Railroaders' Nostalgia > Truck vs train: 70 MPH memories

I can remember those long ago days when many of us had to struggle to keep our speedometers somewhere in the vicinity of the nationwide highway speed-limit of 55*. This widely unpopular law was enacted as a fuel conservation measure after the Arab oil embargo of 1973. But a lucky few of us railroaders had a way to alleviate some of that frustration. It was easy: just work a 70 MPH hotshot. But it was decidedly more fun when our hotshots ran over trackage that paralleled a major highway. To sit in a locomotive cab at speed and pass everything on an adjacent highway was a distinct pleasure that even the crustiest of old-heads could have some fun with.

For a time starting in about 1978 Uncle John Santa Fe took a pair of his hot California intermodals (read: pig trains) and ran them over the traditional passenger main via La Junta ~ Raton ~ Albuquerque. The westbound train was 189 (which may have changed to the 178 later on) and the eastbound was the 883. In my Santa Fe days I caught the 883 out of Sand Creek (Newton), KS a number of times. It was usually in the evenings. We would get rolling along at 70 per next to US highway 50, which was (still is) heavily laden with semi trailer-truck traffic. It was always a thrill to blow some trucker off the road, so to speak. I remember one night when the truck traffic was particularly heavy. We were clipping them off at a prodigious rate. I kept count between Walton (just east of Newton) & Plymouth (just west of Emporia), a distance of about 60 miles. My count was over a dozen. And who knows how many I missed around Peabody, KS where the RR & the highway parts ways for about 10 miles?

When I took this shot several days ago I hadn’t noticed the white truck over on highway 50. But now that I’ve seen it those special 70 MPH memories of long ago come racing to mind…

1. BNSF 7167 leads a stacker through Walton, KS on July 3, 2016.

Thanks for remembering!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

*In 1984 Sammy Hagar sang it best:

“One foot on the brake and one on the gas,
Well, there's too much traffic, I can't pass…”

The paraphrased lyrics above come from Hagar’s smash hit “I Can’t Drive 55!”
The tune entered Billboard’s Top-40 fast lane in October of 1984. It made its way into the 26th position on the track, and lasted 6 laps (weeks) before running out of gas…

DJ Sir L

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Working where I do, I am regularly outpaced by folks on bicycles on 6th St or Washington St in Corvallis.  Even had a runner pacing us. I yelled '6 minute mile' to him.

Even furhter back, when we were serving Hull-Oakes at Dawson, we'd shove out there at 5 mph and had butterflies going faster than we were! (I enjoyed that run, just so you know.)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/16 15:57 by roustabout.

When I first started firing, had two men under me, and for a while, that was it. The two men under me, Bob Staniferd, and Kieth Wessel, both got force assigned to 15 & 16. Every once in a while, one of them would lay off, and, being the low rested man in town, I would get jumped up (or down) to work their job for a trip or two. Several times I got out with Swede Cornealson, and he liked to mess with the truckers along 50 Hwy. Back then, before the "Super 2" project, the highway was very close to the tracks in places, just across the ditch. And like you said, 50 was crawling with trucks back then, and the speed limit meant nothing to them. I think a lot of it was IBP business between Dodge City and Emporia. Anyway, I remember several times we would be rolling along at 80 or so (Swede's version of "79") and we would whiz right by a big bunch of trucks. In the dark it looked like they were backing up. But once in a while, again at 80 or so, a truck would show up on my mirrow, get closer and closer, and roll right on by us like WE were backing up. I remember once there was a pair of head lights approaching, and he flipped his headlights at us, Swede dimmed his light just for a second or two, then back to bright, The trucker did the same thing, That went on, back and forth for a while, then Swede chuckled, and turned his head light completely out. The truck turned his out too for a few seconds, then but out of nerve, and turned his back on, This time,  Swede left his completely off until the truck was past us. It was a game he could play a while longer than the trucker could. He's done it many times, and was getting good at it. But even in the daytime, it was fun rolling along so close to Hwy 50 on a freight train, watching the traffic go by just a few feet away.

Lance  saw similar with autos along hiway 30 west of Boone in the summer of 1977, i remember autos keeping pace and low and behold "Barney Fife" would sitting where the speed limit finally dropped to around 30 mph thru town. you know the rest of the story.

Not being a rail, I can only relate stories from one of Amtrak's seats.  Seems that anytime you are paralleling a highway, there is someone that want's to pace you.  Doing 79 will keep you even with most of them but occasionally someone has to show  you what his car will do.    I was on the NEC several years ago with A friend on his first Amtrak trip.  We came in on the Cardinal and boarded 66 at Washington.  A little way up the road I noticed that we were moving along at a pretty good clip.  I ask my buddy how fast he though we were going.  "Oh, about 80 I'd guess" he said.  I told him I suspected we were doing a bit over 80 because there wasn't a car out there keeping up with us.  I got out my GPS and it told the story, 113 MPH.

John

Fully loaded pigs (no empty tubs or trailers) were still running 70 mph on CNIC's Champaign Sub in the early 2000's. Made for a pretty quick trip when horsepower was available. Once in a while we'd have a chaser on parallel Rt 45 northbound out of Mattoon or southbound out of Tuscola. Then they would have the Arcola police "slow 'em down" while we'd blow through town at 70 mph.
It (the speed) was a pretty good rush, given most of the IC SD40 family (IC 6000's, 6100's and 6200's) had spent a career of being rode hard and put away wet. Three 40's on the Q190's usually gave the shorter pig trains (< 7000 feet) a decent chance at 70.

"What used to take 2 hours, now takes all day"...

Oh, I LOVE these stories!!  Blowing the doors off the highway traffic right next to ya!  Wow..... That HAD to be a REAL RUSH!!  And -- oh, so satisfying.  How sweet it was......

Lance ---
You write SO well.  I LOVED Your story!  Flying past all that traffic on the highway right next to you sounded like a lot of fun!

roustbout ---
Your comment wsa one of the funniest and best I have ever read here on TO.  LOLOL -- being passed up by -- butterflies!!  (What a beautiful area you work in.)

IC1038west Wrote: > ... "What used to take 2 hours, now takes all day"...
I feel yer pain, Sammy!

;^)

All I can say is I don't know why people on I-40 want to try to keep pace with the Chief since there's areas where 3 and 4 can open up to 90, and I heard one friend say that a friend of his tried to keep up with No. 3 in Ca. and CHP caught him, and I knew what stretch that was which is between Hector and Dagget where the main and I-40 are pretty much on a long stragithaway and I for one don't get why people try to do that on a straight run where 3 and 4 really can stay at 90 for quite a while and not break a sweat! The other part I know is westbound just outside of Kingman Canyon-Topock!

What was a neat place back when train traffic was heavier was the stretch between Eureka,MO and Pacific,MO.  The Frisco and MP paralleled each other the whole way. And right alongside the MP was Highway 66.  There was many a train race through there.  If they were both passenger, the first one to reach Grand Ave in St. Louis would get into Union Station first.
A friend of mine was riding on the MP coming from Jefferson City and they were running track speed coming east through Pacific the same time as an oil train came through. He sat there and watched as the oil train with one of Frisco's 4300 4-8-2s slowly passed them.  Must have been a hell of a sight.