Thread regarding Union Pacific Corp. layoffs

On the bright side, we’ll have some fit conductors from walking all these long key trains that go into emergency on the main. Either that or an increase in heart attacks. I’ve seen some road conductors that look like they’d need a Hoveround to get past five cars from the engine.

I saw a long mixed pig with locomotives in the middle, sitting in Valley NE today. And a tanker train and coal train sitting on Omaha sub. The one train I saw moving, soon stopped like the others.... Always stopped trains to be seen in Valley, Elkhorn, and Omaha, regardless of day or time. I can’t imagine how boring that must be for the crews to sit like that. Pause and Sit Railroading.

Exactly! And if outsourcing was such a wonderful thing why wasn’t it embraced by previous CEOs? Could it be that outsourcing employees to consulting firms actually costs more and does not result in a better end product?

The track guys on the Donner Summit route hate the long trains as they tend to widen the gauge on the many curves. Also it takes a lot of locomotives to get these trains over the summit.

What prevented them from running longer before? Easy. Safety, the community, operational reasons, terminal capacity and the customer.

When your 10,000ft mixed pig breaks down blocking sidings, crossings and your truckload customers wonder why they are getting boxcar service, it the fan.