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Bloops and Blunders


Tarheel

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I was 19 and just out of high school. Got a summer job working at a steel tank head fab shop. We made tank heads of all sizes. Some went together like a puzzle and would be 50 feet across. One day another fella and I were told to get the 25K lb rough terrain forklift (big tires taller than a man) and go unload a gondola type railroad car loaded with steel plate at the dock. As I recall it was about 200,000 lbs of steel total weight with car and everything. The railroad car though was not all the way up to the dock. We tried but could not get the job done without moving the car. That little problem was about to get much bigger LOL.

My partner directed me to get in the condola car and manually release the brakes while he pushed the car with the big forklift we had. Seemed reasonable to me, so I climbed in the gondola with the plate steel, unlocked the brake and started to release it. My forklift operator started pushing the car. All went well at first and he got the car in the correct position on the dock. BUT very slowly the car started pushing back on the forklift! I heard the big tires on the forklift start spinning and the railroad car was still moving. I started frantically turning the brake wheel as fast as I could only to realize I was going the wrong way and I could see the chain getting more slack in it. Now the loaded car were really moving. The steel was falling back down in the condola from where we had previously attempted to get it out. I was jumping around in the car to keep from getting pinched. Faster and faster the runaway car was gaining speed. I considered jumping off but it was just too high. After what seemed like an eternity I finally hit a derail about 1 mile down grade from that dock. The car cut through about a doz cross ties doing all kinds of damage to the track. All the while I'm holding on for dear life! Right side wheels were against the left side rail. Front trucks were crossed. Scared the you know what out my green butt. I was OK though.

In the following days Norfolk Southern dispatched two heavy cranes ($1500 each my boss said) to get the car back on the track. A track crew came and made the necessary repairs. NS also lauched a full investigation interviewing both of us about the incident. The other fella got a weeks suspension without pay. (he was the senior employee of us two). I was told to never release the manual brake on a RR car again. From that day on I was know as "The Box Car Cowboy" to all my coworkers LOL.

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This is a classic:

I was 19 and just out of high school. Got a summer job working at a steel tank head fab shop. We made tank heads of all sizes. Some went together like a puzzle and would be 50 feet across. One day another fella and I were told to get the 25K lb rough terrain forklift (big tires taller than a man) and go unload a gondola type railroad car loaded with steel plate at the dock. As I recall it was about 200,000 lbs of steel total weight with car and everything. The railroad car though was not all the way up to the dock. We tried but could not get the job done without moving the car. That little problem was about to get much bigger LOL.

My partner directed me to get in the condola car and manually release the brakes while he pushed the car with the big forklift we had. Seemed reasonable to me, so I climbed in the gondola with the plate steel, unlocked the brake and started to release it. My forklift operator started pushing the car. All went well at first and he got the car in the correct position on the dock. BUT very slowly the car started pushing back on the forklift! I heard the big tires on the forklift start spinning and the railroad car was still moving. I started frantically turning the brake wheel as fast as I could only to realize I was going the wrong way and I could see the chain getting more slack in it. Now the loaded car were really moving. The steel was falling back down in the condola from where we had previously attempted to get it out. I was jumping around in the car to keep from getting pinched. Faster and faster the runaway car was gaining speed. I considered jumping off but it was just too high. After what seemed like an eternity I finally hit a derail about 1 mile down grade from that dock. The car cut through about a doz cross ties doing all kinds of damage to the track. All the while I'm holding on for dear life! Right side wheels were against the left side rail. Front trucks were crossed. Scared the you know what out my green butt. I was OK though.

In the following days Norfolk Southern dispatched two heavy cranes ($1500 each my boss said) to get the car back on the track. A track crew came and made the necessary repairs. NS also lauched a full investigation interviewing both of us about the incident. The other fella got a weeks suspension without pay. (he was the senior employee of us two). I was told to never release the manual brake on a RR car again. From that day on I was know as "The Box Car Cowboy" to all my coworkers LOL.

Are you Batman?

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So frustrated with pc performance you punch the screen. :angry: , Problem solved now you have no performance :emotion-21:

When I was in my twenties, I worked as a motorcycle mechanic at a dealer. One day, I was working on a bike's engine, and the owner of the bike was standing nearby. I ran into a problem (bolt snapped off or some other annoyance, I forget now) and patiently dealt with it with no fuss, then carried on with the job.

The customer was surprised and impressed, and stated that if he were in my place, he would have lost his temper and taken a hammer to the engine. I replied that that was why he was paying me to do the job. Also, I'd learned by then that there's no point in arguing with pieces of metal or plastic. They just sit there and ignore you, so you might as well carry on and get the job done.

That said, when I first got into computers in my late thirties, there were times I was glad the window was closed, because I was sometimes sorely tempted to throw the keyboard into the yard, and maybe the CPU as well. I was in no mood to get up to open the window, or to replace it after defenestrating the computer with the window closed, so instead took some deep breaths (or on occasion got up and left the room) and carried on.

Up to my teens, I did have a temper that might have got extreme, so I decided to not risk doing anything terrible, and stopped thinking or reacting in that way. I still get annoyed on occasion, but I don't do anything I'll regret and have to try to undo.

Edited by Islander
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This one is so bad I hesitate to mention it.

I noticed my refrigerator was not cooling and the ice maker not making ice. This happened for two days so I called the service department and they promptly sent out a repair guy. He started off by saying that they have a number of bulletins on my three year old Samsung. While he was looking at it he noticed the door was not closing completely and failing to seal. I looked down at the bottom freezer compartment and noticed that my half gallon bottle of Stoli was preventing the top tray from closing completely. Laid the bottle down flat......problem solved. Gave the tech a check for $75 for a ten minute service call :wacko:

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don't feel bad Chuck. I got in my truck after work and started driving -- got to the far end of the parking lot and noticed an identical truck as mine. I got a little nervous and said to myself "i don't remember parking all the way over here." then i realized that i was DRIVING my truck.

Felt pretty silly till i talked to my brother on the phone. I asked him a question about a date and he said that he had a calendar on his phone and he'd check. He tells me to hold on…i hear him say "crap" i asked what was wrong and he said that he lost his phone, it must have fallen out of his pocket. I said, "the one your talking on?"

He was very embarrassed.

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don't feel bad Chuck. I got in my truck after work and started driving -- got to the far end of the parking lot and noticed an identical truck as mine. I got a little nervous and said to myself "i don't remember parking all the way over here." then i realized that i was DRIVING my truck.

Felt pretty silly till i talked to my brother on the phone. I asked him a question about a date and he said that he had a calendar on his phone and he'd check. He tells me to hold on…i hear him say "crap" i asked what was wrong and he said that he lost his phone, it must have fallen out of his pocket. I said, "the one your talking on?"

He was very embarrassed.

Steve those gave me a chuckle. I've done the same thing when I use to have a cell phone :unsure::unsure:

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