Railworks America

Just want all you uploaders to know, I got your files, but as the title says it is Hell Week at my job. And this has to be the worst year in 37 years. I cut over 500 Memorials this month so far and the boss is trying to get another hundred this week. Memorial Day is Monday, that is our day. I got 3 granite trucks each week through April and May, loaded with 27,000 pounds of granite. I have been working minimum days of 12 hours. Many are 14 & 16 and a few 18s.

I am tired. Getting too old for this stuff. Anyway, I will get the file posted as soon as I can, but it is almost 7 now and I have not even eaten supper. I hit the sack at 9:30 to get up at 5 am or earlier to do another day.

So just have patience this will all be over on Friday, whenever I finally get out of the shop for a 3 day weekend. That's if there are no emergencies over the weekend. An emergency is when a salesperson made a promise that I have to keep.

Take your time with the files. Work is much more important and I'm sure many here know this.

I think I'll just go drive a train.

Been there and done that Bob. 80 hours a week in April, laid-off in May. Not to worry, we're not going anywhere.

Blue Light wrote:Been there and done that Bob. 80 hours a week in April, laid-off in May. Not to worry, we're not going anywhere.

Except I have not been laid off in 37 years. Makes me jealous when I see people laid off for 20 or 30 weeks. I would love to be laid off a little bit. But....

artimrj wrote:

Blue Light wrote:Been there and done that Bob. 80 hours a week in April, laid-off in May. Not to worry, we're not going anywhere.

Except I have not been laid off in 37 years. Makes me jealous when I see people laid off for 20 or 30 weeks. I would love to be laid off a little bit. But....

Just goes to show how dern good you are at your job

Be careful what you wish for. Being laid off is not fun. It's happened to me three times in my career. The last time was three years ago and I haven't been able to find a job since then. (Anybody looking for an Actuary who specializes in pension plans???)

Bob.

I work on the weekends, have 6 days off. What a life time. Family and I have our own Food Business going places. Its fun!

latimers wrote:Be careful what you wish for. Being laid off is not fun. It's happened to me three times in my career. The last time was three years ago and I haven't been able to find a job since then. (Anybody looking for an Actuary who specializes in pension plans???)

Bob.

Well in my trade I can go anywhere in the world and do it. No worries about work for me. They would really like me down south. They like northern guys cause we work harder and come to work everyday. Had 30 or 40 offers over the years. One was to go to Texas to run a shop that cut 1500 stones a month. Wifey didn't want to move. Another guy in the Carolinas called me weekly for about 4 months trying to make it more appealing, I had enough down there in the Marines though. I plan on retiring in FLorida, where I can get a part time job cutting for some little shop and it is all Southern granite which is softer than the stuff from Vermont. When I carve cultivated roses on Southern granite here, it makes me laugh at how soft it is and how smooth I can make the carving.

Hell week is over now it is down to Hell Day. Someone found an order behind their desk... someone ran over one in the cemetery and snapped it in half.... and it is only 8:30

Your trade reminds me of my occupation. When I was hand lettering in the 70's-80's I wrote my own ticket. There was so much work, you had your pick.
You could stop in a shop while traveling, and make alot of cash for a day or two. Now the computer and lettering plotter has changed all that. Wanna-be's
with no talent have taken over, and cut prices to the minimum. I'm still busy, but pick and choose my customers.
Don't work too hard and have a safe Memorial Day. (also to all RW members)
Thanks for your service to this country.

We just got computerized 12 years ago. Before that everything was cut by hand. Now I run the computor and we do 3 times as many units because of it. Boss has plans on a new blasting setup that is computor run. You send the cad to the blaster and it will only blast the lines that need cut. As is now, we have limit switches so it blasts from upper left to lower right over the entire surface. Getting this new stuff will triple our production. Then he can buy more little businesses up. We took over 7 shops in the last 6 years. We now have 9 showrooms and displays in 3 cemeteries and displays in 65 funeral homes in Pittsburgh and 6 cemeteries from the Catholic Diocese that we cut stones for which is about 600 a year. They are all flat markers so it is quick money.

artimrj wrote:6 cemeteries from the Catholic Diocese

Just read that about five times as "the Catholic Disease"!

Could you possibly explain how it is that you're extra busy for Memorial Day? I genuinely don't understand. Surely they've already got headstones in place?

Don't want to appear rude by asking a question which probably has a really obvious answer.

Memorial Day here in the US is a day that we honor our dead. Families, veterans, heroes, pets or anyone who has passed on. The monument (memorial) industry plays on this day much like the jewelry stores force the "diamonds are a girls best friend" or "show her how much you love her by how big a diamond you buy her". It all comes down to guilt. So we gear ourselves towards Memorial Day, monuments are promised for Memorial Day, cemeteries do clean ups from the winter for Memorial Day and place flags on veteran's stones. Then from November to March, the ground is too cold here to dig footers. Most monuments regardless of size get a concrete footer under them so they do not sink into the ground. So the cemeteries or we have to get all the footers done for the monuments going in for Memorial Day. Over the winter we can still keep cutting them in the shop as the weather has nothing to do with my end of the operation. They pile up. In our out going section, so far this year there have been at least 200 units waiting to go out the door. Our setting crew keeps setting, but me and my crew keep making them and they can not keep up. Three of us cut them and 11 guys are out setting using 4 large crane trucks. We set monuments within a 500 miles radius of our shop, that's a large area. We even go to 2 other states, Ohio and West Virginia, plus we have online sales and we will ship it to you.

The thing is, there are more special holidays than Memorial Day. The salespeople make promises, like for Mother's Day to Mom's monument in the cemetery and Father's Day, and 4th of July and All Souls Days and Thanksgiving and individual birthdays or anniversaries. Then there are 36 Jewish Holidays units get promised for like Pass Over.

So Memorial Day is the "big" rush day, and the rest of the year is just normal rush days. The last 4 or 5 years, since we started taking charge cards for payment, we have even been getting people buying them for Christmas Presents. Our guys have set stones on Christmas Eve. Then there are other people who get plaques made for presents, some bring boulders in to put the house address on it for their front yard. And there are the charities that sell bricks to make walls or walkways out of. You get to put 3 lines of wording on your brick and pay $100 to get your name or saying on the pathway. I have done of 17,000 bricks in the last 10 years.

We also letter the mausoleum plates or crypt fronts as we call them. We do this for all of the local cemeteries. Now we also have columbariums, which are small mausoleums used for cremation ashes. Now with all these other projects going on plus having to get stones for Memorial Day, that's what makes it so hectic.

And I didn't think you were being rude by asking.

Thanks for the detailed reply. It's such a strange concept to me I couldn't quite work out what was going on. I suppose the nearest thing we have here is Remembrance Day (your Veterans Day), but it's a lot easier and cheaper wearing a poppy for a few days rather than buying headstones! I also keep forgetting quite how huge America is compared to this side of the Atlantic. A delivery area of a similar size over here would basically cover the entire country!

Later on I'm going to suggest to Mrs Bob that I'm going to buy her a headstone for Christmas, so don't be too surprised if you never hear from me again.