Railroaders' Nostalgia > what a wonderful job!

To be called for the "Jack Rabbit" at West Oakland. You knew exactly what was going to transpire. You went balls out both directions
and any delay if there was any didn't amount to much. This was a high speed hauler that left Oakland with a handful of cars and two geeps.
You made a set out at Newark and I believe a pick-up. Then it was back to Oakland in Run 8. You made your 100 miles in 4+ hours!
But then there were trips that took 14/16 hours from Oakland to San Jose yard on a local!
To work the Jack Rabbit was a call from Railroad Heavem.

Kind of like the quick flips on the commutes, make a round trip and back in 4.5hrs, still getting paid for 8hrs while sitting at home or goofing off.

Miss those quick turns.

ValvePilot Wrote:
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> To be called for the "Jack Rabbit" at West
> Oakland. You knew exactly what was going to
> transpire. You went balls out both directions
> and any delay if there was any didn't amount to
> much. This was a high speed hauler that left
> Oakland with a handful of cars and two geeps.
> You made a set out at Newark and I believe a
> pick-up. Then it was back to Oakland in Run 8. You
> made your 100 miles in 4+ hours!
> But then there were trips that took 14/16 hours
> from Oakland to San Jose yard on a local!
> To work the Jack Rabbit was a call from Railroad
> Heavem.

AKA Newark Turn. The Rabbit died ( no pun intended) by 1976. Called at night out of the Homstead for 930p

There was a job in Watsonville in the 70s that went on duty at 5:30 p.m., ran lite engines to Salinas, picked up the perishible train (which was already assembled), and brought it back to Watsonville.  It was a straight shot with main line crew change at the yard office.  Anything past a 9:30 tieup was a long day.  I never had the seniority to work it regular, though I did catch it extra a couple times.  It only ran during the summer growing season, but what a sweet job!

Sometimes it was feast or famine on the railroad.  There were jobs so good, you almost felt guilty turning in a time slip.  (I said almost).  Then there were others so horrible, they couldn't pay you enough to want to work them.

CPCoyote Wrote:
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> There was a job in Watsonville in the 70s that
> went on duty at 5:30 p.m., ran lite engines to
> Salinas, picked up the perishible train (which was
> already assembled), and brought it back to
> Watsonville.  It was a straight shot with main
> line crew change at the yard office.  Anything
> past a 9:30 tieup was a long day.  I never had
> the seniority to work it regular, though I did
> catch it extra a couple times.  It only ran
> during the summer growing season, but what a sweet
> job!
>
> Sometimes it was feast or famine on the railroad.
>  There were jobs so good, you almost felt guilty
> turning in a time slip.  (I said almost).  Then
> there were others so horrible, they couldn't pay
> you enough to want to work them.
And it died like the Rabbit ( no pun ) in the early 80s when the SP got over its perishable business and packing houses went almost trucks

They still called similar East Bay runs jackrabbits in the late 70's. I recall an episode on the 4th of July, 1979 (on what we thought would be a uneventful daylight straight shot to WJ): We were on an eastbound  train at Hayward when the jackrabbit stalled ahead of us going over the hump at Niles. We cut off our power and latched onto its caboose opposite Pacific Steel. Once that we were moving for a bit, the jackrabbit's conductor, O.B. Baca (I think; didn't he always wear a suit?) strolled out onto the caboose platform and pulled the pin. After we got aways back towards our train, the jackrabbit stalled again, so... my engineer made a considerable number of lap-back miles for such a short distance between trains. Once we finally hooked back onto our own train, we air tested and began to pull, but the air went immediately. Kids had been playing with the cut levers.

I recoupled the cars, yada-yada, and the air went again where we separated in another spot. Hayward was pretty well tied-up by this time. With the help of a guy who ferried me back and forth with his automobile after he saw me running, we finally managed to get going, and arrived at WJ in time to see the Independence Day parade march by the Hotel Resetar.

The driver of the auto sent an attaboy to the company regarding my efforts, but when I asked if this meant some demerits would be cleared off of my record, the ATM responded, "You've got to be kidding!"

EO