Railroaders' Nostalgia > Cole's Tales No. 2 - Bill Brodsky's Comment

Pull up a chair and relax for a few moments while we delve into another tale.

While working as an engineer on the Santa Fe out of Emporia, Kansas in the mid ‘70s I caught the famous Super C, the 79 mph freight train.  We had four big locomotives and about 20 cars.  We had a couple of slow orders that would affect us but other than that it was clear sailing.  All opposing trains were always in the hole for us so we normally had all clear signals.  The overspeed was set at about 81 mph.  This particular trip I was attempting to see just how quickly I could get to Wellington.  I kept our speed right on 79 whenever possible and the overspeed would whistle at me from time to time.  I would wait until the last possible second to begin any speed reduction and would use extra heavy brake applications.  We arrived at Wellington in 1 hr. and 35 min.  I remember when getting off at the yard office I was almost shaking.  I had been pushing everything to the limit, not knowing for sure If my speed was going to be down to what it was supposed to be or not.

The very next trip out of Emporia I caught the Super C again with about the same size train and locomotive consist.  This trip I didn’t attempt to keep the speed right at 79 (somewhere between 75 – 79), began all my speed reductions a little sooner, used the dynamic brake more, and made lighter brake applications.  The elapsed time for this trip was 1 hr. and 40 min.  Since I had not been pushing the equipment and myself to the limit, when I got off at Wellington I was cool and calm as could be.

Let’s fast forward about 10 years.  I’m now working at the Locomotive Engineer Training Center in Topeka.  Around  1985 the railroad business had slowed down and new fireman were not being hired.  All of the currant fireman on the entire system had been trained.  We were out of work!  What were we going to do to earn our wages?  Someone came up with the idea to bring in supervisors/managers for a one week overview class so they would have a much better idea about actual train operations.  This turned out to be a very enjoyable and educational experience for the attendees and we instructors.  People came from all different levels and crafts (Mechanical Supts, Operating Supts, Director of the Power Bureau, Asst Trainmasters, Signal supervisors, just anyone that the different departments wanted to send) and from all over the system.  We instructors learned as much from the attendees as they did from us.  For example, I learned that one really does need to walk in the other persons shoes before passing judgement on them.  The Asst. Supt of the Cleburne shops shared that he couldn’t understand the complaints the engineers were making about the location of the speed odometer on the rebuilt 8700s (renumbered to 9500s) until he operated a train during a work stoppage and kept having to look towards the ceiling to see what his speed was.  They immediately got lowered to eye level.

Later, It was sure nice for me that wherever I traveled to on the Santa Fe system I would always know some of the engineers that we had trained and now some of the supervisors/managers.

Now what should we talk about?  O yes, I bet you thought I had plum forgotton about Mr. Bill Brodsky. He had come to the Santa Fe from the Milwaukee Road and was head of our “Power Bureau” in Chicago.  He later went to the Montana Rail Link.  Bill was attending one of the management classes.  Sometime during the week I would tell about my experience operating the Super C in the two different manners, summing it up with the statement that if every engineer operated the train as hard as I did that first time that they would probably have to change out some brake shoes before the train arrived at Los Angeles.  And anyway, what’s 5 minutes compared to the entire trip between terminals?

Bill immediately spoke up and said “I’ll tell you what 5 minutes is”.  If you combine the 5 minutes over each of the 13 to 15 (I thnk it was 14 at the time) crew change districts from Chicago to Los Angeles that adds up to over an hour.  And that additional hour determines whether we keep the business or it goes to the Union Pacific.  Whammo!  I hadn’t thought of it that way before.  As an engineer I had only looked at my individual portion of the railroad but Bill was in charge of the entire system so he had a very different perspective.  I learned something new that day.

Even though I could see Bill’s perspective and understood it, I still believe that one shouldn’t push everything to the limit like I did on the first mentioned trip on the Super C.  Anything mechanical, electrical, digital or human can fail and it sure is nice to have a little margin of error when it does.
Please come back and see me again sometime.  We’ll talk about a cornfield meet, or picking peaches, or saving George, or anything else you want to talk about.

Have a Blessed Day!

Mark Cole
Temple, TX

PS:  Just edited this to correct the spelling of Bill's last name.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/15 19:47 by KskidinTx.

 Very interesting perspective and great story.
 

Thanks.   Hope you have more to tell.

Sounds like the same idea of running the BSM

WAF Wrote:
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> Sounds like the same idea of running the BSM

I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what you mean by this statement.

By the way, does anyone know what Mr. Broadsky is doing nowadays?  Just curious.
     Mark

The BSM (Blue Streak Merchandise) was the Southern Pacific-Cotton Belt equivalent of the Super C, from East St. Louis to Los Angeles.

Thanks for the explaination.  I had read comments about the BSM a few weeks ago here on TO but it didn't stick.
 

KskidinTx Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WAF Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Sounds like the same idea of running the BSM
>
> I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what
> you mean by this statement.
>
> By the way, does anyone know what Mr. Broadsky is
> doing nowadays?  Just curious.

Brodsky recently retired from his last position as CEO of MRL.

As opposed to a "BSM" perspective, it was a "Milw 261" perspective. (And I don't mean the steam engine.)

Best regards,

Rob L.

Thanks for the info on Mr. Brodsky.
   Mark

Probably mentioned this before, but the story reminds me of a Firing trip with JL Mallon. We were called at Emporia for a 188, 189, or 199, not sure which one now. It came in exactly on it's call, and were were all ready to go. The moon & stars were all lined up right, and Jim got us to Wellington in great shape without much exceeding. Coming through Belle Plaine, the Wellington operator (may have been Dale Church) called and told us were going to run aroud a couple of crews on their rest, and get a 991 back to Emporia, no time to eat. As we came to a stop, we saw the eastbound headlight was coming through town, blowing for the crossings. We ran in, grabbed out paperwork and a candy bar, and boarded as soon as it stopped. We roared out of town, had a perfect trip back to Emporia, (except for a calf we ran over at Cicero) and tied up with 3'50 minutes on duty for the round trip. Best I ever did, never to be repeated.