New here.

[TB4JY]

Hello to all.  I just found this site and find it pretty good.

Here is a little bit about me.  I hired out as a conductor on BNSF back in 1998 in Alliance Nebraksa.  I got furloghed from BNSF so I went and hired out as a Conductor on NS back in 1999 out of Atlanta Georgia.  As a conductor I worked the Atlanta North District, going from Atlanta to Chattanooga TN.  I completed engineer training back in 2005 and got qualified in 2006.  I now work on the engineers extraboard out of Atlanta.  That extraboard has me go from Atlanta GA to Chattanooga TN, Atlanta GA to Macon GA, Cedartown GA to Cleveland TN and Chamblee GA to Chattanooga TN. 

If you have any questions I'll try my best to answer them.  I hope I can be of some help to you all.

Thanks,

Bob Lawson

[Michael Knight]

Welcome, Bob, to Jreb.org. Feel free to share your experiences here.  It's great to have another member here from the GA division, too. Keep the board up-to-date on the happenings in your area.

[TB4JY]

Will do!

[E.M. Bell]

Welcome to Jreb Bob. You will find a good group of folks here, Rails and fans alike...and well behaved most of the time. Feel free to participate as much as you want.  We can always use news from down your way..

[Michael Knight]

So, Bob, I bet that you've heard talk about the Sugar Valley derailment of 1990. Sadly, the seventeen-year aniversary will  arrive next month.
I imagine that an errie feeling might be evoked for those on the GA North End when operating through Davis and Sugar Valley. 

[Batman]

wow , hard to believe that its been 17 years since that fatefull meet.

[TB4JY]

So, Bob, I bet that you've heard talk about the Sugar Valley derailment of 1990. Sadly, the seventeen-year aniversary will  arrive next month.
I imagine that an errie feeling might be evoked for those on the GA North End when operating through Davis and Sugar Valley. 

Truth be known, I don't think most north-end guys even think about that any more.  We still have three white crosses just off the tracks at the signal at Davis, but the weeds have over grown the place.  I would say on the mainline, about 80% of our conductors have less then 5 years out here.  So they don't know anything about it, nor do they seem to care.  I've talked to some of the old head M of W guys about it.  I think they think about it more then us train crews.  After all, their the ones who had to help get the dead out of the wreckage and clean up the mess.  I got the feeling it really got to them.  Us train crews see pictures of the wreck, but those poor M of W guys had to live through the wreck.  Know what I mean.

[Michael Knight]

Last year, I read the NTSB report, and  I couldn't get out of my chair for several minutes after reading it.

I have lain in a relaxed position with my legs resting on the forward seat within the somewhat small confines of the C39-8's cab; just as the conductor of 188 probably did on that trip. As I read about what the crewmembers did, seventy-two hours prior to the incident, I realized how that could have been me or someone I know. There lives became live in the text. The human aspect of the crewmember's lives became apparent, which made it all-the-more difficult for me.