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Life on the Rails

Started by Savonarola, June 17, 2015, 12:52:20 PM

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Savonarola

#390
February 06, 2021, 02:14:34 PM Last Edit: February 06, 2021, 02:16:23 PM by Savonarola
Quote from: DGuller on February 06, 2021, 12:03:05 PM
My understanding is that Bombardier is not a good brand name in NYC subway system.  I think they were even banned from bidding on the latest contract because of their prior performance.

Their rolling stock (that is locomotives and rail cars) are highly regarded; their projects (things like installing track or signaling systems) have had problems for some time.  One of the Toronto projects that I'm working on was awarded to Alstom after Bombardier was kicked off the project.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

HVC

#391
February 06, 2021, 03:08:08 PM
I worked for a company that made parts for bombardier rolling stock. Their purchasing department sucked and was a pain.
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

DGuller

#392
February 06, 2021, 06:43:59 PM
Quote from: Savonarola on February 06, 2021, 02:14:34 PM
Quote from: DGuller on February 06, 2021, 12:03:05 PM
My understanding is that Bombardier is not a good brand name in NYC subway system.  I think they were even banned from bidding on the latest contract because of their prior performance.

Their rolling stock (that is locomotives and rail cars) are highly regarded; their projects (things like installing track or signaling systems) have had problems for some time.  One of the Toronto projects that I'm working on was awarded to Alstom after Bombardier was kicked off the project.
It's their subway cars that are notorious.  Their mean distance between failure is usually a fraction compared to the cars made by Kawasaki or Alstom.

Savonarola

#393
February 18, 2021, 10:12:32 AM
Alstom is positioning itself as a Green corporation, so this morning I got my carbon footprint report for 2020.  I had made a trip to Toronto in February that year; and they suggested next time I look at train options... which is actually possible if I started in Orlando (Orlando-New York City; New York City-Niagara Falls and then one of the commuter trains into Toronto); but it would take nearly two days.

Amtrak requires their employees to take the train whenever possible.  One time I met with an Amtrak rep from their Philadelphia Headquarters when we were in Jackson, Michigan (roughly 100 miles/160 Km west of Detroit.)  Since there is no service from Toledo, Ohio to Detroit he had to go Philadelphia to Chicago and Chicago to Jackson.  That took him about 36 hours.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Savonarola

#394
March 05, 2021, 02:37:23 PM
Rail is a safety conscious industry and its a common industry practice to begin each meeting with a "Safety moment," where people bring up a safety concern.  Sometimes these are official company announcements, other times there just things that people have seen recently.  Usually they're banal, like "Make sure you're getting enough sleep," or "Beware of dehydration."  Sometimes the Australian ones can be entertaining, like "Make sure you always check your boots for scorpions."  In any event, last week I was on a conference call with a Canadian company where one of the managers said:

"You see a lot of people snowboarding without hats these days.  When you snowboard you got to wear a hat, eh?"

He did say "Hat" rather than "Toque," so it was only almost as Canadian as possible given the circumstances.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Josquius

#395
March 08, 2021, 05:35:19 AM
Quote from: Savonarola on February 18, 2021, 10:12:32 AM
Alstom is positioning itself as a Green corporation, so this morning I got my carbon footprint report for 2020.  I had made a trip to Toronto in February that year; and they suggested next time I look at train options... which is actually possible if I started in Orlando (Orlando-New York City; New York City-Niagara Falls and then one of the commuter trains into Toronto); but it would take nearly two days.

Amtrak requires their employees to take the train whenever possible.  One time I met with an Amtrak rep from their Philadelphia Headquarters when we were in Jackson, Michigan (roughly 100 miles/160 Km west of Detroit.)  Since there is no service from Toledo, Ohio to Detroit he had to go Philadelphia to Chicago and Chicago to Jackson.  That took him about 36 hours.
Eat your own dog food.
Even environmental issues aside it does seem logical PR for train company workers to take the train :p
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Savonarola

#396
March 08, 2021, 02:28:16 PM
Quote from: Tyr on March 08, 2021, 05:35:19 AM
Eat your own dog food.
Even environmental issues aside it does seem logical PR for train company workers to take the train :p

Though I like to take the train; they would never really give me two travel days in each direction just to go to Toronto.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Eddie Teach

#397
March 08, 2021, 05:10:55 PM
Yeah, trains are slow and distances are long. It's not like a jaunt from Zurich to Paris.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

viper37

#398
March 27, 2021, 06:22:17 PM
Quote from: HVC on February 06, 2021, 03:08:08 PM
I worked for a company that made parts for bombardier rolling stock. Their purchasing department sucked and was a pain.
you should have tried dealing with their accounts payable department  :yuk:
I don't do meditation.  I drink alcohol to relax, like normal people.

If Microsoft Excel decided to stop working overnight, the world would practically end.

Savonarola

#399
April 14, 2021, 03:00:25 PM
I was recently contacted by T-Mobile (Cellular Provider) about opportunities to use their service on trains.  T-Mobile doesn't have a separate division for rail; so they've put me on their mailing list for government fleets.  This morning I got an e-mail from "T-Mobile for Government"; which I first thought was an electioneering slogan from the dark future.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Savonarola

#400
September 28, 2021, 01:01:17 PM
We've had a number of retirements at work of late.  Today I went to a retirement luncheon and Bill was there.  One of our co-workers, Hector, is from Mexico.

Hector:  Bill, you had a really good time in Colombia, right?
Bill:  I wouldn't say that I had a good time, but...

...and he proceeded to launch into a dozen or so stories; many even more fabulous then the ones I've written. 

Bill is still in contact with some of the people we worked with in Colombia.  Colombia has been hit hard by Covid and the US/European vaccines aren't widely available.  One of the mines flew their port manager to Florida so he could get the vaccine; it was cheaper and easier (and more reliable) than trying to find a vaccine for him in Colombia.

Bill's son (really his grandson) is just about to turn 18, so he and his wife have to re-establish guardianship of him.  (I think, I'm not really sure how that works.  His son suffered traumatic brain damage as a very young child and will always be dependent.)

His daughter (really granddaughter) is now 15.  She found a boyfriend (not an Italian) who was 18.  Bill and his wife monitor her social media (she suffered severe neglect as an infant has a lot of issues that social media could exacerbate) and found that he was sending her dick pics and asking for nude pics.  Bill called him up and told him to cease contact with his daughter or he'd tell his parents what was going on.  That evening a Brevard County Deputy  (:alberta:) showed up at his house with a complaint that he had been beating his daughter.  While Bill could tell them who called and why; in this day and age they still have to do a thorough investigation.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

HVC

#401
September 28, 2021, 01:04:57 PM
Quote from: viper37 on March 27, 2021, 06:22:17 PM
Quote from: HVC on February 06, 2021, 03:08:08 PM
I worked for a company that made parts for bombardier rolling stock. Their purchasing department sucked and was a pain.
you should have tried dealing with their accounts payable department  :yuk:

My colleague did that :D
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Jacob

#402
September 28, 2021, 01:08:03 PM
Hopefully the (ex-) boyfriend gets a bit of a wakeup call and learns not to be a shit.

mongers

#403
November 10, 2021, 04:03:32 PM
The Salisbury train crash between two trains into the entrance of a key tunnel has buggered up rail transport in central Southern England for a couple of weeks now.

They've been working night and day to replace the tracks, repair signalling etc and are on schedule to finish within 15 days.

But at the same time they've dropped the level of the tracks in the tunnel by a few feet, so that the tunnel will now be upgraded to the one of the largest freight container size specifications*
How about that for joined up thinking and working.  :bowler:



* I forget the names of these international size templates for rail transport, no doubt there are usual wiki pages describing them.
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

mongers

#404
December 01, 2021, 08:19:41 PM
Travelled on a newly restored railway , the Okehampton (Dartmoor) to Exeter line which hasn't seen mainline trains in 50 years.

It's been  open now for two weeks and had lots of locals and visitors using it.

And Okehampton station itself has been nicely restored to something out of the 1930s.  :bowler:
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"
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