Railroaders' Nostalgia > Cleaning windows

Back in my younger days I was like Superman,bullet proof.Nothing bothered me and I
could more or less do what I  wanted.
Working for the railroad was no different.I felt (and did) I could go anywhere,yards
shops,in and on locomotives,passenger and freight cars at will.Sometime I was "told"
I did not belong there and left,no problem.
In Amtrak days the "Floridian" ran a dome car between Florida and Chicago.Wow,a
dome car in Florida.I had not seen one prior to the early SCL days.But on to the story.
For some reason that I can't recall,the train had a several hour layover in Jacksonville.
These cars never got any kind of wash and the front dome windows were usually so
dirty that you could not see out of them.So,one time "Superman" was on the train at
Jacksonville and "I" wanted to be able to enjoy the view.I grabbed a handfull of towels
added some soap and water and climbed between the cars.Once on top I proceed to
clean the windows.Some people in dome wondered,who the hell is that guy.Nevertheless
I managed to get some of the grime off.I really did not care if anyone else could see,but
"Superman" could and that was it.
Uncle Joe,Seffner,Fl.

Way to go, "Superman."  More powerful than a locomotive!

Try that now and you'd get to wash the inside of the windows of the local Graybar hotel.

John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/16 21:43 by wa4umr.

Different situation but on-topic.

I got a morning call for a rare daylight trip on an eastbound freight out of UP's East Los Angeles yard to Yermo. I don't recall what kind of train it was but I remember we were in the departure yard so it must have been a general merchandise train or a coal empty rather than intermodal. The yard master was flapping his wings, desperate to get us on the train, but the conductor still hadn't received the paperwork. So the YM tells me (the brakeman) and the engineer to hop in the van and get on the train. So off we go.

I get on the lead motor, a C40-8 (standard cab) IIRC, while the engineer, a crochety old head who will remain nameless, did his ground inspection. Now this power had just been serviced but I can barely see out the front windows. At some point in its recent past, it was a trailing unit behind something that was puking globs of oil out the stack, which had deposited itself all over the face of the cab and glass, which was then coated by the famous swirls of dust and sand that were prolific in the desert runs of the west.

By the 1990s, the mechanical forces in L.A. had been pared down so far that servicing and supplying cabs, and cleaning things, had become an afterthought. We had a wash rack in L.A. but if the power needed to be turned quickly, it got fuel, the card signed off, and not much else. Such was the case on this day. But since it was a rare daylight trip, I really wanted to be able to see out the windows.

So, being the young, industrious person I was, I took the initiative by grabbing a water bottle, which at the time were those little 8 oz. bottles with a foil cap on them, took the ball point pen from the front pocket of my bibs, poked a little hole in the lid, got out on the front porch and started squirting the windows down and wiping them with paper towels from our "Crew Packs".

Well, I got the front windows on the engineer's side done and had moved to the conductor's side when that old head engineer came walking up on the ground on the fireman/conductor side from the rear of the consist. When he saw me, he flipped out yelling at me, "That is someone else's *bleeping* job, you can't be doing that!" along with a lot of other colorful language.

I decided to not lock horns with this dude so I stopped, grabbed my gear, and retreated to the second unit, a SD40-2. Once the conductor, who was also an old head, made it aboard, and the engineer was in his right-hand seat, I listened in on the radio on the second unit and determined that even after all the rush-rush, we were still going to be sitting there for awhile. Knowing the grumpy engineer wasn't going to see me on the fireman's side of the second unit, I got another water bottle out and started cleaning the equally filthy glass on that side of the second unit. As I went about my business, I saw the conductor look at me in the mirror but there was no reaction. So I finished and sat down right about the time that we were given the okay to depart.

We had no work en-route so I just enjoyed the trip, staying on the proper channel to listen in, especially to the detectors, and just drank it all in. I was still learning the territory so I made the most of this rare daylight trip. I even took a few photos as this was back when this was still allowed, although they all ended up being out the engineer's side. Three are posted below.

I can't recall where I got that shot of the 104. You can clearly see the highway in the background, we're on multiple-main track, and the adjacent spur. I'm sure someone here can fill me in on this. Was there a spur at Devore back then? Kind of looks like Devore there but I'm not sure.

Later, at Valley Junction in Barstow, we passed over this departing Santa Fe train with a former Soo unit with GATX reporting marks fourth-out in the consist.

Anyway, we got to Yermo and handed the train off to the Vegas crew, walked over to the infamous Yermo beanery, and tied up. We shuffled though the door the engineer immediately pushed himself ahead of us and grabbed a key and scurried up to his room leaving the conductor to sign him in. As he did that, he turned and looked at me and said, "Kid, why the hell didn't you finish cleaning the windows on the lead engine?"

Some days, you just can't win.

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Thanks for sharing the narratives and nice trio of shots.

Kent in CArmel Valley

Different situation but kinda on topic:

I was firing on the BN in Seattle between Interbay and Portland (before we were cut back to Vancouver).
Engineer was Tom Speckman, a sometimes crotchety kind of guy but generally OK. We departed the yard at Interbay and the
DS stopped us at North Portal, about a mile out of the yard. While stopped, I thought it would be a good idea to make a 'tab' showing all our
slow orders, in station order instead of the random order they came to us in their tissue form. There were quite a few that day and I listed them
on a paper towel.  When finished, I  slipped the 'tab' behind the 26-L brake valve handle, between the handle and the backing plate.

Tom had been looking at the females strolling along the waterfront in the early evening. When he turned to look at my handiwork,
he grunted "Humph, Can't you put these on a piece of card instead of this lousy paper towel?. I said, "Oh, I'm sorry",  then reached back
to the brake valve, grabbed the tab, wadded it up and threw it in the trash sack and took my seat.  "Touche' " , said Tom. We got along just fine.

Charlie

 

That is Devore, it is the old east end of the Devore east siding. I to have climbed on many a nose to clean windows whether it was my job or not I wasn't about to look out dirty windows.
​JB

Devore it is! Thanks JB!

Windows ??

Most of the old heads remember Ed Platz. AKA as " Cracker Ass" and earlier, "Twiggy". At the time he was working #12 & 13 La to Santa Barb and back. Well, every time we would relieve him on # 13 he would keep you BSing on the platform until you were almost ready to go. When you finally got in the cab he had done something that you had to "fix". It was usually the cab heat on high or something else.

Well, one day I got called for #12 from SLO to Santa Barb. I had Chuck Johnson as my fireman. Well, I thought of a way to get even. I made up a pattern that said "Cracker Ass" out of thin paper.
 
When  #12 pulled in Chuck and I got to work. I took the pattern and  taped it up to the windshield on my side. Chuck then was up on the nose with one of those big black marker pen. ( Its hard to write backwards " He finished the ink work and got down and up into the cab. About that time we got the highball and left for SBA. There it was. as big as life, "Cracker Ass" , inked on the outside of the windshield.  We got to SBA and handed down our grips and took theirs and lifted them up and put them in the cab. Then we got down and kept Ed on the ground until the head brakeman walked up with his key to lower the gates across State St, Ed went up the ladder and only had a few seconds until the gates were down and the conductor was giving a highball,

Old "Cracker Ass" had to look at that all the way to LA  The stop at Oxnard wasn't long enough to do anything.


Nudge



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/16 13:52 by spnudge.

Mike,
  At that time Devore had a short little runaround track where the ATSF helpers would frequently clear up. The west leg of the wye also came off of that track and ran east along devore road for about 100 yards.

"Cleaning" the seat cushion with Armor All makes for an interesting ride for the next guy. You almost need a seat belt to stay in the seat!

There is nothing like taking over a train that has gone thru a swarm of bees with sticky honey all over the windshield, I used to hate that.

Larry

I didn't know Barstow had an intermodal strip track with a crane, like in the 2nd shot.  Anyone know how long that lasted?  I remember Oxnard, CA, having a ramp for loading trailers, but due to low volume that was eventually closed.  Lots of manifests back in the day had a few trailer loads mixed in.

mapboy

mapboy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I didn't know Barstow had an intermodal strip
> track with a crane, like in the 2nd shot.  Anyone
> know how long that lasted?  I remember Oxnard,
> CA, having a ramp for loading trailers, but due to
> low volume that was eventually closed.  Lots of
> manifests back in the day had a few trailer loads
> mixed in.
>
> mapboy

If memory serves, I don't think the intermodal operation that took up track 10 in the receiving yard lasted much after Roadway closed it's terminal at Lenwood and moved it to San Bdno somewhere around 1992 or so.