Every year at the beginning of August the railway personnel celebrates its professional holiday. Honestly speaking, many representatives of the older generation continue this tradition today too, in spite of the fact that the official holiday of railway employees is celebrated in Ukraine in November.
Irrespective of that the railway employees of Zaporizhstal JSC have a holiday these days. As a matter of fact 75 years ago, at the beginning of August 1934, the railway shop appeared as a part of the Works, which was then transformed into the management of railway transport. Aleksey Gavrilovich Pavlets heads the management for many years. We began our conversation from the history of the subdivision.
– Actually, the beginning of August is a significant period. Some disputes appear sometimes concerning what day should be considered a holiday: 2nd or 5th of August. This makes no particular difference. The main thing is not to forget this day.
In those days the main loads were delivered to the enterprise under a continuous flow system, i.e. in circles, according to the general plan of the construction of Dneprokombinat. Since the energy of Dneproges was the cheapest in the world, Gipromez designed the transport of the Works on electric motive power, which was done for the first time in the Soviet Union. An experimental section from station Yuzhnaya to the hoppers of the blast-furnace plant was constructed, and two new electric locomotives arrived from abroad. But experience showed that such a technology was unsuitable for the metallurgical enterprise. The electric locomotives were transmitted to Magnitogorsk, and steam engines were used on the railroads of the Works. Station Vostochnaya and a three stage steam locomotive-car depot were constructed in 1933. In connection with this the cars exchange area was transmitted from Shlyuzovaya station to Zaporozhye Levoe station, to which Vostochnaya station is adjacent.
The project of Ukrgipromez foresaw maximum freight turnover of 26,5 mln tons of load per year at Dneprokombinat, including 20,5 mln tons at Zaporizhstal JSC alone. The total costs for construction of railway transport facilities amounted to 70 mln roubles. One of the notable drawbacks of the railway transport in those days was the low level of mechanization of loading and unloading operations. Thus, in 1935, when the freight turnover was only 30% of the designed volume, the staff of loaders amounted to 1500 people, and the engineering and technical personnel consisted of only 6 people. Isn’t that interesting, at least from a comparative point of view?
– And how many people work in the management today?
– The staff amounts to more than 1600 workers, including all categories from managers to floor cleaners. At that time the number of loaders amounted to approximately the same number. And the volume of processed loads during the present crisis is twice as large as according to the calculations of the projectors of those years. However, this fact shouldn’t surprise anyone. I think that such comparisons look even incorrect. It’s impossible to compare the level of progress at the beginning of the industrialization period and today. Perhaps for curiosity only.
– But there was no crisis then…
– There were a lot of other problems at that time.
– Can you name the years, or months, at least, when the railway transport management had no problems?
– If any professional task is considered a problem, then there really has not been a single quiet week. But such is life and our work too. Our aim is to improve working conditions, fulfilling all the norms of safety engineering. But this is not only a technical process, but it is rather a social and psychological one. People who constantly work in hard working conditions according to safety rules lose the feeling of insecurity. It seems that everything is already being done automatically, but carelessness can always bring unexpected surprises.
– Only ostriches do not sign documents regarding passing instructions on safety rules, probably because they sit in cages.
– If we will apply ostrich policy with regard to our workers in this matter, then more than one family will curse us. It is impossible to ignore those instructions based on sad examples of ruined lives. And then they are analyzed by specialists, who write the instructions. Sometimes they are based on death but for the sake of the lives of others. So if you have come to work here, you should obey the instructions. It should be mentioned nevertheless, that goal-oriented work on strengthening discipline made it possible to radically change the attitude of the workers towards safety problems. Let us compare. In 1983 980 different cases took place: derailing of rolling stock, collisions, bursting open of switches, collisions of trains with obstacles and other violations of the rules. In 2008 there were 39 such violations, and in the first half of this year only 15. Isn’t it a significant difference?
– But you yourself do not like some instructions, which are sent to you from the Ministry of Transportation or the governing documents from «Ukrzaliznytsya». Therefore you are very well known to the top-management of these capital structures.
– If they are guided by common sense and the tendency of improvement of the process of freight transportation, then I am for them. But if they are clearly directed towards extraction of profit at the cost of metallurgists, then I cannot keep silent. But let’s talk about something else on the eve of the anniversary.
– For example, about the crisis. Or maybe we should drop this topic too? Moreover, everybody speaks only about it, and there is not much sense in these conversations.
– Well, that’s quite natural. Those should work who have to. Economists and politicians must deal with their own work. The crisis hit metallurgists earlier than others, and even harder. But I am in charge of my section. In 6 months we exceeded the freight transportation plan by 382 000 tons. Still, everybody understands that they could have done better. In comparison with the first 6 months of 2008 we have accomplished 6 mln 332 thousand tons less. That means that we are quite capable of coping with such volumes. The main shops are exceeding the plans, and we support them in this process.
– It means that you have free facilities for the repairs?
– Conditions of the crisis have affected the railway transport of the Works. The situation is so that diesel locomotives stand in the depot because of the absence of spare parts. A number of non-planned visits of locomotives to the depot have increased due to faults.
Due to these conditions of means economy we rearrange our work, carry out less expensive types of repairs (as far as the expenditures of materials and spare parts are concerned), but the majority of them. This makes it possible to keep the railway transport in an operational state, and also to keep the collective of repairmen. However, we will not be able to keep carrying out “light” types of repair. For example, in 6 months of this year we obtained only 1 new switch, and last year in the same period of time – 29 of them. But railway men do everything possible to guarantee transportation of freight.
– Another problem…
– Yes, they were, they are and they will be… With the transition to the converter production the transport scheme will also change. So we’ll have to solve many more problems. This is complicated, and at the same time interesting. I don’t even know how I would feel, if everything worked properly and accurately. Or would new locomotives, cars, new tracks and switches immediately appear? Healthy relations have harmonized with the sub-contractors. And what comes next?
– This is what we wish you and the entire collective. You will somehow figure out what will come next. You know your subordinates better than anyone. We understand that it would be great to congratulate each employee personally. But who does your management rely on? Is it possible to name somebody?
– Yes, of course. Honoured railway worker, head of the blast-furnace region Yu. V. Oleynik, track foreman V. V. Starodub and operator – instructor N. S. Stepanets, and also locomotive driver Yu. P. Nikulin, track fitter V. A. Zhdanov, rolling stock repairman V. N. Kushpit, senior load inspector T. V. Kozeryatskaya, signaling device electrician V. A. Kucherov… Yes, you are right, it’s impossible to name everyone…
– We congratulate you and your whole collective with the forthcoming anniversary