Camp Cars

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Sat Jan 5 10:15:31 EST 2008


Jeff

I'll second that! Railroading for a living and railroading as a hobby are
two different animals. I will always be interested in railroading from a model
and a historic view, but when I get to retirement age I'm GONE!

Jim Kehn


In a message dated 1/5/2008 8:11:01 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:


Gary,

Thanks for your honest assessment of camp car life.

I have enjoyed railfanning for over forty years, and I've enjoyed
railroading for nearly thirty years. But the bottom line is that railroading is a job.
In most cases a railfan has to leave his "fanning" at home and get serious
about his job, if he wants to keep on working there.

Nights, weekends, 100 degrees, 14 degrees with a wind chill of -8, throw in
some downpours of rain, a foot of snow, sometimes for twelve hours (in the
"good ole days" it was 16). Somewhere along the line we have all probably
exposed ourselves to these elements for a short period of time to "get the great
shot", or see a special movement. But after having worked in these
environments repeatedly through the years, I can tell you, as much as I love
railroading, I wouldn't be out there if I wasn't getting paid.

Gary, my hat is off to you and your fellow workers for the hardships you
endure while maintaining a good and safe workplace for the rest of us.

Godspeed, and my sincerest wishes for improved living conditions for you on
the hi-iron.

Jeff Sanders



----- Original Message -----
From: _NW Mailing List_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)
To: _NW Mailing List_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 12:21 PM
Subject: Camp Cars


This is a very touchy subject between supervision and contract employees and
trust me, the radio interviews are pretty bias, In order not to ruffle
management feathers, I will try to give you good and bad situations about our home
away from home.

The camp cars that I live in are 1971 trailers mounted to 1934
ex-Pennsylvania Flat cars, built for Amtrak, sold to Conrail,merged into NS. There is 8
men sleeping in each car with only two showers to share among them and one
smaller than high-school locker to hang all your things in. We have three sinks
to share, and we have to walk outside, (hot-cold-rain-shine) to use a
portapotty.
Jerry we get paid to work, not to use a out door john when its 0 degrees or
100 degrees, once we get of work our pay stops, we are on our own time while
at the camp cars. There is nothing more miserable than waking up at 3 a.m
from a warm bed, getting dressed, putting on shoes and walking outdoors just
to take a crap when the temperature is so cold that your butt freezes to the
seat, or it is so hot that your are pouring the sweat and nauseous from the
stench. If one employee brings in a cold chances are we all take it ourselves
and carry it home with us. My car is right next to the generator car, so guess
what I have to hear all night long. We all have TVS and DVD players, and
Microwaves only because we bought them ourselves. Our floor is falling through
and we've had a mice problem for several months now.
The mattress that I sleep on is smaller than a the twin size mattress that
my 9 year old daughter sleeps on, and my arms constantly hurt from sleeping in
a coffin-like state. Basically, NS didn't start putting money into upgrades
until somebody started complaining
The good things about the cars is I personally love the Railroading
community and fellowship, I have a free ticket into the heart of all the major
railroad yards and facilities. I have set on my deck and watched ships be loaded
at Lambert's point and I've watched the endless parade of trains from yards in
Buffalo and Fort Wayne, but I love trains and choose it as my career, most
guys are there just for a paycheck.
Harry, they still place occasionally beside the main line, last year I was
on the siding at Pearisburg, trying to sleep while trains passed my car at 50
mph just 6 feet from my window, one car off the track could wipe a whole
gang out at those speeds, how may trains derail into hotels???
Jimmy, yes we do receive three hot meals a day, it is deducted from our
paychecks, and in all reality, what kind of foods do you cook for 40-men??
Potatoes and beans, chicken etc... and usually all greasy, and you have no choice
over the menu,you either like it or you don;t, several guys still go out to
fast food because of the quality of food, oh and by the way, we work from
7-5:30, we don't eat supper until we get off of work and traditionally we pull
overtime on Mon-Wed so if we work to 8-9 we have to go back and eat food that
has set since 5. Most of the gangs that approve current conditions are
Southern gangs that don't have to deal with the sub-freezing temperatures that we
have to up here, just this week, I had a hot meal from lunch frozen almost
instantly by the blustery wind that had Hopewell chilled on Wed and Thursday.
Another good thing is once your there your there, and you can leave all you
clothes, boots and supplies there, and not take them home every week like
checking out of a hotel on Thursday. We work predominately in Nascar country so
sometimes hotels can be sparse, and Ben Blevins can speak on experience on
finding hotels in West Virginia to house his small gang in, as compared to the
commute back and forth to the work site.

Hope this helps understand that things need to be a lot better, I'm in favor
of keeping the cars, BUT with major improvements, mainly indoor toiletries.

Gary Price
Keeping the ole N&W safe one tie at a time

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