Profanity

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billrunnels

Distinguished Member
B-17 Bombardier
8AF, 303bg, 360bs
1,124
1,368
Oct 13, 2017
Minnesota, USA
There is one last railroad story I would like to share. The B&O Railroad had a policy, which they enforced, that one employee could not use profanity against another employee.

The work train was running westbound ahead of the early evening Capital State Limited Passenger Train out of Chicago, IL. The train stopped on the main track and the foreman came into the tower. He told me he wanted to continue ahead of the passenger train to the next station. There was a chance they would hold up the passenger train if they were to do so. I said to the dispatcher you want to put the work train in the siding here at Alida don't you? His reply was yes. This upset the work train foreman and in a loud voice he used profanity against me and stomped out of the rower. I put the train in the siding. Three men were working on a signal not far from the tower and heard the exchange. Apparently they reported it. After the passenger train passed the land line telephone rang. It was the dispatcher calling long distance from our division headquarters. He said I understand the work train foreman used profanity against you. I said yes and he replied report it so I did. Three weeks later I was in the division headquarters taking my annual "book of rules" exam. The dispatcher saw me and asked me to step into the lounge. He said we almost got him fired but his mother, a member of the B&O Board, saved his job.

I found the B&O Employees to be genuine hard working people. I really enjoyed my association with them and have many fond memories of that time in my life.
 
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I found them to be genuine people.
As a student I worked in a bar, I found that those who were most likely to use profane language would also be the ones to choose a moment to object to it, in some ways it is a social "tool" to establish who has the power to swear like a "trooper" in places where "swearing like a trooper" is not allowed.
 

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