Back in 1980 or 81 I was on OJT as an Engineer Trainee working the Pennsy side of Conrail out of Enola going to Morrisville, Pa. We ran over the Atglen & Susquahanna branch down the Susquahanna River to Washington Boro then up over the mountain to Quarryville and down to Thorndale were we went onto the Amtrak Harrisburg Mainline down to Thorndale. Back then we had the Pennsy side and the Reading. Though it was all Conrail it was still ran like two seperate RR's. My Engineer's name was Pete. He came off as a hard-nosed SOB and first thing he said was "hey sonny boy, I am losing $4.00 a day when you ride with me, so if you want any training you need to pay me that $4.00."
I road for a couple of round trips standing over his shoulder watching his every move. On about the second or third trip out of Enola he turned to me and said that I coughed and breathed over him the entire way on the previous trips and should know everything I need to know. At this point he told me to get in the seat and show him what I can do. Now remember this was on the Pennsy side and the old heads ran like he**. We were heading past Washington Boro when the train got up to the the Timetable posted speed. I reached the throttle and backed it off a notch at which point Pete Screamed out "What the he** are you doing, we have a mountain to climb." My reply was to Pete that were up to 50 mph and was told if we got caught speeding we would be terminated. Pete response was, "Hey sonny boy, Let me tell you about Speed limits, THEY ONLY Enforce Them When You WRECK." I smoked two packs of Marlboro's that trip.
He later told me a story about another Engineer that ran this route. He was going down the Coatsville hill on track 2 at a rather fast rate of speed when he went past a commuter train on track 1. The Engineer on the commuter train called Thorndale tower and said there was a run-away freight on track 2 at which point the Freight Engineer cried out, "Hey sonny boy, you run the Kiddy Car, I'll run the Freight. Thorndale came back and replied to get it slowed down he was going to be held at Thorndale, at which the freight engineer replied, " If I put it in the hole Now we won't get stopped till Downingtown.
Thorndale's response was "You will be held at Downingtown."
If you tried anything like that after NS took over it would be instant Dismissal.
