I forget how many of these it’s been. No specifics offered, and I won’t even guarantee this whole episode happened as it is presented. It may be all made up as far as anyone is concerned. Nothing real special in this one, just another day in the life of a glorious railroader.
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It promised to be a good day. Well, as good as a day as one can expect and still be called work.
Orders were give: taxi to a train parked on the main and take it to its final destination yard. Normally with this job you start at your origin yard, gather and set up your power, double to your cars, set out any shopped cars, make your doubles, arm your marker and do the required tests and go. The previous day’s crew did all that fun stuff, but only got halfway down the line before they blew up (reached their 12 hours of service limit). So they had to tie down the train on the main. This is where our illustrious crew comes into play. We were to taxi down to that train, hop on, and finish its journey. We were called in the late evening, so we were hoping for a quick trip (for a change) and a chance to get some decent sleep in the hotel, while most importantly, being able to enjoy breakfast there.
Remember Steinbeck saying something about the best-laid schemes of mice and men? Yeah. You know where this is going.
At the yard office we printed our bulletins and hopped in the awaiting Chevy Express van that would take us an hour and a half down the road to find this train. So far so good. When we arrived, the train was parked, all lights shut off and silent. No big deal, as these modern engines have all sorts of fu
Interesting. Especially to those of us who never get more than a look at train traffic going by. Having grown up with stories of the railroad, this gives me a little more detail.
A few comments / observations from this tale, in reverse order of importance:
Not included in this narrative were the couple of ‘micro’-moves - stretching the slack to make sure the pin dropped, 3-point protection to couple-up the air hoses, etc.
[:-,] Must be fiction anyway - what modern railroad has a wye anymore ? Haven’t they all be torn out in the name of efficiency (under the name of “line rationalization”) ? Who needs a junction with an obsolete branch line anyhow ?
Not good to have a main line tied up / occupied with a train whose crew has run out of time, plus a dead loco. Failure of equipment and/ or planning and/ or reaction to that ?
Note the personnel count here: Engineer + Conductor = 2-man crew, + Car Inspector - not just a 1-man crew plus a utility man/ “super conductor”. Think about how this would have to have been done if that were the case instead - then consider my comment 3. above. For a busy main line, 2-man crews plus a ‘floating’ utility man might be a better means to assure fluidity in the face of adversity.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I thoroughly enjoy your ‘tales’ of your daily grind. Thank You for sharing them here!
To what BaltACD wrote:“…Operating a railroad safely is tied up in myriad of details. The details aren’t glamorous, but skip one of them and the results can be deadly…” AMEN.
Some of my favorite reads, that I revisit from time to time are the ’ stories by Mike Dettmers who authored the “Latta Laments” his stories of shifts on an orphan CPR branch line,in Indiana. His stories are to Dispatchers, as your stories are to T&E personnel. Conditions and circumstances, most of us are only exposed to throught the eyes of those involved in them.
Mike Dettmers wrote: [snipped] "… For anyone who is listening, the first Golden Rodent made its way to Louisville. CP 5753 came down on 240, complete with Rodent and train. I guess the scheme is sort of OK, but the detail in the logo is too hard to make out from a distance. Of course the crew didn’t really grasp the
historical significance of the day. Their concerns tend to focus around comfortable seats and the location of the taxi to take them to the yard office. And of course this would ha