Storytime with Charlie

Charlie Mar 31, 2007

  1. Charlie

    Charlie TrainBoard Member

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    Are you gonna take a trucker's job? IDK of any railroads that run stock trains!

    Charlie
     
  2. fireball_magee

    fireball_magee TrainBoard Member

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    LOL Nope! I am going to the place with a slogan that says The way to really fly! A conductor here said i would be hauling livestock!!Physical and junk friday! Will know more soon!
     
  3. Charlie

    Charlie TrainBoard Member

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    OMG!!! He's going to the dark side...

    METRA!

    When I pulled the pin I was on the passenger engineers extra board on the BNSF,but I never really worked it. I went on disability until I retired.
    Let me know what line they want you to work.
    BTW one of the guys in my model RR club is a hogger on the South Shore, he is a passenger engineer.
    He says they can flow back and forth between engineer and trainman's jobs. Last time I saw him a month or so back, he was working as a trainman.
    TTYL, stay in touch!


    Charlie
     
  4. fireball_magee

    fireball_magee TrainBoard Member

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    I will do that! I have to qualifyon all the Metra lines but at the end of 20 weeks I can pick one ( if they have openings) Hoping for the RI District ( wonder why?) or South Western. Both close to home really. Oh and the physical was 2 and a half hours! I about died!
     
  5. Mr. Train

    Mr. Train TrainBoard Member

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    Just reporting in to the teacher. Thanks for the stories.
     
  6. Charlie

    Charlie TrainBoard Member

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    You're entirely welcome!
    Got another one... I don't belive I've told this one. When I was in conductor training one of our instructors told us that the fastest way to make friends with an engineer is to bring him chocolate chip cookies with black walnuts. Folks... as the Almighty is my judge... the VERY FIRST job I qualified on, my very first day as a student trainman,was on a switch engine at Cicero Yard, it was still a hump yard then, I met my crew and introduced myself, we got our necessary paperwork and proceeded to go to our motive power. The crew said the engineer was already there. When I climbed into the cab, I went to introduce myself to the hogger who was sitting there eating CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!!!! ROFL
    This is one of those days when I first learned the meaning of "twelve and tow".

    Charlie
     
  7. westcoaster

    westcoaster TrainBoard Supporter

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    "Twelve and Tow"??????
    Please enlighten us foreigners:question:please charlie.
    And keep the storys coming............great reading.......as usuall.
    Cheers
    Stu
     
  8. fireball_magee

    fireball_magee TrainBoard Member

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    Twelve and tow or we dont go!!!! You get twelve hours on duty and tow in pay for going over. Greatest thing on the BN lines!! Made you not mind having a few hours of limbo time lol. Made a ton of that on the old C&S but it was only a 100 mile run and 4 trains on that line!! Dont ask how we did it as I am nto even sure.....
     
  9. Charlie

    Charlie TrainBoard Member

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    It was the easiest way to get paid overtime. There was one time I was on a job in Cicero that we quite literally were "towed-in". We had gotten as far as the East Hole when we croaked and the rear end of the train was still hanging out on the BRC. They sent a yard job, an SW1500, coupled on to us,hooked up and brought us in. CRS the name of the hogger on that SW1500 but he was an old head and it was fun to work the jobs he was on. He was a natural teacher. I probably learned as much from the engineers as I did from the trainmen.

    Charlie
     
  10. fireball_magee

    fireball_magee TrainBoard Member

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    Its confirmed. Rock Island District for me. So Wabash and Rock Island running ;) I will cover Southwest Service and RI until I get a regular job which from the sounds of it will be about a year lol. Hiring 10 more behind me and needing roughly30 conductors.
     
  11. Charlie

    Charlie TrainBoard Member

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    Southwest Service used to yard their trains at the Zephyr Pit(14th & Canal) during the day. Dunno if they still do. When I go to the model RR club, I cross the old Rock tracks on the mainline and also the Beverly Branch. Years and years ago I dated a girl who rode the Rock to Blue Island. The parking lot for it was right across the road from the end of the I.C.Suburban Blue Island branch. Lots of activity there. Where she lived was sort of in a triangle with the base of the triangle being the GTW tracks.
    The GTW was still running passenger trains then. In the summertime I could hear the evening passenger train blowing for the crossing at 71st st. If I was on the phone with her I would tell her a train would be going by in a few minutes.

    Charlie
     
  12. fireball_magee

    fireball_magee TrainBoard Member

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    Yes Sir still dropping SWS trains in the pit lol. Still a lot of activity at BI. IC electric is there still. The new cars we are getting have been there regular. I just dont have time to get a shot of them.


    Which Model club? I didnt know there was one in that area.
     
  13. Charlie

    Charlie TrainBoard Member

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    at Calumet Park, 95th & the lake. Lake Shore Model RR club.

    http://www.lakeshoremodelrr.org/

    There is also a Yahoo group for it.

    Memberships are open!

    Charlie.

    BTW I knew a conductor off the "Heritage Corridor" line(ex G.M.&O. former Chicago & Alton), had IC seniority. I asked him if there were jobs that originated at Roosevelt Rd.in Chicago. He told me that there were several and that nobody wanted them. He told me that I could very likely hire out into one of those jobs. I was thinking of it at the time cuz then I could commute both ways by public transit. I would save a lot of miles on my car and gas $$$.
     
  14. fireball_magee

    fireball_magee TrainBoard Member

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    Heck yeah!! Thanks for that link! Right now we are looking for a ton of people. Retirements and attrition are eating into the workforce. Commuter is somuch different. You cant just blank a job or annul it without some repercussion! Its fun doing this though. I am enjoying so far ;)
     
  15. Charlie

    Charlie TrainBoard Member

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    Just keeping the thread current.

    Fire away with any questions. We can talk about current day topics too.
    I know some of you hobbyists are really into todays railroading.
    If any of you are old enough to remember the "TRAINS" magazine coulumnist
    John Kneiling who wrote the column entitled "The Profession Iconoclast",
    much if not most of what he recommended railroads do is what they are doing today.

    Charlie
     
  16. Charlie

    Charlie TrainBoard Member

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    Just keeping the thread current!

    Ready for any questions...

    Fire away!


    Charlie
     
  17. karnydoc

    karnydoc TrainBoard Member

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    I'm thinking about the time I lit a fusee. In the cab. On a summer day.

    Dieter
     
  18. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    So I've got to ask- How...?
     
  19. Charlie

    Charlie TrainBoard Member

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    @Dieter!!!

    Hey Dude....'sup?

    Long time you no talk story!

    Howz Kelly?

    @Boxcab...

    The question should be WHY, not HOW. Only Dieter can explain that! ROFL!


    Charlie

    Re: Fusees... At Eola, we used them all the time on crossover moves, going from East Yard to West Yard or vice-versa. The moves would involve a public crossing at grade. It was protected by lights and gates but safety being what it is... The switchman/brakeman/conductor controlling the crossover shove would get the rear of the cut behind the governing signal. When the board dropped in, (s)he would light the fusee and place it on the drawbar behind the knuckle and then decorate the side of the car and start the move. By the time the move was completed, the fusee was pretty much burned out.
    I always liked the crossover moves cuz they were easy and it was usually the last move of your shift.
    The foreman would already be in the yard office tying up. Just finish the move,make a joint if necessary, cut away the power,put it where the YM tells you then go home!

    Charlie
     
  20. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    I gotta know why you use the North Shore line herald on your Avatar. The CNS&M is and has been for many years my favorite also.

    Randy
     

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