Nostalgia & History > GRIP graduates

Two different models of Sacramento Locomotive Works graduates were working through Blunt, Ca. back in the summer of 1987. I miss the SP colors...when they were clean.

Adam

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Those GRIP locomotives were pretty (as is your photo!), but Sac's quality control was inconsistent. As you doubtlessly know, SP put these locomotives in service in Oregon to avoid California state taxes (who wouldn't?). There was a standing order not to use the rebuilds while in transit from Sacramento to their set-up point, Eugene. I recall two such units one night at Dunsmuir, dead-in-multiple on in the rear of a loco consist of a freight train headed for Eugene. It needed help up the hill, and no units were available in Dunsmuir, so the dispatcher gave my engineer and (fireman) me a message directing us to cut-off a locomotive from the head end of the train and put it on the rear behind the caboose. Because of various factors - meaning nobody wanted to put-up with the extra work of taking a locomotive out of the middle of a consist - my engineer (Jimmy Plank JR., I think) elected to use the rear-most unit, a sparkling new Kodachrone-painted SD45 rebuild.

We latched it onto the caboose and proceeded without incident over the hill to Kegg Pit, where we were cut-off and waited for a westbound to help down the hill (just as helpers were used to prevent string-lining a train going uphill, helpers were added to downhill trains to prevent cars from popping-out onto the outside of curves).

It was my turn to run (engineers preferred to finish their work early, and nap while their firemen worked the more-touchy downhill helps), and after we coupled-on to the westbound, everything went smoothly until we tipped-over at Grass Lake. As soon as I took the loco out of power and placed it into "Setup", which should have resulted in about 50 amps of dynamic brake, the alarm bells began ringing and the engine ran into the caboose (a properly-run, single-unit help didn't do much, but competently-run, it could give a good, slack-less ride to the rear-end-crew, and this was already not going to happen). The brand-spanking-new yellow-and-red dandy had tripped a ground relay in a traction motor (or associated circuit), which meant that we would be dead weight all of the way to Dunsmuir, a long way off. A couple of additional tries produced the same result, so, having nothing to do, I joined the engineer in blissful sleep.

On the railroad, when in doubt or difficulty: sleep.


-E.O.

Engineers preferring to "finish work early and sleep while letting their fireman do the downhill work?" That just doesn't sound good, or professional.

Great story, E.O., thanks for sharing!

Mark

And I miss the Gyralights.. I'll never forgive the SP for removing them and going to gumball machine beacons!


RplusLJetService Wrote:
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> Two different models of Sacramento Locomotive
> Works graduates were working through Blunt, Ca.
> back in the summer of 1987. I miss the SP
> colors...when they were clean.
>
> Adam

> Engineers preferring to "finish work early and
> sleep while letting their fireman do the downhill
> work?" That just doesn't sound good, or
> professional.

Presumably are speaking of this particular instance, rather than the general, ongoing issue of T&E crew fatigue, which so blights their job performance and so highlights the 19th Century mentality of railroad management.

Now, understand that firemen back then were essentially engineer trainees. The hardest part of a helper assignment in Dunsmuir typically was the downhill run, so once a fireman's natural tendencies to screw-up subsided somewhat, engineers would allow him to run downhill. An engineer settling in the fireman's seat for a nap was either an ultimate compliment to a fireman's developing abilities, or a sign that the engineer was doggone tired. In Dunsmuir, the ultimate, ultimate compliment was when "Double A" Marske - a darn fine engineer - would climb off the engine and ride the caboose down the Canyon. All tolled, it was the training engineer's duty to eventually give a rookie the skills to run an engine, then wean him from dependence on his engineer. The aforementioned was the way the process worked-out in reality, rather than by-the-book. If a guy could get some needed shuteye in the process without bad consequences, it was a good thing. Consider also, that Amtrak turns-out new-hire engineers to work alone in the cab in as little as six months, whereas SP engineer training was measured in terms of years. Not all of this disparity can be explained by the more complicated nature of freight train handling.

Is this professional? You bet! It wasn't the three-martini-lunch professionalism practiced by our managerial "betters", but it was a pragmatic kind that got the job done.

-E.O.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/14 10:53 by hogheaded.

Phil Wrote:
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> And I miss the Gyralights.. I'll never forgive
> the SP for removing them and going to gumball
> machine beacons!
>
>

Me too. The Gyralite was, and is, the best grade crossing safety device.

BSB