[PRCo] Re: GMs

[Fred Schneider]

Very sadly, the sometimes don't understand the operations and those  
who do often have trouble getting the ear of the people above them.

I used to know Charlie Shauck very well ... an old Pittsburgh  
Railways man who was Superintendent of Power and Inclines.  Like John  
Baxter was John Swindler's surrogate papa, Charlie was mine.   I  
never missed seeing him when I was in PIttsburgh to visit my  
relatives.   He was my dad's age.   He had one daughter my age and  
one my sister's age.   We were all Presbyterians.   He and my dad  
both graduated from Carnegie Tech with EE degrees about the same  
year.   The similarities go on forever.

Charlie used to talk to me about how Pittsburgh Railways was  
managed.   I remember his stories about going into to the annual  
budget meetings with all the departments like himself.   You would  
have your long list of everything thing that needed to be done.   And  
C D Palmer had his list of how much money was available.   One by one  
the items got chopped off each persons list.   But Palmer was pretty  
good at knowing the value of every item and what it meant to the  
company as a whole.   Shauck really respected his boss.  I think his  
workmen in the lines department respected him too.  When you're good,  
it goes down the chain.   Charlie was one of those people who was the  
first in the office in the morning and the last one out at night.    
He could be working within two miles of his home in South Park in the  
afternoon  ... let's say West Library substation for example, but he  
would still be in his office on Sandusky Street on the North Side at  
quitting time at 5 PM.

Well, not too long after the Port Authority take over, Charlie became  
disillusioned at all the money that was being thrown around and how  
little good was being done with that money.   I remember him saying,  
"If Palmer had that kind of money, he would have built a first rate  
transit system."   It had turned political.  He lost interest in the  
job.   He would be working out in McKeesport and would drive the PAT  
automobile home from there and at 4:30 he would radio his secretary  
and tell her he was in McKeesport and want to know what was going  
on.   Then he would turn off the radio, get out of the car, and walk  
into his house.   I asked him why he retired early.   He said that  
the politicians were bringing people to him that "couldn't tie their  
own shoes" and asking him to make linemen out them.   He said, "I  
just don't want to be responsible when someone kills himself."

There may have been an animosity between the unions and management at  
Pittsburgh Railways but there was an esprit de corps among the  
management and staff.   I never heard any complaints from the people  
at 121 Seventh Street or in the engineering office at Homewood or at  
Sandusky Street.   They were good people.   I never heard any of them  
bitching about Palmer.

But today, I hear it over and over and over in almost every agency.    
The operating people simply cannot get someone upstairs to understand  
what is going on.

One of the saddest storiest was one Russ Jackson told about the SEPTA  
General Manager who was riding with him on a P&W car and asked, "Are  
we still in the city?"   Hey guys, the entire route 100 is outside  
the city.   He had no clue that the Red Arrow Division isn't in the  
city.

Of course, the politicians are where you get your money.   Roughly 80  
cents out of every dollar today comes from taxes.   Someone has to  
get the brown stuff on his nose.....


On May 9, 2008, at 2:59 PM, Phillip Clark Campbell wrote:

> Mr.Schneider!
>
>
> I have heard this about other modern systems haven't I.  GMs are  
> more into fund raising and hob nobbing with politicians for favor  
> than active in operations.  I may have seen that in the list  
> archives concerning the Pat as well.  Deputies handle Operations  
> don't they.
>
>
> Phil
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
>
>> Fred Schneider wrote:
>>  Somehow the
>> discussion brought up the qualifications of the current SEPTA general
>> manager: fund raising, political schmoozing, etc., but at no point
>> was increasing passenger revenue part of the deal. Afterward
>> someone said we should have recorded it. So now you know why the
>> cars are now double-end again or you may have an inkling.
>> fws3
>
>
>
>        
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