Railroaders' Nostalgia > A story not my own

  Ok, so here's a story that is not my own and I'm a little reluctant to tell it because, I'll wager, there's someone on this forum that knows the details better than I do. I no longer recall where I originally heard it but, years ago, I repeated it to a coworker who knew the story and was able to tell me the name of the crew involed but I can't remember who that was either. So here it goes, short but entertaining.

  So it was a typical, beautiful, sunny southern California day and an eastbound manifest had gone in the hole at Moorpark, for a meet. The locomotive was one of SP's AC class engines and the fireman had gotten a little overzealous with his tank heater. While they were sitting there waiting, his fuel oil began to boil over and run down the sides of the tender, making a terrible mess. I don't know if the crew even became aware of what was going on a short distance behind them but it sure would have earned the fireman some demerits if management had found out. Not only was he making a noxious mess but he was wasting fuel!

  Well, unfortunately for our fireman, a whole lotta management was about to take notice. You see, unbeknownst to the crew, they were in the hole to meet a special move of Daylight equipment. The SP had hired an airplane and photographer to take aerial shots of the Daylight skirting along the cliffs of the California coast, for a publicity flyer. By the time the special move showed at Moorpark, the breeze had begun to peel the thick goo from the side of the AC's tender and distibute streamers of the nasty stuff across the mainline. When the immaculately shined and polished Daylight consist cleared the head end of the manifest, it was thoroughly painted with streamers of thick black tar! The shop forces, at Santa Barbara, spent hours scrubbing the goo from the train with stiff brushes and kerosene. All the while, with the hired photographer and aircraft standing by!

  When I told the coworker this story year ago, he said, "Yeah, that was old so-and-so. That guy was promoted to engineer and went on to a long career of similar follies!"

   I've heard the same story from some of the old heads.  The fireman that let that Malley boil over was Myron Hector.  As stated, he went on to a long career of mishaps and misdeeds.  I worked with him a few times on freight between LA and Santa Barbara, and if you were on the caboose, hang on!
   He had a high pitched, annoying voice which got old on a long trip.

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO

That is a very funny story.   Thanks.

But Hector made a killer salsa.
Absolutely the best I've ever tasted.
I had never heard the boil over story before. Russell Bates son Rusty kept in touch with Myron until quite recently but I think Myron has passed. He was definitely a character.

Charlie

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/16 13:24 by cewherry.

tehachcond Wrote:
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>    I've heard the same story from some of the
> old heads.  The fireman that let that Malley boil
> over was Myron Hector.  As stated, he went on to
> a long career of mishaps and misdeeds.  I worked
> with him a few times on freight between LA and
> Santa Barbara, and if you were on the caboose,
> hang on!
>    He had a high pitched, annoying voice which
> got old on a long trip.
>
> Brian Black
> Castle Rock, CO

Brian,
  Thanks. It was probably you that I told the story to in the first place!

I worked with Myron quite a bit in the early 70's..  Yes, he did make a great salsa .  Myron retired in 1974 and passed away around 5 years ago.  One funny story about Myron  ..  Fred Parrot , one of the best SP dispatchers, used to say that Myron could leave Taylor Yard with 100 units and by the time he arrived Burank Jct...( mile distance)  99 of them would be dead !tehachcond Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>    I've heard the same story from some of the
> old heads.  The fireman that let that Malley boil
> over was Myron Hector.  As stated, he went on to
> a long career of mishaps and misdeeds.  I worked
> with him a few times on freight between LA and
> Santa Barbara, and if you were on the caboose,
> hang on!
>    He had a high pitched, annoying voice which
> got old on a long trip.
>
> Brian Black
> Castle Rock, CO

SanJoaquinEngr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
  Myron
> retired in 1974 and passed away around 5 years
> ago. 

Boy, he sure got his money's worth out of RR retirement!

Now I have a new goal !
Tom

Fred Parrot -  there's a name I hadn't heard in a while.  His wife Diane was a dispatcher for our little railroad for a while...great people!  We also had WWW ( Bill Wilson) and Dennis Bosquet.

SanJoaquinEngr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I worked with Myron quite a bit in the early
> 70's..  Yes, he did make a great salsa .  Myron
> retired in 1974 and passed away around 5 years
> ago.  One funny story about Myron  ..  Fred
> Parrot , one of the best SP dispatchers, used to
> say that Myron could leave Taylor Yard with 100
> units and by the time he arrived Burank Jct...(
> mile distance)  99 of them would be dead
> !tehachcond Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >    I've heard the same story from some of the
> > old heads.  The fireman that let that Malley
> boil
> > over was Myron Hector.  As stated, he went on
> to
> > a long career of mishaps and misdeeds.  I
> worked
> > with him a few times on freight between LA and
> > Santa Barbara, and if you were on the caboose,
> > hang on!
> >    He had a high pitched, annoying voice
> which
> > got old on a long trip.
> >
> > Brian Black
> > Castle Rock, CO

 Around 1968 or so when I was an extra operator at Burbank Jct. Tower Myron Hector was by then a senior engineer and worked the Coast regularly. He seemed really paranoid about tests. From time to time an officer (usually a trainmaster) would tell us to deliberately "bull" an order and put a mistake somewhere in the order. The rules dictated that the train was supposed to stop and the crew was supposed to come to the office to get things straightened out. Of course there was the occasional unintentional error. The operator was supposed to call the dispatcher and have the DS re-dictate the order so it could be copied correctly. Sometimes time and the railroad just did not permit that and the order went up on the post anyway.  One afternoon I handed up some orders to Hector and I cannot swear if I had "bulled" the order by mistake but as  I rolled the train by I heard the air being set and the wheel clicks slow down. I heard the radio squawking and it was Hector, in his very distinctive voice, calling the Burbank Jct. operator. I went in and, said, "check your orders again, Hector, highball." We were forbidden to say "no test" on the radio as the officials always had their ears peeled for such violations. There was silence on the other end of the radio and I heard the trainline being charged and the wheel clicks acceleratiing. Hector did this several times while I was at Burbank. I never knew if he had gotten "burned" in the past for a "bulled" order but sometimes he just needed to be "reminded" to look at his orders twice. The "no test" part was implied if he indeed needed some reassurance no one was going to "get" him. . Hector was just one of the many great people I worked with during my short career with the SP.

Have fun, be safe,

Bruce "Doc Jones  Sierra Madre CA

 

DocJones Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Sometimes time and the railroad just
> did not permit that and the order went up on the
> post anyway.

Having never worked with trainorders, I'm curious, what sort of information might have been in error and yet still gone up on the post without causing a situation?

Jeff.  sometimes the TO operator would forget to put am or pm on the clearance, his or her name, forget to put the chief train dispatchers initials, etc.  Or if a clearance was addressed to Extra 9389 east or west  would forget the direction.  numerous other things.  Like I said in an early post working with Myron was a interesting..crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> DocJones Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> Sometimes time and the railroad just
> > did not permit that and the order went up on
> the
> > post anyway.
>
> Having never worked with trainorders, I'm curious,
> what sort of information might have been in error
> and yet still gone up on the post without causing
> a situation?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/16 19:07 by SanJoaquinEngr.

SanJoaquinEngr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Jeff.  sometimes the TO operator would forget to
> put am or pm on the clearnce, his or her name,
> forget to put the chief train dispatchers
> initials, etc.  Or if a clearance was addressed
> to Extra 9389 east or west  would forget the
> direction.  numerous other things.  Like I said
> in an early post working with Myron was a
> interesting..crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------

SanJoaquinEngr has it right. The operators and most of the crews knew an innocent mistake but if the order showed a wrong train or engine number or anything which would cast doubt on the meaning of the order everything would come to a stop until things could be straightened out. The real "catch" was if an official ordered an operator to "bull" an order and hand it up. I never had that happen. I think the officers knew a test like that could really screw up a busy railroad and they stuck to stuff like signals, speed and stuff like that. BTW, train order operation was a very elegant way to get trains over the road. As usual, the whole deal turned upon the skills of the dispatcher.

Have fun, be safe,

Bruce "Doc" Jones   Sierra Madre CA

DocJones Wrote:
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 The operators and
> most of the crews knew an innocent mistake

We still do but these days, using good common sense will get you fired.