Steam & Excursion > Mount Emily Shay #1- Being Delivered - Funny Story!

Back on May 25, 1994 we were at long last awaiting delivery of Mount Emily Shay #1 from back East. I say that as the process of getting the engine back to Oregon had taken over a year and was not without it's "issues".

On this beautiful spring day we had one of our units from the City of Prineville Ry waiting at Prineville Junction ready to take charge of the Shay once the BN set her out from the Southbound freight that was heading our way. I set up at the Crooked River Bridge on the Oregon Trunk to catch a photo of our Shay as she crossed. I had a COP radio tuned to the BN frequency and overheard a funny exchange between the crew on the fright and BN dispatch.

The lady engineer on the freight radioed that she did not understand why she was to "set out a locomotive at Prineville Junction". She radioed that she had just enough power to make it south out of Bend on the climb to Lava and on to K-Falls. She said if she had to set out a locomotive as ordered, she would never make the grade out of Bend.

Dispatch told her she had plenty of power to make the grade and it would be even easier after she set out the locomotive. That really got the engineer confused. She radioed back that by setting out one of her locomotives it would in fact be MORE DIFFICULT to make the grade.

After about 10 minutes of this back and forth, the dispatcher told the engineer that no, we do not want you to set out one of her diesels at the junction but rather, she was to set out the locomotive that was on the 2 flatcars behind her units. There was a long pause and finally the engineer radioed back that she had no idea that was a locomotive on the flatcars, but now it all made sense.

A few minutes later the freight came to a stop at the junction and we gladly took charge of the Shay once she was set out on our yard track. I must say we did not admit to the BN engineer we had heard the exchange that had slowed our deliver. We just smiled and waived goodbye as she resumed her Southbound trip to Bend.

I must say the 4 of us had a good laugh as we gladly took our "new" locomotive the last 18 miles to Prineville.

Martin

---

> After about 10 minutes of this back and forth, the
> dispatcher told the engineer that no, we do not
> want you to set out one of her diesels at the
> junction but rather, she was to set out the
> locomotive that was on the 2 flatcars behind her
> units. There was a long pause and finally the
> engineer radioed back that she had no idea that
> was a locomotive on the flatcars, but now it all
> made sense.

Sounds like BN needed to add a Railroading Basics 101 - Locomotive Identification to the Engineers class curriculum. In this day and age I can see that happening for sure. Whats a Steam Engine Daddy?

That's hilarious! Train engineers must only look at computer print outs nowadays. Thanks for sharing this gem of a story!

Kinda makes me want to say...

"HERE'S your sign!"

JImBo

Locomotive? I thought it was just a big tea kettle!?

Pump

While I love the steamer, that BN unit is very nice looking as well.

CFWRRCEO Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sounds like BN needed to add a Railroading Basics
> 101 - Locomotive Identification to the Engineers
> class curriculum. In this day and age I can see
> that happening for sure. Whats a Steam Engine
> Daddy?

Seems to me to be that it the railroad had just told the engineer to set-out two flatcars it would have been much easier. Blaming the engineer for not knowing there was a steam engine on the two flatcars behind the diesel power isn't right. The engineer may have taken over the train at night and even in daylight might have just seen some black colored cargo on the flats...the paperwork won't tell the crew what was on the flatcar. Of course there may have been additional information given to the crew about the steam engine and then of course the engineer was just dumb.

1994---woman engineer---probably getting her leg pulled by all involved on the railroad.
Roger B

And perhaps pulling back now and then. Though it doesn't sound quite like that in this case.

Also, a Shay isn't so obviously a locomotive to some, lacking the big drivers and rods a conventional steam locomotive has. So it doesn't look like a steam locomotive and certainly doesn't look like a diesel either. Squint and it could be a big traction engine though she'd probably not know that either.

Dispatcher should have told her to set out the "steam engine, NOT the Diesel engine". Now THAT would have REALLY shook up the Engineer! Some of the best Engineers I have ever worked with were women.

This story about the overheard radio exchange between a female engineer and a dispatcher about setting a locomotive out at Prineville Jct. is an interesting story, but I think it contains several errors in it. I was working a regular run on the line through Prineville Jct. in 1994, and in that year, the crews worked beteen Wishram, Washington and Bend, Oregon. This story, as presented, tends to indicate that the female engineer was working the train all the way to Klamath Falls, Oregon, which would not be the case. At that time, there was one female engineer working out of Wishram, but she was very knowledgeable, and if she would have been the engineer on the train that had the shay in its train, I am sure that she would have easily and clearly known that it was not a locomotive in the train's locomotive consist that was to be set out.

The train that had the shay in its train probably was Train No. 171, the Pasco to Klamath Falls train. That was a daylight run, and I was one of the two engineers assigned to that run, and I know that we never had a shay to set out at Prineville Jct. The other engineer assigned to the Train 171 assignment did have a female student engineer assigned to work with him for a few weeks during 1994, and he often had her operating the train, so there is a possibility that some sort of exchange between the train and the dispatcher could have taken place, but I am not able to believe that the female on the train crew would have indicated that "she would not be able to make the grade out of Bend", simply because she would not be operating the train south out of Bend.

The steepest grade between Wishram and Klamath Falls is the climb out of the Deschutes River Canyon between South Junction and Madras. The second steepest grade between Wishram and Klamath Falls is the grade between Bend and Lava, about 14 miles south of Bend. It was common for southbound trains out of Wishram to have to reduce tonnage in the Deschutes River Canyon to be able to make the grade out of South Junction or get a locomotive from a northbound train that the southbound train would meet somewhere in the Canyon, and almost without fail, the power consist that pulled the train up the grade out of South Junction would work on through Bend to some point south of Lava so that the train could make the grade out of Bend even though it wasn't as steep as the grade coming up out of the Deschutes River Canyon.

I am surprised that I or other employees based in Wishram did not learn of such a radio conversation between a female engineer and a dispatcher. Funny radio exchanges occasionally occur between various employees, and almost without fail, such humorous radio exchanges are easily overheard by other employees and such stories quickly make it onto the "employee grapevine", but I and other employees I have chatted with have never heard about this radio exchange, and I can assure everyone that such a dumb and crazy radio exchange would have most certainly been a story employees would be eager to share with other employees.

When she said "she would not make the grade to Lava" she was referring to the train headed to K-Falls as a "she", not that that same engineer would be on that train.

Next, I did not repor this earlier, but it is long enough pas that it will not matter now. The train was delayed before the bridge and this exchange because the engineer had gone past a red block just north of the bridge. That caused quite a delay. This also may have been why this radio chattered did not make the rounds of the crew coffee shops like other such chatter.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/11 14:46 by LoggerHogger.