Railroaders' Nostalgia > Broken Bottles & Amtrak

When I arrived on the scene and spoke with the engineer he was doing well for a guy who had just gone through a frightening experience. Can you image what it must have felt like on the locomotive, plunging through the middle of a semi-trailer, having no idea of its contents?


The unscheduled stop of this Capitol Corridor train occurred on January 26, 2001. The plant at the corner formed by the Southern Pacific tracks and Camelia Street in Berkeley, CA was taking a delivery, but the trucker had a little trouble backing his semi-trailer across the tracks and making a diagonal entry. He pulled forward and tried again, very intent on getting it right this time. He thought he could back off the tracks in time, but his timing was off and the trailer was struck in the middle, which for him was certainly better than being struck in the cab.
No one was injured. The warning system and gates have been turned off by the signal maintainer until the crossing has been cleared. Cases of empty brown broken bottles labeled Pale Ale are scattered over all four tracks.

 

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Wow- looks like he almost got stopped in time - only about 2 car lengths short?

Hello dispatch, we're in a truck

Posted from Android

What's frightening is when you plow through a truck with a cab car at speed, because you know that a lot of passengers may bite it along with yourself. At least that is the substance of what Caltrain Engineer Rob Orantes told me after he hit a Coca Cola truck at 79 mph. Conductor Jim Fanning told me that Coca Cola formed sort of a fog inside the head section of the car, as shattered bottles shot through the end door and headed towards the center vestibule. Luckily, nobody died. I can't exacyly recall when this happened, but it must have been about 2000. I still have the crumpled end door with a red smudge in my "collection".

I'm glad that I'm retired from running engines.

EO

Most of been for the Pyramid Brewey.

I think that accident really made Rob paranoid, because when he was my instructor he would never let me do 79 around the curve leading to CP Coyote because he thought the train would fall off the tracks onto the roadway.

Ernie Camarillo loved messing with Rob, and when I told him about that, he was like "no sh*t, now I got something new to mess with him about".




hogheaded Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What's frightening is when you plow through a
> truck with a cab car at speed, because you know
> that a lot of passengers may bite it along with
> yourself. At least that is the substance of what
> Caltrain Engineer Rob Orantes told me after he hit
> a Coca Cola truck at 79 mph. Conductor Jim Fanning
> told me that Coca Cola formed sort of a fog inside
> the head section of the car, as shattered bottles
> shot through the end door and headed towards the
> center vestibule. Luckily, nobody died. I can't
> exacyly recall when this happened, but it must
> have been about 2000. I still have the crumpled
> end door with a red smudge in my "collection".
>
> I'm glad that I'm retired from running engines.
>
> EO

Ernie just retired, I'm told, leaving only Garry Ellison to represent the old SP engineer contingent. JP Jones (age 67) is tha last ex SP conductor, I believe. When I retired, he told me that he was going to wait until Dexter Day retires, because he didn't want Dexter (what's he, 70-71?), with his cheap 1992 seniority, ever to make #1. Gad, I miss this part of railroading. You can shove the bleeping engines, on the other hand.

Rob and I became acquainted not long after we hired out, and I still consider him a friend even though he went over to the "dark side" (RFE) for awhile. I let him run a Commute train for me for a (closely monitored) few stops when I learned that he was headed to Choo Choo U to become an engineer in 1994, just to give him an idea of what he was in for.  Maybe you're right about the Coke truck affecting him. I can see how a guy might want to find shelter at a desk after going through something like that.

EO

fjc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think that accident really made Rob paranoid,
> because when he was my instructor he would never
> let me do 79 around the curve leading to CP Coyote
> because he thought the train would fall off the
> tracks onto the roadway.
>
> Ernie Camarillo loved messing with Rob, and when I
> told him about that, he was like "no sh*t, now I
> got something new to mess with him about".
>
>
>
>
> hogheaded Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What's frightening is when you plow through a
> > truck with a cab car at speed, because you know
> > that a lot of passengers may bite it along with
> > yourself. At least that is the substance of
> what
> > Caltrain Engineer Rob Orantes told me after he
> hit
> > a Coca Cola truck at 79 mph. Conductor Jim
> Fanning
> > told me that Coca Cola formed sort of a fog
> inside
> > the head section of the car, as shattered
> bottles
> > shot through the end door and headed towards
> the
> > center vestibule. Luckily, nobody died. I can't
> > exacyly recall when this happened, but it must
> > have been about 2000. I still have the crumpled
> > end door with a red smudge in my "collection".
> >
> > I'm glad that I'm retired from running engines.
> >
> > EO

Considering the references to hitting the Coca-Cola truck, sounds like it may have been the crossing accident that occurred around  Gilroy. Guess I really missed something interesting. What I recall hearing is that it was a non-injury accident. But you never know that until you arrive. I would have responded there and now have something to add, but at the time it occurred I was very busy up in Altamont Pass, handling a fatality I posted about several years ago. My partner was pretty upset that I did not respond there since I was on call (and he had to roll on it himself) but as I had to remind him several times, a guy cannot be in two places at once.       

Rob ran out of the cab car warning passengers to get out before impact.

Westbound Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Considering the references to hitting the
> Coca-Cola truck, sounds like it may have been the
> crossing accident that occurred around  Gilroy.
> Guess I really missed something interesting. What
> I recall hearing is that it was a non-injury
> accident. But you never know that until you
> arrive. I would have responded there and now have
> something to add, but at the time it occurred I
> was very busy up in Altamont Pass, handling a
> fatality I posted about several years ago. My
> partner was pretty upset that I did not respond
> there since I was on call (and he had to roll on
> it himself) but as I had to remind him several
> times, a guy cannot be in two places at once.  
>     

Geez, that's sad really that all the SP guys are gone except Gary and JP.  I was very fortunate to have been trained by all SP guys.

There was a kid, who was a conductor, really smart.  He used to ride the headend with me when it was slow on the weekends, I said to him, you know how to run these trains don't you and he said yea.  So I let him run the entire line, minus the end point, nailed every stop but one which was a little sloppy.  He was like a sponge and absorbed all that he observed with riding with different engineers, he knew how I ran and emulated it and the way others ran and could transition between the variances.  Well when he went to choo choo u and came back, they wanted to know how he was able to run so good from the get go, gave him the fifth degree till he cracked by threatening him with his job and he named names.  He was really upset, told him no worries nothing will happen.  There was myself and four others who were now on the shit list, they wanted blood, but after throwing things back in their face like others letting them run before they were certified, they backed down.  Hell that's how just about every engineer learned the craft by someone taking them under their wing and teaching them, if they believed in them. I had guys on both sides of the bay that let me run, got to run a lot of freight engines too ;-)

I can say this now, because I'm no longer working for the big "A" and I would never name names to this day and betray the trust of those who believed in me as I am forever grateful for them bestowing upon me their knowledge.

hogheaded Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ernie just retired, I'm told, leaving only Garry
> Ellison to represent the old SP engineer
> contingent. JP Jones (age 67) is tha last ex SP
> conductor, I believe. When I retired, he told me
> that he was going to wait until Dexter Day
> retires, because he didn't want Dexter (what's he,
> 70-71?), with his cheap 1992 seniority, ever to
> make #1. Gad, I miss this part of railroading. You
> can shove the bleeping engines, on the other
> hand.
>
> Rob and I became acquainted not long after we
> hired out, and I still consider him a friend even
> though he went over to the "dark side" (RFE) for
> awhile. I let him run a Commute train for me for a
> (closely monitored) few stops when I learned that
> he was headed to Choo Choo U to become an engineer
> in 1994, just to give him an idea of what he was
> in for.  Maybe you're right about the Coke truck
> affecting him. I can see how a guy might want to
> find shelter at a desk after going through
> something like that.
>
> EO
>