate this kind of behavior from this employee, or any other for that matter. This character pulled this stunt on more than one occasion and was on the verge of disciplinary action for this activity when he resigned and moved on to another railroad.

Another character at a different railroad was chronically late. At least two days per week, frequently more often, this guy managed to arrive well after the designated on duty time. I worked with this guy on occasion and yes, he was pretty much always late. When I questioned him he would blame it on everything under the sun, except himself. This guy lived about half the distance from work than I did yet I still could routinely arrive in time while he was late.

So I decided to pry a bit to determine his problem. He told me that he would take the call, roll over and nod back off for a few extra winks. Inevitably he would oversleep and wind up coming in late. So I suggested he try the approach of moving the phone away from his bed to a point that would require him to have drag his butt out of it to answer the phone. I pointed out to him that getting out of bed was half the battle. He told me he was going to try to work on his problem. I suggested that he do more than try as sooner or later they are going to discipline him for his chronic tardiness. He said he would see what he could do.

A few weeks later he was two hours late. They had to call his house after he was now thirty minutes late and wake him up. Upon his arrival he was instructed by an officer of the carrier to change his on duty time to reflect his actual show. He failed to change his time upon performing his tie up in the computer saying later that he forgot. He wound up getting disciplined for his lack of action. He was indeed disciplined, getting some unpaid time off, two months worth to be exact. I hope his extra sleep was worth that 60 days of unpaid vacation.

But there is more.

His very first day back to work after serving his discipline he was late, significantly late. I had the opportunity to speak with him about his latest lack of effort to arrive on time. He told me how he and his dolly and had gone out the evening before for dinner and a movie. And he told and a romantic evening afterwards. He went on to tell me that when he got his call to work that morning he had a hard time getting started. His exact words were “I was basking in the afterglow.”

Basking in the afterglow? My exact words were “What are you, a woman? Women say stuff like that. No guy never, under any circumstances, ever says that to another guy, ever!”

In another situation this same guy was very late. I was working an assignment and had just gone on duty. Another assignment was also on duty but lacking a crew member. As it would happen, this guy was supposed to part of that assignment. The Yardmaster was out of the office and the phone began to ring. My Conductor commented that it was probably this guy on the phone with yet another stupid excuse for being late. So my Conductor answers the phone, disguising his voice. Sure enough, it is this character. My Conductor tells this guy he is the Trainmaster and starts chewing thus guy out for being late. He rips into this guy telling him he does not want to hear some sorry excuse for being late and that he better get to work now. He also told him that he wanted to see him in his office.

So this guy finally shows up. We told him the Trainmaster was steamed and planning to have him brought up on charges for being late again. So this guy goes into this story about how their power went out. He told of getting his wife and kids over to a relative’s house so that they would be comfortable. It was summertime and already an extremely hot and humid morning so he wanted them someplace where it was cool and comfortable. AT least that part was commendable. He then told of going back home and going back to bed. Now this was after he received the call to work. He claimed he now “forgot” that the power was out and he overslept. So let’s get this straight, he knows there is no power and that he cannot set the alarm clock to wake himself up. And this guy was already out of bed and even out of the house. He then came back home then went back to bed. Is this genius or what?

Another character was also habitually late. His excuse, no matter what time of the day or night it was “There was an accident.” One early Monday morning this guy gets the call to be my Conductor. I arrived well in advance of the on duty time. When the on duty time hit, this Conductor was a no show. I went about my business checking out my power, getting my orders and the like. I was ready to go and this character was still missing in action. The Yardmaster notified me to come into the office as there was a phone call for me. It was the Trainmaster who started to read me the riot act. I cut him off and explained to him that I was here on time and now, ready to roll. I suggested he save his tirade for the Conductor, should he ever decide to show. The Trainmaster informed me that they had tried to contact him at his home and cell phones as well as his pager and he was not responding to any of them. This was not a first for this character. I guess he figured if he was late and didn’t answer his personal communicators it would not count against him or something.

Eventually he did show, nearly an hour late. He claimed there was, you guessed it, a car wreck. I knew for a fact that the route he took to work was part of the very same route I used. When I told him there was no accident when I came through the location he claimed it occurred he said that it must’ve happened after I had passed that spot. Now it was around 2am when I went to work. And being that it was an early Monday morning traffic was not exactly of the morning rush caliber. And oddly enough, the traffic reports on the radio station I was listening to mentioned absolutely nothing about any wrecks on this particular roadway. In fact, they were reporting that all the roads were smooth and things were quiet.

He then told of being directed to take a detour that was miles out of the way and went far in the opposite direction. It sounded to me like he was nowhere near home like he claimed when he got called and simply could not tear himself away from what he was doing.

I should mention that this character is no longer part of the rail industry. Gee, what a shock. And amazingly enough, the guy this character landed after the railroad dismissed him also fired him as well. If you guessed it was because he was always late, when he bothered to show up at all, take two attaboys from the prize closet.

Then there was the guy that always blamed his wife for his being late. He was inevitably late, particularly in the late evening and overnight hours. He always used to blame his wife. He claimed that she would answer the phone and take the call for him. Then she would neglect to wake him up and inform him of his call. Oh ya, I believe that one, don’t you? Why would she go through the effort of waking up, taking his call and then not wake him up to tell him? What would she be thinking that he is perhaps psychic and would just know? When I asked him about this he told me that sometimes she would reach over and answer the phone in the middle of the night, acknowledge the call and then just roll over and go back to sleep. Me thinks it was him and not her doing all of this. Once you burn a Caller having somebody else take your call for you and then show up late or not show up at all, you have pretty much destroyed their confidence in you. They will no longer allow somebody else to take your call on your behalf. Callers have memories like elephants.

And of course there is always the one that seems to have car trouble at least three times per week. One guy was always late blaming it on his car. Said it broke down. One day he was called to work and didn’t show. Finally, he called and said his car had crapped out (yet again) and that he would still be there claiming to be less than ten minutes away at that point. Oddly enough, he never showed up and didn’t bother to call to say he would not be able to make. Then he informed the railroad that he no longer had a functioning car and would need a ride to get to work until further notice. Being they were so short of people, the railroad actually sent a cab to his house to get him and bring him to work each day or night. This lasted for over a month until he finally bought a new car. Even with the new car he was still constantly late. And yes, he too is another former railroader.

Another character was a student Engineer assigned to me. He was at least a few minutes late every evening he came to work. Not a lot mind you, but late just the same. On the particular evening in question, he was a no show. After a more than reasonable period of time I had to give him up as we really needed to get rolling. The Trainmaster finally instructed us to get into the cab and head to our train without him. Once we reached our train and were ready to depart the Trainmaster called on the radio. He told of our student finally checking in some forty minutes after we went on duty. Claimed he had car trouble. He told the Trainmaster that he would catch the train along the way and was just checking in to let him know.

This character had a reputation that preceded him into a room and the Trainmaster wasn’t buying what he was peddling. We were instructed not, under any circumstances, to stop and pick this guy up en route. He said we would be disciplined if we stopped to the train anywhere to pick him up.

So this student of mine stood there where he told the Trainmaster he would be for us to get him and just watched as we rolled past without even slowing for him. He was signaling for us to stop, but I closely adhered to the instructions received from the Trainmaster and didn’t. He stood there somewhat bewildered as we rolled by not even acknowledging his stop signal. He was just going to miss the train. And he did.

And without him we went.

And so it goes.

Tuch

Hot Times on the High Iron and the HTOTHI initials, ©2005 by JD Santucci.