John Scott another tale in Tales of the Jointed Track

Dave Lackey related this one to me, while I had traded off with John on the night shift.

The Santa Fe had a private email system, for Company business. You could send wires to the Dispatchers, or to individual Stations for the Power demands, cut wires, and so on.

Another thing we did was kept a running turn over. This too was sent to all the AMLU’s (Asst Manager of Locomotive Utilization) working the Eastern territory. The MLU (Manager of Locomotive Utilization) and Director of Power and The Eastern and Texas Chiefs. You would * the document, and that would automatically save a copy into your e-mail inbox. Your email ID was the last 3 letters of your last name and then the first and middle initials. Like mine was TERRM. You could edit it, from your last received turn over, or notes written on the printed copy you got at the start of your shift.

This email system was called TAU, and I forget what the T.A.U. acronym stood for. TAU was slowly being phased out, when the BNSF switched over and merged all the addresses from the Santa Fe and the BN. The BNSF uses a business version of Outlook, or did during that time, from 1997 till I retired in 2012.

TAU had a peculiar “glitch”. While you are typing, you could wipe out the entire document, by accidentally hitting the wrong key. I think it was either f1 or f2. It had happened to all of us, and no one was immune. When it did occur, there was “blue” language.

John had a tough shift and he was a little flustered. He is flailing away on the keyboard. John is around 50 years of age. Greying red hair and very fair skinned.
During this time at the SOC (System Operations Center) dress Monday thru Friday was business. Trousers with a shirt and tie, a suit, and ladies business dress.

It happened, the “Glitch” visited John. Dave told me, “I wish I had a video camera, this was priceless”. John rapidly stood up, mumbling. Then the running of both hands through his hair. Still struck in disbelief. He spins a little, then pulls up on his pants. Then bends down and places his face into the monitor, mouth agape like it was going to magically appear. He’s going to stare it in to existence. If there could have been cartoon sound effects, the boing boing and cuckoo clock noises along with the bongo drums .

“Blow out the turn over, John”. Hands through the hair again, and he is flustered big time. “Just re access your email and bring up the old turnover”. The Chiefs have changed and I showed up about 30 minutes later. John is still upset and says “I don’t have a turnover. I blew it out”. “Do you have your old one and any notes?” “Yes”. “Well let me have it and I’ll update it”. I get a run through on the stations, and any needs or concerns. John takes off and the night proceeds on. Dave related the tale, on the next shift. John was good to work with, but we got some good laughs too.