Tales From The Cab !

[watash]

I have a number of friends who are retired, and some who still sit in the Cab today, and they tell me interesting and sometimes hairy tales of how their day went. Maybe you would share some of your interesting happenings with the rest of the guys here on the Board.

There are a number of younger members who have never had the thrill of even being up in a cab, much less got to ride or really know what it is like to "Drive a Train".

I wont call any names but will start this off with a fellow I'll call Sledge, because he has hands as big as sledge hammers, and is sort of crusty now in old age. He was an old steam hog out in the mountains of Colorado. One morning he was drifting down a slight grade coming around a right hand bend with the mountain straight up on his side, and a canyon drop off on his fireman's side. Their load was fairly light, and they had just topped out and starting down, so speed was slow. As they got almost all the way around all he could see ahead of him was solid rock where daylight should have been. He didn't have time to think about it, but instinctively shut her down and set air. Then BUMP!!and they were sitting still! He looked at his fireman, and then they both looked ahead again, and blimked. Solid rock ahead! He said they climbed down on his side to find they had smashed the coupler and pilot smack into a huge boulder that had tipped over onto the tracks. The rails dipped down under this boulder a couple of feet, and maybe a foot of rail was pried up into the air with the pilot wheels up there on top. They walked back checking the cars to see if they were on the ground, or still on the rails. The lead wheels of the car just behind the engine had bounced up to where one flange was sitting on top the rail next to the mountain, with the heel of the opposit wheel just about to drop down between the rails. If it fell or slipped, he was afraid the car would tip over into the canyon. The engine seemd to be OK other than bent, so they decided to try backing up a little to re-rail the wheel. They set a brake shoe tight against the following wheel, to see if it could cause enough twist to slip the flange off into place before the wheel rode up over the shoe. He said he had already picked out the piece of rock he was going to dive for if the car tipped and took the engine down with it. He eased the throttle with the Johnson Bar full back, and listened for the fireman to holler to stop. As the engine started to move, there was a big CLANG, the box car swayed, and the fireman hollared all at the same time! He said he centered the Johhy Bar and jumped for his rock all in the same move! The wheel had settled back in place, and the fireman had knocked the brake shoe off into the ballast, and was coming foreward when Old Sledge slipped and fell off his rock. They went to the front, and saw that the head light was smashed, coupler and pilot was all flattened back almost against the pilot wheels, but the engine could still run backwards and drag the pilot. Well, they backed the train back up over the pass, and down to a town and called in. He said, they both went into the station master's office and changed clothes, took a shower, and waited for word from the dispatcher. He said they were still shaking after supper.

Well, that was one day in the cab with old Sledge. Next time I'll tell about an idiot kid who dared to play chicken with the train.

Its your turn now. Tell us about one of your days. :eek:

[Telegrapher]

Yeh Watash. This goes back to between 1955 and 1964 while working as a Telegrapher with the SP. Whenever my car was broke with happened often on those old 1936 buggys I hopped rides on F7's and even on a Cab Forward once. That was the experience of my life. On the F7 one day the engineer started blasting on the horn and hollering "Get out of the way you dam cow." I looked out the front and saw a cow on the tracks. A few seconds later I felt a slight thud and the engineer said something about cowsh// all over the front of the engine. I couldn't help laughing and the engineer told me to shut up or get off. I wasn't about to get off at 45 mph so I shut up. When we got to the station where I was to get off he slowed down a little and said this is it "jump". I did and took and double sumersault when I hit the ground.

The one ride on the Cab Forward I had a beautiful vew of everything forward. This engine was used as a helper over a hill. When the engine stopped at a siding waiting for the train I hopped on with orders from the powers to be to drop me off at such and such station. This engineer was real nice and even offered me coffee from his thermos. We backed down to the switch and waited for the train. AS soon as the caboose passed the switch we started backing up and I new we were either going to demolish the switch or derail as the fireman did not change the switch. That was my first expierence with spring switches. The engineer poured the oil to it and we soon caught up with the caboose. In fact I thought we were going to ram it and braced myself. Well that old engineer just eased back on the throttle and we kiseed that caboose coupler like a mother kissing a baby and we were still moving. He eased up the throttle {handle, bar or watever you call them) and we started pushing and the speed really picked up. You could really feel the power in that old engine. I mentioned to Robin that at that time I was not interested in photos and didn't even own a camara. Now I am kicking myself. :D

[rsn48]

My uncle - Don Hardikopf - an engineer with CN (now retired) related this experience to me. This occurred around the late fifties is my guess.

He was an engineer on the same run as his father, also a CN engineer. He was east of Jasper returning with a freight train, when a mud slide caught the the head end of the train sweeping it down into the bottom of a valley. At that point, he was physically relatively okay, as was his fireman. But what he saw when he looked up would change his life forever.

Above him was a freight car, somehow sitting on another one but perpendicular to it. It was teatering and tottering back and forth; making up its mind to settle down, or come down the mud slide area right down on the cab my uncle was in. He said he knew in that instant if it came down, he was a dead man. He couldn't escape from the cab. And so he watched it for a minute until it settled down and remained on top of the other car.

In another instant, he realize his railroading days were over in the Canadian Rockies. After the accident, he requested and was granted a transfer to Edmonton Alberta (flat). He spent the rest of his career there.

[CP&E 3207]

my great uncle-Durwood Miller-was an engineer for the B&O, he was engineering a coal train (45 cars). the last wheel on the 2nd to last car had jumped off the tracks just about 5 miles south of buckhannon, and drug that car 20 miles :eek: til' they realized the train had a problem, he died a couple of years ago, and never had much of a voice to talk in his waning days, so I only heard a couple more. I'll tell 'em if I can remeber :confused:

[CP&E 3207]

I forgot, this was in the mid 1960's, he was operating the train with a GP7, and an SD35. had a red bay window caboose behind.

[heracles87]

Good stuff guys, keep them coming.

[watash]

A few days ago, an unusual accident happened on the NYP&O RR. Probably nothing like this has ever happened, and should be placed on the record.

The facts are these: Train number 33, a regular freight, was passing over the division at night, and in the train was one coal car on which a steam engine driver had been loaded. The trainmen found that this car had NO wheels under one end! The whole truck and all four wheels were not to be found. Their search for a distance along the line proved fruitless, but the fact remained that the train was on the track alright, and that the crippled car was being held up in place by the coupler alone!

The next day, the station agent at Columbus was surprised to find a set of trucks sitting on a side track at his station! He reported this fact to headquarters and the mystery was explained. Columbus is four miles east of Corry, and the loaded car was balanced by the heavy drive wheel in the end over the remaining truck set, so that the car was carried safely over the distance by the coupling. The officers are still wondering how such a thing can be, as the chances in such a case are a million to one that the train would be ditched and probably baddly wrecked. The train's speed was about twenty miles an hour, and the mysterious car occupied an important place about the middle of the train.

This story is from the Eire Dispatch, printed in the Weekly Courant Newspaper in Randolph, New York.

It was printed January 27, 1881

Now you know the rest of the story! :D

[trainbooks@hotmail.com]

I overhead this story as told by a man who was in train service back East.
He was head brakeman on a loaded coal train travelling through some mountainous country. As they are travelling along the train goes into emergency, and the conductor radios, "Well, I'm stopped!" and the head end is still moving. (broken knuckle) The engineer replies, "Well that's just dandy...the middle of the train is over a long trestle." He looks over at the head brakeman and tells him about the fun he is about to encounter. The brakeman hits the ground carrying a new knuckle and shortly finds the end of solid earth. Since there is no way he can walk alongside the train on the trestle he climbs a ladder up the side of one of the coal hoppers and throws the knuckle inside. (did I mention it is night and pitch black outside?) Now the poor guy is wading through filthy coal blindly with his knuckle which is growing heavier with every step. Each time he reaches the end of a hopper, he has to heave the knuckle over to the next car, climb over, pick up the knuckle and resume the process. All of this is exhausting the poor guy. The story abruptly ends this way: "I must have been 30 or 40 cars back when I throw that knuckle over to the next car, and instead of hearing it 'thud' it goes 'BANG...BANG...Bump...brief silence...then 'SPLASH !!'. The #@&#/? hopper doors had come open, and spilled all the coal out." He had thrown the knuckle into an empty hopper with its bottom doors open.
He left the rest of the story to our imagination.
That's how it can be on some trips.

[watash]

Its a good thing he didn't just jump down into that Car! What a night! :D Thanks for posting!

[watash]

A coffee drinking Buddy told us one morning about a time when one of the old steam railroad cranes had finished working at hoisting beams up to build a bridge over the tracks, when the quitting time whistle sounded. The crew all left for supper, and to go home, their shift was over. Expecting a night shift crew to come on after them, everything was left as is. Just after dark, a transport crew arrived to move the crane and other MOW equipment to another location. All the big spot lights had been turned out, so the whole area was dark. The enginmen backed the MOW cars back and coupled onto the crane, and loaded the last of the supplies they could find on the ground. The all clear was given and all ground pounders got on board, and the train pulled out.

They had attained their assigned speed of 30 mph to clear the main line, and were about to slow to switch off onto a siding, when there was a terrific CRASH behind the train! Walking back with flash lights and lanterns, it was found that an overhead bridge had fallen onto the train! It was one of those million rivited things that allowed the elevated trains to cross this trackage. The double track wreckage had fallen onto the crane. It was determined that in the dark, no one had noticed the boom to the crane had been left in the elevated position. The heavy boom had cleanly cut through the overhead structure, snagging on the rails, pulling the entire bridge down. No one was hurt, and an on coming train was signaled to stop before it could fall off the missing bridge. It turned out to be "One of those nights".

[Colonel]

Thats a great story it reminds me of a derailment which occurred here around 10 years ago. a commuter train was switching from one platform to another the rules state for a guard to be in the back car when a train is propelling backwards. On this occassion the guard was not on the back of the train. The driver (Engineer) thought the platform he was backing into was empty, it actually had another commuter train stored there. The train backed into the platform with such force and speed that it collided with the stabled train causing a huge wreck, one of the carriages hit an overhead pedestrian bridge and brought it down onto the commuter train. Only sheer luck that both trains were empty and there were very few commuters waiting on the station as it was early morning.

[watash]

That was one reason we had a caboose for the conductor too. He acted as the eyes in reverse for an engineer when backing a train.

[watash]

Back in the steam days, an engine crew left the engine with a trainee aboard while they went back to find a hot box. They were about 40 or so cars back when they heard a huge BOOM! The train cars beside them shuddered and rolled back a few feet. They started running toward the head end where a white plume of smoke or steam was billowing up above the engine. When they arrived, they found the engine had smashed back into the tender pinning the trainee up to his chest in coal, but alive. It seems the popoff valve had failed shut, and the trainee had been practising "layering" coal to get an even fire. Steam pressure had built up and the boiler had exploded. The whole smoke box front had blown off! Later as the work train arrived from the opposit direction, the fire box front was found to have landed face down on the rails and slid nearly a mile on the rails before coming to rest.

[Benny]

Wow. I read a great book about steam wrecks once, one of the topics was all about exploded boilers. Many ended up like that because it ran out of water, and then cold water rushed in from a tower or such, and KABOOM!!! There was many that had blown the entire steathing up into many jagged pieces of metal and twisted pipes. Many of them told about finding large pieces up to a mile away!!!

There was one that managed to hit a house with the main chunk that got blown of, totaly leveled the structure.

Only thing that scares the heck out of me when it comes to steam.

[Hunter]

Well, I haven't got any cool tales, but I have accually drove a train!! It is a GP7, the local around hhere. How many 16 year old get to drive a train?! tongue.gif tongue.gif

[watash]

I'm one who did, but it was a 2-6-0 steamer back during WWII on a student work permit. I wasn't hired to, but the engineer taught me a lot, and I got to run it quite a bit during two summers. I have been lucky in getting to ride in the cabs of several steam engines and was allowed in on a "get acquainted with the new Diesel" demonstration in a new F-1 or 2 streamliner. They still all look alike to me, an F-7 looks like that one too. :D

[trainbooks@hotmail.com]

The locomotives I worked with ranged from GP20 to SD40, and I never had the pleasure of being in the cab of any of these new wide- cab, computerized models. If the chance ever came to see inside one of these new locomotives, I decided to take it.
Every Spring, me and six or seven other cowboys (my "new" occupation) would go out to Sierra Blanca, TX and gather Spanish cattle out of the rugged Findley mountains west of Sierra Blanca. The places we camped where all very close to The Sunset Route. In fact, one county road out in that wilderness went over a trestle that was abandoned when the route was realigned. There is also an old roadbed that formed a tight sweeping horseshoe curve along the side of a mountain. One morning we were driving from camp to Espiranza, TX to eat breakfast, and the road crossed the SP at the east end of Findley siding. A loaded coal train was waiting in the hole, and for some reason, had stopped over the road crossing. Since the train is being pulled by three new GE newfangled locos, I see this as my chance to hop aboard and look things over. Two of the other guys want to look so three not-too-pleasant-looking cowboys start to climb on like we own the railroad ourselves. I guess the crew naturally thought we were coming aboard to whip their backsides for blocking the crossing. They greeted us with explanations of how the opposing train was just ahead, and that they would clear the crossing in about 15 minutes, so don't be mad. After a briefing on the new control stand (my question is: how do you kick your feet up on the heater, run with your left hand and wave with the right on these new hogs?) we saw the opposing train approaching, so we went back to our truck. Even from a cowboy's perspective, I still question the things dipatchers do with trains: here was a loaded coal train waiting at Findley for a meet. There is a whopper of an uphill grade into Sierra Blanca, and the coal train didn't have alot of room to make a run at the hill. Why didn't the westbound (downhill) train take siding upline at Small, Laska, or Sierra Blanca? This must be a Tale from Outside the Cab. ?

[watash]

The oncoming train probably had priority status. Dispatch on the T&P was usually pretty good about setting out up grade, but then that was steam days too. :D

[watash]

Here is one I received just now, and will pass it along verbatum:

"Hello Watash,

This story is funny and even more so since I sat watching the whole thing unfold while shooting photos for my newspaper.

Lynchburg, Va. police held up Norfolk Southern operations in the city last night when an officer drove under a stopped train on an overpass and was "dripped on" by a mystery liquid. The officer noticed a large patch of the roadway was wet. Because it was a train, everyone freaked out thinking it must be a Hazardous Material spill!

The police blocked the road, called Norfolk Southern to stop all trains, and brought in the Fire Department's Haz-Mat Team. The fire department would not take the Railroad's word that all was OK with the car sitting overhead. Even after NS clerks showed up with the computer list of the train and its loads, they were not convinced. So the Haz-Mat Team had to approach the driping liquid with airpacks on and test the liquid with some type of litmus paper to determine its chemical content.

This went on for over an hour and a half. It stopped a hot shot Piggy Back train for a half hour. Finally after checking this "spill", the Fire Department became convinced that all was indeed OK and let the railroad and city return to normal.

It turned out the culprit was an empty box car; complete with side door open, with eight inches of clearly visible snow on the roof top that was melting in the warm temperature!

Everyone went on their way with a smile except one very disgruntled officer."

[Colonel]

Watash,
A great story can you imagine the guys back at the police department when the officer got back there hehehehe

[watash]

I'm just waiting for Moose to see this one! I'll bet he ribs them good!HA! :D

[CPRailfan]

That was a good one smile.gif
After seeing so many trains, you'd think I'd be able to think of a tale or two, but none come to mind. I'll keep thinkin' smile.gif

-Drew

[DaveCN5710]

Ok this story makes me feel stupid like I goofed up but what the heck , I think of you all as friends .


I was on a train that had to stop and set out cars at a place called Durand , Michigan . It is a big time railfan place .

It was a warm summer evening , still light outside and we had to stop at Oak Street and make our cut of about 12 cars to set out in the yard .

The Conductor makes the cut , applies some hand brakes to the train left out on the main , especially since the portion of train left out on the main is on a good size grade .

We set our 12 cars out and pick up about 20 , we make the joint back to our train and since the cars we picked up did not have air on them , we had to perform a initial terminal air test , make sure all brakes apply and release on the cars that we picked up .

My feed valve was set at 80 pounds and when I got up to about 78 pounds of air on the tail end , I told my Conductor that I had enough air to air test the 20 cars that we picked up .

So I take a full service brake and the tail end shows 58-59 pounds , and the Conductor tells me that all 20 cars have set up , he then tells me to release the brake and I do .

Brake pressure is restored on the tail end to 83 pounds , and the cars all released . So I start to pull the train down the hill and the tail end shows moving , everything looks cool .

We are cruising thru Durand about 45 miles per hour and the Train Dispatcher calls us on the radio and informs us that our rear 8 cars are following us down the hill thru Durand :eek:

A railfan called the railroad with a frantic phone call and the railroad informed us .

So the Dispatcher says you guys are clear of the plant and signals at East Durand but he can see that the rear 8 cars are moving behind us , so I take 15 pounds worth of brake , nothing happens , so I think fast and put the rear 8 cars into EMERGENCY with the toggle switch on my RDU , which throws the rear end marker into EMERGENCY and the cars stop .

Anyways as it turned out the last car I had ahold of was a loaded dangerous tank car and the rear 8 cars were going up to speeds of nearly 40 miles per hour .

Here's what happened according to our guesses and talking to raiload police .

In Durand there are ALOT of railfans who have scanners who listen to us , these railfans were bad boys and wanted to play a trick on us .

While we did the air test they were listening , after our air test they turned the bottled the air on our rear 8 cars and I still showed air pressure on the tail end and when we started to pull the tail end showed moving .

Little did I know they were moving on there own following us down the hill :D

[ 16 March 2001: Message edited by: Davecn5623 ]

[74volts]

Hey all!
I work at the loco shops in Cumberland,once a bastion of the B&O, now a CSX facility. I am a electrician and keep them ol wheels fixed up the best I can. Sometimes its a challenge getting parts and talking supervision into letting me fix them right. But if it was easy it would not be so much fun!....hey you guys keep breakin 'em and I will keep fixin 'em....Be safe!
Mike

[watash]

Welcome to the TrainBoard family 74 Volts! I'll bet you're glad you aren't tightening boiler stays in the boiler works!HA!

Are you the one that put the traction motor in backwards, and the engine couldn't figure out which way to go? :D

(That was a standard joke when diesels first started coming out! Before diesels, there was a cartoon that showed a mallet that the shop had put the front engine set in backwards, and when they went to go, it stretched the boiler out about 40 feet in the middle! :D)

[ 21 March 2001: Message edited by: watash ]

[Rule 281]

You know, there are so many tales that every railroader can tell, it's hard to pick one out. Put a bunch of us together in a room and the lies will never end.
One that pops into my head took place when I was still pretty new at this and was riding a train late one night to get qualified on a new route. The regular crew was all there and two conductor trainees as well so we had a pretty full house. I knew the engineer well and he trusted me so he was meditating peacfully while I did the work at a small yard switching out a bunch of empty covered hoppers. The conductor decided to let one of the trainees make a few moves just to get some practice so he told him to bring the train back and couple to the cars in #1. The engines were about a quarter mile from the hitch, hanging on to a lot of cars, so I wasn't surprised when I heard him call "OK back about 15 for a coupling". I just nicely got rolling, thinking I had lots of room when the conductor started screaming for me to stop. Just as his first words came out, the train hit the drag of parked empties with a boom that woke the dead for miles. The engineer fell flat on the floor, I bounced off the back window and the train went in emergency. When I recovered and looked out, there was dust and rust in a mushroom cloud hanging over half the town. The yard was right in the middle of a trailer park and lights were coming on, dogs barking, car alarms going off, general mayhem. The conductor was in hysterics and could hardly talk, all he could say was, "Now THAT'S a good hitch". He finally pulled himself together and told me what had happened. The new guy gave me the car count while his back was turned and I was really only about 5 cars from the hitch. When he saw what he'd done, he froze with his hand on the mic button, his eyes like saucers and his brain in panic mode. :eek:
By the time anyone could say anything, it was too late and the crash was only a second away. The poor trainee was horrified but after the manditory razzing and laughter, he felt a little better and finished out the night with no further excitement. Fortunately, the only disasters were that the engineer was grouchy now and had to re-arrange himself, about half the county was awake a bit early to get ready for work and ten tons of rust got knocked off the cars. The trainee is now a conductor himself and one of the best guys around to work with but every time I catch a job with him, I can't resist reminding him to watch his car counts.

[Hytec]

Rule 281, your tale got me thinking ( :eek: )

How can y'all use "car counts" for guiding closure? Today's cars run from the baby beercan tanks to auto-racks and double-stacks? That could be a difference of about 50 feet per car, which can add up quickly, especially when you were told you had "15" cars to go. :confused:

Hank

[Rule 281]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Hank Coolidge:
[B]Rule 281, your tale got me thinking ( :eek: )

How can y'all use "car counts" for guiding closure? Today's cars run from the baby beercan tanks to auto-racks and double-stacks? That could be a difference of about 50 feet per car, which can add up quickly, especially when you were told you had "15" cars to go.

Hi Hank-
Car counts are kind of a subjective thing. Every conductor has a different version of what 1 car is. After you work with a guy a few minutes, you can tell if his counts are long or short. For some, a car is a real car length (say 60 ft.)or more, for others, you go from 3 to hooked in about the same distance. A count of 15 is a good indication that you've got quite a ways to go but when you get down to 5 or less, especially with an inexperienced eye, you've got to be pretty careful. The best guys will adjust their count length to the train's speed to help you make a good hitch. Also, the operating rules dictate that you have to stop in half the count given if you don't hear an update from the back. That means you've got two guys estimating distance at the same time. It takes some getting used to but really works well once you get the hang of it. :cool:

[Hytec]

Thanks Rule 281, that explains why sometimes I see the "Big Bang", and other times a very quiet "Coach Kiss" .... :D
Hank

[watash]

The passenger hook ups were the most carefully directed ones, I was told. They had us stand on the fireman's side and watch the brakeman, or conductor, 'guide' the engineer back. Whoever was guiding, was always on the engineer side and was the only one. It was a precaution that there were no mistakes. It was a cardinal rule that if passengers were aboard, "Thou shalt not tip over a passenger's water glass"! Because of the difference in weight, the engine was supposed to be backed in using the Johnson bar with little if any live steam, just riding the expansion. The breakman was supposed to throw his arms out wide just before the engine got to 20 feet closing, then slowly start dropping his arms to show the engineer how fast he was closing up. His arms were dropped all the way at about 5 feet. That was supposed to allow time for the engineer to shut her down which would just about bring her to a dead whoah at touching. Sometimes it was so smooth the car's coupler hardly moved, only the latch pin dropped. The engineer also had to hold the engine in place while the brakeman stepped between the cars, over one rail, reached in under the couplers and grabbed the air hose of the car (which was always on his left) with his left hand, and the engine's hose in his right and "wrung" the hose couplings together, then stepped back into safety. It was, is, those few seconds that the breakman's life is in the hands of the engineer. It impressed us, how would you like to be a breakman? I ran shivers down my spine the first time I watched it, and the first time I had to do it! Think about it. :eek:

[Rule 281]

Just some information regarding those guys stitching up the hoses...the rules are very specific about how and when anyone can go between cars to make up hoses, work handbrakes etc. Before you go in, you have to request protection from the engineer which includes applying the engine brakes, centering the reverser, dropping the generator field switch and applying the train brakes. The engineer has to confirm that the protection is in place and must not release until the person who requested protection verbally and positively clears. It's a very serious rules offense to make a move while a crewman is fouling, not to mention you could easily kill someone. Going in between equipment without getting that protection is incredibly risky, as quite a few trespassers have found out when stuff moved unexpectedly while they were in there. But...that's another subject. :mad:

[watash]

Those same rules applied in the roundhouse also. When an engine was coming in off the turntable, no one was allowed within 10 feet on either side of his track, no one was in the pit, and no one was allowed to walk in front of the engine once he started moving in. There was one man who made the motions to direct the hostler (an in-house engineer) to start up, to keep coming, slow down, speed up, wait, hold still, and when to stop. This man was called different things on various roads, but at ElReno he was the Head Hostler, usually who drew that job for that engine, but other times when more than one engine was coming in or going out, it could be the House Warden, or even the House Master himself. Other fellows could be designated for the job at times, but I never saw a young man do it, they all had grey hair. If the engine was "dead" (no steam), it was pushed by a switch engine coupled to the tender. The House Master would have designated which stall was to be readied to receive this engine, and assigned a spot to lay a heavy anchor chain 90 degrees to the rail on the engineer's side that was the absolute stopping point he wanted that engine to line up. The engineer of the pusher, or hostler could see that chain, as well as keep his eye on the man directing him in. Once in place this chain was draped around the front driver infront and back to act as a coasting chock. Once in and chocked, the engine was signed off and turned over to a Crew Chief who would then assign the work to be done. Occasionally an engine was backed into the roundhouse for repairs to the tender, which was unusual.

One such case was when a parked engine had been hit from behind and destroyed the rear tender sill and water tank. The rear truck had been sheared off at the king pin (a big pin the truck swiveled on). Because it was a long time job to fix the tender, the job called for the engine to be slipped off the tow bar, and pulled out and connected to another tender. As it turned out, the chock chain was not set under the engine, but around one wheel of the tender. This was done, and while the engine was being disconnected (all the pipes and hoses), the pushing switcher was run off to perform other tasks until called back to move the engine. Lunch time came, and when the whistle blew, everyone went outside to eat. Just about the time lunch was over, there was a huge scrapeing Thud!! Everyone ran around to the front to see what had made the noise. The dead engine had very slowly rolled out across the yard and tipped over into the turntable pit, the table having been rotated to another track! If the table had been aligned, that engine might have gone all the way out onto the yard spur with no way of stopping it. We all caught hell over that, and of course the guy assigned to the chocking job was fired. My last day there was when they brought a big steam wrecker in and rolled it onto a track close to the fallen engine and we set ties criss cross under the side jacks all morning so the crane could reach over sideways and pick up the engine without tipping over. They hooked chains to another engine on the next stall and pulled the engine back onto the yard track while the crane held up the front end. It bent the pilot and boiler brace stays and broke the pilot truck frame, but not much else. The old steamers could take a pretty good beating and still run. My summer was over, but I wanted to stay and watch the wrecker in the worst way. I had to go back to school, so missed the rest of the clean up. The big cranes just fascinated me no end! I told dad that next summer I wanted to bring a camera. He just laughed and said I would probably have forgotten to use it in the excitement! That would have been some movie to see that engine creep out and tip up in the pit! :D

[watash]

I have been waiting to find out how this one came out before posting it here. This is from a friend who lives close to where this happened.

Operation Life Saver is in full swing, yet a couple of teenagers went riding with another couple and got nailed at a crossing close to a creek. The car ended up partly in the water. My friend heard the crash and realized a train had hit something. He was there as the kids were being cut out of what was left of the car. Now I can report that all the occupants will live, and of course no one was hurt on the train. The train crew probably hates to do that much damage to teens, or anyone else, but people just don't seem to get the point that they are not going to win. Teach your kids that the train will not wait for them, so respect it!

[rsn48]

When my family took the Via around this time last year to a point just outside of Vancouver (we just went for a short trip to ride via), we watched as the Via unloaded other passengers. The train was unusually long. There was another track beside it and we could see a freight barreling along at a high rate of knots. On the Via side, I watched as a truck driver was getting impatient for the via to pull out. He decided to cross and I was certain we were going to see him killed as he couldn't know another train was coming. He was lucky and got off.

But one doctor wasn't so lucky. When I went to college in the 60's in Elmhurst Illinois, I used to ride the Chicago Northwestern into down town Chicago. On one occassion we had left the station for about a minute when there was a loud crash, cracking the window beside, and scaring the hell out of me. When I got off, I recognized a doctor in the smashed up vehicle. He knew me and stared at me for about a minute before he died. The commuter train would have been by the crossing in about 40 seconds, but he was in too much of a hurry and couldn't wait. He lost.

[watash]

It is a shame Rsn48, but they always lose! Back right after the war (WWII) it used to be fun to race along beside the trains out west of Wichita, Kansas. The road would go along the tracks on the north side for a mile or so, then cross and go along on the southside for a mile or so and back and forth, while the track was straight for miles. A few miles out of Wichita, the track starts down a slight grade maybe 1/4% for several miles then up grade gradually until the Colorado state line. One day some kids in a hot rod were racing a train even with the engine until the cross-over then the hot rod would "gun it" speeding up enough to beat the engine to the cgossing and stay up with him on the other side. Those crossings were about a 60 degree angle! One time a hot rodder blew his right front tire just as he was turning to go over the tracks, and his rim caught the inside of the far rail and guided his car down the track ahead of the train which was up in the 90's by then. The engine caught the car and carried it nearly two miles before the font of the car caught on the steel bannister of a small bridge and started rolling. By the time the passenger train got stopped, the car was in a rolled up ball and had rolled off into a field. There was not enough of the driver to worry with, so the whole car was buried just off the right of way. There used to be a small cross with a little fence around the grave site and a plaque that told the story. The road, and the tracks have since been re-routed so it may or may not be there any more. The passenger who was riding with him was thrown out of the car and cut half in two on a barbed wire fence his body slid down at an estimated speed in excess of 80 miles an hour. He was gathered up and buried at Harper, Kansas. Since there was no town or farms in the area, the train went on into the town of Pratt, Kansas and called in on the accident, then proceeded to Colorado. The top speed the passenger trains would run in those days was between 90 and 100 miles an hour out on the western plains, and the hot rodders still tried to out run them, and some made it for awhile.

[Rule 281]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by watash:
The train crew probably hates to do that much damage to teens, or anyone else, but people just don't seem to get the point that they are not going to win.

You're right, Watash. No one that I've ever met wants to hit anybody at a crossing or anywhere else. It's just a fact of life that sooner or later, if you hang around this business long enough, you probably will. I'll always remember the old Erie engineer I trained with telling me about a suicide just as he was getting ready to retire. He said she just stepped in the guage and looked at him as he hit her. He never really got over it and talked about it almost every trip until he took his pension. It's a tough thing to handle.

[rsn48]

Some people just dont get it. Yesterday my son and I were driving along the CP tracks by the Granaries at the Vancouver Port. The crossing gate came down, while a switcher came through. There was a fellow at the crossing with a vest, making sure everything was okay. A guy in a truck still drove around the gate, past the guy yelling at him, over to the other side, while the switcher was barrelling down on him. Kind of wish he had got hit, a culling of the herd.

[Hytec]

A few years back, I watched King STUPID+++ from my 5th floor office overlooking the CSX/IC (now KCS) interchange tracks.

An IC GP-10 was deadheading at 3-5 mph to the CSX siding for a pickup. Gates came down across the 6-lane main street. An 18-wheeler with a 45' grain dump body stopped at the gate, clearly saw the bright Orange/White engine, then backed up to clear the gate and started to go around.

Yup, the engine hit the dump hopper smack in the middle and v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y rolled it on its side. The engine stopped as the hopper went over, so no damage was done to either equipment, and probably not even to the truck driver's pride ..... he was too stupid to have any :rolleyes:

Oh yeh, it took the City street crew over four hours to clean up 15-20 Tons of Soybeans spread across all three northbound lanes .... My Tax Dollars At Work :mad:

Hank

[watash]

An old Trueism:

Ignorance can be cured but, stupid goes all the way to the bone!

[fitz]

I heard a new term for such stupidity from Jim Schoenfeld, narrating an NHL game last night. I think it's pretty good, not even vulgar. "Skull Cramp." LOL :D

[Bos]

"Skull Cramp", I like it, I've used the term "Helmet Fire" for a lot of years but never knew what caused it :D Bobby

[rsn48]

Or in the military, the term is "brain F and A and R and T" If I don't spell it out, it won't make it through this forums censor; I've already had one word censored out. It was B and I and T and C and H. Lol...just had to do that on principal. I don't like censorship.

[ 05 April 2001: Message edited by: rsn48 ]

[watash]

Rsn48, that's because of the 13 and 14 year old young Men who are members who would never even think of using such kind words, so could not possibly understand what you were trying to say. Although they may refer to their own mothers and girlfriends in the same manner, they are not allowed to read it in print, because it might warp their little minds or stunt their growth. Personally I think that bunch of young men has already lost interest in us and have turned their hobby interests to girls, gangs and guns, so not to worry. Those too young to join the Marines probably do not engage in the fine art of lighting a high aimed windy expression in the locker room anyway, so there again, could not understand what you mean. In Boot Camp, there was a Sargent of short temper who had been shot in the mouth in WWII and was quite nasty in vocabulary. I can assure you, we did understand him, or else! His pet expression was: "You Dumb S**t Heads, I can spray for Termites, but I can't spray for youngin's! You will get killed if you don't learn"! He would rather shoot us himself than have us get shot on his watch, he told us over and over. I think he would have too!

[CP&E 3207]

wow thois is gettinmy P and R and E and T and T and Y interesting ;)

[rsn48]

We are an E and C and L and E and C and T and I and C bunch. My favourite Regimental Sargeant Major used to say: "G.. D... it! don't swear!!"

[Bos]

Conveniently, some of us have a GandEandNandEandTandIandC excuse built in, a "Blonde Moment", Bobby

[Benny]

You know what I think is funny? Go hang out around a high school, or some other local area that young people hang out(the high school will probably escort you out like some petty thug any more these days), and you might be absolutley amazed at the levels of language we younin's speak. I bet some of it is over even the vocabulary levels of even our anciet peoples, scary. I hate IT!!!

I might use some of the lighter, more correct terms, I do not use the darker ones. They are all too strong, too "mature" for me. And I hate talking with some one when every other sentence sounds like "F S M F B F S F B ******"(you fill in the wildcards). I think I get the message: "now don't talk to me any more" And don't think that all of these teens don't speak that way. Most of them, out of the presence of adults, have mouths about as black as the inside of the smokebox. Boy would I love to see my face shine in that smoke box again! Anybody know of a good strong soap?

[watash]

I thought of a time when a guy got his hand burned touching a hot firebox. He "talked to God loud and long" about it. The thought came to mind: "He is talking to the wrong guy about getting burned, it'll be the other one that will burn him! God resents those who take his name in vain!

My opinion is that there are a lot of good kids who are not basically mean.

Due to the times we now live in, (with the break up of the traditional home, where there was a father who loved his wife, and they both loved their children, and children respected authority, and really wanted to learn); there has been a growing number of self-centered lawless young people who will be running this country soon, even worse than "Slick Willy" is. Our fearless leaders lie to us openly in our face now, so that teaches our youth that it is alright to lie. Kids with guns are not taught gun handling by their fathers anymore. Your life means nothing to these kids if you get in their way, or they feel like a little target practice. They have gotten the idea that the world owes them anything they happen to want, and are fully willing to kill to get it.

God knew this could happen when He gave man the power to reason. God's chosen people were the only ones he made "Laws to Live By" and set those Laws in effect. All other peoples on earth were considered no more than heathens. Much of the youth we hear about in the Media today are the heathens because that is what makes news.

God said that any child that arrives at the age of 12 and is not in subjection to his parent's at that time; is to be taken out and stoned to death! Old west Texas law was pretty close to that too. I have heard some accounts that would curl your hair, but that is not Trains.

That is why we here on the TrainBoard are trying to maintain a healthy, friendly atmosphere where we can all get along and voice our opinions in a personal manner with no intent to arouse anger. It is merely our opinion, and we then have to be fully willing to listen to your opinion. There should be no competition as to who is better than another. I was told this expression:

"Its just mind over matter: I don't mind, and you don't matter!"

It was funny at the time, but it does describe the generation we have to live in.

Best we give it some thought.

[Telegrapher]

Watash I say AMEN to that

[ajy6b]

I have enjoyed reading these stories, a really good topic Watash. smile.gif I grew up the son of grocer in a railroad town. Portsmouth, Ohio. I was about 16 before I realized that not all diesel locomotives were painted black. :D

[watash]

"My Stars and Garters", here I sit on a Whipple-tree just realizing how much older I must be than you young Whipper-snappers!

If anyone knows what I just said, then you can understand how I wonder where the time went.

I well remember the first motor driven piece of railroad equipment I rode was in the summer of 1934 when my Grandmother took me from Wichita, Kansas down to Anthony, Kansas on a Doodle Bug to spend two weeks with her. She had made the trip so many times, she knew the Motormen who ran the trip bothways. I can still remember the exhaust sound it made, and that he shifted gears on it. (Bood-Bood-bood). In later years, I rode back home on the last run it ever made, and he got her up to 32 miles an hour! Can you emagine going that fast? It was scarey! That one was replaced by a shiney new one that looked more like the HO models available today that were diesel electrics. The new one was a marvel of progress! There were no gears to shift, and the motor had a pur-r-r to it. The new one did not have the black and white striped chevron paint on the front, and you could not hear it from across the field like the old one. The old one had a three cylinder Buda diesel that was replaced by a six cylinder Euclid in the new one. (I think that's right).

Then later the whole town turned out to see the new Burlington Zepher Streamliner! That was the "Cat's Meow", a really "Keene" stream lined shiney silver and red trimmed thing that looked like it was going sixty miles an hour while it was just sitting there! We were all amazed at the fancy padded seats and classy interior! Not long after that, there was a new silver F- unit passenger train came to Wichita and we got to ride it from there to Harper, Kansas! Man it was fast! The Conductor told us we were going a mile a minute! Unbelievable!

The thrills of youth. Everyone thought those things were just a fad, and could never equal the big black steam engines that were serious railroading. You see, it was different back then, we could marvel at all the different things from an 0-4-0 to the 4-12-2's, and occasionally even the 2-8-8-2 and 4-8-8-4's and go see and ride on them, they were the real engines! Today, all you have to bicker about is the color of paint, what engine number ran which year, and if it had a toilet or plastic bags. Today, you even have young girls driving trains! Fellows, I think I have been around too long! :eek:

[Ironhorseman]

Wayne .. yep, I can remember those things too! When I was about 8 years old I can remember going with my class into downtown Los Angeles to see the original American Freedom Train, which was pulled by a 'futuristic' F-unit, all cars and locos painted red, white and blue. I stood in line for over 8 hours to take a 20 minute stroll through the cars to view all the original documents that make this great nation unique.
Had I known then that all those beautiful steamers were going to disappear, I would have taken more time to enjoy and study them.
I find that today's youth are not really interested in live steam locomotives .. they like the modern diesels. It's sort of sad. :rolleyes

[Benny]

Not interested in steam???!!!!!

Sorry, but nothing quite matches it.

[watash]

I know guys, it never entered our minds that steam would die someday. I was on a trip one time heading for Marine Corps Boot Camp in California on the Rock Island Rocket, sitting in the Parlor Car. The conductor said we had just hit our road speed of 75! At the time we were being passed by a crack Hudson pulling a passenger troop train doing at least 20 miles an hour faster than that diesel. Naw, steam would be around for ever! Back then I thought I would be too!

[CP&E 3207]

actually steam never really did die, if it was dead, then there would be none and museums, and excursion lines, etc. so steam ain't dead!! ( it's only sick :mad: ) tongue.gif :( :( :rolleyes:

[T.K.Marletter]

I was engineering for CSX in 1989 for CSX on the old St.Louis line from Grafton to Benwood Juction. The this particular train, I was acting conductor for the day. The engineer was a rookie, and was only his 3rd run over the line. As we were cruising along we had a yellow signal at the top of a hill between Smithburg, and ellenboro. So I told the kid to let up from 45 to 25 he turned the dynamics to "7" and applied some airbrakes, and then let off the brakes and we were cresting the hill at about 30mph. The dispatcher told us to slowdown more, and so the rookie punched the brakes...a little too nhard, the brake lever went to full and the lead unit started to rattle violently. we began to pick up speed coming to the bottom of the 2.1% grade and were going a good 45mph, and then we throughed a red. we were really in trouble, I threw the kid out of the seat and I took the controls, letting off the dynamics and let off the brakes then I put the throtle to "0" (from 25 mph) and the train settled but still were goin way too fast when we hit the bottom, I applied moderate braking to the train only, and then put on some brakes to the 3 GP40-2's that were leading(leader was like #6188 I think) I forgt the rest of the #s. but anyway, the train was going 35 into a 25mph curve and I could hear the 3 Geep's screaming into the turn I yelled " GET DOWN, WE'RE F-----G CRASH!! " so then 3 units and 35 loaded hopper cars made it, it was definately a miracle. then were under control again and wehen we stopped at benwood, I requested never to run with a rookie again. (though I did a few more times :rolleyes: )--Tim

[watash]

Welcome aboard TK! It is a good shake-up when a kid is driving the head end! I think that is why in steam days, it took so long before a guy could get off the shovel and into the engineer's seat, they wanted some maturity and comon sense! In fact, I think you almost had to have grey hair at one time before the Road would let you handle a passenger run. Thanks for posting TK, everyone is enjoying the tales here, ever break a knuckle? :D

[Will Clark]

Steam will never die, think of them as dinosaurs! :D

[Lefty]

From one "Fredneck" to another...welcome aboard TK! :D

[watash]

Welcome to our family of railroaders here Will and Lefty!. Steam will rise again!! Even this Diesel fad will go away! Just think, after the last A-Bomb drops, nothing electronic will work, so the only transportation will be steam again! :D

[ 11 April 2001: Message edited by: watash ]

[Benny]

I really enjoyed this one. Now I know some of you will really chew me out, but what the heck, I will enjoy sharing it anyway!

There are 3 hunters in the woods, they're all telling each other what they're are going to shoot. The first one says he's going to get a buck. So he goes out and comes back with a buck.

The other 2 hunters ask how he did it and he says, ''I see tracks I follow tracks I get buck''.

So the second hunter says "I'm gonna get a doe." So he goes out and comes back with a doe.

Then the 3rd hunter asks him how he did it. The 2nd hunter says, ''I see tracks I follow tracks I get doe''.

So the 3rd hunter says, ''I'm just gonna shoot at anything I see''. So he goes out and comes back half a day later all beaten bruised bloody and totally trashed. And the other two hunters ask what happened and he says, ''I see tracks I follow tracks, I get hit by train!''

[watash]

Now I fell off of my wife's lap over that one!!!! Lord Love a Duck, that one was fun-n-n-y! Thanks Benny I needed that one! Right now I couldn't remember my name much less try to top that! :D

[T.K.Marletter]

I never been hunting, but That was a good one,

[T.K.Marletter]

there was an engineer I worked under as brakeman for a few times(early 80's) by the name of Art Winter, he was a ruff and tumble older guy (5 years or so over me) and really didn't keep his language very well "cleaned" he was the one to call if you wanted a job done swiftly and roughly. although he was a real bi--h he was a good guy ina few ways. I wonder if he's still around? :confused:

[ 17 April 2001: Message edited by: T.K.Marletter ]

[watash]

Yeah, old Art an I had a run in awhile back. He has not been around here on the TrainBoard for awhile though. The last I heard he was surfing various other chat rooms where there aare not any kids to offend. He sent me some photos of the wrecks he cleaned up when he was with Chessie. He had some pretty grizzley tales, but I don't think the kids on here could stand the reality of some of them. Did you know him when he got hurt in the runnaway?

[T.K.Marletter]

Yes watash I knew him then, I was acting engineer that day on a train comng in the opposite direction. The dispatcher told me to get over on the siding ahead of me I got in and about 20 minutes later here came a GP40, 2 GP30's, and an SD35. just screaming down the hill. I really don't remeber a whole lot more than that. not sure if it had a train or not., just remeber the conductor radioing air pressure, and then I said,"hey go look out on the porch and see what's coming." then ZOOM!! there came Art down the hill. :eek: :eek: :D

[Colonel]

Yes we all remember Art here he was quite a contributor until he went off the rails. He was eventually blocked from this site which is a shame as he had a lot of pictures and stories

[trainbooks@hotmail.com]

I pulled the pin twenty years ago, and a lot of things have changed since then. The 80's were the last years to work with full crews, firemen, and cabooses. I've heard that TT&O dispatching has changed, and locomotives don't have class lights. Out on the dark territory where I used to run, who lines up behind when a train leaves a siding? (it ain't the person in the crummy). Are all trains two person crews? The locals I rode between OKC and Quanah, TX had enough switching to wear out a full crew with radios.
Even though the brakeman's and switchman's extra board was a grueling lifestyle, it was also a "social gathering" that you could enjoy, and look forward to each call. There was always a good deal of excitement in me every time I signed the 'A' book for another run. Even when you caught a job with the most beligerant knothead conductor, you survived because there would be one or two other people to suffer with you and share the misery. Is all of this gone?
One of the most captivating things that we did in the yard or on the road was switching by hand and lantern signals. We carried radios about 60% of the time on the road, and all the snakes had one, but we didn't like to use them for lots of reasons. My fondest memories of those days (actually, it was nights most of the time) remembering the "conversations" we carried on as we did our work. This may sound crazy but switching at night with snow on the ground was my #1 favorite job; the engineer would always slow the pace just a bit so we could get on and off safely, the snow acted lke a muffler to absorb the gawdawful squeals and noises the wheels made, the moon made the whole snow covered earth sparkle, and our lanterns allowed us to talk to each other in the quiet night. It was a beautiful thing. I never heard an engineer complain about having to hang his head out the window to take signals (even he was "outside" with us). He would have a coat with a hood and that was enough.
The first time the QA&P borrowed me from the OKC board, I knocked the engineer off his seatbox. The QAP crew was spoiled to radios. I can remember making the first coupling of the first job there, because I was passing signals and the engineer was probably staring at the radio. I was able to jump off before the crash, but the engineer received a full wake-up call. And after that I used the radio to accomodate their habits, but I had to let them know that I knew how to work if the radio blew up.

[watash]

Gee Trainbooks, has it been that long? Seems like a short time ago to me. I know what you mean about the lantern signals at night, we didn't have radios.

There were plenty of BANG couplings, and even a few pull-a-ways when the pin fell back in just as the engine started up dragging the car out from under us.

I never did get very good at walking the catwalk on top of the box cars, now there aren't any to walk on! How do you get up there to set the brakes now days?

I remember one old conductor's comment about railroads doing away with a caboose on their trains. He said, "What are they going to do, put a saddle on the last coupler for me?" We all laughed, then someone told him not to worry, the coupler was strong enough to hold him up! (The conductor weighed around 300!) :D

[Rule 281]

Told ya I'd get around to it, Watash.
Just another day...You sit around waiting all afternoon, first out on the extra list, you know you're going to go but you're not sure when. Finally decide to try to sleep for a while about 7 o'clock but your eyes don't click shut till around 8. The phone rings at 9 and somehow you know it's the crew caller before you even pick it up. "11pm extra freight, two man crew, probably deadhead home on arrival, have a safe trip." Caught short again, oh well.
First order of business is make a LARGE pot of coffee, drink half of it and fill the thermos with the rest. Say goodnight to sleepy wife and kids, throw the grip in the trunk and get headed for the office by 10.
Meet the conductor at the yardmaster's office and shoot the breeze while our paperwork grinds out of the printer and the yard job gets in the clear so we can work. Catch a van out to the power and start making up the train, which turns out to be 150 cars with a couple of Dash 9s to drag the whole mess. It takes about 3 hours to get it all doubled up, air tested and the marker hung but finally the parade is moving and we've got the whole road to ourselves in the wee hours of the morning. It's heavy for the 2 units so it's #8 throttle or lots of dynamic most of the way, waking up all the little towns and rattling windows as we try to make track speed. We're still drinking coffee and complaining to each other trying to fight off the urge to sleep since we're into those pre-dawn hours when most human bodies just want to shut down. Then comes the news from the dispatcher, "There's no room at the yard for you so you're going to hold for a while until they clear some tracks." Wonderful. So at around daybreak, we ease to a stop about 20 miles out and settle in to wait. Now it's a real fight to stay awake. Without the signals and the train to keep your attention, it's almost impossible. Finally a stroll out in the cold and the last dregs of the thermos get me through the 3 hour hold until at last we get the ok to come on in. One last good pull and then it's all downhill to the terminal, the end is in sight, but (there's always one of those) when we get to the yard, there still isn't any room so we have to hold once again. This time though, we've got crossings and the main blocked (I hate to say I told ya so, but...) so we're a little bit hotter to get moving and the delay is only 2 hours. At last an opening appears and permission comes to pull in and park the monster. There's no question of doing anything else as we run out of time just as we stop. The yard crew hops on and takes over while we heave the bags in the van to head for home. 12 hours on the button. Now for a 2 hour ride with a driver who isn't the best but isn't the worst either so dozing is at least possible for a while. Back to our terminal to mark off, an hour drive home and trip #68 goes in the book. A pretty long haul but not too bad, all things considered. There've been a lot longer ones. About 18 hours after the phone rang, I hit the home door and that's about it for a few hours sleep. Ten hours until I'm rested doesn't seem like very far away. ;)

[T.K.Marletter]

hey, I haven't been in here for a while,. Iwent to the hospital last uesday night thinking I was having a heart attack. :eek: Turned out I pulled a few muscles carrying 20, 100 pound bags of quikrete for the new train building (HO scale) one at a time. LOL tongue.gif :rolleyes:

[watash]

You needed a TV on board Rule281!
P.S.
(I'll call Rule281 and T.K. at 06:00 for a 13,000 ton coal haul over the Continental Divide with two Mac90's and a sw1500 with EOT. Its a No smoking, No coffee, No baggie run.) hee hee

(That's one way to make friends and influence people!) :D

[Lefty]

Jeezed Tim...it's only a hobby! tongue.gif

[ 03 May 2001: Message edited by: Lefty ]

[watash]

Everyone is hepped up about safety now days, but it wasn't always like that. In the shops and roundhouse there some High-Jinks among the fellows. As "Gophers", the newly hired kids, we were the butts of most of the jokes!

There was a mallet came in for heavy repairs to the frame. As you know the front engine is pivoted to swing around curves. The pivot is a huge ball with a pin through it that allows the movement for twist, swing right and left, and up and down, yet has almost no slack foreward or rearward. The slide plate under the front of the boiler gets rain, dirt, and leaves on it which wipes the grease off and allows rust to set in. That makes excessive wear. The same thing happens to the ball pivot. They stacked railroad ties under the boiler to jack it up off the front engine, and we had to go under and re-pack the ballpin and slide plate. The grease was as tough as tar and extremely sticky. We had to heat the bucket and swab globs of the stuff into grooves made to hold it. When we finished, and came back out, no one told us to get out of the way, so we just stood there watching as the big crane lifted the boiler and all the ties were removed. When the crane lowered the boiler back down onto the front engine, it started to bubble a bit. All of a subben that sticky grease squirted out in all directions as the weight pushed all the air out of the grooves and the grease filled every nook and granny it could get into! The excess plastered us right across the chest about a half inch deep. All the old hands were laughing their fool heads off at us! Yes we should have had more sence, but we learned.

The three of us "gophers" got together and tried to figure out a way to get back at them, it was expected, of course. We had heard of all the ways this was usually done, but we needed something they wouldn't expect, or be prepared for.

Finally we decided how we were going to do it. we each got a good gob of packing and soaked it in axle grease, then wiped each driver half way around. Then we went a couple of feet behind each one and wiped the rails.

A couple of days later when they started to back the mallet out onto the turntable, we watched from a distance this time. The engine started OK and got a couple of feet when it hit the first part of the greasy rail, and kept going OK. But when the greasy part of the driver hit the greasy rail it began to slip, then the drivers broke loose and spun like crazy! The Hostler shut her down, but she must have skidded a good ten feet toward the table before she stopped.! We fell out laughing! No one had suspected, and everyone was running in all directions!
It was a good feeling to come up with something different that put one over on the old hands. The Hostler threattened us with a slow painful death of course. But he admitted it had been a helpless feeling to be sliding and nothing he could do!

The Super called us in and reamed us good and loud, but he had a twinkle in his eye! He made sure the other guys had gone back to work, then whispered that we had pulled off a good one, but to not do it again. HA! :D

[Hytec]

Watash, that's a wonderful tale :D And Supers, heck - any Boss, with the ability to laugh in private with the "Gophers" were and still are a Very RARE Breed! God Bless 'em!

Thanks for the laugh, Hank

[T.K.Marletter]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by watash:
You needed a TV on board Rule281!
P.S.
(I'll call Rule281 and T.K. at 06:00 for a 13,000 ton coal haul over the Continental Divide with two Mac90's and a sw1500 with EOT. Its a No smoking, No coffee, No baggie run.) hee hee

(That's one way to make friends and influence people!) :D<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I never ran a '90 before (I was involved with testinf for EMD in late 1995 with the SD80 though, just to make some extra $$ for the heck of it. ANYWAY,, I'D love to take that run Watash, and I ain't near-darn kidding. smile.gif also I don't smoke (not for 28 years), nor drink coffee so that run ain't no probolem here :D :D

[watash]

Its those little toilet baggies that give you the problem TK! Sorta unsteady when you got both hands full trying to hit the opening, in a squat about the time she hits a 18 degree curve! We lost a shovel that way! Used to get an inch or so of pea coal to cover the shovel, then do the deed onto the coal. When finished, it was thrown into the firebox, and poof! One time The engineer had the fireman run things, and just as he finished we hit a curve. That scoop went sailing right out the fireman's side! :D

Say, TK, what is the term, "Watch out for those 707's down at Point-O-Rocks!" mean? Did anyone ever find out?

[BN9900]

Hello all, I ran across this story telling place at School today, and I burst a gut laughing at some of these stories. Some of those are halarious.
I'm only 20 but have had the privlage of running a local on a class one railroad. smile.gif My friend and I went to Wyoming to visit some family and my uncles who work for the UP got my friend and me a ride on a local. We actually had the choice of waiting on a Directors Special and getting pictures of 6936 or taking the ride. I told my friend that we could see the DD40 "anytime" compared to getting a cab ride, which is the main reason we were up there. The run was out of Green River but there was a derailment the day before, we had to be picked up in the neighboring town Rock Springs. Well we all know that "locals" are powered by Geeps or something else that's older. My friend and I were standing there waiting to be picked up when this SD60M and Dash-8 came around the corner. My friend was saying that that couldn't be the train, the power was to big to be on a local. Well it slowed down and the crew members came out to greet us. We jumped on and then did the switching in Rock Springs. I was just getting settled in my seat as my friend Yelled out "Oh S*** look what's coming!!!! On the next track running west was 6936 with the directors special. We both got a few shots off before it flew past. Well we continued our run up to the Chevron plant and it was a decent grade all the way up. We had those two units and 40 cars in run 8 all the way up. The engineer let my friend and I run all the way up and back. There was 8 miles of Branch we rode on and 16 miles of mainline. They didn't allow us to drive on the main but as soon as we cleared that switch, we got to go for it. My friend and I each got a chance at driving up and coming back. On the way up the lead unit was the SD60M and on the way back was the Dash-8. It was so much fun trying out both Run 8 and Dynamic 8. :D I will never forget that day in Wyoming. The crew on that train was so wonderful...reading all of your stories about how times have changed made me realize that they have, however in a town out in the boonies of Wyoming, there is a crew that is willing to put their jobs on the line for the happiness of two teens. I just want to thank them again for a wonderful memory. Thanks Guys! smile.gif

[watash]

BN9900 you just lived the thrill of your life. Back in steam days, you would have been shoveling coal all the way up and back for a chance to ride in the right hand seat for awhile, and loving every minute of it. If you ever get a chance to get in the cab of a steamer, take it! Then you will know why we loved the old steamers so much. That was the Romance of the Rails! Now when you are in your car, it will occasionally cross your mind that you had all the horsepower in the world at your finger tips! Then you will think, what that engine would do in this car! WOW! :D

[BN9900]

Watash, your right, I do that. I got a chance to fire a steamer, and yesI did take it. It didn't move because the FRA won't allow the museum to move it with a payload due to repairs needed on the boiler, how ever it is used to steam heat the cars before they go out with the diesel. My friend had the fun job of firing that from 6 am on a friday to about 7 pm the next afternoon. Ispelled him for 6 hours onthat friday. As much as I liked that. I think I will stick to engineering diesels. However to just take a ride, or watching the steamers are a thrill. tongue.gif

[watash]

Hey that's great! I didn't lose my calluses until well into my 40's! HA! You know how the diesel cab bounced and swayed going down the track? Emagine sitting fifteen feet back behind the diesel on a pole going down that track! The steamer's cab is a good ways behind the drivers, so it is like riding a bull whip, up, down, sideways, push, pull, shove and burp! Like a roller coaster, and fun as hell unless you get sea sick easy! :D

[BN9900]

Watash, this is why I'll stick with diesels thank you.

[watash]

You are right BN9900, the shiney diesels are prettier, smoother riding, and easier to "drive". You get the Cadillacs, we were half scared of the monster Model T's we were hanging onto for dear life! HA! But its a thrill either way, isn't it? :D

[BN9900]

Watash, with only having one working hand a diesel is much easier. (I have a disability called Hydrosyphilis) So the diesels are my #1 choice. smile.gif

[watash]

I do understand old Buddy, I coated the inside of my lungs with polyurethane while experimenting with all kinds of pourable plastics to encapsulate an electric motor for use as a pump under water. It is like trying to breathe through a balloon. I would not be able to breathe around the old steamers anymore. Even diesel fumes get to me now. My railroading days are over, so that is why I enjoy the models so much.

[BN9900]

That's not good Watash :( I remember seeing the old E-s on the BN out in Chicago doing what they do best, hauling passengers, even though they weren't haulin' name trains like the Empire Builder, North Coast Limited or California Zephyr, they were still quite a sight to see racing west into the golden sun set. Man if only I could have had a cab ride in one of those :( That's the main reason I like diesels so much, the memories from those units are just like yours and steam. Did have a cab ride in a cab car for about 10 miles once but that's for another time. Long live the Es smile.gif

[watash]

I think the ElCapitan was an E-8 (long with 6 axel) for passenger. The 4 axel ones were for freight. Back then they were noisey inside when they reved up the engine! They bounced back and forth between the rails, but that could have been the track too. My guess is there is quite an improvement now, so the new diesels of today must be a good ride! I'm just glad you are getting to ride at all! Some of these guys will never have that thrill of the rails, so we have to try our best to put it into words. :D

[BN9900]

Well I will try to do that. The SF used their E-8s (all 4 or 5 of them) in second hand train service like the La Junta-Denver and on the west coast. The main reason why the SF didn't use Es was the same reason as the GN, the traction motors would have burned up so they used the Es on lighter trains. Granted the ATSF Es came into Chicago once or twice it wasn't often most of the time they had awsome sets of ABBBB or ABBBBA sets of Fs.

[BN9900]

Do we have one room for one more Cab story? Well this one takes place between Aurora and Lisle Illinois on a commuter run east-bound. I was about 12- or 13 at the time and I always liked riding in th e cab car. This was the last car of the train, and when traveling east bound it was the first (push-pull) Well when heading east people loved to stand at the door and look down the track, kids loved (and love) to do that to imagine they were engineering the train. It was a weekend run so people traffic was light and the conductor asked if I would like to go to the second level of the car and visit the Engineer. These were my favorite trains so of course I said yes. We went up there and stood behind the engineer as we took the train into Chicago. It was a cool ride, I was only 13 so he didn't allow me to actually drive the thing but he let me blow the whistle at the "W" post and it was pitiful. The old cab cars still had the cord to pull for the whistle, and I was so weak all I could do was make it hiss....that was pathetic and I was a little embarressed. Oh well, I had a blast and will never forget that. smile.gif

[watash]

You may have felt embarrassed, but the thrill far over shadows that! You will always know how it feels, smells, and sounds even if you never experience that again. It never really goes away! Thank goodness! :D

I'll tell another tale later.

[BN9900]

That's true, I would like to thank all the Railroad Crews out there past and present who take the time to show some kindness to the young railfan (and old ones too) instead of just looking the other way. You guys really do make an impression on us younguns, thank you.

A special Thanks to the Crews in IL and WY
:D

[rsn48]

Back in around 56 my grandfather was a CN engineer in the Canadian Rockies. When I came out to live with my mother and grandparents in the Rockies (Jasper, Alta) because my father was on a peace keeping mission during the Suez Canal Crises, my grandfather had me up in (I'm guessing here, but I think an F unit) probably F7. All I can remember is crying because it looked like the engine was going to fall off the curves in the Rockies and I was scared. I can remember not liking that you didn't know what was around the next bend. Needless to say, he was embarrassed as something special turned into a hassle for him. I did eventually get back into his good grace as went on other rides (and didn't cry...lol).

But I also remember the F7's had a shrill whistle that was a signalling device that I didn't like. The sound use to scare me. I was around 7 years old at the time.

[watash]

Seems like I recall there was an early development of some sort of wheel slip device for those old streamliners that gave a shriek every time the wheels spun. That would drive you up a wall in curving mountain rightofway!

[NSBrakeman]

All first generation diesels had wheel-slip lights in the cabs, but those were the extent of the electronics in those days, nothing like the computer crap they have today.

Dave :mad:

[watash]

This is a test to see if a post will work. Haven't been able to read any post beyond page 2 for the last several weeks. What good is it to post if we can't see it? Try this:

[watash]

Sorry folks, I'll try posting again tomorrow or the next day if the white page lets me. :(

[7600EM_1]

Hey BN, and Watash,
I got to cab ride in a new AC6000 "CSX" like 3 months ago from Meyersdale, PA to Connelsville, PA
what a thrill that was, It was almost new they had cleaned it up, and their was like 3 or 4 other loco's behind it! It was a AC6000 on the point, and then an AC44CW-9, and I think 2 SD50's. What a wild ride that was! :D Its nice when ya know an engineer let me tell yeah! Bad part of the whole excursion was I didn't have my damned camera along with me! :mad: I'll have my chance again the next time the old camera is going with! :D

[watash]

A number of years ago, during heavy rains, a couple of spans of an old wood tressle washed away just north of Grand Prairie, Texas. An engine had gone south to pick up some box cars and several flats that were to be spotted back in a north yard. As this engine pushed the flats while pulling the boxes, the engineer suddenly saw a black gap in the rails ahead! The driving rain was blurring his vision, so he was intently watching for high water, trees or other debris that might wash against the tracks. But there were NO TRACKS ahead!! He slammed the old steamer in reverse, and hit the train brakes. The result was, he and his fireman lived, and the engine was saved, but he lost the two front flat cars in the river. You can see how high the water was if you notice the weeds and brush laying on top of the ties of the near end of the tressle! When I took this photo on the way home from work about twilight, one of the flat cars was still under water about the center of the gap. It was the last run the old steamer made in revenue, and this section of track was never repaired. It was soon abandoned and all the rails removed.

http://ns1.gameinfozone.net/jan/brig600med.jpg

[watash]

Well its been a while since we had a mystery story, so here is one I have to say "I over-heard being discussed", to protect the by-standers who were not involved. Ever since I heard about this, I have wondered what all is hauled in those big covered hopper cars?

You know how sometimes you used to make a phone call, and you could hear the person you were calling, but you could also hear someone else on the line also, but they could not hear you? Well, one time, late at night, there were two people discussing an incident that must have happened a few weeks before that.

When I realized they could not hear me, I started to hang up and try again later to make my call, but by then I realized they were talking about some cars that had dissappeared right out of a yard; so I eves-dropped. As best I remember, this is how it went:

It seems that somewhere way out in the boonies, there must have been an abandonded section of track, that used to connect to a semi-main line. As I piece the happenings together, four or five people uncoupled five of those big hopper cars, and rolled them back into the darkness away from the active yard personel and other activity. There were truck tire tracks where a large truck must have been chained to one of the cars and pulled the string down to another switch and out onto an industrial siding where they could be hidden from general site between the buildings.

Someone had keys to open and re-set the switch. They may have pulled one car at a time, or all at once, that is not known. Sometime that nite, they suspect markings were changed so the cars could be sent to a destination along the main and switched to a less used track and set out at a small town several miles away. Someone would have had to alter waybills, and had the authority or cunning to get the cars picked up, and tied into the proper train. From that point on, the cars simply dissappeared. An investigation started when the customer began inquiring about his order for the cars, "Where were they, and when do I get them?" Traces were sent, and investigators found people who had vagely remembered seeing a small string of hoppers that had arrived, and had been sitting in the yard when they went off duty. People who had come on duty, had not noticed them at all. They may have been there, but they just didn't notice them. There was no trace of them ever leaving the yard, and no trace of them passing through the yard, nor on any train around the time they would have been expected to have arrived, or been waiting for the train to take them on to their destination. Evidentally the days passed and cars were checked on all the industrial sidings, there were no such cars. One car was found in another yard with the markings they were hunting for, but it was empty and had been loaded with another product, with some residue still inside.

The phone call was telling what had happened after the investigation. When the cars were re-marked, they had been separated and set onto different industrial tracks during the night time switcher. One car was set out in another yard for pickup by the next train through that same night and had gone out just before daylight. Another was sent out the following night and went to another town and set out. The two next went the same night to a different town, and the last car went out the next night to a town only 12 miles away. It was picked up during the morning and came non-stop right through the yard it was stolen from and was dropped off at the same town the two cars were dropped of at. The rest of the cars were shifted around the same way until each car arrived at this little town one at a time, and always at night.

After the customer set up a ruckus to find his product, a track inspector noticed some fishplate bolts were missing the nuts and lockwashers, so he had the track gang replace them and tighten them up again. The investigators ran agross his repair order and inspected the spot that was repaired.

A section of rail had been removed and replaced, but seemingly nothing else had been disturbed. They walked the track almost all the way back into the little town, but found nothing. A few weeks later, the investigator was back and found the abandoned rails that lead to an old sand pit. At the pit was parts to a switch frog, fresh cut rail sections, and an abandoned crawler tractor that ran as soon as they tried it. There were no rail cars anywhere to be seen. There were a lot of tire tracks where large semi-trailer trucks had made several trips, but they lead out to a paved road.

No one in the little town had seen any trucks, or sold gas or food to any strangers except a couple of tourists, and no body had reported a stolen tractor. The pit was too far from town to have heard any activity, and no one had stayed up late enough to have seen any lights out there. The cars were gone!

The guys on the phone were speculating that someone knew the train schedule through that town, and had set the cars out on a siding as usual, probably one at a time. When the second car arrived, the bandits had set their switch in place, pulled the car through it onto the abandoned spur, removed their switch, replaced the rail, and unloaded the car into trucks. The next night, the guys must have pushed the empty onto the track, pulled it back to clear the switch, and pulled the new car into the sand pit. They then pushed the empty back up to the siding and left it, while they unloaded the second car and hauled the contents away again. This must have been repeated until all five cars were empty. As the cars accumulated on the siding, they were mixed with box cars. At some time or another the empties were picked up and sent back east to some yard where no one could figure out where they came from. They were not damaged, they were just empty.

In their haste to get away, the guy left to finish fastening the replaced rail bolts, didn't really finish it up, or the old sand pit wouldn't have been discovered, because it had been abandoned before this railroad ever bought the right of way!

Except for the customer, no one knew what was so valuable that someone would go to the trouble they did to steal five covered hoppers and haul the load off in trucks.

I do not know to this day what it could have been, maybe I don't want to know!

[CP&E 3207]

from "The Guage". :(

Tim was since like april a member of trainboard.

June 14th, 2001
"I learned that Tim Marletter (T.K.Marletter) passed away yesterday afternoon at his home in Frostburgh,MD, he was 73."

(wt&c (me) posted this there)

[Gregg Mahlkov]

Watash, re: your covered hopper story. Can you think of a better way to feed "rustled" cattle than with "rustled" feed? :D :D

[BN9900]

Howdy Ya'll, well you are welcome for the stories, I've had to keep my mouth shut about that ride since they were all puttin' their jobs on the line to get us that ride. But 4 years later there's no problem in relating that story now smile.gif

[ 21 June 2001: Message edited by: BN9900 ]

[BN9900]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by BN9900:
Howdy Ya'll, well you are welcome for the stories, I've had to keep my mouth shut about that ride since they were all puttin' their jobs on the line to get us that ride. But 4 years later there's no problem in relating that story now smile.gif

[ 21 June 2001: Message edited by: BN9900 ]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Should have read jobs not lives

[watash]

I appologize for not feeling like much right now. My heart and thoughts go out to Tim Marletter's family. We had become good e-mail friends, since we were so close to the same age. I will miss his humor and friendship.

[fitz]

Pat, thanks for publishing the news of Tim Marletter's passing. If you know any of his family, please pass our condolences along to them. I enjoyed his posts here on Trainboard. :(

[friscobob]

Sorry to hear about Tim's passing. My condolences to his family, and all his friends. :(

Where can we send sympathy cards, or a note?

[watash]

I'm sorry guys, I have missplaced T.K.'s address. I just replied to his, so evidently didn't copy it down.

[Benny]

I'm just choked up...RIP

[watash]

There are getting less and less of the old time steam engineers left. They told us a few of the tales the younger fellows enjoyed so much, but many more tales and data is being lost each time one of us passes.

Maybe we can encourage all of you young or old, to tell us of the happenings on the real railroads, so the information can live on for those who follow.

Any more interest?

[Rule 281]

Lead on, Watash! Where do we start?

[watash]

Well, back in the early depression days when there were no jobs after 1929, the Hobos began to see an increase in "Jumpers". Hobos were a breed of people, both men and a few women who were dissabled WW I vets and others that wandered the country aimlessly, many lived on trains. Trains were their home, their transportation, and livelihood. "Jumpers" were people who had lost everything, and were dissolutioned with life in general. When odd bits of work for food, hand-outs, and cold hearted folks closed up the towns, these people began to take to the railroad box cars to travel to another place to try their luck. Some of the jumpers were so desperate, they became dangerous.

They gained the nickname "Jumper" when they began jumping other riders, some of whom were old line Hobos, affectionately known as "Knights of the Rails" by some conductors. The railroads had not had enough trouble from hobos to bother until the Jumpers started ruining everything.

Jumpers formed into groups to break into loaded box cars, stealing anything that could be traded for food to begin with, then it developed into real loosely organized crime. This caused the railroads to protect themselves. There have been numbers of books, even some movies glorifying the "hobos", some with now famous nicknames.

The Jumpers were not Hobos, although there were a very few who had been Hobos. They were out and out criminals, and threrfore, censored. Almost no news was allowed regarding their activities.

The Conductors were the original railroad police, in that it was the Conductor's train, just like the Captian was responsible for his ship, and carried the same authority. There were some very ruthless Conductors, who had taken their responsibility to the point of being the judge, jury, and sometimes the executioner on their trains after being robbed repeatedly.

The Centeral Pacific had one known as the "Spike", the Union Pacific had "Axehandle Charlie", and the other roads had their own Conductors who vowed to rid their routes of this "Vermin of the rails". Quite often the conductor who had given a ride and handout to some Hobos in the past, now turned against anyone who tried to ride his train. During the few years of the late 20' and early 30's it was common practice to simply throw people off moving trains when found. Rarely did any mention of a "Hobo" hit the news unless it involved someone or something spectacular. When it did, the reporter usually printed Hobo, when in truth it was a Jumper.

Several Hobos were found frozen to death when they climbed up on the deck between the tender and the boiler of Southern Pacific's big cab foreward engines that climbed over the mountains in the dead of winter. Hobo camps used to be rather safe places where hobos would congregate and swap experiences, catch up on the news of railroads that would look the other way if you just wanted to ride, and made no trouble, and those that would kill you on site. Sometimes kids could sit and listen to their tales in fastenation for hours. Today, the kid would not be at all safe.

There were a number of tales: "Axehandle" had walked up behind someone sitting on top of a box car and split the head open with his axe handle, only to find it had been some woman who didn't know it was foolish to sit on the top of a moving box car at night. She had run away from home, pregnant, she wasn't married, and it was her first train ride. When her body was found, the town folks never susspected the railroad, only the hobos knew.

"Spike" had a movie made about him based on his method of knocking someone off who was "riding the Rods". It is believed that the expression "to Knock Off" some one came from this practice. You see, box cars were wooden and would sag under load, so steel rods were run under the floor from end to end and tightened with turnbuckles to strengthen the floor. These rods were looped over steel stantions that provided the force to warp the floor upwards. This gave enough space for a man to lay a couple of boards across these rods and lay on the rods during his ride. There was no way to reach this guy while the train was moving, but "Spike" developed a method that was quite effective.

In those days the couplers were still link and pin, the knuckle type just being under development. This pin or "spike" as sometimes called, was about 16" long made out of 1-1/2 to 1-3/4" diameter steel bar with a handle on one end.

Spike tied one of these steel pins to a small rope and lowered the pin down between the rails and let it drag along bouncing over the ties. As he paydout the rope, the spike would bounce along hitting the car floor, rails, ties, and anything in between with terrible force, enough to break a leg or arm. Of course the rider had no where to go, so was killed, either when struck in the head by the spike, or when he fell between the rails and got ground up under the wheels. Then one rider was able to grab the rope and cut it. This so infuriated "Spike" that he tied an eight foot piece of cable to the spike, then his rope to the cable. Word went around fast, and riders dissapeared except the one timers. It was estimated he cleaned off about a hundred this way, until one night he was found run over by his own train. It is speculated he had started his spike under a car when all the sudden his spike must have bounced under a wheel or over an axel and pulled his hand off. He must have lost his hold and fell between the rails. They found his hand still tied to the rope, and the spike and part of the cable alongside the tracks not far away.

When the railroad police began, they simply shot the people they found, and closed all box car doors. It wasn't safe in gondolas, or on flats, you were just a fish in a barrel there, and were systematically shot, or you took your chances and jumped off. One guy jumped, or was thrown off. His body was found the next morning tangled in a crossing gate.

There are still people who try to ride the cars today, but it is more dangerous now. There are no longer all the hand holds there were back then. Even if they live to arrive, they are usually caught and some are deported, a few don't make it out of the yards alive the second or third time.

[Rule 281]

If you've looked around the net, you've seen the websites advocating 'train-hopping' as a viable mode of transportation even today, long after the golden age of the Hobos. It's still an incredibly dangerous way to get around (not to mention illegal)but people are still at it.
I've seen a few 'riders' but the one that sticks in my mind was a guy that hopped my consist on a freezing cold night a couple of years ago. We were working a local that turned at the end of it's run and went back to it's original terminal so for a train hopper, it was a train to nowhere. That didn't bother this nut. We got to the end of the line and I was swapping operating units on our 4 engines to run around the train and head the other way. After I cut out the leader, I started back in the dark through the units to get on the other end. As I opened the door to the second engine, I tripped over a set of feet attached to a very drunk individual snoozing peacefully and soundly on the floor of the warm cab. I'm not sure who was more suprised when we collided, him or me but he woke up with a snort and we spent the next minute or two wondering to each other in loud voices, "Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing here?!" Fortunately, the conductor came along and now outnumbered, our passenger subsided. He allowed as how he'd gotten on when we stopped at a crossing and "...just wanted a little train ride before the drunk wore off." Well, for lack of any alternative, we left him where he was with a warning not to touch anything and orders to get off at the same place he got on when we went by it again or get taken off by the cops. I stopped for the crossing just about at dawn and saw him step down and stagger off into the snowy bushes. I never saw him again so he probably either jumped a train actually going somewhere or wound up in the county 'hotel' for the winter. Either way, it sure was a weird feeling to trip over somebody in that dark engine. That was the last thing I was expecting and since then I usually carry a fat Mag-Lite, just in case the next one is less agreeable. :eek:

[E&NRailway]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> In those days the couplers were still link and pin, the knuckle type just being under development. This pin or "spike" as sometimes called, was about 16" long made out of 1-1/2 to 1-3/4" diameter steel bar with a handle on one end. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Umm, that's not true, knuckle couplers were developed in the late 19th century, they were in widespread use by the 1920's.

[ 06 July 2001: Message edited by: E&NRailway ]

[Gregg Mahlkov]

Link and pin couplers were outlawed on freight cars used in interchange service before 1900, by 1896, I believe.

Got a story for y'all, but it concerns a PCC trolley motorman. It wasn't funny to him, but I was ROTFLMAO.

In 1957, between my junior and senior years of high school, bought a ticket on the B&O from NY to Detroit and made swiss cheese out of it. On the last leg, I stopped in Philadelphia and went north to ride the Willow Grove trolley line, which served the Willow Grove amusement park and was to a great extent on private r-o-w. No problem getting there, but on the way back, as we approached a major highway grade crossing coming down a steep hill I noticed we weren't slowing down. The car out had stopped before crossing the highway. If you remember PCC's, they had single seating down the "curb" side in front and I was in the second seat, so had a good view. We rolled about 200 feet beyond the crossing and stopped. When we attempted to start up - nothing.

After much head scratching, the motorman removed a panel and found a blown fuse. He replaced it and we started up. As soon as we reached the next car stop, we coasted past it as the fuse blew as soon as the brakes were applied. The motorman had only one spare, so he waited for the next car to show up, which was outbound. he got its fuse and off we went again. He forgot about why the fuse blew and braked for the next carstop with the same result.

This time, we had to wait until the following car showed up. He gave our motorman a new fuse and suggested very strongly he not stop to try to pick anyone else up. Off we went and the motorman started to feel pretty cocky as the speed increased until we reached a sharp curve in the deep woods. He had to brake, with the same result! This time, we stopped just at the end of the curve. Sure enough, the following car showed up a few minutes later and certainly did not expect to find us stopped in the woods nowhere near a carstop. The impact was quite soft, propelling the stopped car about three feet!

The two motormen stepped outside to exchange insults and after their tempers cooled they figured replaced fuses wouldn't cut it and it was the rear truck brake system that was shorting out. They disconnected the rear truck and asked anyone not going all the way back to the beginning of the line at the subway terminal to get into the second car or the third car, which had shown up by this time. So off we went back toward Philadelphia.

We did not stop to pick up any more passengers and rode along fairly well until we left private r-o-w and ended up in the median strip of a boulevard. Now, unlike New Orleans, Philadelphia did NOT mow this median strip, so it was like riding in a wheat field. The motorman kept some sort of a trip record in a leather folder about 3 in. by 8 in. The day had gotten warmer, so he opened the window beside him a little more and shoved his trip record book right out the window!
Ever try to find a wallet in 3 foot tall grass peppered with trash from passing automobiles? By the time the book was found there were four cars behind us and there were five motormen looking.

When we reached the subway terminal the supervisor, wearing an old Conductor type hat, was standing there with his hands on his hips. The fact that there were women aboard the car did not restrain his language nor his derogation of the religious persuasion of the motorman. He grabbed him by the collar and hauled him into the office. A couple of minutes later, the motorman came out with the supervisor following. When the hapless motorman reached the top of the steps, the supervisor kicked him in the seat and sent him sprawling down the steps.

What would a good lawyer get for the motorman today? :eek: :D

[ 07 July 2001: Message edited by: Gregg Mahlkov ]

[watash]

In trying to keep my story shorter, I failed to state that Spike had started using his coupling spike (pin) back when the link and pin was just going out of use, and a lot of them were still around. Spike was said to have died in the late 1890's or early 1900's.

[watash]

Gregg, I vaguely remember seeing a pea green Steeple Cab MOW trolley in Wichita, come down the street, hook a bar onto one of the street cars, then tow it away. This happened out in front of S.G.Holmes & Son men's clothing store where my mother was the bookkeeper. They would not let us on the street car, so we watched, while waiting for the next street car to come along.

That makes me wonder why didn't the following trolley, simply push the one with the blown fuse?

My guess about the blown fuse, is the Motorman was throwing the rheostat into reverse as a means of slowing it down. Did they have air brakes back then, or were the brakes electric?

Maybe they were mechanical? I do remember seeing a long lever the Motorman would push foreward just before he would go, then pull it back (I think after) we stopped. I would have thought it was just a "Parking" brake so the car didn't roll while people were getting on and off. But maybe he pulled it back just before we stopped. I'm not sure.

[Gregg Mahlkov]

Watash, the PCC car was originally designed in the 1930's by the Presidents' Conference Committee (hence PCC) of the Electric Railroads and Transit Companies. it had both air (electrically actuated) and electric track brakes. It did not have a controller, it had a pedal like a bus! And a brake pedal like a bus, too! The car that broke down was built after WW II. Since the line was on hills and had curves and the cars were not equipped with couplers (there was a socket for a tow bar on the anticlimber), one could not push the other. It was the repeated foulups that made the incident funny. :D

[watash]

Yes, it was the foul-ups that were funny! And thanks for educating me about the PCC cars. It was he old red cars (Interurbans) and the down town street cars around 1933/34 that I remember seeing and riding as a little kid. Memory is growing dim Gregg, you help a lot! Thanks.

I remember seeing the motorman lean out the window with a long tool and shift the switch point, and you are right, I have seen them tow the street cars, but have never seen one pushed. I do remember seeing the Motorman pull one catenary shoe down and tie it, then go raise the other one to go back the other way. The interurbans had a loud bell and you couldn't hear them coming until they rang that bell, then they were on you! They were scarey! Simpler times back then. :D

[RIHogger]

I was wroking on the Rock Island and we were running from Des Moines Ia to Silvis Ill one day.
We were running about 50 mph when we came around a curve and there were about 25 or 30 hogs on the
track. We didn't have time to stop so we just plowed on through them. It sure made a mess all over the engine. It was about the end of July so you can imagine aroma by the end of the trip. Not a pretty sight!

Gary

[watash]

Gary, Thanks for stopping by! Did you have a chance to grab any hams? You know you had a close call! Was the Trainmaster hard to convince it was just pigs? :D

Back in the days when buffalo roamed, the herds would stop a train. The "Cow Catcher" worked a little, but at speed the bodies built up against the front and stalled the engine out. One engineer got so frustrated, he shot a buffalo which stampeeded the whole herd. They promptly bowled the train over!

[ 13 July 2001: Message edited by: watash ]</p>

[Rule 281]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by RIHogger:
I was wroking on the Rock Island and we were running from Des Moines Ia to Silvis Ill one day.
We were running about 50 mph when we came around a curve and there were about 25 or 30 hogs on the
track. We didn't have time to stop so we just plowed on through them. It sure made a mess all over the engine. It was about the end of July so you can imagine aroma by the end of the trip. Not a pretty sight!

Gary<hr></blockquote>

Ain't it amazing what winds up in the tracks? We got a call from the dispatcher one night to slow down and make a lot of noise around a certain milepost. Seems the train ahead of us had center-punched a fat bovine at 50 mph and they were afraid there would be more out and around. We didn't see any live ones but there was beef cow spread thinly for a quarter mile down the track. Not enough in any one place for a cheeseburger. Glad it was foggy and dark. :eek:

[rrman48]

smile.gifHey All A question,Has anyone thought about putting all these stories into book form? I
just spent over an hour reading thru most of
them and there are some of the best RR'ing
stories i've read.I know most of them are
true cause ol'railroaders never lie...,might
stretch the truth alittle but never lie.
RRman48
:rolleyes:

[trainbooks@hotmail.com]

I haven't been on a train crew for twenty years, but I can always get a smile from a railroader (especially an old head) if he asks me the question, "do you know how to run a train?" I say, "sure...put it in run eight and straight-air the pi** out of it." This has always proved to be the satisfactory answer.

Just before I pulled the pin on the Frisco in the early 80's, the RFE joined us in the cab for many trips to show us th