[PRCo] Re: Government Corruption (was Wheels__&__Shoes)

[Harold Geissenheimer]

Fred
As if these problems dont exist in private industry.  Sorry that so much
of life makes you unhappy.

Even railfan groups and museums have these problems.

I was lucky with the National Guard.  Served with a Nike missile
unit and then with the state OCS.  We had good Adjutant Generals, both 
republican and democratic.
All kinds..General Biddle, General White, Gen Hay (Pgh C of C)/

And good Governers...Gov Lawrence, Scranton, Shafer.

Bill Underwoods father in law, General Snyder, was there a long time.

I never had a bad day in the Guard....27 years.

Harold

Fred Schneider wrote:

>I know a hell of a lot of good government people too, Harold.  I was lucky because
>most of my people were excellent.  But that didn't happen everywhere.    I remember
>when our bosses told us that we were to "empower" other people ... nobody really
>meant it but I took it seriously and told my people to do what they had to do ...
>don't bother me with questions if they knew how to do it ... just do the job but let
>me know before they walked me down the garden path to destruction.  That was when I
>found out how good my people really were and how management really didn't mean to
>delegate responsibility because they were now unable to micro manage.  Last year one
>of the women who worked for me was so frustrated that she and her associate (happened
>to be her mother in law) just decided "to do it Fred's way" ... do it, put it in the
>mail, and then apologize and go on with life.  I thought it was hilarious.  It ended
>months of bickering with the number one dog over change words back and forth.  And I
>was still remembered in a positive way three years after I retired.  Only I don't
>think I would have allowed it to go on as long as they did without reacting.  I miss
>those people and I still go out with them for lunch.
>But I also met some incredibly bad people who would file a union grievance before
>they would lift a finger to work.  I also met those who hated work so much that they
>would empty the pencil sharpeners in file cabinets just to get even with someone who
>told them to earn their money.  I remember a manager whose entire day, month after
>month, was filled not with productive work but responding to state representatives
>who were investigating why one of their constituents was being mistreated (i.e. being
>told to work instead of socialize all day).  When you are forced into that kind of a
>life, getting the job done really does not matter, now does it?   I thought many
>times how I would react if I were to be placed in that man's shoes, and concluded
>that I would give up too.
>
>Harold Geissenheimer wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Greetings
>>No apology.  PAT had good dedicated employees at least until 1976
>>when I went to Chicago.  Rail car rehab was in the hands
>>of Phil Castelano, now President of a large engineering project.
>>He came to PAT from CMU and did an excellent job.  He did the
>>two LRT front PCC's..  PRC staff was not that great.  Transportation
>>was better than maintenance.  Transportation would not even trust
>>maintenace to clean their toilets.  They had T Dept janitors!.
>>
>>Ken Hussong did a hell of a job in reorganizing mantce.  He executed
>>the mod trolleys, etc and rebuilding.
>>
>>Why this constant running down of dedicated people?   I just dont
>>agree with this negative attitude;.
>>
>>Same at CTA.  They had a dedicated workforce and stgill have many.
>>Look at the CTA el cars designed by Walter Keevil.
>>
>>Sorry Fred.  We were born to disagree.  I knew too many
>>sincere PAT employees.  And the PRC staff was not really
>>that great.   It took people from thebus lines to reoganize. PAT.
>>
>>Harold Geissenheimer
>>
>>Harold Geissenheimer
>>
>>Fred Schneider wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Not quite Ken.  Remember that PAT took over in 1964 and the PCCs quit running
>>>about 1998.  That's 34 years, much longer than the normal worker holds a job.
>>>PAT started with excellent people.  One motorman at the end of the PCC era
>>>confided that the people they had then didn't have a clue how to fix those
>>>cars.   Maybe true.  Maybe they simply didn't order parts in time or didn't want
>>>to order new parts at all or didn't want to pay to keep them running in the last
>>>year or two.  We also need to understand that governments' purposes are not
>>>necessarily to serve the public so it doesn't matter if the cars work or don't
>>>work.
>>>
>>>Twelve years?  Interesting.  My VW Passat is half way there and I only have
>>>121,000 on it now.  The dealer tells me that 200,000 is a given but 242,000?   I
>>>wonder.
>>>
>>>Remember that the bus companies were just as starved for cash as the railways
>>>before them.  I remember Charlie Nissley showing me a GM that Conestoga
>>>Transportation had repainted and spruced up in the early 1970s.  It looked
>>>really nice.  I asked him if it would start on compression or if he needed
>>>ether.  The response was, "We don't have the money to fix engines.  We can't
>>>even keep the affirmative action people happy because we don't have the money to
>>>instal a toilet for women."  I think the reason Fitzjohn, Brill, Ford, Marmon,
>>>and all the rest of those builders of 27, 28 and 30 foot buses went out of
>>>business in the 1950s was simple ... The market place for their product existed
>>>only once after World War II.  Once they sold a bus to Henry's Bus Co., that was
>>>it.  If Mr. Henry needed another bus, he would find a used one from some other
>>>company that went out of business.  And that would hold Mr. Henry until he too
>>>went out of business.  The life of the little transit companies was essentially
>>>the life of the bus.  Places like Baltimore and Pittsburgh sometimes managed two
>>>orders for the same service ... we have GMC TDH 4506-0001 (immediate post war)
>>>in our collection at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum ... it lasted, I think,
>>>right up until Maryland MTA bought the property from NCL.  Some of those
>>>1955-1958 GMCs from Philly were still running on SEPTA in the 1980s ... NCL
>>>didn't have the money to buy new ones from GM.
>>>
>>>I expect to receive some hate mail on this one ... someone will provide more
>>>detail on companies that did keep coaches longer.  And there were some.  There
>>>were some like Harrisburg Railways that bought new fishbowls, ran them for a
>>>year or so, and then moved them off to another ATA property that needed them
>>>more ... Cincincinnati, Newport and Covington.  But they did buy GMs in the
>>>1960s to replace Whites from the 1950s.
>>>
>>>I expect to receive some hate mail on this one ... someone will provide more
>>>detail on companies that did keep coaches longer.  And there were some.
>>>
>>>fws
>>>
>>>ktjosephson at earthlink.net wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>----- Original Message -----
>>>>From: "Fred Schneider" <fschnei at supernet.com>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>>......  When he left state service
>>>>>we said he was going to write a book about his experiences in government.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>>>A year
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>>later he told me he abandoned the project "because no one would believe
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>>>what he
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>>wrote."   The truth is, no one would believe how corrupt government can be
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>>>unless
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>>you are lecturing to the choir.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>>>So true. Many of us (public employees) know of some awful situations and
>>>>incidents going on where we work. We also know if we revealed them, we would
>>>>not only get framed and fired, but we would forced to leave town, looking
>>>>over our shoulders. I am serious. The "whistle blower" laws are a big joke.
>>>>
>>>>I know of one public entity which has a former newspaper reporter employed
>>>>as their public relations official. His real job is to use his connections
>>>>with the local media to keep that entity's mis-steps and dirty dealings out
>>>>of the press and off the T.V. news.
>>>>
>>>>It's funny how local politicians and their cronies in the press hammered
>>>>PRCo for years when it was an "evil" (read PRIVATE) profit-seeking company.
>>>>I wonder if today's politicians keep some of PAT's affairs (read total
>>>>screw-ups with TAXPAYERS' money) from the media. That is, unless they have
>>>>an axe to grind with an appointed transit offical and want to pressure or
>>>>embarrass him/her enough to leave.
>>>>
>>>>As I understand it, transit buses currently purchased with federal funds
>>>>(formerly local money that has been hijacked to D.C. for the "general
>>>>welfare" of the masses) have to be retained for about twelve years.
>>>>Therefore, instead of the dependable beasts of burden from a generation ago
>>>>(and before), we wind up with buses that are worn out and not worth
>>>>rebuilding after just over a decade of use. Love 'em or hate 'em, most of
>>>>those old Macks, GMCs, Brills, Flxibles, etc. could last long after they
>>>>were fully depriciated. And of course, struggling transit companies would
>>>>give them the necessary TLC to keep them useable for many years.
>>>>
>>>>I don't know how long today's rail cars are designed to last, but I wonder
>>>>if they will be able to haul loads as long and as reliably as Chicago's "Old
>>>>Pullmans" (1907-1954) or as most PCCs did. Fred will point out that
>>>>Pittsburgh had to make their remaining PCCs last as long as they did since
>>>>they had nothing else to put on the rails prior to the Steel City's "light
>>>>rail" era. But PAT did have knowlegeable and skilled shop crews that did
>>>>their jobs well. And many of them stuck around long after the former PRCo
>>>>engineering staff was given the boot.
>>>>
>>>>K.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>      
>>>
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