One job and many sacrifices…

“… It is awful to see how people try to put an end to their lives, by throwing themselves before trains, the moment it circulates with 120/140 km/h. Every time, the mechanic takes all the blame. But what could we do when they are waiting for the train to get closer, and only with 20-30 m ahead they appear in front of us ?!! You stay still, because you are aware that is nothing you can do. Using the breaks is useless since the train takes more than 20-30 meters before it stops. The moment when you get off the train to check out if he is still alive, freaks you out totally. All you can see is just heaps of meat. After we announce the authorities, we have the obligation to set on route again, with that awful image before our eyes. We are …humans too, and we do not have stone hearts, you know?” Here is a statement that determined me to put on the paper a short description of what it means to be a locomotive mechanic, what are the risks and what those people go through, and how they become witnesses for other people’s madness.

Locomotive mechanic arrives at work three ours early before setting on route, day or night, rain or snow. The first thing he does every day is to go for the medical checking, then he fills in the route paper and goes to the locomotive. 40 minutes are necessary each day for controlling the locomotive from the traffic safety point of view. A visual check-up of the equipment - axes, suspensions, traction hook, roof, connections, - of the machinery that have to be all sealed and then the tests for the brakes, heaters, and dry runs for the electrical engines. After this rigorous check-up the DE or DH locomotive is set under pressure and tests are ran with the engines started. Then they go to the place where the train is formed - Bucharest - Grivita or Bucharest - Basarab where the operator completes the forms: tonnage, length, number of axes, braking manoeuvres. Then a few tests are made with the cars and then the train is taken to the departure station. Here it remains for 30-40 minutes a necessary interval for the passengers to embark. While we are seating comfortably on the compartment seats and wait patiently for the train to leave, the locomotive mechanic begins his duties. On his shoulders will rest the responsibility of so many lives. He only wishes to have an easy shift and to reach the destination safely. While we travellers can afford a cigarette on the corridor or a coffee in the restaurant car and perhaps something to eat, the mechanic sits on his chair and is not allowed to leave it even for a minute. He is bound to stay put, with his foot on a pedal. If he should happen to lift his foot if only for five seconds, the braking mechanisms cut in and the train comes to a complete halt. From this position he checks the equipment in the engine room, the route bulletin and the restriction bulletin (BAR). The latter is most important as it specifies various speed limitations that he must uphold. All these ask for continuous attention. That is why before a shift, a mechanic gets his water bottle and his BAR and bulletin and pays close attention to the indications he receives en route. If it should come to happen that the first stop is after three continuous running hours he spends all this time unmoving in his seat. Even if for us all this may seem like a great job, we should be aware of the fact that it implies many disadvantages as well.
Do you know what, where and when a locomotive mechanic eats? We can take a few sandwiches with us from home or buy something when the train stops in a station. A mechanic cannot take a package from home because it is impossible to eat in a locomotive cockpit. Moreover, if the run should happen to last 10 or 12 hours he should take at least 10 sandwiches not even mentioning a warm meal. Aforetime the locomotives used to have heaters and two mechanics but nowadays this is no longer happening. There is none to heat up his food. He is thus forced to take some money with him and buy something to eat at the destination. We have to admit that one or two sandwiches are nothing to go by all day long and anyone feels the need for a warm meal. Thus a mechanic that is spending at work 176 hours a month is forced to spend 40-45 percents of his salary on food.
Another disadvantage is represented by the resting conditions. When he reaches his destination, our mechanic has to sleep for at least half the period he spent on the road. Imagine he arrived at the destination at 18.00 and at 24.00 he must take off again. Willy - nilly he must sleep on command. The conditions matter not - humidity, cold, noise - he must be rested for his next run. In case he could not get enough sleep he is declared inapt and replaced by a replacement mechanic - a shameful situation for any mechanic. In average some 30 percent of the locomotive mechanics sacrificed their family lives. If some of us are forced to spend a few hours overtime and still have troubles at home, these people aside the fact that they are forced to spend half their time on the road, are also required to take their bags and go to their jobs on holidays. Few understand them be they wife, child, or father. Until 1989 a mechanic’s pay used to “compensate” for his prolonged absences. Now the situation is worse and this led to many divorces. After a few mistrials we finally found a happy mechanic who spent 24 years on the tracks and is still understood at home by his wife and two daughters.
His name is Ion Taposan and he is a locomotive mechanic at the Passengers Depot Bucharest. He began as an aid-mechanic. He remembers his first run - “on the Bucharest - Iasi route with the 611 accelerat. It wasn’t so hard on the way over, the hardship came on the re-tour. After two hours - it was around 16.00, my eyes were closing and sluggishness had taken over my whole body. It was a hard run and I will never forget it as I will never forget my first run as a full mechanic. That one took place on the most horrendous route - Bucharest - Oltenita, the “fear” on all locomotive mechanics. One always expected the alarm to go off at any minute and he would be forced to brake instantly lest the brakes up.”
Even though his first run was difficult it also provided many unforgivable moments that gave him great emotions. He had many satisfactions. Not many have crossed the country from one end to the other and admire the beauty of the nature in any season. I asked him if he still remembers a special occurrence that he cannot forget.
“There are two events I will never forget. It was the 3rd of November 1996. I was driving the 2006 train and I was coming from Brasov, bound for Bucharest. When I entered Campina I was making 100 km an hour and I saw in front of me a truck loaded with quarry stone. My first reaction was to brake fast but I still hit that truck with 97 km an hour. I pushed it some 30 meters. The whole front of the engine came over us - I had an aid back then. We thought we would never make it. The second event took place happened on May 13th 1998. I was returning from Constanta with the 352. I was closing on Dor Marunt when the cabin filled with smoke. The regulations require that we stop the train in a place accessible to firemen and this is what we did upon entering the station. The engine room had caught fire. Nothing could be done, as the locomotive was practically half-burned down. I started to cry with anger as I thought I would never make it with that locomotive to Bucharest. But I managed after all.”
These are the two turning points if I may call them that of the life of Ion Taposan. They are certainly the events that will be most remembered. We must remember that many mechanics have experienced similar traumatising events, moments that are hard to overcome for anyone, especially for people like these who don’t even have time to rest between runs. They have to do their job - take us passengers to our destination in maximum security conditions. A responsibility that would be too much for many of us.
… as any locomotive mechanic wishes to retire from this position we also wish this to the mechanic Ion Taposan. He is imagining even now that after the end of his last run the wife and two girls will wait for him in the station and they will say: “Daddy you did your job. Now its time to spend some more time with us and rest as you really should.”

Oana Bran reporting