Railroaders' Nostalgia > A speedy revenge on the Day Bud

  In January of 2000, nearly three and a half years after the UP/SP merger, our seniority rosters, in Los Angeles, were merged  which would, finally, allow us to go work jobs on the other side of the fence.  Although I'd hired out with the UP, I'd grown up next to the SP and was anxious to get out and work some new territory and, maybe, a few of the jobs that I was familiar with from my childhood.  However, I soon learned that not everyone was as thrilled about this new change as I was. The merger with the UP was a bitter pill for the SP guys to swollow and understandably so. I found that many of them harbored animosity towards me, as a UP guy, as if the merger had been my idea. Many of them would make snide comments about UP guys, over the radio or in our presence. On more than one occasion, I showed up for a job only to have the crew roll their eyes and throw their arms up in disgust and say, "Oh, we got a f$@%ing UP guy!"

  It was under these conditions that, in the summer of 2000, I found myself working the Gemco engineer's extra board. I had resolved to just keep my head down and, when in Rome, work as the Romans work, which by the way, was a little different in that the SP, and especially Gemco, was still working far more "old school" than the UP was by this time. It wasn't anything that I hadn't seen or done, but I knew that a change was gonna come for them. Eventually, I would earn my salt with the SP guys. In fact, it was an old head SP hogger who bestowed upon me the moniker that I use on this forum and I wear it as a badge of honor. But, for the time being, it was a rocky road.

  So one morning, I was called to work the Day Brewery job. I've been told that the brakeman on the job drank a bit. I never actually saw any eveidence that he drank but I can tell you that he was plagued by gout, in his ankles and feet. In the morning, at the beginning of the shift, he would be fine. But, by mid day, his ankles would be ballooned up and he could hardly walk, litterally tripping over himself. We were switching out the yard, from the west end and the power was a pair of SW1500's, coupled elephant style and facing west so that I was on the north side, where the lead was. If you only had a handful of cars, I could see the lead and the work going on but there was slight dog leg in the lead so, as you got farther out, your view would be obscured by your own cut of cars. Such was the case on this morning. We had ahold of a pretty good cut of cars and I couldn't see anything that was going on.

  Soon the call came over the radio to "kick-em!" Now, when kicking cars, you want to excellerate the car up to the desired speed as quickly as possible and travel the shortest amount of distance before letting it go so as not to have to saw back on each pass. Generally, I would just go to run eight and it would only be a moment before I'd hear "That'l do".  So this brakeman called for me to "kick-em" and I wound it up and I'm going and going and going but no "that'l do" ever comes. We're really flying now and I start to second guess myself. Did I miss his transmission? What if his radio's gone out? Back then, we didn't have all of the rules that we have now in regards to protecting shoves, with someone watching the point, etc. Back then, you let your conscience be your guide. And right about this time, I was getting a knot in my stomach as my conscience painted a picture for me, of the cars piling up at the bottom end of the yard.  Unnerved, I backed off the throttle a couple notches. I didn't stop, I just backed off a little. I mean, we were already going way faster than I'd ever seen anybody let a car go.

  AS soon as I'd notched down, over the radio came, "That'l do, that'l do! God Dammit!  Did you f&%#@ing hear me say stop?!  I didn't tell you to stop!  You don't stop! You don't slow down unless I tell you to stop!" The tirade went on and on! As it turned out, he'd put a "sneaker" of a heal on the cars and he'd wanted them to roll all the way to the bottom of the yard before stopping. Now we'd have to go shove them down.

  Well, later in the day, we'd gotten rid of most of the cut of cars and now I was close enough to be able to see what was gonig on, on the lead. Again, the call came to "kick-em". I went to run eight and we lurched ahead rapidly. By now, his gout had kicked in. He was having trouble walking and I could see that he was struggling to catch up with the pin lifter and make the cut. He began tripping over his own feet. He dropped his switchlist. Faster and faster we went. Now he was falling behind, he was never going to catch the pin. He reached for his radio but fumbled and dropped the mic, then, finally, he whirled around and gave me a big "washout" with his hands. I saw every embarrasing, akward moment of it unfold before me but hey, I don't f%@#ing stop, I don't f%@#ing slow down, unless he tells me to slow down! Funny, he didn't have a word to say to me about it.



 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/16 13:58 by crackerjackhoghead.

Yeah, that's the responsibility of the switchman, if you tell your engineer to "kick em" you're gonna have to tell him to stop, because a good engineer, like you did, will put em in 8 and leave em there until he gets the stop signal.  BSB

BigSkyBlue Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yeah, that's the responsibility of the switchman,
> if you tell your engineer to "kick em" you're
> gonna have to tell him to stop, because a good
> engineer, like you did, will put em in 8 and leave
> em there until he gets the stop signal.  BSB

Yes, but I don't know too many switchmen who'd let a car go at 20mph, on a steep downgrade, with no one riding the brake!

Posted from Android

I haven't been out here for too long but my first trainmonster once told me that you can do anything you want on your last day on the railroad.


crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BigSkyBlue Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Yeah, that's the responsibility of the
> switchman,
> > if you tell your engineer to "kick em" you're
> > gonna have to tell him to stop, because a good
> > engineer, like you did, will put em in 8 and
> leave
> > em there until he gets the stop signal.  BSB
>
> Yes, but I don't know too many switchmen who'd
> let a car go at 20mph, on a steep downgrade, with
> no one riding the brake!
>
> Posted from Android

DG .
Unknown, US

crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BigSkyBlue Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Yeah, that's the responsibility of the
> switchman,
> > if you tell your engineer to "kick em" you're
> > gonna have to tell him to stop, because a good
> > engineer, like you did, will put em in 8 and
> leave
> > em there until he gets the stop signal.  BSB
>
> Yes, but I don't know too many switchmen who'd
> let a car go at 20mph, on a steep downgrade, with
> no one riding the brake!
>
> Posted from Android

I don't think you understood my post.  It is the switchman's responsibility to keep that from happening by telling the engineer to stop before the speed gets too high.  You were enjoying your crewman's struggle with exactly that, while you did exactly what you were supposed to do.  Good story.  BSB

BigSkyBlue Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't think you understood my post.  It is the
> switchman's responsibility to keep that from
> happening by telling the engineer to stop before
> the speed gets too high.  You were enjoying your
> crewman's struggle with exactly that, while you
> did exactly what you were supposed to do.  Good
> story.  BSB

Big Sky,
  You're right, I was in a hurry when I read it the first time. Cheers!

crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BigSkyBlue Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Yeah, that's the responsibility of the
> switchman,
> > if you tell your engineer to "kick em" you're
> > gonna have to tell him to stop, because a good
> > engineer, like you did, will put em in 8 and
> leave
> > em there until he gets the stop signal.  BSB
>
> Yes, but I don't know too many switchmen who'd
> let a car go at 20mph, on a steep downgrade, with
> no one riding the brake!
>
> Posted from Android

We did some crazy stuff on the VC. drops were made at 20 plus,  engine going down the turnout side,  engine going sideways down the turnout side, engine being chased by car the was supposed to be dropped but brakey forgot to line switch.  Kicking out cars of Smuckers jam and watching them fly down past the wye and into a cut of oboxcars full of paper followed by a bleeding reefer. 15 years there I saw a lot of crazy $h!t.

Remind me of early on in my RR career when I was serving my time on ATSF LA engineers extra board and caught a one day stand on the 3rd Fullerton road switcher on duty 9 PM with Conductor JD Scott (eyes rolling) and two new hire brakemen. The con was in a league all of his own and you never knew what he was gonna do next because he seldom knew what he was gonna do next.

Anyway, we spent most of the night on the 4th District switching everything in sight between the junction and the SP crossing east of Anaheim which was almost right next door to Anaheim Stadium to give you an idea of the locale. Just west of the crossing at grade was an interchange track and it was kind of down in a hole next to the mainline. Well, it's after daylight and we have ahold of 20 or so empties most of which are on the wrong end of the engine and we need to get around them for the trip back into town because it's too far to shove them. JD decides that we'll drop 'em by us at the interchange. The head man gets on the engine with instructions to bottle the air after we shove west a couple hundred yards with the con at the switch where he decides he's gonna put me inside and roll the cut up the main. So, we're in position and I whistle off and we take off. I get them going pretty good and give the brakie the pin and we cut away. The cut rolls about 100 feet and stops. I tell JD we obviously got a leak and maybe he better bleed 'em off instead and let's not screw this up account we're soon to be on short time and Amtrak is gonna start running soon.

So here we go again. I shove west a little farther this time for a little more breathing room. Now we're moving east on the slight upgrade at the location and I've got 'em going like a bat out of hell and I roll the slack in for the pin. The brakie has trouble with the pin which isn't helping the situation in the least but he finally gets it. I take off racing for the clear. I fly through the switch and as soon as I can see that I'm in the clear I start working on getting everything that I have ahold of stopped. No sooner than I stop I look up and all I see is the end of a big blue boxcar coming in on me. I seems that the con got cold feet at the last second and walked away from the switch. My next move was to bail off the engine and that happens just before an extremely rough joint takes place. Fortunately, nobody hurt and nothing tore up except the doors to the crapper and the refrigerator were knocked open leaving all the drinking water and paper towels on the floor and my grip was upside down.
Yes, the good old days! Never a dull moment..........

BTW Jeff...yesterday I drove all through Yermo yard.  SAD. SAD. SAD.  But your post reminds me of switching on the east end of the "C" yard and kicking cars through the retarders on the east end...remember?   I am kicking at 10 mph when the foreman sez I don't have any balls.  I will show you balls.  Notch 8 until he sez "that'll do".  Well, we let 'em go about 28mph.   I stop.  Then I hear..Yermo yard office we have a problem.  Leroy sez "what is the problem?"  "Frozen chicken and newsprint are all over the desert" sez the foreman.  11 car pile up.  Leroy sez to me:  Mark, how f*cking fast were you goin?.  "Fast as the switchmen told me to go" sez I.   Never let up on the throttle until I was told to.  Foreman took full responsibility for the move and got 6 months - me?  Nothing.  Not like that now.

XWPgandy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BTW Jeff...yesterday I drove all through Yermo
> yard.  SAD. SAD. SAD.  But your post reminds me
> of switching on the east end of the "C" yard and
> kicking cars through the retarders on the east
> end...remember?   I am kicking at 10 mph when
> the foreman sez I don't have any balls.  I will
> show you balls.  Notch 8 until he sez "that'll
> do".  Well, we let 'em go about 28mph.   I
> stop.  Then I hear..Yermo yard office we have a
> problem.  Leroy sez "what is the problem?" 
> "Frozen chicken and newsprint are all over the
> desert" sez the foreman.  11 car pile up.  Leroy
> sez to me:  Mark, how f*cking fast were you
> goin?.  "Fast as the switchmen told me to
> go" sez I.   Never let up on the throttle until
> I was told to.  Foreman took full responsibility
> for the move and got 6 months - me?  Nothing. 
> Not like that now.

Mark,
  Who was the foreman? Sounds like a Scott Walker move. One time we were switching and one of the tracks was full. I told him we needed to shove it down. He says, "No, watch this". The next cars to go in there were ten loaded hoppers (sand or cement). he winds them up and lets them go. There's a shower of sparks from the couplers, the rear car hops up off the bolster for a second and they roll in the clear. "Wow, cool!' Well, later, we're building a train and the air won't come up on that track. So I walk the track and, in the middle of it, is one of those 60 foot boxcars with the extra long cusion drawbars. Only the knuckles are up under the ends of the car on both ends. I look underneath and the center sill looks like an accordian! "Watch this!" Indeed.

SkyWalker is correct.