Before somebody again posts that the new Loop operators don't appreciate and/or lack experience with safety, I thought I should mention something about the new Loop GM's career. The article describes it as:
"He later worked as a brakeman and conductor on the Chessie System's Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He then became a locomotive engineer as well as locomotive and car repairman -- and was later promoted to trainmaster and train dispatcher -- for the Genessee & Wyoming Industries, which included the Genessee & Wyoming Railroad, Rochester & Southern Railroad, and the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad."
If I remember my railroad history correctly, the Chessie System became CSXT corporation after a merger. CSXT then sold off lines to Genesee & Wyoming Industries, including the former Baltimore & Ohio lines that became the Rochester & Southern and Buffalo & Pittsburgh railroads. Presumably, employees working on the line between Buffalo and Pittsburgh started with the B&O, then became Chessie System employees, at least until they (next) became CSXT employees. After the lines were sold to G&W, I assume that those same employees became employees of the G&W.
In other words, while they were working on the same segment of railroad, their paystubs changed like this: B&O --> CS --> CSXT --> G&W
I bring up all this background because the article leads me to believe that he was working for CSXT before the sale of the line to GWI.
During this period when the Buffalo to Pittsburgh line was still under CSXT ownership, there was a fatal head-on collision of CSX trains in East Concord, NY on February 6, 1987. (According to
www.ntsb.gov, the appropriate NTSB Report Number is RAR-88-03, while the NTSB Report Number is PB88-916304.)
Having the experience of seeing coworkers killed in your workplace has to be a safety lesson that you would never forget.
--
Chris Webster
[www.speakeasy.org]