Home | Open Account | Help | 347 users online |
Member Login
Discussion
Media SharingHostingLibrarySite Info |
Railroaders' Nostalgia > One of my own from over 40 years ago...sheeesh!Date: 03/14/16 18:24 One of my own from over 40 years ago...sheeesh! Author: cewherry Earlier I have written of an experience of mine at Dolores Yard. See http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,3937078.
Today's tale involves the Trainmaster at Dolores that played a role in the earlier posting; if only briefly. I was working the engineers extra board at Taylor Yard in Los Angeles in the mid 1970's. One evening I was called on duty at Taylor to transport under pay to Dolores Yard, there to work with the yard switcher and upon completion of the work to return to Taylor where I would go off duty. The job was one that was allocated to former Pacific Electric employees. Since the routine of the job was fairly mundane (read: not much overtime) PE engineers generally managed to avoid working it and thus almost every evening another of my SP brethren would be called to fill the job and the pattern would be repeated. Such was not the case for the train crew. The conductor as well as both brakeman's positions were filled by moderately high seniority employees. Not that the job was a 'plum'. More so that the job offered a semblance of stability. Regular hours, days off and not too much spotting and pulling of industries. Just a simple yard switcher working under, I believe, road-switcher rules. The conductor was somewhat of a 'wild-hare'. He had a penchant for throwing his lantern up against the side of an errant car that was not going where he intended or if the car had the audacity of not rolling into the clear as he had meant. Often there would be long pauses in the pace of work while the con figured out what his next move would be or after much conferencing among the three ground men to formulate a new plan. This night I arrived and met with the crew. It looked like it was going to be another ho-hum 12+ hour trip. We got an angine, one of the plentiful SW-1500's and set about our work. The yard office was on Carson, Blvd. which ran east-west with the tracks running north-south. We reached down (compass south) into the yard and pulled a cut of cars north while the con referred to his list looking for where he wanted to make a cut so as to keep the switching manageable for the single unit power. We made several pulls from the track. Since the first movement, Carson Blvd had been blocked while we switched. I'm about 15 cars north of the street. I get a 'kick' sign and complied with the con's instruction. A car rolls free. Another 'kick' sign followed by a stop sign. The con's lantern slams against a convenient rail car. Something's wrong. The con backs me over Carson and I wait while things get figured out. A few minutes later the con gives another 'kick' sign. This time his lantern takes off like a rocket reaching probably 30 feet in the night air. Of course, I stop. This time I sit, blocking Carson, while the con strides into the office. About 5 minutes later he comes out, with a new lantern and we finish up the switching of our first track with no more theatrics. We switch around the north end of the yard until we went to coffee with no other damage to the equipment. After coffee the brakemen and I take the engine to the south end of the yard but the con elects to drive his auto instead. His car is parked next to a track that we didn't switch on and I notice that the con is absent from our view while the brakemen and I do some switching. It is also very dark at the south end. No yard lights. After we finish our chores the brakemen and I return to the north end to await instructions. Several minutes pass before the con drives up and parks his car and goes into the office. Shortly we begin round three. I'm sitting on the engine just north of Carson when I notice a Los Angeles County Sheriffs's cruiser pull into the parking lot and an officer goes into the office. About 10 minutes later out of the office comes our con, no pun intended, with his hands cuffed behind his back. Into the back seat he goes and the cruiser departs! What's going on?? The brakeman put's me in the roundhouse and I figured this night is history so I get my grip and head for the office. Inside, the clerk Boyd, tells me not to get excited about going home early. Otherwise he is mum as to what's afoot. About two hours pass and the Trainmaster drives up with my con in tow. Not a word was said as an explanation of what just happened. The con got a new list and we went back to work. I found out later that Mr.Con had been observed, by whom I have no idea, loading toys from an open boxcar at the south end of the yard into the trunk of his automobile. Reportedly he beat the rap by pleading that he was merely taking custody of the goods as the senior representative of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in the absence of higher authority. I guess he could think faster than he could switch. Charlie Date: 03/14/16 19:23 Re: One of my own from over 40 years ago...sheeesh! Author: CCDeWeese Cool answer. We had a theft ring on the TRRA in the 1970's and no one involved that smart.
Date: 03/14/16 21:46 Re: One of my own from over 40 years ago...sheeesh! Author: CountryBoy Sounds like there's a story here
CB CCDeWeese Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Cool answer. We had a theft ring on the TRRA in > the 1970's and no one involved that smart. Date: 03/15/16 20:53 Re: One of my own from over 40 years ago...sheeesh! Author: EricSP I wonder what cost more, the toys or all of the lanterns he went through.
Date: 03/16/16 04:29 Re: One of my own from over 40 years ago...sheeesh! Author: CCDeWeese We had a switchman stealing toy TVs because they were lighter and he could carry them to his truck easier.
Date: 03/16/16 07:44 Re: One of my own from over 40 years ago...sheeesh! Author: mkerner CCDeWeese Wrote:
--IIRC there where a few clerks involved Michael T Kerner Collinsville, IL----------------------------------------------------- > Cool answer. We had a theft ring on the TRRA in > the 1970's and no one involved that smart. Posted from Android Date: 03/16/16 13:07 Re: One of my own from over 40 years ago...sheeesh! Author: CCDeWeese Well, I opened my mouth and now feel compelled to try to tell the story.
I left the CRIP doing the budget and joined the TRRA in December, 1970 doing the budget. A year or so later, I was put in charge of mechanizing the yard offices with punch cards, electronic transmission of car movement activity to a central computer for tracing, and PICL the yards (PICL= Perpetual Inventory Car Location). All went fairly well. In late 1973, W F Thompson (Pisser Bill, although all that was after I worked for him) left the TRRA and J B Buffalo came from the CRIP to the TRRA as President. JBB knew me from my CRIP days, so I was about the only one he had known for any length of time. In early 1974, Olyn Bailey, the VP & GM for the TRRA collapsed from low blood pressure. I had been working the General Superintendent's job during his vacations, and JBB appointed me Acting VP & GM, Shortly thereafter, Bud Waggonner, the TRRA Chief of Police, came to my office, closed the door, and explained that we had had an undercover cop working the scene for some time, and that the next day, early in the morning, a joint task force of Illinois and Missouri agents, maybe with some Federal participation, were going to arrest the following 23 employees (I think the number was 23, could have been more or less). He said that I should arrange to hold investigations and fire them all under our rule that said that the arrest and filing of charges by any competent authority was cause for discipline. (Might be hard to sell that in our current society). They made the arrests, we held the investigations, we fired them all, and trials were held. Some went to Federal Prison in Marion, IL, some did not. At least one came back about a year or so later when the charges were dropped, making the firing invalid, according to our General Counsel. I called him, he agreed to come back with full back pay and sign a wavier. The crafts involved were Clerks, Carmen, Yardmasters for sure, and I believe Switchmen and Engineers and Firemen. The clerk came back to work and was fine, one yardmaster returned from Marion and ended up collecting fares at the Granite City park softball field. I recall those were the only two I had personal contact with afterwards. I had worked with both during the yard office work. As best I knew the structure of the ring, the clerks identified stuff worth stealing, the carmen bad ordered the cars, the cars went to the rip tracks (we had several at Madison) and then the stuff was unloaded and carted off to be sold. The undercover cop became a regular TRRA cop. Date: 03/16/16 13:54 Re: One of my own from over 40 years ago...sheeesh! Author: candyman Someone needs to tell about the "Great" Roseville Lobster and fish fry.
Dave Date: 03/16/16 20:25 Re: One of my own from over 40 years ago...sheeesh! Author: Clarence I'm not a rail but I heard a tale about auto theft on the TRRA. Seems they would spot an autorack next to a junk yard. Somebody would climb up, unstrap the auto from the autorack and then they'd swing the electromagnet crane over from the junk yard and pull the car off the autorack into the yard where it would be quickly stripped and the hulk fed into the car shredder.
Clarence G Date: 03/17/16 20:18 Re: One of my own from over 40 years ago...sheeesh! Author: CCDeWeese Had not heard that, but no reason not think it might have happened.
|