Meeting the challenges of Conrail:
He was probably the right man, in the right place, at the right time, and when the times changed, it coincided with his time to move on. Charles D. "Charlie" Winebrenner, a member of Local 860, Middleport, Ohio, recently retired after 41 years of rail service. It fell to Brother Winebrenner to deal with the fallout that resulted from the creation of Conrail.

Career's challenges came with Conrail
He was probably the right man, in the right place, at the right time, and when the times changed, it coincided with his time to move on.

Charles D. "Charlie" Winebrenner, a member of Local 860, Middleport, Ohio, recently retired after 41 years of rail service. He had served as general chairperson of the Conrail North General Committee of Adjustment (GO-651) from 1983 to 1999.

Prior to that, he had been serving as vice general chairperson of the former New York Central (NYC) Western District General Committee of Adjustment for eight years.

It fell to Brother Winebrenner to deal with the fallout that resulted from the creation of Conrail. And as he reached retirement age, an era drew to an end with the division of Conrail between CSXT and Norfolk Southern.

"At one time, my committee was the largest in the U.S., with 103 local chairpersons, and about 6,500 members," Winebrenner noted. "Because of consolidations, what we faced, over and over again, were equity problems."

One of the stickiest involved the end of the Erie Lackawanna. "Our constitution says prior rights should be protected. When you have rights, but no railroad, you've got a big problem."

Ironically, the situations that deprived him of sleep and appeared impossible gave rise to moments of great satisfaction, "especially when I was able to fix a problem for a member," Winebrenner said.

A member of a joint UTU/BLE unification panel in the 1980s, a two-time head of the General Chairpersons' Association, a convention delegate, and a father to two daughters and a son, Winebrenner began his career as a brakeman and a member of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen in 1959 on the former NYC Ohio Central Lines at Hobson, Ohio.

At the end of 41 years of service, he had learned "humbleness, patience and understanding in a way that could only come about by dealing with the enormous problems presented by Conrail," he said.

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