Unpredictable Days

Stuart describes how there is no such thing as a typical day at Union Station.

Stuart Harvey: “And so when people say what was a mundane day like it was like well yes there were a few of them or other days you would come in and the at everyone of the Towers we have what’s called the Board, nowadays you have computers that show where the trains are going. This is a giant board and it’s all intricate and archaic electrical lighting and it follows the train’s path. The train movement directors do the line ups and they can see where the train is for follow up and opposing moves. Well we come in one day and the board goes out from a short, this is just prior to rush hour and so we have people frantically working to try and find the short in this board and they’re all in series, all the lights, so it’s not like ‘oh this light’. So we’re having to find all this stuff and then there’s guys outside flagging trains. So, when people talk about mundane, yes there was mundane, typical days but most days were just ‘what emergency is going to emerge?’ and we had to fly by the seat of our pants.”