Nostalgia & History > Even Diesels Need a Water Stop Sometimes! Elko, Nev. 5-5-1994

Really part 2 of my previous video post. After crew change, the train slows ahead, then stops for a water fill on the lead unit, with 2 ground crew members waiting at water outlet (seen end of my previous video post,sorry bad editing). I cant recall exactly, but looks like the hose was fed through an open door on the opposite side, and through the engine compartment, over to camera side of unit, so the engineer could quickly top off the thirsty beast, then get going! You will notice how fast the water hose retracts from the camera side, after the engineer is finished topping off, obviously pulled back from the conductor on the other side of engine compartment. Then the train is good to go with a green SP signal. They might have gotten a "low water" or "high temp" alarm or "idiot light" on the dash board? doesn't look like it took much to top off, but there is a lot of PSI coming out of that water hose!

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA



Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/17 23:59 by RailRat.

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This reminds me of a similar water situation on the UP/SI by me in northern Idaho. I woke up the sound of peoples voices in my yard at about 07:00 several years ago. It was an engineer friend of mine and several members of a work train crew trying to get me up. They had an SD-70M with a water leak somewhere and were dangerously low on coolant water. He said they really needed the loco and couldn't easily get any water out there in the boonies. I live close to the tracks, but we still had to stretch out every usable hose I had, to make it to the track. We were really close on the hose and several of the crew had to hold it up in the air and over one of my wood piles to make it to the engine. We then proceeded to top off the water fill, just as it emptied my well. That's just one of the times I've saved the UPs butt.

Craig Hanson
Vay, Idaho

That's a great story! And how many feet (about) of hose?

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

Well, half the width of the right of way is 50 feet here, and then at least another 100 feet to my well spigot. I think we just made it on the stretch in the hose. It saved their day. The next closest water was Sandpoint, Idaho, about 25 miles up the track, or wait hours for a service truck. Could have been a toasty SD70 or six or more crew getting paid to wait for the water truck.

C Hanson
Vay, Idaho

hawkinsun Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, half the width of the right of way is 50
> feet here, and then at least another 100 feet to
> my well spigot. I think we just made it on the
> stretch in the hose. It saved their day. The
> next closest water was Sandpoint, Idaho, about 25
> miles up the track, or wait hours for a service
> truck. Could have been a toasty SD70 or six or
> more crew getting paid to wait for the water
> truck.
>
> C Hanson
> Vay, Idaho

Great addition to your story, Love it! and a few questions/comments:

--Good thing for UP, your engineer friend knew he could make a "pit stop" at your place, and was he the regular engineer on that train, or just a coincidence that day?

--Wonder what he told the dispatcher reason for stopping?

--Did they stop on a main or siding?

--Hope that SD70 liked that Idaho well water!

--How long did it take for your well to recover?

Reminds me, I have video I will post, of a UP water tower along Idaho Main, between Minnedoka-Shoshone, leaking water, from some holes in the tank, in the 1990's.

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

Hi again Jim,

Answering some of your questions, I think my friend was on the extra board at that time, and the train was a work train and not a regular. He did stop on the main, but this is only a branch line from Spokane, Wa. to the Canadian border and their connection to the CP. There are ups and downs on the traffic on this track. I think the most I've counted in 24 hours was 14. That many would be a rarity, and currently it's down to about six or seven, maybe eight but there have been days with only 3 and sometimes even none. I keep teasing them that they'd better get with it and get their count up, because my neighbors would like to turn it into a bike path. This track was the Spokane International that the UP and CP had shares in. Finally the UP bought out the CPs interest, and finally, I think in 1957 took it over from the SI Ry. It seems to me that most of the trains through here are mostly loaded from Canada, and nearly empty heading back North. We get mixed freights, grain trains, unit Potash trains, and unit oilers. It brings down lots of tank cars of Anhydrous Ammonia , Sulfur, Sulfuric Acid, Alcohol, LPG, asphalt, and lumber. Hard to tell what's hidden in the box cars but probably lumber and paper products. Heading Northbound I see lots of steel plate, both flat and coiled in closed and open cars, and in the last few years, increasing amounts of fracking sand. The power on most of these trains has gotten pretty boring in recent years with mostly UP and CP GEs with an occasional UP EMD. Once in a while there are even BNSF NS and KCS units stuck in the power. I miss the SD40-2s from both the UP and CP and also the older GE U boats. For our bigger thrills, we get a rare misguided Amtrak train and the BNSF had to borrow the track to clear up some of their gridlock on both sides of their Hauser fueling facility near the Idaho/ washington border. A while back we had the CP fancy passenger train with the F units go by. Way back when we even had the CP Royal hudson go through here I think in 1977.
You asked about the water. Well I can tell you, that was one lucky SD70. Our well is pretty deep at 385 feet, but doesn't put out much. I've been around the world, and this is some of the best water I've ever had. It comes out crystal clear and about 42 degrees, year round. Our well was full again by noon on that day. Steam engines would have loved this stuff. There's not much in the way of dissolved solids and it leaves dishes and clothes really clean. It's nearly soft.

So that's about the long and the short of it.

I'll try to post photos some time when I get a new computer. This one is toast.

Craig Hanson
Vay, Idaho

Great stuff! Thanks hawk.

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA