Most of the following is cross posted from my post on the deviantART The-Railfan-Nation. As co-founder of the group I originally posted it there but will share it here.
As a college student I learned much more about reliable sources of information. Well a reliable source can apply to any subject this is about a site designed to make a railroad look bad. In this blog many of you may already in fact know the facts but for those of you who don't reading this may be interesting.
CSX-SUCKS.COM SUCKS!
Time for a little muckraking journalism...
I've seen sites before where some people will criticize a certain railroad without looking at facts. It brings me back to a thought about a site that has been idle since 2005 but was very well known for dissing CSX railroad. I encourage you to take a closer look at them and compare them to what I'm about to show you about this site. The site can't back it's own facts up so I will back up my own facts using it's inconsistencies. If it is posted on the open internet then it is fair for me to criticize.
When you see a website titled CSX-sucks.com you'd expect the person to tell you why they think CSX sucks and back it with facts. Well to an untrained eye this site can make CSX look evil. Just simply post a ton of pictures of smashed CSX equipment and it appears you got it. However, if you dissect the facts you'll find this site is full of inconsistencies.
First of all I go to the home page I notice there are several buttons and a picture of a YN2 painted EMD locomotive #666 crushing a car. The locomotive has photoshopped white numbers on the cab. A normal CSX locomotive has gold numbers not white. Granted CSX does have a real locomotive #666 however it is a GE AC6000CW. Normally a poorly and obviously falsely photoshopped image on the home page is a big red flag.
Getting on to the buttons now. I look at the list. "Safety first" is the first one I visit. I expect to get a record on why CSX isn't a safe company from clicking on this but instead I get this. http://www.csx-sucks.com/?topic=safe This doesn't give me good proof that CSX isn't a safe company. Just because the admin of this site says so does not mean that the actual safety records are any worse than any other railroad. A graph backed up by the FRA comparing CSX to other railroads in accident records would be a more legit way to prove that CSX's safety record sucks. However, I see no such thing on this entire site. There are some stories from some people who are calming to be workers, probably some are real and some fake, but there is a whole lot of flaming. As for all these boards, verifying most of these stories is hard so it is very difficult to verify if it is a real worker or someone just trolling.
Under "Attendance policy" I find this http://www.csx-sucks.com/?topic=attend basically mocking CSX for working people on a crazy schedule. The thing about this is all railroads do that. Ask any crew member and I guarantee you if they work for a Class I or passenger railroad they probably work crazy schedules. Railroads do have rest policies which work I have seen no statistics that CSX crews are less rested more than any other railroad. For this like the one above a statistical info bit would be much more useful in proving that fact than someone insulting the company like a school child who insults their teacher. Same kind of text as In Safety first.
Skipping a button or two because basically the rest in the "CSX-sucks" Article section is repetitive crap. If you wanna see it be my guest but I feel by now there is no use in me describing it because by now after reading the above you know what I think there. I see several links on the side such as "CSX management" once again posting a picture of a guy in a bunny suit proves nothing to me about CSX. More variations of this is "employment" its a picture I assume of a civil war era of a chain gang. That proves nothing to me still. Under corporate info and history I find this which charges CSX is racist company http://www.csx-sucks.com/pics/history/ a picture of a KKK. Posting a picture of the KKK proves nothing to me still. This admin seemed to think that just because they posted a picture of the KKK on their site that they can paint CSX as racist. What would prove to me that CSX is a racist company would once again be statistical data of discrimination complaints none of which I see on this site. I have never heard of civil rights claims against CSX in the media ether.
Before I get to the photos they posted I wanna to show you these two links. http://www.chillingeffects.org/domain/notice.cgi?NoticeID=18 is a claim that CSX wants the site shut down. Among the claims in the letter is copyright infringement. But if you look real good it's hard to validate this as a legit CSX letter. It is addressed from San Fransisco CA the problem is CSX is an east coast company based Richmond VA with all offices on the east coast. I can understand leaving names out and concealing some private info but concealing too much and having false info makes me believe this letter was not from CSX but fabricated by the admin of the site. After seeing everything else on this site I believe I have good reason to believe this is fake as well. This is no exception http://www.csx-sucks.com/agreement/ claiming CSX signed a contract agreement with CSX-sucks.com From the looks of it, it may look like a contract. It even references to the Chain gang and KKK pictures I mentioned earlier under #6. Looks like an agreement the pictures wouldn't be used anymore however if you click on the links I have above they are in fact still on the site. If this were a legit legal agreement CSX-sucks would be violating their own terms. Furthermore it looks like the site's admin conveniently left our important details on this so called contract. If this were a legit contract I'd expect to see the whole thing no matter how important/unimportant some parts may be. I'm not big on legal talk but from the looks of it to me the admin of this site may be committing a form of forgery.
Finally they have a section called pictures. First photo to debunk is this http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?al_head_on.jpg which the admin claims is a head on collision. Look real good at CSX #401 and notice that it has no bent handrails or damage from a head on collision. I even found an interesting conversation on a forum about this incident. http://jeffreywimberly.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=csxt&action=print&thread=274 The 401's relationship to the wreck is often disputed but it certainly was not involved in the so called "head on." This photo appears to be a poorly photoshopped shot. If the admin was going to make it look like a wreck the least they could've done was make it look more believable even someone who has never taken any physics before would probably know that 401's handrails would be bent in if a head on had happened.
Many attacks range on spare parts used on locomotives like this http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?paint1.jpg which I believe are just dumb because the railroad often has to replace parts and sometimes no matter how it looks the engines need to be returned to service ASAP. You'll find that on all railroads.
As I go down the list I find an even dumber attack this is a Conrail era photo of a dash-8 catching fire. http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?fire2.jpg Given CSX later absorbed Conrail in division with NS I don't know why anybody would use a Conrail photo against CSX. However here's the kicker, what happened to the fire locomotive #757 after Conrail? That's right it went to NS not CSX after this Conrail era photo was taken. The 757 never ever was CSX property. According to NSdash-9 roster it is EX-CR 757, EX LMS 757 and is now known as NS 8450. http://www.nsdash9.com/rosters/8314.html Showing me a picture of a Conrail GE burning does not prove to me that CSX sucks in fact us railfans know that GEs on any railroads have a habit of catching fire. In an old photo and just one example in my gallery I caught this one
with fire damage. This site uses many photos of GE's belching flames against CSX but they are biased and un-researched to treat it like a specific CSX problem.
Furthermore this photo http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?broken_rail.jpg after seeing and discrediting most of what I've seen I ask myself now do they have any proof this is CSX track or even active track at that? Once a site has provided me many discredited links its difficult to believe anything they say even if some facts may be true.
Then there's this http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?Johns-truck.jpg supposedly this is her husbands truck after being hit at a crossing but there is no details on the nature of the accident on maybe a crossing failure or if the driver was running the gates. So I don't know weather to say the parties involved have a legit complaint or the driver was just being an idiot. I don't plan on judging but to be honest can any of you make the call from just this info? I want to see an accident report posted online and or maybe even a news report.
This photo was a copyright infringement. http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?csx128.jpg The site claims this is a CSX bridge and this is a CSX train. However despite the locomotive being a CSX locomotive doesn't mean its a CSX train. According to the real owner of the photo Bob Smith http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=50742&nseq=12 this was an ex-SP now UP owned bridge and the train was being operated by UP. Railroads do borrow other railroad's equipment from time to time and this is an example. The site has committed copyright infringement against Mr. Smith and possibly several other railfans. This is unprofessional and really paints a black eye on the site. Also look at several incident reports about the 128 and you'll pull up some interesting convos on this accident. Interestingly also on the site CSX-Sucks.com here http://csx-sucks.com/pictures/ states that these photos become their property. So this means if someone were to swipe your photo and post in on CSX-sucks the site is calming your photo as their own and the admin doesn't even try to find out if the photos are in fact stolen much-less try to get permission from the real owner to use them.
How do I know this engine is on duty at the time? There is no proof. http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?new_hire.jpg Sometimes railroads hold public events and let civilians tour equipment I myself boarded and went in the cab of NS 4610 during one of these similar public events.
http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?needalift.jpg If this was an actual crossing collision you'd see the windshield of the car at least cracked. It looks like nothing more than an OLS demonstration.
http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?goober.jpg OK WHAT THE HELL OVER??????? Poor administration maybe? Well if Ronald McDonald became a CSX engineer I would be disturbed however that will never happen. Just like proving CSX sucks I have heard of no reported Ronald McDonald sightings on CSX. I hope the person who posted this photo was a troll.
Most other photos are of wrecks but all railroads have them and once again this site has done nothing to prove to me that CSX has a higher accident rate than other railroads.
Those are just some examples. I can go on all day but I need to stop. This site has proven nothing to me on how CSX supposedly sucks now that I researched. It looks like some troll put it together in fact and I'd like to believe some troll did. Unfortunately it did have influence on people who never researched or bothered to gather legit statistics. So I ask everybody who is into railroads around the world to please take time to criticize sources you look at criticizing railroads before you use or believe their criticism. Make sure they are not unprofessional source like this one.
Signed,
Joseph W. Johns
As a college student I learned much more about reliable sources of information. Well a reliable source can apply to any subject this is about a site designed to make a railroad look bad. In this blog many of you may already in fact know the facts but for those of you who don't reading this may be interesting.
CSX-SUCKS.COM SUCKS!
Time for a little muckraking journalism...
I've seen sites before where some people will criticize a certain railroad without looking at facts. It brings me back to a thought about a site that has been idle since 2005 but was very well known for dissing CSX railroad. I encourage you to take a closer look at them and compare them to what I'm about to show you about this site. The site can't back it's own facts up so I will back up my own facts using it's inconsistencies. If it is posted on the open internet then it is fair for me to criticize.
When you see a website titled CSX-sucks.com you'd expect the person to tell you why they think CSX sucks and back it with facts. Well to an untrained eye this site can make CSX look evil. Just simply post a ton of pictures of smashed CSX equipment and it appears you got it. However, if you dissect the facts you'll find this site is full of inconsistencies.
First of all I go to the home page I notice there are several buttons and a picture of a YN2 painted EMD locomotive #666 crushing a car. The locomotive has photoshopped white numbers on the cab. A normal CSX locomotive has gold numbers not white. Granted CSX does have a real locomotive #666 however it is a GE AC6000CW. Normally a poorly and obviously falsely photoshopped image on the home page is a big red flag.
Getting on to the buttons now. I look at the list. "Safety first" is the first one I visit. I expect to get a record on why CSX isn't a safe company from clicking on this but instead I get this. http://www.csx-sucks.com/?topic=safe This doesn't give me good proof that CSX isn't a safe company. Just because the admin of this site says so does not mean that the actual safety records are any worse than any other railroad. A graph backed up by the FRA comparing CSX to other railroads in accident records would be a more legit way to prove that CSX's safety record sucks. However, I see no such thing on this entire site. There are some stories from some people who are calming to be workers, probably some are real and some fake, but there is a whole lot of flaming. As for all these boards, verifying most of these stories is hard so it is very difficult to verify if it is a real worker or someone just trolling.
Under "Attendance policy" I find this http://www.csx-sucks.com/?topic=attend basically mocking CSX for working people on a crazy schedule. The thing about this is all railroads do that. Ask any crew member and I guarantee you if they work for a Class I or passenger railroad they probably work crazy schedules. Railroads do have rest policies which work I have seen no statistics that CSX crews are less rested more than any other railroad. For this like the one above a statistical info bit would be much more useful in proving that fact than someone insulting the company like a school child who insults their teacher. Same kind of text as In Safety first.
Skipping a button or two because basically the rest in the "CSX-sucks" Article section is repetitive crap. If you wanna see it be my guest but I feel by now there is no use in me describing it because by now after reading the above you know what I think there. I see several links on the side such as "CSX management" once again posting a picture of a guy in a bunny suit proves nothing to me about CSX. More variations of this is "employment" its a picture I assume of a civil war era of a chain gang. That proves nothing to me still. Under corporate info and history I find this which charges CSX is racist company http://www.csx-sucks.com/pics/history/ a picture of a KKK. Posting a picture of the KKK proves nothing to me still. This admin seemed to think that just because they posted a picture of the KKK on their site that they can paint CSX as racist. What would prove to me that CSX is a racist company would once again be statistical data of discrimination complaints none of which I see on this site. I have never heard of civil rights claims against CSX in the media ether.
Before I get to the photos they posted I wanna to show you these two links. http://www.chillingeffects.org/domain/notice.cgi?NoticeID=18 is a claim that CSX wants the site shut down. Among the claims in the letter is copyright infringement. But if you look real good it's hard to validate this as a legit CSX letter. It is addressed from San Fransisco CA the problem is CSX is an east coast company based Richmond VA with all offices on the east coast. I can understand leaving names out and concealing some private info but concealing too much and having false info makes me believe this letter was not from CSX but fabricated by the admin of the site. After seeing everything else on this site I believe I have good reason to believe this is fake as well. This is no exception http://www.csx-sucks.com/agreement/ claiming CSX signed a contract agreement with CSX-sucks.com From the looks of it, it may look like a contract. It even references to the Chain gang and KKK pictures I mentioned earlier under #6. Looks like an agreement the pictures wouldn't be used anymore however if you click on the links I have above they are in fact still on the site. If this were a legit legal agreement CSX-sucks would be violating their own terms. Furthermore it looks like the site's admin conveniently left our important details on this so called contract. If this were a legit contract I'd expect to see the whole thing no matter how important/unimportant some parts may be. I'm not big on legal talk but from the looks of it to me the admin of this site may be committing a form of forgery.
Finally they have a section called pictures. First photo to debunk is this http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?al_head_on.jpg which the admin claims is a head on collision. Look real good at CSX #401 and notice that it has no bent handrails or damage from a head on collision. I even found an interesting conversation on a forum about this incident. http://jeffreywimberly.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=csxt&action=print&thread=274 The 401's relationship to the wreck is often disputed but it certainly was not involved in the so called "head on." This photo appears to be a poorly photoshopped shot. If the admin was going to make it look like a wreck the least they could've done was make it look more believable even someone who has never taken any physics before would probably know that 401's handrails would be bent in if a head on had happened.
Many attacks range on spare parts used on locomotives like this http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?paint1.jpg which I believe are just dumb because the railroad often has to replace parts and sometimes no matter how it looks the engines need to be returned to service ASAP. You'll find that on all railroads.
As I go down the list I find an even dumber attack this is a Conrail era photo of a dash-8 catching fire. http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?fire2.jpg Given CSX later absorbed Conrail in division with NS I don't know why anybody would use a Conrail photo against CSX. However here's the kicker, what happened to the fire locomotive #757 after Conrail? That's right it went to NS not CSX after this Conrail era photo was taken. The 757 never ever was CSX property. According to NSdash-9 roster it is EX-CR 757, EX LMS 757 and is now known as NS 8450. http://www.nsdash9.com/rosters/8314.html Showing me a picture of a Conrail GE burning does not prove to me that CSX sucks in fact us railfans know that GEs on any railroads have a habit of catching fire. In an old photo and just one example in my gallery I caught this one
with fire damage. This site uses many photos of GE's belching flames against CSX but they are biased and un-researched to treat it like a specific CSX problem.Furthermore this photo http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?broken_rail.jpg after seeing and discrediting most of what I've seen I ask myself now do they have any proof this is CSX track or even active track at that? Once a site has provided me many discredited links its difficult to believe anything they say even if some facts may be true.
Then there's this http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?Johns-truck.jpg supposedly this is her husbands truck after being hit at a crossing but there is no details on the nature of the accident on maybe a crossing failure or if the driver was running the gates. So I don't know weather to say the parties involved have a legit complaint or the driver was just being an idiot. I don't plan on judging but to be honest can any of you make the call from just this info? I want to see an accident report posted online and or maybe even a news report.
This photo was a copyright infringement. http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?csx128.jpg The site claims this is a CSX bridge and this is a CSX train. However despite the locomotive being a CSX locomotive doesn't mean its a CSX train. According to the real owner of the photo Bob Smith http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=50742&nseq=12 this was an ex-SP now UP owned bridge and the train was being operated by UP. Railroads do borrow other railroad's equipment from time to time and this is an example. The site has committed copyright infringement against Mr. Smith and possibly several other railfans. This is unprofessional and really paints a black eye on the site. Also look at several incident reports about the 128 and you'll pull up some interesting convos on this accident. Interestingly also on the site CSX-Sucks.com here http://csx-sucks.com/pictures/ states that these photos become their property. So this means if someone were to swipe your photo and post in on CSX-sucks the site is calming your photo as their own and the admin doesn't even try to find out if the photos are in fact stolen much-less try to get permission from the real owner to use them.
How do I know this engine is on duty at the time? There is no proof. http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?new_hire.jpg Sometimes railroads hold public events and let civilians tour equipment I myself boarded and went in the cab of NS 4610 during one of these similar public events.
http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?needalift.jpg If this was an actual crossing collision you'd see the windshield of the car at least cracked. It looks like nothing more than an OLS demonstration.
http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?goober.jpg OK WHAT THE HELL OVER??????? Poor administration maybe? Well if Ronald McDonald became a CSX engineer I would be disturbed however that will never happen. Just like proving CSX sucks I have heard of no reported Ronald McDonald sightings on CSX. I hope the person who posted this photo was a troll.
Most other photos are of wrecks but all railroads have them and once again this site has done nothing to prove to me that CSX has a higher accident rate than other railroads.
Those are just some examples. I can go on all day but I need to stop. This site has proven nothing to me on how CSX supposedly sucks now that I researched. It looks like some troll put it together in fact and I'd like to believe some troll did. Unfortunately it did have influence on people who never researched or bothered to gather legit statistics. So I ask everybody who is into railroads around the world to please take time to criticize sources you look at criticizing railroads before you use or believe their criticism. Make sure they are not unprofessional source like this one.
Signed,
Joseph W. Johns
