Railroaders' Nostalgia > Shut down car

The story about a shut down car in a few posts below reminds me of one I was told about around the 1960's. On the MP-T&P line in Texarkana Tx such a car got accidentally cut out of a train headed for Ft Worth. Soon it became obvious to GM in Arlington and they convinced the T&P to run a special train with this car to keep the company from having to shut down the assembly line.

A train was made up with a few extra cars for breaking and they left town. About an hour later someone discovered the train had left WITHOUT the car in question. So, another one had to be called and it finally left town in a couple of hours. The first train was cancelled in Longview.

I always loved spotting a Shut Down Car that ive worked my butt off to get there. Some times taking some special runs to go get the car only to spot it then come back the next day and its not been touched. What part of Shut Down do yall not understand

Santa Fe and now BNSF have routinely run special one or two car trains when a hot UPS car has been set out with a problem, the moment it gets fixed then they will run a special to catch up to the train they were originally on.
JB

One afternoon got called for a special for 1 hot auto parts cars for General Motors ( Van Nuys).. the consist included one unit and one high cube cars.. The train arrived at the top end of A we jumped on and away we went for Van Nuys.. Every 5 minutes either a trainmaster , operator at Burbank Jct, Gemco clerk.. was calling for our location... it is 14 miles from Lo Angeles Yard to Gemco Yard... you can't wish the cars there . Upon arrival at Gemco the afternoon trainmaster was there waiting for us to make sure the car was spotted ASAP. My headbrakeman was a colorful character (Fred Smeltzer).. he was on the point of the cars as we were shoving down the lead towards the plant. I am watching his hands as we are shoving at 10 mph. All of a sudden the high cube car picked a switch and the car started to lay over on its side Fred went flying in the air to one side and the car turned over and laid on its side.. The trainmaster (John Devere) said over the radio .. "I never would of believed what I saw in front of me if I hadn't been there to see it !" Needless to say the car shut the plant down.. 2 cranes had to be called to upright the heavy load plus the track repaired.. I never had to fill out an 2611 (Accident form)... Those were the days before urine and drug tests.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/14 13:08 by SanJoaquinEngr.

We used to run shut down trains once in a while on the Santa Fe/bnsf from KC to the GM plant in Oklahoma City. They were a lot of fun to catch if you worked the Ark City pool. One or two units, usually five to eight cars that absolutely had to be there by 8am or whatever. Some good fast trips with a hot train that was not usually on the line up.