posted March 20, 2006 12:20 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello to all, What a great site! My dad is one of your newest members "Ol Hoghead". Although pretty new to the computer, he'll do his best to keep up. He is a retired Union Pacific locomotive engineer with 43 years experience. He has been retired since 1983. If you add things up you can see that he hired out in the days of steam. His dad, my grandfather, was also an engineer for Union Pacific, with 50 years of service. My dad's brother, my uncle, retired as a conductor with 37 years of service, again with the Union Pacific. Many changes, both on the road and the service itself, according to my nephew, my dad's grandson who is a conductor on today's railroad. So, as you can see, we come from railroading blood. Smiles to all, Ol' Hoghead's daughter Ol' Hoghead
Welcome to TrianBoard, Ol' Hoghead (and family!) We have a lot of ex-RR folks here, and are anxious to hear some war stories!
Hi Ole' Hoghead (Daughter, or Father, whichever?), WELCOME aboard! Just remember, everyone here started typing one finger at a time. When you gain seniority with two, and then four ( ) fingers, we'll let you post any time you want....
Having retired in 1983, but still dreaming railroad, I feel I can freely discuss situations I faced, in my 40+ years on the Union Pacific, without fear of getting fired. Most of my time was spent in Southern California - About 8 years was on steam power. All of this power was oil burners, from small switch engines to 4-6-6-4 mallets on freght. We worked over a 161 mile district that included Cajon Pass.
Sure you can discuss things here without getting fired! There's no MOP's around here!! By the way, I'm going to engine service in August in Omaha Nebraska. Welcom aboard. [ March 22, 2006, 06:45 PM: Message edited by: marcus J ]
Sure you can discuss things here without getting fired. There's no MOP's around here! By the way, I'm going to engine service in August at Omaha Nebraska. I'll be an old Hoghead like you one day. Only 29 years left! I better stop typing before I start crying...Welcome aboard you old Hoghead!!!
Thanks for the comeback, Marcus.How about a little rundown on how things are being handled on your end of the RR.Lot of remote stuff running around Little Rock? Might say that I have a grandson living in North Little Rock.
Welcome, guys! I spent the last 3 years of my life in UP-central; Cheyenne, WY. What a treat! At least the steam engines... Did either of you stray into WY at all? I know a few guys that work the Cheyenne-Green River, and Chey-North Platte corridor.
No WY for me....all my time was spent in warm Southern California except for a few times I was forced to Las Vegas or other points such as Kelso, California. Kelso was a helper station where we helped trains up Cima Hill on their way east. But....that's another story.
I've heard of Cima Hill. But don't know where it is, and how it was worked. Might be an interesting story, or two, right there!!! Boxcab E50
Hello Hoghead! Things in North littlerock are still moving.You're right, we do have alot of remote jobs here in the yard. This is a rco switchmans extraboard here at this service unit. We have a hump here. We usually build about 9 trains per shift. The bowl jobs drag all the cars out of the bowl and build trains in the depature tracks. Most trains leaving northbound go to Dextar missouri and memphis Tennessee. Southbounds go to Monroe la, and to Big sandy texas. This is a pretty good size yard, so it tkes a while to learn the rails when you first mark up. There doing a lot of hiring this year. My sister just got on last month, she starts her training April 10th for train service. See Ya!!!
Marcus, I asked this question on another thread. Did the UP build a new yard office in Van Buren? When I was there in Feb 04 pacing 3985 I remembered a red brick structure that appeared to be the yard office. When I went back a last week, I saw what looked like a brand new facility.
Hello Mopman! I really don't know if it's new or old. I mean it seems to be probley 10 years old or so. I've only been to Van Buren about three trips when i was in conductor training doing my road trips. It is a red brick building like you said though. It could be new, i just don't know what the old one would have looked like. I'll ask the westbound crews tonight and find out.
Thanks. It appears that the present structure was built just east of the original office. When completed, they demolished the old office and expanded the parking lot with a lot more chain link fencing.
Not a problem. This yard has been without an office for a while, but it still works. BTW my son-in-law was a brakie/engineer/conductor for BNSF in the PRB and Kingman. We finally got him back to Tejas in Oct. when he started dispatcher training. He's now working chili west--at least this week.
