Railroaders' Nostalgia > Getting the ol' runaround in grand style!

Getting run around in train service is a very common fact of life for the average railroad crew member. But reaction to getting run around can be surprisingly varied. It all depends on who’s doing the running and who’s doing the sitting. I’ve seen & heard some engineers and even other crew members strut & crow like a rooster when they are doing the running around. You’d think they were lords of the realm and “rulers of all they survey”. But watch the the very same guys get their hapless train ran around and they squeal like the proverbial stuck pig! You’d think someone just shot their mama.

But over all, the great majority of the train crewmen I worked with in my career just took a run-around in stride. It’s the age old adage “what goes around-comes around” played out over an extended period of time. I’d be willing to bet that if it were possible to take a cross-section survey of a couple dozen full-time engineers’ trip logs (over say, a 365 day period) you would find that said average engineer runs his train around another train roughly the same number of times percentage-wise that any other engineer does. And, to be sure the same holds true for getting his train ran around by another engineer. In the long run it all evens out…

My own philosophy was this: “If I’m going to get my train ran around, then at least let the other train be a really HOT one!” There’s nothing quite so embarrassing & demeaning as getting your butt ran around by a real DOG… (Woof!)

One gorgeous day in August of 1981 I was the rear brakeman on Chicago-Texas pig train 185 out of Emporia, KS on Santa Fe’s Middle Division. I remember we were rolling along just fine on the busy 4th District mainline on our way to diverging onto the Douglas District main at Augusta. From there we would roll on down to an eventual crew-change in Arkansas City. But there were a couple of eastbound trains out of ‘Ark’ City and the first one was already by the last available siding coming up the Douglas District. So the dispatcher was forced to hold us in the westward siding at Augusta to wait for it. I was guessing he ‘ran us in’ because he probably had a hotshot pig train back behind us some unknown number of miles. (I was right.)

With radio assistance from my conductor our engineer had stopped our train just barely in the clear of the east end. He probably wanted to keep well clear of Custer Lane crossing. We sat there motionless for several long minutes. By now my conductor was making grumbling noises. It took a long time but we could finally hear an air horn. I looked back on instinct, but it turned out to be the first eastbound train that we were waiting for off the Douglas District. This train (583?) passed by us and we all exchanged the usual greetings. Then we found out the DS had held the second train at Akron, a siding down south (TT west) of Augusta. My conductor was now making louder grumbling noises. Even though there was still no sign of a train approaching from behind, the red signal in front of our train gave us no other option but to sit and wait. It had become very apparent that the DS could have just held us on the 4th District main, then let us boogie right on down the Douglas as soon as the first eastbound cleared. But that DS had a very clear perception of who it was that signed his paychecks. (I’ll give you a hint: it was most definitely NOT my conductor!) So, in order to assure expeditious handling of hot California pigs, which in turn assured the expeditious delivery of his regular paychecks he, of course ran our not-so-hot Texas pigs in the hole here at Augusta. He wasn’t taking any chances!

As I said was a beautiful sunny day, but as the long minutes wore on my conductor’s normally cheerful disposition had turned “cloudy & dark”. A lifetime later another horn could be heard, this time from behind us. And the long-awaited headlight finally appeared. I was anticipating a prime photo-op so I had climbed down from the cupola to get my camera & medium telephoto lens out. I thought I would stand on the back platform to take a shot and give our oncoming nemesis train a roll-by inspection. But as the train got closer our waycar lurched gently into westward motion. The engineer was probably anticipating making a quick crossover and entry into the Douglas District as soon as the hotshot was by. So he was pulling on down to the west end of the siding. I scurried back up to my left-hand cupola seat and turned it backward. I got ready to shoot. My conductor was now barking out steady complaints. (But they weren’t aimed at me. He was perfectly OK with me being a ‘picture taker’, and had even bought an 8x10 enlargement from me.) When the train in my viewfinder got big enough to take on the appearance of hot California pig train 188 I started quietly cheering to myself! But I made NO audible noises of pleasure. I certainly didn’t want to cause my conductor’s mood to go any further south.

But I sure was happy to be getting the grand ol’ run-around from one of the HOTTEST trains on the Santa Fe…

1. AT&SF 8139 is “right on my 6” with a Chicago-California hotshot pig train. Taken from waycar 999067 on Texas-bound pig train 185 A-1 in the westbound siding at Augusta, KS on July 2, 1982.

Thanks for looking astern with me!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/14 22:14 by santafe199.

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We railroaders sure can get whiny at times. I'll even admit to it, though I'm sure there are some out there who wont, even though they are as guilty as the rest of us. The way I looked it at, in the end you probably are pretty close to even. You win some, you lose some. Everybody can't been on the super hot Z train every trip. Somebody has to be on the sh*t lifter.

It's just like when you are in a traffic jam on the freeway. One lane moves for a minute while the other is stopped, then they flip and now the previously stopped lane is moving and the previously moving lane has stopped. The really annoying people keep cutting back and forth between lanes thinking they are making progress because they are moving. Not all progress is forward progress though folks. I just kick back and plug along. Then I find a truck or bus in another lane that is easy to pick out of the crowd somewhere close to me, and then keep track of it. At first the truck will be up 10 cars ahead of me, then next thing I am passing them, only to get passed back up by the truck a few minutes later. Its just back and forth and in the end we all end in about the same order we started. I think it's part of that patience thing, though I still can't find it in the rule book...

No harm, no foul.........so long as you get your turn back!

As I sit here with almost 40 years of engine service in, and two more trips to go before retirement...I must concede I have done my share of whining about the wrong trains caught and getting run around. I would not have changed it for anything. The post by BLE692 on this thread does sort of cover it. But whine we must, as he was doing just that a few days ago in Bakersfield, as we were having dinner and dispatcher 54 ran a very ugly West Colton to Roseville manifest around a much nicer train to catch account siding lengths up on Tehachapi. He was first out to go home, and his trip just went from maybe 8 hours to 12 or more hours...Whine we must! If I remember correctly (and I don't always), this might have worked out better for me. The old adage, sometimes you win sometimes you lose. In two more trips you will have another number in front of you gone...seniority is all we have! In two more trips....................SP3204 OUT.

In the past, wasn't your position on the next-out board determined by when you arrived at the terminal? So when you were run around, you moved back one spot? IIRC, now when you're run around, you don't lose your position unless the board is turning so fast that you have to wait on your rest while the run around guy is ready to go.

Many years ago I was taking pictures of the Santa Fe at their Canyon Diablo bridge, and noticed the crew was sure high-stepping it during the block swap they were doing at the north siding. They were really whipping the horses as they began to pull. Then another westbound flashed between them and me, and it all made sense. The first crew was trying to avoid the dreaded run around, and the contest was on! To complicate things, the DS had single track west of the Darling Xovers, 14 miles west. The north track guys had the higher HP/T, but the south track guys had a running head start. You could see across the flat Arizona plains for miles, so I watched the contest. After a long time, might (or will?) prevailed, and the distinctive F45 carbody on the north track poked out ahead of the south track train. This contest was over!

mapboy

On Santa Fe Los Angeles to Barstow pools run arounds only got the crew running around rested first but you stayed in called out of LA order.
JB

3rdswitch Wrote:
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> On Santa Fe Los Angeles to Barstow pools run
> arounds only got the crew running around rested
> first but you stayed in called out of LA order.
> JB

My memory on this is fuzzy but that's the way I remember it on the UP out of LA back in the day. But if you were run around when you were still in the initial terminal, you got to claim a runaround penalty.

trainjunkie Wrote:
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> 3rdswitch Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > On Santa Fe Los Angeles to Barstow pools run
> > arounds only got the crew running around rested
> > first but you stayed in called out of LA order.
> > JB
>
> My memory on this is fuzzy but that's the way I
> remember it on the UP out of LA back in the day.
> But if you were run around when you were still in
> the initial terminal, you got to claim a runaround
> penalty.

Runaround enroute vs yard runaround. On the former ATSF Coast Lines prior to trip rates, if an engineer got runaround enroute to the AFHT he got his turn back. But if he then got runaround in the hotel for rest he got paid if the guy who ran around him made it home within the time the engineer run around had left to work and he got your turn back. Nowadays, where trip rates apply, all runaround penalties are rolled into the trip rate and all turns are restored in the order called on the previous outbound trips.

Yes, I was referring to run around enroute as that is what the post was about.
JB

3rdswitch Wrote:
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> Yes, I was referring to run around enroute as that
> is what the post was about.
> JB

Well, my comment was aimed toward Trainjunkie who mentioned a "terminal runaround" but admitted that his memory was fuzzy on the subject.

That's because I hired out after 1987 and didn't qualify for most penalties anyway. I could get run around all day and could never put in a claim for it. LOL