- Joined
- Jun 13, 2004
- Messages
- 4
Wow!!!! :blink:
Thanks for the shout-outs!!
Let me tell ya all about the changes that have taken place since my last post.
If I'm correct, the last time I was here, the manager was the commisary guy that wouldn't spend money. He's now in charge of the OBS crews and scheduling. He has more lives than an alley cat!
Than we had the "Cowboy". At first he was hard to figure out, but I really liked him in the end. He was very hands-off, did all communication with employees by e-mail and worked nights!!!! Walked around the yard with a cowboy hardhat!!
But he didn't fit in with the "good old boys" in upper management.
Dave Gunn shook things up when he changed the zones and changed personel.
The first big change was the new guy in charge of the maintenace. He's responsible for HIA, SFD,JAX and NOL. His name is Tommy Farr and he comes from Auto Train. I used to deal with him when I was on the Fun Train. He was in charge of loco maintenance. Anyway, Cowboy didn't get along with him and didn't apply for the job during the shake-up.
Tommy has a boss above him,but I can't recall his name. Tommy's boss got a friend to take the managers position and they argue all the time!
We now have Mr. Shipper from Chicago Transit. I don't care for the guy,so from now on he will be known as "Ham." That stands for "High And Mighty!!
:lol:
Alot of things have changed, some good and some bad. ;
First thing to get done was really cool!! Tommy called CNOC and got all the cars assigned to HIA returned. Things were looking good.
Then it was explained that the PM line was going to become first priority and require more people. We assumed that meant more hiring, but it hasn't turned out that way.
Second thing to go down was 3 coach cleaners got laid off. Then all the jobs were abolished in yhe yard and all running train jobs were between 3:30pm to 11:30am. They removed alot of jobs from the trains and created new jobs in the PM line. With the new shifts and fewer workers. the quality of the cars has gone down. The average time to work up the cars is 5 hrs and it's not working. Trains are late every day and people are now being held responsible. They end up being charged with a work violation and end up on the streets for a couple of weeks. Needless to say, people are nervous, alot of BS, and people calling in sick.
I got one of the jobs on the PM line. After 18yrs, I 'm working a day job!
Parts have become readily available, which I find amazing! :blink: It has become hard to acquire the parts on the property. We now have to look up parts in a book and fill out a request form. THen you have to find a Foreman to sign the ticket and find a way to get the part. That means looking around for a golf cart or getting someone to go get it. We waste alot of time waiting. Then we are trying to meet a daily quota. The problem is HIA has committed to turn out 3 cars a day and the cars are trashed. After years of neglect, it takes alot of time to work these cars up and we're lucky to get 2 cars every other day. The cars are also in bad shape from the running train, due to not enough workers. We don't have enough people and management is totally disorganized. Half the time the cars are being cleaned while I'm trying to work, so everybody either stops working, or ends up doing the job twice.
Train #90 now has 1 electrician, 2 carmen and 1 coach cleaner. They also use it to steal cars for the Super Train.
The Super Train has caused a few problems. THey are working the consist with 3 electricians, 3 carman, 1pipefitter, and coach cleaners. The biggest problem is not having enough people. Alot of maintenance is slipping by and accumulates until the next PM(90 days). But we are doing alot of heavy repairs that increases the average mean time between major failures. we have replaced A/C units, dishwashers refrigeration units, etc. Management is hoping that all cars will be in good shape within 18 months and it will be a simple matter of removing bad cars and having good cars to replace them. But the cars are not coming out of PM on time, so we still are short good cars. But we now have a yard of cars that are past the PM date, can't run until inspected.
Let's talk about some good things.
All the buildings have been painted, alot of rooms cleaned out after years of neglect. The lunchroom and offices have been remodeled and theyu are doing the locker rooms now.
Federal money from the Homeland Security Fund has payed for surveillance cameras around the facility, but they seem to be used by Tommy Farr to look around the facility from Sanford.They also have cameras in the offices. Last week he caught a carman sleeping in a loco. After being tested. he won't be back for at least 30 days.
Management has made plans to build a satellite parts room to increase productivity. They made employees remove their private golf carts,but we still have to drive to the storehouse for parts. The few Amtrak carts are hard to procure, so PM repairs are slow.
We have been having problems with the wiring in the yard for years. Plans our in the works to remove all the overhead wiring and put them underground. Will keep you posted.
We have received alot of new vehicles. We got new pick-ups, but very few people are permitted to drive them. We got a new waste truck for sucking cars out and after less than a month, a piper backed into Ham's truck last Friday. They were getting ready to test him, but a union rep brought up the fact that the truck was parked in no parking zone. I think it's been swept under the table.h34r:
The coolest thing was a new $250,000 car mover! They have started training people and using it more and more. Found out later the reason for the purchase is to move cars ourselves. CSX is really slow switching in the yard and Amtrak is hoping for more time for repairs with power on the cars.
A new roof is being installed over the wheelpit right now. It will be much larger, allowing us to work more than 2 cars in bad weather. I still think it's a bad place to be during a storm.
The super train will be coming to an end soon and I'm sure jobs will be abolished again to make new work schedules.
Florida DOT has a couple of projects going on. They are putting new drainage lines around the whole yard and causing alot of disruption. They are also putting some type of water lines around the property. What's interesting is to save money, the lines are up in the air on scaffolding that criss-crosses the yard.
The big rumor around the yard is alot of this work is being done for TriRail and its future. Alot of the workers believe that TriRail will start running from Miami to JAX withen the next 6 years. This will allow Amtrak to pull Silver Service out of Miami and probably use JAX as it's point of origin.
Well, if I think of anything else to add, I will in the future.
I've been blessed with my old moniker and will only use H-J to enter this chat.
So, good bye Hialeah Joe, it was nice to know ya!!!! :blink:
Thanks for the shout-outs!!
Let me tell ya all about the changes that have taken place since my last post.
If I'm correct, the last time I was here, the manager was the commisary guy that wouldn't spend money. He's now in charge of the OBS crews and scheduling. He has more lives than an alley cat!
Than we had the "Cowboy". At first he was hard to figure out, but I really liked him in the end. He was very hands-off, did all communication with employees by e-mail and worked nights!!!! Walked around the yard with a cowboy hardhat!!
But he didn't fit in with the "good old boys" in upper management.
Dave Gunn shook things up when he changed the zones and changed personel.
The first big change was the new guy in charge of the maintenace. He's responsible for HIA, SFD,JAX and NOL. His name is Tommy Farr and he comes from Auto Train. I used to deal with him when I was on the Fun Train. He was in charge of loco maintenance. Anyway, Cowboy didn't get along with him and didn't apply for the job during the shake-up.
Tommy has a boss above him,but I can't recall his name. Tommy's boss got a friend to take the managers position and they argue all the time!
We now have Mr. Shipper from Chicago Transit. I don't care for the guy,so from now on he will be known as "Ham." That stands for "High And Mighty!!
:lol:
Alot of things have changed, some good and some bad. ;
First thing to get done was really cool!! Tommy called CNOC and got all the cars assigned to HIA returned. Things were looking good.
Then it was explained that the PM line was going to become first priority and require more people. We assumed that meant more hiring, but it hasn't turned out that way.
Second thing to go down was 3 coach cleaners got laid off. Then all the jobs were abolished in yhe yard and all running train jobs were between 3:30pm to 11:30am. They removed alot of jobs from the trains and created new jobs in the PM line. With the new shifts and fewer workers. the quality of the cars has gone down. The average time to work up the cars is 5 hrs and it's not working. Trains are late every day and people are now being held responsible. They end up being charged with a work violation and end up on the streets for a couple of weeks. Needless to say, people are nervous, alot of BS, and people calling in sick.
I got one of the jobs on the PM line. After 18yrs, I 'm working a day job!
Parts have become readily available, which I find amazing! :blink: It has become hard to acquire the parts on the property. We now have to look up parts in a book and fill out a request form. THen you have to find a Foreman to sign the ticket and find a way to get the part. That means looking around for a golf cart or getting someone to go get it. We waste alot of time waiting. Then we are trying to meet a daily quota. The problem is HIA has committed to turn out 3 cars a day and the cars are trashed.
After years of neglect, it takes alot of time to work these cars up and we're lucky to get 2 cars every other day. The cars are also in bad shape from the running train, due to not enough workers. We don't have enough people and management is totally disorganized. Half the time the cars are being cleaned while I'm trying to work, so everybody either stops working, or ends up doing the job twice.Train #90 now has 1 electrician, 2 carmen and 1 coach cleaner. They also use it to steal cars for the Super Train.
The Super Train has caused a few problems. THey are working the consist with 3 electricians, 3 carman, 1pipefitter, and coach cleaners. The biggest problem is not having enough people. Alot of maintenance is slipping by and accumulates until the next PM(90 days). But we are doing alot of heavy repairs that increases the average mean time between major failures. we have replaced A/C units, dishwashers refrigeration units, etc. Management is hoping that all cars will be in good shape within 18 months and it will be a simple matter of removing bad cars and having good cars to replace them. But the cars are not coming out of PM on time, so we still are short good cars. But we now have a yard of cars that are past the PM date, can't run until inspected.
Let's talk about some good things.
All the buildings have been painted, alot of rooms cleaned out after years of neglect. The lunchroom and offices have been remodeled and theyu are doing the locker rooms now.
Federal money from the Homeland Security Fund has payed for surveillance cameras around the facility, but they seem to be used by Tommy Farr to look around the facility from Sanford.They also have cameras in the offices. Last week he caught a carman sleeping in a loco. After being tested. he won't be back for at least 30 days.
Management has made plans to build a satellite parts room to increase productivity. They made employees remove their private golf carts,but we still have to drive to the storehouse for parts. The few Amtrak carts are hard to procure, so PM repairs are slow.
We have been having problems with the wiring in the yard for years. Plans our in the works to remove all the overhead wiring and put them underground. Will keep you posted.
We have received alot of new vehicles. We got new pick-ups, but very few people are permitted to drive them. We got a new waste truck for sucking cars out and after less than a month, a piper backed into Ham's truck last Friday. They were getting ready to test him, but a union rep brought up the fact that the truck was parked in no parking zone. I think it's been swept under the table.
h34r:The coolest thing was a new $250,000 car mover!
They have started training people and using it more and more. Found out later the reason for the purchase is to move cars ourselves. CSX is really slow switching in the yard and Amtrak is hoping for more time for repairs with power on the cars.A new roof is being installed over the wheelpit right now. It will be much larger, allowing us to work more than 2 cars in bad weather. I still think it's a bad place to be during a storm.
The super train will be coming to an end soon and I'm sure jobs will be abolished again to make new work schedules.
Florida DOT has a couple of projects going on. They are putting new drainage lines around the whole yard and causing alot of disruption. They are also putting some type of water lines around the property. What's interesting is to save money, the lines are up in the air on scaffolding that criss-crosses the yard.
The big rumor around the yard is alot of this work is being done for TriRail and its future. Alot of the workers believe that TriRail will start running from Miami to JAX withen the next 6 years. This will allow Amtrak to pull Silver Service out of Miami and probably use JAX as it's point of origin.
Well, if I think of anything else to add, I will in the future.
I've been blessed with my old moniker and will only use H-J to enter this chat.
So, good bye Hialeah Joe, it was nice to know ya!!!! :blink:
