Railroaders' Nostalgia > Firing for the Grouch

     In my firing days, there were certain engineers you wanted to mark up with as they would let you run most of the time.  There were also the less desirable hogheads that were the last resort but, at least you could stay firing in the pool.  Such was the case when I had to mark up with J.E. "Mush Mouth" Howard.  
     During this period on the UP KP Line, (late 1970s) Salina crews ran west to Ellis, KS, 117 miles.  Most of the time, you doubled back the same day.  In the winter, they would cut back the Local to three days a week and you would lay over at Ellis and come back the next day.  Thus is the scenario of this story.
     All went well for the first two or three trips.  I never touched the throttle and the conversation was pleasant.  One "Rule of Thumb" was that the fireman was always an eastbound man.  The hoghead always ran west and this particular trip was no different.  We went west of No. 117 (KC-Denver) and laid over that night at Ellis.  It seems that Mr. Howard tied one on  during the night and when we got called for the local the next day, he was in no mood to do anything much less railroad.  So, I was elected.  We had one engine;  a lone SD40-2.
     Our first work was at Hays and he started in on me.  "You're goin to fast to make that joint".   "Slow down the gates aren't down yet".  "Blow that "G#$$% D(*&Y^ whistle"!!
We got our work done and our next stop was at Victoria, about 10 miles to the east.  Victoria is at the bottom of a big swag.  After our pick up, we had 48 loads. We couldn't make it out of town so we backed up the hill to get a run at it.  At this time we still had cabooses and when I thought we were far enough to get a good run, I set the automatic air and bunched the train up.  Howard says to the head brakeman, "That makes a hell of a lot of sense setting air when you want to get a run at it".  I had had enough.  I stood up and said "If you can do a better job, she's all yours".  He jumped up and ran me out of the way and yelled "I'll teach you to be smart with me"!  Yeah Whatever.  We didn't speak the whole rest of the trip. 
     The next trip west, as we were registering in, he apologized for going off on me.  I accepted and things were pleasant again.  The real clincher came when after I had walked through the units before taking them out to the train, he asked me if I wanted to "Take em out of town".  Wow!  Fireman running west.   A "Rule of Thumb" broken.
     I later learned that he did this often with other people and if he thought he could get under your skin, he kept it up.  Only when one stood up to him did he let up.
     Jim was a good engineer and I learned alot from him, once we knew where we both stood. 

Thanks for listening.

Bob Helling
PRose






 

Great prose, Mr Rose

Dealt with many of that type my entire career . Some guys were fun to work with and looked forward to a trip with them and even if it was 12+ hours it would still be fun. Other guys, it was a bitch session from the time they showed up until the end of the run,and even a good trip was long. One of the reasons I decided to retire when I did is the list of people I didn't want to work with was starting to get longer than the ones I did. 

It's funny, I was just talking about this type of railroader at work last trip...the guy who pushes buttons until you are man enough to stand up to him, then he's your best pal...
The railroad takes all kinds, I suppose.
Thanks for telling this one.

Great story, we've pretty much all worked with one or another type of these charactors in our RR careers, I've probably even been one ;-)
JB

I had a similar experience.  I think it was in 1981.  I was working the 818 local from Lincoln-Ashland-Louisville-return as a fireman.  The rear brakeman, the late Roger Young was always on me about something.  I got tired of it and bid off to fire Amtrak Lincoln-Creston.  I then realized if I let someone "jaw" me off a job, the word would get around.  I bid the 818 fireman job again and my first day back on the run we left Lincoln for our first stop at Havlock.  I had an SD9, about seven cars and the caboose.  I cleared the Lincoln switches and wiped the throttle to eight, shot to Havlock and set the short train down at Havlock like a plane on a carrier deck.  Roger came running up to the headend yelling " where's the fire".  I leaned out the window with a big grin on my face and yelled back "I'm going to run 'em my way, just like Amtrak".  That was the end of his harping.  About a year or so later I was called to engineer a coal load off the extra board to St. Joe, Missouri with an approximate 10:00 P.M. start.  Roger was the rear  brakeman on that pool turn at the time.  We got to St. Joe an hour or so past daybreak.  Later that afternoon at the hotel Roger saw me and told me that nights ride to St. Joe was the best he had.  I thanked him and realized I had been successful at garnering respect.

Kennard Britton
Bedford, TX
 

When I first hired out firing Emporia, I was thrilled to work with a generally great bunch of experienced, helpful, friendly people. There were two or three exceptions to that, and Lance knows who they are. I had a stand up shouting match on the engine with one, and as luck would have it, got out with him again the very next trip. But, he was all smiles, acted like it never happened, so I did too, and we always got along great after that. The other two were brothers, real jackasse's, and even though both are in the cemetary now, I still remember how poorly treated me and most everybody else. After the ID run-thru and move to KC in '88, I had to learn who they were all over again, and like Emporia, there was only a small handful that just didn't play well with others.

Posted from Android

From time to time after I got involved running 1522, I would wonder how my Dad was to fire for back in steam days.  He's been gone since '64.
Coming back from Springfield, MO on a trip, we always had a service stop at Newburg, which was the old division point between Springfield and St Lous and his division was between Newburg and St Louis.  I was oiling around and looking things over when an old man came up and said "You're Big John's son aren't you"?  Kind of surprised me and we spent about 45 minutes talking about Newburg, steam and him firing for Dad.  He told me Dad was the best he had ever fired for on steam.  Always knew just how to hook the engine up and make the fireman's job better.   Made me feel good.
I didn't end up on the RR but spent my life as a machinist/tool and die maker.  Tool Room supervisor was an old butthole and he would give me a ration every time I walked by.  One day I'd had enough and told him if he wasn't so old and fat I'd take him outside and clean his clock.  He started laughing and within a week, he had asked that I be transferred to the Tool Room.  He gave everybody a ration, but if they stood up to him, he would give in to them.

Bob, sure did enjoy your story. Please, sir, may we have more ?   --Kelly