I wish I had mod points to mod your post UP since you seem to be the only rational poster so far in this thread.

The rest of the posters in this thread are either "off their meds" or they are behaving like somebody killed their goldfish.

So buy your sex toys elsewhere

Commies & Socialists everywhere MUST LUV U /sarcasm

I can't imagine they had anything to say that would have interested anyone else in that elevator ... except maybe another blonde :)))))

Oh gee ... the "employment for life" attitude gets top billing in this forum ... and lacking any detail as to where these layoffs took place. Systemwide? Just the shops in your Division? Give us details PLEASE.

Yes, I know what goes on in a BNSF Mechanical Department, from HQ in FTW down to the shops where the physical work is done.

If you have been paying attention to the economy and imports, sea can traffic out of the Ports in LA & LB are down 10 percent. I bet other ports are seeing a similar drop off level. That would mean fewer trains are needed to haul the sea cans that are going over 400--500 miles from the port; less than that range is usually handled by truckers.

Then you have to consider the overall economic traffic within the USA. I bet RR taffic levels have decreased a bit in the timeframe you speak of. I don't have the actual data but I do know that BNSF posts the data for their own RR on their website. Also take a look at the locomotives that BNSF is selling off or sending to the "deadline". Are new locomotives arriving to replace them? Ask around and you might be surprised. Fewer locomotives in the fleet will require fewer machinists to maintain them, so downsizing the Mechanical shop crews does make some sense; a few here, a few there.

Also consider the effects of technology on the Mechanical Department. Locomotives have been gaining loads & loads of intelligent electronics that can be used for diagnostics purposes; just ask the folks at Wabtec/GE and Progress Rail/EMD. The vendor can do lots of diags that BNSF FTW Mechanical and the shops cannot do; just listen to the radio traffic between train crews & FTW Mechanical some time.

So I think lots of work in the Mechanical shops are driven be 2 things: (1) regular scheduled maintenance work, usually mandated by some Federal regulation; and (2) repairs dictated by the electronic diagnostic systems. None of that reduces the physical labor of changing out a turbocharger, a fan assembly, a generator, a cylinder module, and so on ... but it does some streamlining to the work load so staffing levels can be better managed.

Folks on /. you gotta learn this and learn this well - Just because you have a job today, don't count on it being here tomorrow in today's world & economies. The concept of "lifetime employment" died back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. After that timeframe companies looked for ways to downsize (mechanize, computerize, reorganize) everything while maintaining "product value" and "customer service quality" for their customers. And now we hear that some companies are looking at AI to further reduce headcount in selected job roles. Years ago we trained our own replacements, but now we program our own replacements. And that is called PROGRESS ?

'ttesty' likes to hear/see themself whine on /. Talk about somebody with a "personal vanity" issue. Like a person that posts a Google comment on a Google Map pin for a hospital asking for a medical diagnosis of their "condition" or where the nearest cheep hotel is located relative to the hospital.

Sounds like you are making a public threat on someone's life, no?

I guess you are an Amazon employee that has to pee in a plastic bottle cuz your boss won't let you disappear for the afternoon in the rest room ... or wherever you vape the stuff that makes you a whiny lazy useless POS.

If the EDF are such crap at building a machine that should have a "failure is not an option" (because failures at a nuke plant can easily become life-threatening) operating concept, then the UK folks that selected EDF are just as incompetent as the EDF itself.

Where are your citations to back your facts?

Same thing can be said of the other poster pointing to government contracts that should be openly available to all for review.

Now that's a definite +1 ... if I had Mod points

-1 Banal

So "special strokes" for "special folks" eh?

Very typical of "priviledged class" politicians.

Based on your logic you might have invested in the German Wehrmacht and not the SS during WW2.

Supposedly the German Wehrmacht and specifically the Heer were not dirty like the SS.

Multiple history books printed after the 1980s have generally proven that was a fairy tale spun by captured German Heer officers after the war was over to differentiate themselves from the SS and ingractiate (suck up) themselves to their Western captors, basically to avoid trial at Nuremburg.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts Vice President Al Gore /s