Nostalgia & History > Car horns, Crickets & Cicadas

Ah, the life of an extra board brakeman! In 1978, in my first few months in train service with the Santa Fe I kinda felt like a ping pong ball, always bouncing around here & there. Since marking up on June 6 I had spent maybe a dozen days on the Wichita switchman’s board before being allowed to work my preferred job; the Emporia brakeman’s extra board. I had been ‘riding’ that extra board since June 23. Then on the evening of a hot July 9 the crew office called. I had been expecting a call all day and had my grip packed for another train trip adventure. I had been riding all main line round trips off the extra board and this railfan was happily settling in to a barely-a-month-old job in train service.

But the call was a little different than I was expecting. I was on duty for a deadhead, my first off the brakeman’s board. Worse (or just OK, depending on your viewpoint), I had been something called “force-assigned” to a local working out of Abilene. I soon learned all about force-assigned jobs. If nobody bids on a particular job it gets forced on the lowest seniority available on the current extra board roster. It’s just the way a seniority system works, and it’s only fair.

So I was to deadhead up from Emporia with an on duty time of 9:30 PM. By contract I was allowed 3 hours for the deadhead, but lodging was up to me. I had my Grandmother plus a whole heard of aunts, uncles & cousins in Abilene, so no problem there. It was a routine 90 minute drive so I had plenty of time to get to Abilene by 12:30 AM. That would give me 8 hours of legal rest before the on-duty time of 8:30 AM for the new local. I had been assigned to local trains 1335-36 which would alleviate the wheat rush load of the regular Abilene ~ Superior, NE local 1343-44. We were to take care of the elevator traffic between Abilene & Concordia. The job was also advertised to work the Barnard District branch between Manchester & Barnard, KS. During the typical summer wheat rush all the little whip-stitch towns that had operating elevators were loading wheat hoppers in a hell-bent-for leather fashion.

Now as a railfan, this was giving me an opportunity to do some shooting in an places I didn’t normally get to every day. For example, the drive from Emporia to Abilene would take me right through the Rock Island crew change terminal of Herington, KS. Plus UP always seemed to have something going on in Abilene, and their crew change terminal of Salina was just down the road 23 miles.

I had left Emporia not long after taking my call, so I was in Abilene as early as I could be to check in with my Grandma. I didn’t want to keep her awake very late waiting on me. Of course I had my usual railfan ‘combat gear’ with me along with an ample supply of Kodachrome ammunition, plus a tripod to boot. At 11:00 PM most of Abilene was already asleep, except for the guys working ’round the clock at the various grain elevators in town. And maybe a few high school kids cruising the main drags just a few blocks away. I found Uncle Pete’s Abilene-based switch engine was an N&W geep. So on a hot Kansas night in July, to the sounds of occasional car horns, the droning elevators and a full symphony orchestra of summertime crickets & cicadas I set my tripod down and recorded N&W 643.

1. N&W 643 idles with its UP caboose mate in Abilene, KS in the waning hours of July 9, 1978.

Thanks for looking!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/22 22:25 by santafe199.

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Really a nice night shot.
Interesting UP was using an N&W GP9 on a local.
ALLEN

krm152 Wrote: > Interesting UP was using an N&W GP9 on a local...

In my N&W Logan box I found more than just this one instance where Uncle Pete was using N&W for switchers & locals. Unfortunately most of those slides are just boring roster shots, with many of those being nose-coupled roster shots. I dunno what the 'arrangement' was, bure surely N&W knew about it. Maybe it was just the famous "Horespower Hours" accounting books being balanced...

Lance

tons of N&W on the KP

N&W was trying to make some money off their engines during the infamous (around here, anyway) BRAC strike of 1978. They were running a reduced service with 2-person management train crews, while the operating crafts honored the strike by the clerks. So they had alot of power sitting around doing nothing, which could be leased out. Management learned quite a bit about so-called featherbedding during that strike, and it led to a push for reduced crew size. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/15 15:56 by halfmoonharold.