Renzenberger Follies on 55 (Argentine Yard)
Cy Suckerton II
tapes of the conversations on channel 55 (160.935) which they use
locally to dispatch vans.
The "Lead Drivers" are the van dispatchers, they are BNSF clerks.
Each clerk has a personality and some memorable discussions are heard.
Renz has the yard contract for BNSF Argentine, and the drivers are a
mix of high turnover new hires and a few ""lifers" who have been there
years. Pay TOPS OUT at $10 an hour so most of the lifers are really
old or have some disability-they tend to be really old, really fat or
really dumb.
I think there are about five or six Lead Drivers who are working 3
shifts 24/7/365. The names and, as he related the personalities are
memorable and often entertaining.
They roughly divide, so far as the drivers are concerned into two
groups, the White hats and the Black Hats. The WHs are competent and
fun, the BHs are, BitcHes. (Whether male or female.) The BHs are more
fun to listen to as they berate and intimidate the poor hapless
drivers.
Of the WHs I heard two, "Becky" and "Ginger". Supposedly Becky is an
older and nondescript but competent and affable person while Ginger is
not only the latter two but is a strawberry blond tall woman who
really does resemble the "Ginger" on Gilligan's Island (Tina Louise)
in her salad days. Supposedly she is tall, fairly curvy, and like most
females on the railroad married to a male railroader. Both women
seemed competent and things went pretty smoothly.
The BHs provided greatly increased drama. A few snippets were
provided of "Don", a male in his fifties with a Dick Sargent voice but
sarcastic and short tempered. He berated a couple drivers pretty
badly, but seemed alert and somewhat knowledgeable. I was told that he
had been a real dispatcher (of trains) and had had some type of acute
anxiety episode and was allowed to switch crafts before the clerks
were mostly put on the reserve board.
Far and away the most interesting, if you can stomach listening to
her, was "Roxanne". She mumbled, released the mic key halfway through
her monologues, verbally attacked drivers and even railcrews, and when
called might or might not answer. The Renz driver said that she sleeps
through the shift, and has no concept of organization whatever.
Apparently she owns a goat farm and works a full day then comes in and
snores, farts and generally causes mayhem through her shift. Some of
the exchanges between her and the drivers were unintentionally
hilarious. Apparently she is divorced from a male railroader and
before bearing a large family was a terminal operator-and considered
extremely attractive. From her accent I surmise she is originally from
the East Coast. "She almost wound up like Veronica Lake" was the
comment I got, her farm being a therapy type of thing for her.
Renz also has the Murray yard contract. The yard drivers are on a
different channel and there is no lead driver. Apparently there is
much less interesting chatter, I don't know the channel. Probably if
you drive out there and ask the drivers will tell you or you could use
a spectrum display to find it fast if you have an IFR or Motorola set.