Railroaders' Nostalgia > Littlest Engineer

Since I’m sure the statute of limitations has run out on this, plus I’m retired so there’s not much anybody can do now, I thought I’d post something fun I did back on May 16, 1996.
 
A little explanation is in order first though. In 1996 SP created what they called an “Auxiliary Board” for engineers. This was a program that allowed engineers from locations of “surpluses” to borrow out to locations of “shortages” as determined by the SP. Basically an employee who bid one of these boards in would work the assignment for 3 months. The schedule was 20 days working at the away from home location and 10 days off. The company paid transportation to/from the location or reimbursed auto mileage for each month, provided lodging at the location assigned, plus gave the employee a daily per-diem for the working portion of the rotation. Pay was extra board guarantee for each pay period at a minimum but you could exceed it. If you didn’t mind being gone from home for 20 days at a time it was a sweet deal.
 
In March 1996 I bid in the Auxiliary Board for the Roseville South board at Roseville, CA. All this board protected was the Roseville-Bakersfield Pool and I opted for the “B” rotation meaning I would protect from the 11th through the 30th/31st of the month. There is actually a lot more to this as this turned into an absolute cluster-flub but that’s another story for another time (maybe); this provides a quick explanation how a Eugene engineer ended up working in the San Joaquin Valley in California.
 
On this morning (May 16, 1996) I was in Bakersfield waiting for a call to go back to Roseville. My phone rang early and I got called for a BKRVE (Bakersfield-Roseville Engine movement). Being as how I was not that familiar with the territory, with respect to trains, I had no idea what this was but I figured it was some “hospital move” of bad ordered power, probably with a speed restriction meaning it was going to be a 12+ hour day.
 
I get to the yard office and meet my conductor, literally for the first time since I’m basically a qualified borrow-out, and ask what this call was. He told me he had no clue nor did the dispatcher or anybody in the yard office but they were “checking” on it. The only thing anybody did know was that we had the DRGW 5505 (SD50 if I remember) as our single unit. After a little while the yardmaster called down and told us that since nobody knew anything we could go out to the service track, get the unit, and head towards Roseville and maybe somebody up the line could figure it out. So my conductor and I got the single unit, got on the mainline, and headed west at a high rate of speed. We got to the end of double track at Oil Junction (??? somebody correct me on the name of the end of double track in the SP days) and with a green signal away we went up the valley.
 
The dispatcher territories used to change at the end of double track so as soon as we entered the CTC there we had a new dispatcher. As we sailed up the main at Saco on green signals the dispatcher calls and asks where we’re going – not a question one would expect. My conductor tells him how nobody seemed to know but we were told to “head west” and let somebody else figure it out. Then my conductor asked if he, the dispatcher, wanted us to stop until they figured it out. The dispatcher wasn’t sure what was going on either so he told us to keep going and they’d get back to us.
 
A few minutes later we’re still sailing along at a very high rate of speed and the dispatcher calls back with an explanation. They had called a Santa Fe Operation Lifesaver train out of Bakersfield to operate from Bakersfield to Calwa on the Santa Fe and then from Calwa to Sacramento on the SP. The plan was that we were supposed to have taken our unit over to the Santa Fe and added it to the train there and then removed their unit at Calwa for the run to Sacramento. The new plan was that we were supposed to now run lite unit to Calwa, pull into the interchange tracks there, and wait for the OL train to catch up with us. And because they expedited our run to Calwa so we’d be sure to get there first we ended up with an awesome trip from Bakersfield to Calwa with nothing but green signals. I always wondered what the crews on the eastbound trains that headed-in for us for meets thought when they saw what they were meeting.
 
We got to Calwa and cleared the mainline into the interchange tracks. It ended up not being a long wait before the Operation Lifesaver train showed up on the Santa Fe. The train was 2 units (the trailing unit was an Amtrak F40PH for head-end power) and 3 cars. The Santa Fe crew cut their unit off and we added and MU’ed our unit. Soon we were back on the westbound mainline headed west with our little train.
 
Before leaving Calwa we had a job briefing with the manager in charge of the train. He told us what we’d be doing and where we’d stop to pick people up or drop them off (some cities would have their officers ride the lead unit through town). He was also very clear that ANYBODY who wanted to could ride the lead unit with us provided we felt it was safe and the cab was not overly crowded. One of the stops we would make was at Modesto.
 
While at Modesto they had quite a few people join the train and quite a few leave the train. During all this we had a newspaper reporter and cameraman ask if they could ride the lead unit with us. There was also a UP special agent who asked if he could ride with us. Then just before leaving an older gentleman with a small boy came up and asked if they could ride the lead unit. By now the cab was pretty full but my conductor said it was fine with him so they came up also.
 
When we left Modesto my conductor was standing on the stairs leading down to the nose, the older gentleman was sitting in the front fireman’s seat with the little boy (turned out he was 5) in his lap, the reporter was sitting in the rear fireman’s seat, the UP agent was standing next to her, and the cameraman was standing between the UP agent and me. As I looked over at the little boy he was smiling from ear to ear having the time of his life. I called over to him, “Well, come over here”, and I placed him on my right leg – he became the engineer. He blew the horn, I helped him move the throttle, and soon we were making 60 mph with this little guy running the train (unfortunately the photo doesn’t show the speedometer over my head registering 60 mph). As we got closer to Lathrop I had to have him go back to his father as we had speed restrictions to deal with so I had to take over. We got relieved at Stockton on our hours-of-service but it was a heck of a fun day.
 
I knew the photographer took the photo as he asked if he could but I honestly didn’t expect it to be in the newspaper. The next day I got a call from somebody else telling me I made the newspaper, which I got a copy of, plus a couple of other “rails” left copies for me at Roseville. No managers ever said anything about it though.
 
The scan below is from the May 17, 1996 San Joaquin Recorder, a Stockton newspaper.

Update: If you look closely that white gauge on the consol is the speedometer on a DRGW unit. If you see where the needle is it's pointing at 60 mph. Until now I didn't realize you could see the speedometer because the one over my head for the conductor would have been the easier one to see in this photo, had it been shown.

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Update: Photo(s) deleted because there are thieves on Trainorders who download and then use other peoples' photos in books, or simply print and sell the prints, for their own enrichment!!! I don't mind downloading them for your personal enjoyment but I draw the line at selling them or publishing them and claiming they are yours. Sorry I have to do this but the actions of a few screw it up for all.



Edited 10 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/20 12:08 by Railbaron.

Nice.

Nudge

Great story!  I am sure that the little boy in the photo, now a 24 year old man, remembers his cab ride.  I know that if I had a cab ride at age 5, I would still remember it even now as a senior citizen.
ALLEN

Great stuff!
C

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

krm152 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great story!  I am sure that the little boy in
> the photo, now a 24 year old man, remembers his
> cab ride.  I know that if I had a cab ride at age
> 5, I would still remember it even now as a senior
> citizen.
> ALLEN

At 66, I still remember my first cab ride (a yard goat) at 6!

mapboy

mapboy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> krm152 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Great story!  I am sure that the little boy in
> > the photo, now a 24 year old man, remembers
> his
> > cab ride.  I know that if I had a cab ride at
> age
> > 5, I would still remember it even now as a
> senior
> > citizen.
> > ALLEN
>
> At 66, I still remember my first cab ride (a yard
> goat) at 6!
>
> mapboy

i had to wait a bit longer---tommy the Rocket De La Rosa let me "run" the Coast Starlate in October 1994 from Sanra Barbara to SLO  and later, after I retired, Iwould  go down to Newhall  Yard in San Jose and  ride in the switchers. 

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

Great story.
Great gesture by a railroader to ask the little guy to "come over here".
Things like that are what made the railroad a fun place to be around at times, a long time ago.

Cab rides....those were, indeed, the "good old days".....just for the asking....almost never got turned down...great story

Marty Harrison
Knob Noster, MO

Great story! I'll never forget my cab ride as a 10 year old, when I too, got to sit in the engineer's seat and run the train under his watchful eye.

What a great story- you started my day off with a smile...

A very cool story. I was a regular engineer in this pool, and never got quite that lucky! It does sound typical on a call like that...no one really knows what's happening!

Thank you for sharing that great story with us.  Life on the railroad was much simpler, and much more enjoyable, back then.  Wish we could go back.

As a 4 or 5 year old I remember going a half block down the street to my grandfathers place and we'd go "train watching."  A few years later I got my first invite into a cab, right where I used to watch the trains wiht my grandfather.  Not long after I got a short ride.   That was a simpler time.  Have we really made progress?

Great story.  Thanks for posting it.

John

Great story alright and Priceless pic with you and the 5 year old little boy!

Posted from Android

I used to let anyone who would ask come up for a ride , I did it as a kid and loved it .
Tom

I thought you were talking about "Wammo Hudman"

Aha! That's who you are, Dave. Though you wouldn't remember, I worked with you once or twice out of SF back in our trainman days. Seems to me that you had a goofy fan-van.

EO

hogheaded Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Aha! That's who you are, Dave. Though you wouldn't
> remember, I worked with you once or twice out of
> SF back in our trainman days. Seems to me that you
> had a goofy fan-van.
>
> EO

Yep, it's me hiding out in Oregon. You've got an excellent memory!