This story reflects a complete collapse of discipline at all levels in Midland Rail.I have no doubt that your father, by contrast, performed his job safely and admirably and always kept passenger safety at the top of his concerns. This story, in my view, not only highlights a collapse of discipline as you so very rightly state, but also a complete lack of self-respect and the professionalism that stems from that. For a person charged with such a job and the immense responsibilities that go with it to even consider such a thing as this is mind-boggling to me.
Hopefully the perpetrators will be quickly apprehended and made an example of.
My father worked for the same company for over 50 years. He started out hand firing freight and yard engines and worked his way up to be an engineer a position he regarded as one of great trust and responsibility. My father said more than once in my hearing that a railroad was a really easy place to either get yourself of=r a lot of other people killed. All it required was laziness and carelessness. About 15 years ago there was a very bad accident near Havre de Grace Maryland in which an Amtrak train collided with a freight train. My father had been retired over 20 years then but was emphatic that such an event could not have happened without the crew of one train or the other being throughly negligent. There was a statement that one of the engine crew was seen throw something into the Susquehanna River rightbafter the wreck. He was convinced it was a television set. The wreck took place on a Sunday afternoon and there were several high profile professional football games on. It was just proof to him of what slackness leads to. He wouldn't even permit a transistor radio to be brought onto his engine.
I still am stupefied by this story. These people are endangering literally scores of lives by their actions. Things can happen in the blink of an eye on a railway and trains are moving at 50 to 70 MPH. I suppose the excuse would be that the engineer wasn't operating the train and the head end brakeman was standing by the footplate. Yeah right. While the engineer is bonking some slut right there in the cabin I am sure the other operating crew have their eyes fixed on the right of way and their ears tuned to the communication radio channel. This is truly both disgusting and appalling simultaneously.