Functions and Responsibilities of Section Gangs

Report of Committee

H. C. Fox, Chairman, div. engr., Sou., Greensboro, N. C.

There is a familiar saying that "necessity is the mother of invention." All of you will agree that during the last 25 years on the railways, the necessity for devising new ideas in the use of materials and in handling work has been acute. The railways do not exercise control over transportation rates, which prevents them from adjusting income to expenditure; therefore, expenditures have to be adjusted to income. This has made it imperative that they effect substantial economies if they are to remain in business as private enterprises.

To the track man this means elimination of nonessentials and lost motion, taking advantage of improvements in equipment and materials, and better work organizations. In less than 25 years many railways have actually reduced their track labor more than 45 per cent and, in the meanwhile, have improved conditions. This is evidence that the track man has not failed to take advantage of newer equipment and material.

All of this change has done much to alter the functions of section gangs. However, there are still many opportunities open to the supervisor or roadmaster to improve on the functions of present-day section gangs. Some of those opportunities include proper planning with the foreman of all section work; the scheduling of section work so foreman will know the time limits within which each job should be performed; the routing of section work so each operation may be performed in its proper order, without unnecessary handling of material or waste of labor; and the establishment of standards, so that work may be done economically and with uniform results.

Plan with the foreman all improved general methods and processes which may be applicable to the work in hand. After the work has been studied out and planned, impress the foreman with the fact that it is up to him to carry it out in a satisfactory manner. Refrain from detailing a foreman's work from day to day. When this is done the foreman loses his initiative and looks for these instructions, instead of going ahead and using his own judgment. Encourage the foreman to assume responsibility, to take pride in the upkeep of his section, and to compete in his daily work as far as possible with neighboring sections. Impress on the foreman the present high cost of labor and the necessity for using labor efficiently in order to prevent unnecessary loss. Select apprentices carefully to be trained as foremen. Inaugurate a plan for improving the capacity and knowledge of track foremen and apprentice foremen.

A large part of section work is carried out according to a routine established by custom. As long as this routine is followed and apparently satisfactory results are obtained, there may be neither analysis of the methods used nor criticisms of the results. A study may indicate that the routine method is perfectly satisfactory. On the other hand, frequently such a study will prove that some other plan of carrying on the work would give more efficient results.

While it is true that planning section work involves considerable mental effort, nevertheless it is well worth while, because it is only in this way that a supervisor can be assured that the best methods are being used in the most efficient way.

It is a pleasure to watch the way well-organized and trained section men make every move count as they go about the performance of some operation. On the other hand, it makes one nervous to watch other section men because they have no apparent plan of doing their work, and are awkward in every move they make.

The fact that a man does certain work awkwardly is no proof that he would not do it efficiently if properly instructed. We cannot expect our section gangs to function correctly unless the foremen take enough interest in the work to instruct and train his men properly.

There is a special knack in handling every tool on a section, from the shovel to a power tamper. A man who knows how to handle A tool skillfully will do much more in a day with the same or less effort than a man who has not learned the proper technique with the tool. Failure of a foreman to instruct his men in the proper handling of tools or the proper performing of work may leave them undecided as to how the operations should be carried out. As a result, they are just as likely to do the work awkwardly as they are to do it easily.

Some supervisors and foremen might doubt the importance of these matters; however, it is our opinion that if a supervisor will make a study of each section gang on his territory and will work out a method of training each of his men to do his work in the best, easiest and most economical manner, the output will increase considerably and the men will find that it is actually easier for them to do a better and more productive job than a less satisfactory job.

Functions Vary Widely

The function of section gangs vary according to climate, weather conditions, character of track and a number of other factors. Therefore, it is impossible to give a schedule of section work that will fit all locations and conditions.

Assuming that small gangs are used for patrol and light tasks, with larger work gangs for the heavier tasks, such as surfacing, rail laying, and ballasting, the functions of section gangs can be more or less restricted to the problems of maintenance on their assigned sections.

The amount of track to be assigned to a section gang depends on the amount of work performed by larger work gangs, the amount of traffic, kind and condition of ballast, size of rail section, condition of rail ends and joints, stability of the roadbed, and many other details of track maintenance. In fact, it depends so largely on local conditions that it is impossible to set up any practical formula for equating miles of track for each section.

On the other hand, the local officers should assign as near as possible equal equated mileage to each section so there will be no excuse for one foreman not maintaining his track as well as the others.

The practice of doubling section gangs should be restricted as much as possible, and when done it should be confined to items of an emergency nature, where other forces or equipment are not available or where the forces must be supplemented quickly to expedite work upon which work trains are employed. Some of the many objections of doubling gangs are that it defeats proper supervision by dividing responsibility between foremen; results in waste of supervision where only one man is needed to direct the combined forces; sets up the possibility of confusion and understanding in the prosecution of the work; and greatly reduces the ratio of productive time to total time as the result of the time spent in traveling to and from work.

If the maintenance budget does not provide enough labor for present section gangs to perform items of necessary work, the section limits should be extended, combining forces and reducing the overhead cost of supervision, and thus eliminating the necessity of doubling gangs. Favoring one section to the detriment of another is injurious to the morale of the organization.

Power Tools Recommended

Even though most of us are using large work gangs for out-of-face surfacing, we still have use for well organized section gangs, and it is important that consideration be given to the matter of assigning power tools to such gangs. Today, power units for the operation of power tools are available which are light enough to be handled by the average section gang, and it is surprising how much smoothing and surfacing a section gang can do with power tampers, while carrying out its many other and varied tasks. One objection to assigning power machines or power tools to section gangs is that these gangs can seldom be kept at any one job consistently, which necessitates that the machines lie idle part of the time. However, such tools can be used with very little lost operation by passing them from one section to another as necessary.

In supplying sections with power machines or power tools the greatest care should be exercised in instructing the foremen and their men in the proper operation of the machines or tools. To insure that the foreman thoroughly understands the operation and upkeep of the equipment, a work equipment repairman should visit each section as it is furnished new units to instruct the foreman personally in their use and upkeep. At this time the foreman should be instructed in all the tricks learned through earlier experience to get the most effective use out of the units.

Some foremen and laborers may be prejudiced against machines and not inclined to give them a fair trial or proper use. This attitude can be overcome by informing the men as to the real advantages to be secured. If the roadmaster or supervisor will do this and will watch and instruct the men, they will soon accept the machines on the same basis they accept picks, shovels, jacks and tamping bars.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of section gangs have not varied greatly since earlier days, and it is our recommendation that nothing be done by management to discourage or cause foremen or section gangs to discontinue the practice of being custodians of company property within section limits, or to remove the following responsibilities:

(1) Periodic inspection of all company-owned tracks and turnouts, making corrective measures when required, including lining, smoothing, gaging, bolt tightening and brush cutting. Periodic inspection of industry-owned side tracks, with a report to the supervisor or roadmaster when corrective action is 'required on the part of the industry.

(2) Inspection of the track, roadbed and bridges, trestles and culverts during periods of heavy rains or high water that might result in damage, providing flag protection when required.

(3) Periodic patrol of right-of-way to see that fences, ditches and slopes are properly maintained, and that there are not encroachments or trespassing. If the maintenance of proper ditches, pipe openings and slopes, including the scaling of cuts, is within the capacity of the section gangs, then such work must be done; if not, help must be requested from the supervisor or roadmaster.

(4) Patrol and protect points at which slides may occur during inclement weather.

(5) Remove combustible material from the vicinity of bridges, buildings and other structures in order to minimize fire hazard.

(6) Extinguish fires that are noticed on or along the right-of-way.

(7) Observe telegraph and telephone lines during trips over the section and report any breaks.

(8) Observe and report any failures in water supply.

(9) See that old material is promptly gathered up and sent to concentration points.

(10) Remove snow when its presence in switches would cause them to fail, and also any packed snow and ice from flangeways at road crossings. If time permits during a storm or after the end of a storm, remove snow from station platforms and any company-owned sidewalks.

(11) Periodic inspection of overhead and side clearances.

(12) Provide for the safety of his men.

DISCUSSION

President Chaney: In this comprehensive and most excellent report, one point stood out in my mind - on the first page at the bottom of the first column it reads: "A large part of section work is carried out according to a routine established by custom. As long as this routine is followed and apparently satisfactory results are obtained, there may be neither analysis of the methods used nor criticism of the results." Oftentimes, or too often, in my way of thinking, we are forced to change our methods instead of using our initiative and doing so ahead of time.

We may have to wait until our appropriations are cut or business falls off to such an extent before we get into it and analyze the functions of the section gangs, which includes the maintenance sections, equated units assigned to sections, and more particularly the plan of their work.

Mr. Kellogg (C. & O.): This report, I think has a lot of new thought in it, especially the part of the supervisor selecting men and training them to become foremen. During the past few years in the area around industrial plants and cities, the men that we have for track laborers have been very poor and will never make foremen. They are men that come and go. They are drifters. In the rural communities, we have been able to get better men. Every man that we hire is looked over by the supervisor to see if he looks like he has any possibilities.

If we see a young fellow that shows interest in his work, we have tried to help him. We have taken him out on other jobs and have given him literature to read. We have tried to encourage him and told him that there are other jobs at better rates of pay in our department that he will be qualified for if he applies himself. In that way we have been able to get operators for many of our machines.

We have one man who showed much aptitude for his work, and, after only six weeks, is now the foreman. No one else bid on the job and he was able to get it. He has been on the job about two years now, and he is one of the best foremen that we have. I think that in a little while he will be an assistant supervisor.

The section foreman is very important because the crew is no better than the foreman. That is the position for which we have to develop the younger men. In our territory, seniority governs. There are lots of openings-jobs as foremen-that the older men do not want. If we can interest and train the younger men, we can get good foremen.

Another thing, the railroad company has spent thousands of dollars for power equipment. What good is this machinery if we cannot train the man to operate it? That is another reason why we are getting men from the smaller towns and who like to work out of doors. We need them to operate machines.

On one subdivision, 152 miles long, we have no motor cars on regular service. Every section has a motor truck. Every signal maintainer has a jeep. All of our mowing machines are of the off-track type. All of these require men to operate them, and that is why we have to secure and train the better class of young men who are mechanically interested.

Our rate of pay has been against us, but during the last year we have made great strides. Some of the men will stick and some of them will not. That is the chance that you have to take. One of the biggest responsibilities for supervisors is to get men to replace older men as foremen.

President Chaney: I have heard several men report that on one part of their railroad they will be short of men and of foreman material, while on the other part of the railroad it seems that there is no shortage. It is more pronounced today. It seems that when you try to interest a man from one section of your line, state, or section of the country, in going to a territory where you are short of men, the reply is, "Well, I would be glad to take the job if I could stay at home. I don't like to bum around as much as I used to."

It is presenting quite a problem on most railroads in training and making section ' on foremen. As I men- tioned to you yesterday, twenty-five years ago that was a live subject at this convention. But we have a different problem today to what we had in those days.

M. Sitton (Son.): There is a reference in the report that I would like to hear discussed. It is the question of passing power tools from one section to another. I am thinking e specially of spot-tamping outfits.

On our railroad, we do not have enough spot-tampers to assign one to each section. On our busiest lines we have about one to every other section, and sometimes one to every third section. We pass them back and forth. We do not know whether that is economical or not, and I am concerned with this problem. Should we buy more spot-tampers and not swap them from one section to another, taking into consideration the fact that if we don't use these machines during the day or two days a week, that we will only be out the investment in them and they will not be worn out, or should we spend money to swap them from one section to another? I would like to have those costs compared.

Chairman Fox: Some of the committee members reporting were not in favor of changing tools from one section to another. The majority of them were of that frame of mind. The reason was that they did not have enough tools. I think there are thirty-five men on this committee, and I believe on the whole they are not in favor of swapping tools from one section to the other because you lose a lot of time. For instance, one section gang will come to another with four tool jacks, and before making an exchange for some other needed tools, the gangs have lost from two to three hours. I have talked with several men of my committee since I have been here at the convention, and find that they feel they do not have enough machines for each section.

On my road, we have the supervisor place the machine where it was most needed. But we have found that, if you send a machine from one section to the other, each foreman takes the view that it is not his responsibility to care for it. In other words, he thinks, "I am going to get rid of it today, so I will not clean it up tonight. I will pass it over as it is to John Jones." On the other hand, if you assign a foreman a piece of equipment which he knows to be his, he will take care of it like he does his motor car.

Mr. Crowley (D. & H.): When you transfer equipment from one section to another, it receives poor maintenance. Since he may have it only one or two days, the operator forgets to oil and care for the machine, and the first thing you know the machine is out of order.

I think, where it is possible, and even though most of our work is seasonal, each section gang should have the required amount of tamping tools for taking care of the work on the section.

Mr. Jannotti (Penna.): As far as moving from one point to another is concerned, our southern district handles the problem by keeping the man that is qualified to run the machine with the machine, and makes it his responsibility to take care of it. We have found that practice to be very successful, and it will work out that way regardless of what kind of machine you use. We usually have an operator of some kind with the equipment, and he is in charge of the machine wherever it goes.

Mr. Crowley: Aren't you referring more to organized gang equipment or something like that? So far as the smaller work equipment is concerned, you cannot follow each tamping unit out on the road.

Chairman Fox: We have a regular operator assigned to our heavier equipment, and it is his responsibility to see that it is kept clean, properly lubricated. and operated properly. What we are trying to bring out now, if we assign a man to a machine, we have to pay him a machine-operator's pay. But if you have a small unit tamper or a rail saw, for instance, that can be sent from gang to gang, you would not put a machine-operator on it because the section foreman would be responsible for its operation. If it were an air compressor or some machine like that, then we do.

Mr. Rambo (Mo, Pac.): There is another distinct disadvantage of swapping unit tampers from one section to the other because the foreman will have a tendency to neglect bad-riding track. When you get after him, he will say that he is waiting for the other gang to get through with the tamping unit. I think that if you are going to use spot-tamping units, you should provide each section foreman with a tamper. Our sections have spot-tampers assigned to each one.

Chairman Fox: That has been my experience exactly. When you have a few tampers scattered around, they are always in the wrong place and the foreman uses that as an excuse.

Mr. Botts (C. & O.): Mr. President, the subject seems to have developed into many ramifications. You talk about mechanizing sections. There are lots of tools and things of that sort that could be fitted into the same category.

President Chaney: As a matter of explanation, we have doubled the length of the sections on our own railroad during the last ten or fifteen years, and I think that is true on most railroads. On some important lines we have two unit tampers assigned to each section. However, we do not have that situation existing on all sections of the railroad. On secondary and branch lines, naturally, we do not have unit tampers there. On important lines, practically all sections are equipped with two unit tampers. Occasionally, when one section foreman has a reason for augmenting the supply of his section, he may borrow from the adjoining section.

Before they were so equipped, the tampers were passed from one section to another, but it was not too satisfactory for reasons mentioned by many of the previous speakers. The mechanization of the section gangs has only been stepped up to include power tampers, motor cars, and off-track mowing machines. These off-track mowing machines are operated by one operator going from section to section and are not really a part of the assigned section equipment.

Returning to Mr. Botts' inquiry, have any of you had any experience in mechanizing your sections and extending the length?

Mr. Botts: Add off-track transportation to that question also.

Mr. Simpson (G. N.): We have gone into the use of a bus because we have the highway parallel with the railroad at many places. We lose very little time in getting out to the job in the morning. We do not have any of the small unit tampers on sections , but where we do require them, we move them around.

President Chaney: Thank you. Has someone else used busses or other equipment off the tracks?

Mr. Crowley: I haven't had experience in this line, but I am wondering about what you said in lengthening your sections. Where you have done that, what do you do when you find that you cannot get the required number of men that you need on that section?

President Chaney: We have had a few instances where we have had to move the section headquarters to a point where labor can be secured, or else have had to build housing. The lack of housing has been the most frequently encountered trouble. In some cases we have had to provide improvised housing, such as bunk cars or semi-permanent houses to keep our men.

Mr. Hinton (Sou.): I am a track supervisor in the terminal at Birmingham, Alabama. I am sure that there are quite a few fellows here who are from terminals probably much larger than that at Birmingham. We are confronted with the problem of discussing, planning and assigning our work. It is almost impossible to plan work in a terminal such as Birmingham.

I do not know one day what my gangs will do the next. We might plan our work, and then the men will be called on to do everything from clerical work to clearing wrecks. We are down in the part of the country where we handle a lot of raw materials. We handle hopper-bottomed cars, and these cars come into the terminals scattering slag, iron ore, rock, pig iron, and every other heavy or raw material that you can imagine all over the terminal. We spend more money cleaning up our terminal and tracks than our appropriation calls for, and what we are allowed to spend on our tracks. I would like to hear from someone here and see if they have a suggestion that might help us out down there.

We have approximately 175 miles of railroad and in the neighborhood of 1100 switches in the Birmingham terminal. It becomes necessary to double up our gangs on quite a number of occasions. This is not very desirable, but it becomes necessary some of the time. If we can get a few ideas from anyone who has had experience in terminals, we will certainly appreciate it.

President Chaney: Terminal people, of course, have peculiar problems that are quite different from the outlying sections. In making your program or schedule of work, you naturally have to set aside a certain amount of hours for routine, which is a big basket that catches all of these miscellaneous things.

Of course, you can, like anyone else, and I presume you do, program your crosstie renewals, and various other items, but what few terminals I have been connected with, I have found that we had to set aside quite a considerable amount of man-hours for cleaning up and taking care of miscellaneous routine. Mr. Koch, who is with the Chicago Belt Railway, is here with us this morning, and maybe he can advise us.

Mr. Koch: I am glad to learn that others beside myself have those problems. I have been looking over quite a bit of equipment trying to get something to help out the labor expense in cleaning up yards. We have frequently talked that over, but we have not yet decided on what we could do.

I have a hump yard, and a few years ago we made a clean-up campaign there. We cleaned up the entire yard, using hand labor for gathering the stuff together in piles, and then we used a crane for loading. We loaded up 235 carloads of stuff.

President Chaney: Thank you. Mr. Strawhun of the Kansas City terminal is here; maybe he has something that he can tell us.

Mr. Strawhun (Mo. Pac.): We have a clamshell that has assisted us greatly in moving out accumulated stuff, such as cinders and other things that might drop out from cars, and we have made quite a program by using the entire time of this machine for this work. Of course, I realize that there are a lot of materials, such as iron-and we have lots of it -- that falls off of cars. We do have to pick that up with special gangs whose work is scheduled. Approximately once a week they go around and try to gather this material.

I feel like the rest of these gentlemen do, that we have an awfully big problem in the terminal trying to keep ahead of this yard cleaning all of the time. I have not found anything that helped so. much as using a clamshell bucket. We have loaded lots of cinders and dirt and other things that were dropped off the cars, and we have tried to keep our yards cleaned up in this manner.

President Chaney: How do you use the work train for that kind of work, or do you use the work train with it?

Mr. Strawhun: No, sit we haven't used a work train in cleaning up this dirt because we just use the clamshell with a pilot and he handles the cars. This, I believe, is much more economical.

Chairman Fox: We have used clamshells, too, and we have been able to remove the waste from in between the rails with the clam bucket as well as from in between the tracks. It leaves very little hand work to do to pull the material away from the rail and from between the tracks. I have found that this has saved much hand labor.

Mr. Kennedy (Sou. Pac.): My experience has been very much like these other gentlemen. I would like to bring out that these conditions are often avoidable. Frequently, by getting the cooperation of the heads of the departments which are largely responsible for these conditions, you can eliminate much of it. Of course, we know that there is always going to be some car and locomotive droppings. But I believe that, where cars are overloaded with coke or pig iron, or where cars travel 150 miles before coming into the terminal and all that someone has to do is give them a kick for the bottom to come open, all that is unnecessary.

President Chaney: Thank you. Some ten years ago I had occasion to visit the Central of Georgia Railway, and one striking thing that I noticed was the clean yards. At that time, I asked the then general manager of the railroad about that, and he said, "Well, I have only found one way to keep a clean yard, and that is put men out there to clean it up." That is the answer that I got from him at that time, but there may be different methods in use now.