N&W vs. Southern Railway

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

First ACL and now Southern.  Did I miss something or did the Society put out 
an advertisement to fans of other railroads to hurl insults at us once a 
month?
Marty Flick

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 11:18 PM
Subject: N&W vs. Southern Railway



> Having worked for Southern Railway up to and through the 1982 merger,

> let's have a look at the fiscal policy of both roads.  As we all know, the 

> N&W

> was a financial success frm the outset all the way through the depression

> years of the 1930's. But why in heavens name shouldn't it have been. Like

> it's two counterparts, the Virginian and the C&O, all they had to do was

> lug coal  from the mines down to Tidewater for export.  Profitable, yes, 

> but

> about half of it's westbound traffic consisting of non-revenue empty 

> hopper

> trains.   Among other things the N&W would squeeze a nickel until the

> buffalo dropped dead.  I(n the early 70's while visiting family in

> Martinsville, Va., I would on occasion visit the local N&W operation.  The

> operator I talked with was cvrying the blues. THe N&W was beginning to

> install CTC between Roanoke and Winston -Salem and were planning to

> abolish every operator's job between those two  points. Anything to save

> a buck, right?   O.K., now let's check out policy on the Southern Railway.

> I went to  work as an operator for Southern in 1968 on the extra board.

> In  October of that year yhey  created a new second trick operator's job

> in Gainesville.  I bid on the job, got it, and worked it for 18 years 

> until I

> retired and NEVER ONCE in that 18 years was I ever rolled off that job

> by an older operator. They ventually added a new third trick operator's

> job at Gainesville which gave continuous operator service during the week.

> For the first couple of years after I went to work there was no relief for

> the first trick operator on  Saturday or Sunday.  The first trick operator

> agreed to work it on Saturday, and I agreed to work it on Sundays.  It was

> 8 hours overtime for both of us.  I earned about enough overtime to put

> my youngest son through the University Of Georgia.  When I went to work

> for Southern the mast outside of the depot that once held upper quadrant

> train order signals was being used only as a support for the radio antenna

> for the depot base radio station.  Southern Railway, mind  you, alkready

> had CTC  between Atlanta and Washington.   About   6 months after they

> put on my second trick job, things began to happen. The C&S Dept.

> re-installed the upper quadrant train order signals, including  lighting 

> the

> lights on the position lenses.   At the outset we were handing up orders 

> by

> hand using string delivery with a "Y" shaped train order hoop.   For 

> safety

> reasons  the trainmaster had Coster Shops in Knoxville fashion two metal

> delivery stands, one for either side as it was doubletrack through town.

> And a concrete base next to the track held a receptacle in which to place

> the train order stand.  any times I had orders hanging on both sides for

> trains going in  both directions. The C&S Dept. also installed flood 

> lights

> on each side of the tracks to aid train crews in seeing the orders at 

> night.

> And our stationery supplies started including form "19" train order pads,

> with carbon sheets for multiple copies, clearance cards, and balls of

> twine to string up the orders.  Of the various jobs we put to work daily,

> one was an 11:00 PM switcher.   He was deliberately scheduled to begin

> work at 11:00 PM as during the period  8:00 PM until eleven there was

> Amtrak No. 820 aqnd the dispatcher regularly wanted to meet the "shots"

> as they were called in thaty doubletrack territory,. and a switcher could

> hardly get any track time anyway until 11:00 PM.  My tour of duty ended

> at 10:15 PM, with no relief on Friday nights. For a few years I stayed 

> until

> 11:15 PM to put that job to work, which meant an hour of overtime. The

> Southern  Railway let well enough alone, but not the N&W.  That was not

> so much a merger as it was the N&W just taking over the Southern Ry.

> Within three months of the merger one night the trainmaster said  "Bill,

> we are going to have to move the eleven o'clock job up to 9:00 PM, as they

> are making noises about your overtime on Fridays."  So there you have it.

> Who in blazes is the cheapskate between the two companies?  Southern

> Railway could care less about the overtime, but that bunch of skinflints

> on the N&W want to account for every penny.  And I defy one of you

> N&W buffs to give me the name of a person in N&W management worthy

> of even holding the  coat of Southern Railway president D. W. Brosnan

> when it came to innovations to get traffic back on the railroad instead of

> sitting on his butt hauling coal downhill to the docks, and going back for

> more.  It took L. Stanly Crane, another good manager for Southern

> Railway to straighten out that Conrail fiasco and put it on a paying 

> basis.

> In the case of Norfolk Southern, it was another case of  the tail wagging

> the dog when that merger took place.    Bill Sellers

>

> ________________________________________

> NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org

> To change your subscription go to

> http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list

>