Railroaders' Nostalgia > The Mad part of the Mad Line-1

B&OCT - they called it the Mad Line. I’m proud to be an alumnus. It was a place that, if you could deal with the pace and pressure, would provide an advanced education in railroading in a short time. Then I went to SP Bakersfield and learned more about beyond-difficult railroading in the San Joaquin Valley and on Tehachapi, another place to get an advanced education in railroading – if you could deal with the pace and pressure. I learned to railroad in a way that now I get to set in meetings and hear is not possible.

Before the mid-70s, there was a lot of sharp railroading going on all over Chicago. There had to be; there was a lot of traffic moving in a complex network of main lines and yards. Of the lot of them, B&OCT was known for some serious, or maybe seriously crazy railroading, hence the name Mad Line. A recent conversation with another trainorders member and B&OCT alumnus bought to mind those who maybe just couldn’t deal with the pressure, either at all or after they had worn down from years of doing the (to hear it now) impossible.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/14 02:21 by TAW.

One towerman I worked with, let’s call him B, would get into running up and down the runway (the walkway area along the front of the machine where the operator stands to pull iron) of 75th Street, babbling. He started panicking if he was going to delay a train, a sure thing at Seventy Five. The more he panicked, the faster he talked. He would get in a big hurry if a B&O had a Forest Hill setout to make from the north end, across the plant. The plant had sectional release. You could throw iron south of the diamonds as soon as a northbound move was north of the diamonds. <http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2698922,2698922#2698922&gt;

In order to speed up the setouts, he would tell Elmer (Garrett crews were known as Road Elmers or just Elmer) to stop clear of the diamonds and watch for a hand sign from the window. As soon as the south end of the plant released, he would throw the switches to get the move into the right track then give them a backup sign from the window. Usually, the head man stayed at the cut and walked over to line the switches in the yard after giving a stop sign to the head end when the rear end of the setout was over the crossings.

This all worked if he didn’t get flustered because his fast move wasn’t fast enough and something else would be delayed, or sometimes even if the phone rang. One night, as the B&O was pulling up over the crossings, he got involved in something else and something else and something else, each a crisis for him. He saw that the B&O was over the diamonds. He gave a big backup and back they came – right into their own train. Yup, he was in such a hurry he forgot to throw the switches. (Dim memory tells me he did that twice.)

Some years earlier, he was working at CR Tower, the Calumet River Bridge in South Chicago. He put the bridge up for an ocean-going ship. The ship was passing when a passenger train hit the bell. In a panic about delaying the passenger train, he started lowering the bridge. Unlike in 1988 when the bridge was destroyed by an ocean ship, the ship got the short end of the deal. The funnel, some of the boats, and part of the pilothouse were cleaned off by the bridge.

I was at Western Avenue one night when he was working at Seventy Five. He had a runaway, almost exactly like the one I told about here <http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2350325,2350331#msg-2350331&gt;. (Runaway Part 4) This time the crazy guy was the operator instead of the yardmaster. B came on the dispatcher wire “Seventy Five! Seventy Five! Seventy Five!” The dispatcher answered and B said “I’ve got a derailment! They’re all over the ground; oh no! They’re all over the ground!” The dispatcher asked what derailed. “Runaway out of Forest Hill! They’re all over the ground here!” The dispatcher asked how many cars derailed. “I don’t know, I’ve gotta go look!” He was back in a bit with “One!” The dispatcher answered “One car….all right. Uh, how many wheels are off?” The excited-sounding reply was “I don’t know!. I’ve gotta go look!” and he was off the phone. A couple of minutes later, his voice was back on the wire with “One!”

A least he spent some decades building up to it, unlike the guy who took over second trick at Seventy Five when I left. One evening a couple of months later nothing was moving. A trainmaster went over to find out what was wrong. The guy was sitting on the end of the locking bed crying. They took him away to a hospital. I don’t know what happened after that, but he didn’t come back.

There was a yardmaster at Barr Yard; let’s call him C. It didn’t take much to stress him totally out. Every time the dispatcher phone rang, he’d throw up in the wastebasket. It didn’t matter if he was getting the industry job with 5 cars or the CNW with 125, the reaction was the same. He would also destroy phones; rip the wire out and smash them. In the days before safety glass, he tore out a phone and threw it through the window of the Ashland Avenue yardmaster’s tower. I never got to see him in action, but heard a lot. One night my spatch told him there was a second CNW coming, would be there in a couple of hours. He started retching before he was off the phone.

I’ve said that we never held a train out of Barr in the time I was there. That’s not quite true. He was third trick westbound yardmaster one night. I had a hostler coming back from East Chicago to Barr after an engine change. When the hostler should have been by and wasn’t, I called Riverdale, the tower at the entrance to the yard.

“Riverdale”

“Hostler?”

“Sitting. C’s holding him out. He can’t deal with one more thing is what he said.”

Now, the hostler was going to the house, about 500 feet from the tower and a good 2500 feet from anything else going on in the yard. What to do? It would be easy to just tell the operator to put the hostler in the South Open and C would never notice, but I would throw a Serious Fit if somebody made a move on my railroad without my permission. Nope, I’d have to try diplomacy. He was usually a lot calmer answering the city phone (that’s what we called the dial phone, although it was a B&O network phone, not Bell) than the dispatcher phone. I would need to have the solution to his problem before he saw it as a problem and keep him in good humor, or as good as possible, in the process.

I called on the city phone. He answered “Barr.” I started with “Another rough one tonight. It never ends.” I got him to blow off some steam about everything going to hell (man, it was a boring night. The hostler was all I had between 79th Street and Pine Jct.). Then I said “Hey, C they’re all over me (The famous they who are responsible for so many things on the railroad) about the hostler from East Chicago, I’m tired of listening to the crap. Can I sneak him to the house up the South Open?”

“Yeah, sure, yeah ok.”

“Thanks a lot.”

We had a dispatcher, let’s call him R, quit because he couldn’t take it any more. He was the reason that I went from extra dispatcher to regular third trick in a matter of months.

Back then, there was no dispatcher school. You worked a tower, and if the dispatchers were impressed and agreed they wanted to work with you, you were invited to come to work in the dispatcher’s office. You became an apprentice and were assigned a mentor. If you weren’t on your tower job and he was working, you were there. A lot of times, that meant before or after your tower shift. Yeah, that’s considered a violation now, but back then, the rules of comingled service were less clear. When you were being an apprentice, you didn’t’ have responsibility for the job, so it didn’t count.

My two mentors said I was ready to go to work whenever the next vacancy came up. I wanted to stay in practice and learn as much as I could, so I would go up to the office a couple of times a week after working 75th Street. The third tricker, R, was happy to see me. I’d sit down and he’d go sleep on the pile of trainsheets on the other side of the table. That was fine with me because if he was awake, he was micromanaging everything, often with the wrong solutions.

I had my first derailment as a train dispatcher while sitting in with him. I had MILW 77 meeting MILW 82 at McDonald (Chicago Heights). They had a flat meet (train order meet). There was nothing else to do on the Chicago Heights subdivision; no other trains due for many hours. The main line was busy.

77 had 8 cars to set out to the CHTT (Chicago Heights Terminal & Transfer) at McDonald. 82 had 45 cars of coal to set out to CHTT. There wasn't a lot of room in the yard and I thought it might be tricky for 82 to find room for everything, especially with 77 taking a track, or at least part of a track, for his setout. R was crashed out on the pile of trainsheets as usual.

82's conductor called on the dispatcher phone (radio?....what's that?....we didn't have radio) in an absolutely flat and expressionless tone of voice (picture an old guy sitting on a bench in front of a country store spinnin' a yarn): "Dispatcher, Exo on Southeastern 82. I'm about to leave town but I thought I'd tell you that 77's having a little trouble with his setout." I told him I thought sure that he'd have trouble putting his setout away and 77 should have an easy move. He said "My setout was pretty easy. The cars are all right side up."

R jumped up off of the pile of trainsheets like somebody had stuck a firecracker under him. “Derailment!” There was nothing I could do. I had to wait for 77 to call me. I went on with the traffic on the main line while R was babbling “you have a derailment, you’re not doing anything about it; you have a derailment!” I said that there was nothing that I could do until I knew what I had. Once they figured it out, they would come to the phone and we could do something. From Exo’s description, it could have been one car, all 8, or maybe something else. Maybe they ran into their train or a track in the Chicago Heights yard was out to foul. I told him that they were probably a little busy at the moment, they would call presently. “But you have a derailment! You've gotta do something!”

Once the drama of the Southeastern crew needing some additional lessons on using a spring switch was handled, I called it a night, gave R back his railroad and went home. That was the last time I saw him or worked with him. A couple of weeks later, I was the new regular third trick dispatcher.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/14 02:10 by TAW.

There was another dispatcher, let’s call him C, who had gone completely over the edge. Every shift was torture for him. He couldn’t keep up with it and that boiled over into digging himself deeper. He was known as “Wrong Main” because he would run trains against the current of traffic, seeing that as the instant solution to getting them moving. He had a myopic view of every train and virtually no view of the railroad. In moving a train on the wrong main, he’d overlook everything else. No, he didn’t stick out any laps (except once that I know of – coming up). The orders were done correctly, but he would wrong main a train, then not have a place for the next move the other way to go. He’d wrong main that guy to fix his problem, but now there was no place for the next one coming the other way. Ok, wrong main again. Not very deep into the shift, almost the entire B&OCT was running left handed and there were trains standing all over with nowhere to go, or at least no way to get there. As he frogged himself to a stop, and more and more trains were standing, and more towers were offering more trains. He’d answer a tower, find out there was another train and go on to somebody else.

As his mind cycled through the dozens of individual problems (trains) he had, he was babbling constantly on the dispatcher phone, foot on the (push to talk) pedal the whole time. In the process, he’d ring one tower after another as he was cycling through what to do with the trains, but he was always somewhere else by the time the tower answered, even if it was right away.

Jesus Christ just a minute now who’s next on this goddam phone hello Pine Hello 75 who’s next on this phone hello Brighton Park (ring) hello 49 hello Pine (ring)

Pine

What do you want hello Pine (ring) Jesus Christ just a minute now who’s next who’s next on this goddam phone dispatcher

Pine

what do you want hello Forty Nine (ring)

Four nine

Forty nine just a minute now who’s next on this goddam phone hello Western (ring)

This would go on for the whole shift most days. Sometimes he’d wrench out hair or pull the phone speaker toward him with one hand and repeatedly stab it with his pen with the other. Being chief with him on the trick job was really hard to do.

He had no tolerance for people messing with him intentionally. That was still in him from back when he was good at the job. I had to try hard to keep from laughing out loud one night when he did a good job of dressing down a B&O guy who was playing with him. They stopped at the Brickyard phone between Calumet Park and Dolton for Barr Yard landing instructions, per the message they got at Pine Jct. C told him over and over what to do. The brakeman replied over and over “I didn’t understand what you said, I couldn’t hear.” C finally got tired of it and said “listen, (obscene description) you can (obscene description) because you are full of s—t.” The brakeman said “Dispatcher, you swore at me!” C replied “goddam right I did. You heard that, you heard the rest, get on the goddam engine and get going.”

I felt sorry for him. He was a really smart guy. Once upon a time he was good at this. Now it was killing him but he needed the job. He never said anything about it to anyone, but I found out that when he worked second trick, if his relief wasn’t about 30 minutes early, he would miss his CNW scoot home. It was along walk from Grand Central Station to CNW station. If he did, he would sleep on a bench in CNW station until the first train in the morning. When I was chief and had him on the trick job on second trick, I started making it a point to stay around if his relief wasn’t early and mine was, then give him a ride home.

One night I came for third trick, relieving him. We were still in Grand Central Station on the third floor. I got off the elevator hearing him talking to a job at 48th Avenue (Cicero Ave to the outside world) that wanted to go to Central Ave (a mile west) to do industry work. Ok go. Seconds later, the transfer to the Great West (CGW) from Homan was at Central Avenue wanting to go to an industry track at 46th Avenue (east of 48th Avenue). They were on the outbound (westbound) already, having shoved off into the Great West yard, so they wanted wrong main to 46th Ave.

“Hello Rockwell” (ring)

“Rock”

“Block west detour order (the name for the pre-printed work/against current of traffic order) (split second pause) order number xxx Rockwell the operator…”

Now I’m running down the hall yelling “No C stop.” He keeps on sending “Central C&E Engine…”

Now I’m in the office right next to C. I stick my foot on the pedal, shoving him aside…”BK (dispatcherspeak, Morse for Break) Rockwell, Central bust that.” He was looking at me like I was crazy, but as I was talking, I pointed to the column on the trainsheet for the move from 48th to Central, the one he had just written. He said thanks, gave me the rest of the transfer and went home.

He was still working there when I left, but I think he made it to retirement.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/14 11:59 by TAW.

Even the best could succumb to the mad line. One of the guys I learned a lot from when I worked with him, the dispatcher in Runaway Part 4 and <http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2699759,2699759#msg-2699759&gt; could handle traffic like nobody else and was never shook over anything. He was off a few months for an injury that happened at home. He was smooth and cool but after being away from it for that long, he couldn’t face it any more. He quit.

TAW

I noticed on the trainsheet for 75th, very few PRR moves. This was just a few months after PRR/NYC merger. Was this crazy place even busier prior to 2/1/68?

Love hearing the B&OCT stories, I worked with a former B&OCT operator that retired about a year or two ago as a conductor at NICTD. Name was Rich T, ring any bells? Tall thin guy.

Ryan

Posted from iPhone

Thomas,

These tales are always welcome.

The sad thing today is that there are folks who can't railroad in a wet paper bag with both ends open.

J.

A really enjoyable set of psots. Thank you so much.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

nm2320 Wrote:
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> I noticed on the trainsheet for 75th, very few PRR
> moves. This was just a few months after PRR/NYC
> merger. Was this crazy place even busier prior to
> 2/1/68?

Busier then in a way because there were more trains. But not busier then because the more trains were easier to move. The extra amount of iron to pull for additional trains was almost irrelevant in the workload. PC had decided to make every train count, and count, and count. They fit almost nowhere.

Instead of the Pennsy is here to go he can move between this and this, it was Pennsy calls from the phone booth at 71st. 75 calls Beverly Jct. He calls Washington Heights. He calls West Pullman. We figure out iteratively at what time to let him go so that he hits the right time at each of the three. At 75th Street, a 180 car train at 10mph uses up a lot of train movement opportunities. The westbounds were worse because they wouldn't be close to 10mph and would stop repeatedly to line more switches and wait for yard jobs to get out of the way. It could take a west Pennsy 20-30 minutes to get by. Of course, there was always the hope that each one would clear the plant before the power quit. After that came cleaning up the Belt and Wabash and whatever corollary delays were caused at Hayford, Belt Jct. and 80th Street. If there was nothing around on the B&O, that part wasn't too hard. If there was, then there were more delays on the Belt and WAB and more work to untie it.

Almost invariably, running a Pennsy that big resulted in angry calls from the Belt dispatcher, and sometimes the Belt Chief, and WAB yardmaster.

More smaller and faster trains like Olden Tymes on the Pennsy would have been so much easier.

TAW

Nictd1000 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Love hearing the B&OCT stories, I worked with a
> former B&OCT operator that retired about a year or
> two ago as a conductor at NICTD. Name was Rich T,
> ring any bells? Tall thin guy.
>
> Ryan


Met him once back in 2000 or so when I was in Chicago on a consulting job. He hired out just after I left.

TAW