Railroaders' Nostalgia > Conversations with the boss - 9

After my introductory MILW experience at Kent, the Chief sent me to Tacoma Jct. to break in and qualify. I have no idea why; I never worked there on my own. After I qualified and it had been long enough to change headquarters, he sent me back to Kent. A while later, he sent me to Cedar Falls to work 2d trick only for long enough to change my headquarters station to Cedar Falls, then it was back to Kent. It looked like the agent at Kent and the Chief were engaged in some sort of a battle - the agent at Kent couldn't stand an operator who was not afraid of him and the Chief didn't have anyone else.

At Tacoma Jct. I found out that maybe working at Kent had only been a taste of the bizarre railroading that I was in for.

First came watching the operator I was breaking in with recopy a slow order then put the new copies on the hook for delivery without repeating the copies to the dispatcher. I took a little exception to that. The rules require that when an operator makes additional copies of an order, the operator must read the copies to the dispatcher, who must check them against the train order book. He responded that the dispatchers were too busy for repeats so he quit bothering them. Uh...ok. Later in the day I sat at the table looking through the slows. There were some copies of an order that didn't match the rest, and there was an order of which there were three versions.

The night before I got there, the radio had taken a lightning hit and was smoked. Actually, the desktop handset looked like a Salvatore Dali painting http://uploads5.wikiart.org/images/salvador-dali/the-persistence-of-memory-1931.jpg

A couple of hours into the shift, a car came up the dirt road to the station, moving fast and leaving a huge dust cloud. It skidded to a stop across the track from the shanty (that's about all Tacoma Jct. was...a shanty) and a guy got out and stormed across the tracks without looking either direction to see if he was about to be killed by a train. The guy I was breaking in with told me that we were about to have a visit from the trainmaster.

The trainmaster stormed through the door screaming that he caught us sleeping and there would be an investigation. I was sitting there in amazement and the guy I was breaking in with told him we weren't sleeping.

Bull----! I've been calling you on the radio for 10 minutes and you didn't answer. You guys were sleeping (it's about 10am); I'm going to get you for it.

The guy I was breaking in with told him about the radio.

That's a lie and it won't help you get out of this.

The operator pointed to the blob of plastic that used to be the handset.

That's no excuse. When I call you, you answer...NOW!

He was out the door in the same manner and attitude as when he came in, then got into his car and left in the same manner as his arrival. The guy I was breaking in with told me it was just another day on the railroad.

Later, another operator told me to watch for the gumshoe (special agent - railroad cop) who hated operators and would stop at nothing to get something on them. He was working at Beverly WA on 3d trick. Operators typically kept the station or tower dark at night so that they can see outside well. Usually, there was only a desk lamp. The bulb or flourescent tube was often covered with a couple of yellow envelopes to dim the light to only that needed for writing. That's the way that the Beverly station was on the night he told me about. Beverly is the middle of noplace, or at least close enough that you can see the middle of noplace from there.

He noticed somebody creeping about the station, looking in the windows. After a few minutes of this, he heard the doorknob being tried, then tried again. He moved over close to the door and picked up the nearest entry deterrent he could find - a heavy oak chair. Clunk Clunk WHAM! the door was kicked open and someone came through. My colleague didn't hesitate, taking out the intruder with the chair. There on the floor, out cold, was the gumshoe. When he came to, he threatened the operator with firing for sleeping on duty, insubordination, and attacking a company officer. Apparently that was a stretch even for the local Milwaukee management and nothing came of it.

Shortly after my Tacoma Jct. experience, I was back at Kent, working the day job on a Saturday. There were a few UP Seattle - Portland trains that picked up at West Siding. The traffic was uually empty auto racks from the two distributors and a few cars of regular commercial traffic from the Andover industrial park. On this day, I went to West Siding to list up the pickup for one of the UP trains. It was four times normal. I don't remember exactly what did it, but back then, NC Machinery, the local CAT dealer was shipping a lot of equipment to Alaska for the pipeline. It was a cost-plus contract (paid cost plus a percentage formula of cost for overhead and profit) and the contrctors were making sure that the cost was big so that the plus would be big (as explained to me by someone on the job-buy machinery, use it for a day, and replace it with the next shipment of new machinery). It could be that this was construction equipment going to Alaska via Portland instead of Seattle. Anyway, there was a lot of it.

I got back to the station, lined up the bills, and worked out the tonnage. Then I did what I would expect a station to do for me if I was chief and there was an unusual movement. I called the UP chief. He exploded in a rant. He didn't want to know about cars or tonnage or a big pickup and most of all, he didn't want me wasting his time. OK, fine - another lesson learned about this new railroad world I was in.

Then there was the day I was checking the yard at West Siding and found a car with a broken wheel. The wheel had a crack that ran in a spiral from the hub to the tread. At the tread, the crack was open about an inch. There were no carmen at Kent. They would need to come from Seattle. I called the chief. He didn't want to be bothered by a flat wheel. I explained again. No it's not a one inch flat spot, the wheel is broken. The inch is the width of the crack at the tread; it's not a one inch flat spot. Well, the chief was busy and didn't have time for my nonsense. If something was really wrong, a train crew would report it when they picked it up.

The Chief sent me to Cedar Falls. I was there to break in and qualify, then work second trick. On my first day there, breaking in on first trick, the dispatcher rang and told the operator to copy three on a stop board (red/stop train order signal). The operator responded stop displayed, not bothering with taking a hike to place the torpedoes that were a requirement if a stop train order signal was displayed. The dispatcher started transmitting, and finished with the names of the Conductor and Engineer. An order restricting the train at that station required the stop train order signal. The order could not be made complete until the conductor and engineer had read the order and signed it, an acknowledgement that their train could not leave that station before whatever instruction stated in the order (meet a train, wait until some future time, etc.) was fulfilled.

I was beginning to not be amazed by anything I saw, but this really attracted my attention. The operator finished typing down to the signature, then pulled the order out of the mill and wrote the names of the conductor and engineer on the signature lines. The train showed up and as soon as the engine was close enough to identify the train (see the engine number), the operator OSed the arrival (as the train was going by) and read the two "signatures." The dispatcher made the order complete. As the caboose came by, the conductor dropped off the caboose, left the bills for the setout he was about to make, picked up the orders from the table, and walked out the door, headed for the caboose a dozen or so carlengths away.

After I had been at Cedar Falls long enough for the Chief to change my headuarters, I was back at Kent.

More bizarre stuff indeed! Another one of the reasons why Milwaukee Road was called "America's Resourceful Railroad" perhaps??

Never heard about the "incident" at Beverly...any idea what year that happened? The RR cop must have been completely obsessed with catching the operator napping. Have to wonder if he tried the same thing at Kittitas.

The very first time I was in Beverly was the summer of 1975 (it was still an active TO location). Desolate, hot and a weirdly wonderful place...

No doubt that little dictator of an agent at Kent hated you for standing up to him. Good for you!!


Allen

Typical Trainmaster antics. They always seemed to run around fearful for their jobs and trying to intimidate.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/14 04:42 by RS11.

bradleymckay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Never heard about the "incident" at Beverly...any
> idea what year that happened?

I think it was 1974.

> The RR cop must
> have been completely obsessed with catching the
> operator napping.


...any operator

TAW

When I read these post about the Milw. it is almost to much to believe that things were that way. You really put up with a lot. Don't know that I could have done that.

I greatly enjoy all that you post and look forward to the next.

I could not have put up with it! But getting even with some of them would have made the difference.

Great tales - and believable too!

Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

kdrtrains Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I could not have put up with it! But getting even
> with some of them would have made the difference.


Kind of rewarding when they come to nail you and you're the one with the hammer!

Great stories and the sad thing is, they're true.

John

Sounds like the special agent/railroad cop actually needed a refresher course immediately with the chair. And the rest of the mismanagement group needed an attitude adjustment of similar proportions. Daily maybe.