Nostalgia & History > WAG running extra (#48): Rolling waycar crew change

Here’s a unique, one-photo illustration that shows how a rolling crew change takes place at the rear end of a train. This is the former crew terminal at Emporia, KS on the Santa Fe. Before the elimination of Emporia as a terminal there were couple of ways for a rolling crew change to take place. It depended on whether or not another train was involved. In a normal change both the inbound & outbound crew members would generally take up positions on both sides of the waycar. If another train was rolling by on an adjacent track it’s a good bet that all 4 crew members involved would choose the opposite side for the maneuver. It was just a common sense safety precaution. Standing on a platform in between 2 moving trains is not a pretty place to be if something drastic was to happen, such as a derailment. A person in that spot would have absolutely NO place to go.

In the image below we have a rolling crew change about to take place. The engine crews have already changed, and the outbound Eastern Division hogger has the train down to 4-5 MPH. This reduction to a safe boarding speed was aided by an inbound crew member calling out successive distances from the depot by radio. In Art’s photo the inbound Middle Division men are about to gracefully step down onto the platform. They can be seen on the footsteps on both sides of the 999799. One of the outbound Eastern Division crew members is seen just ahead of the big yellow circle-cross logo. Note his body posture. His look is concentrated on the approaching footstep & curved grab iron. With his bag slung over his shoulder he is gauging the speed so he can time his lead foot to swing up and safely catch the footstep with the grab iron securely in his free hand. His partner is hidden by the lead truck on the other side of the waycar. The man walking up in the light blue jacket is not involved here. He is most likely a crew member for another later train. Otherwise he would a lot further behind the first man, and he would already be in position to swing aboard the waycar. And the man at the far left is just another employee watching this classic, time-honored ritual…

1. AT&SF 999799 is center stage for this eastbound rolling rear end crew change at Emporia, KS on May 4, 1983.
Photo by William A. Gibson (WAG) Jr

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Art Gibson (wag216)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/22 20:00 by santafe199.

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Excellent!! Just plain excellent!! The way it was everyday, most railroads!! Short conversation tween crews, maybe along lines of " Good runner" or "piece of junk", referring to the train or maybe the engineer!!!

PWM



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/18 08:18 by Quakerengr.

Lance,

You are correct, Middle Division Trainmen are graceful.

jtwlunch Wrote: > ... Middle Division Trainmen are graceful ...

(chuckling) From one ex-Middle Division employee to another: I TOTALLY concur!

;^)

Just beautiful, another publication and exhibit quality photo. While time marches on it is caught here. It is not a frozen picture but captures the action of real life. Folks in Emporia should treasure this as much as railfans. It was great to see the old depot and train boarding on the fly. Thanks for posting.

We used to get "Good Outfit". Which translated into, "You'll find out". It must have been universal west of where you worked as we would get that from the inbound SP crew from Tuscon at Yuma and the the inbound UP crews from Las Vegas at Yermo. I guess it was railroader for 'God Speed".

Thank you for sharing the image and the narrative ...

Nice to see how it really was ... fantastic image that
says it all ...

Odyssey
Evergreen, CO

I think the Eastern Div conductor closest to the car is Tom Kaufman, and the guy in the blue jacket might be his brakeman Dwane Brandon. The guy at the left was a Middle Div. Brakeman, I think his name was Simmons.

LocoPilot750 Wrote: > ...  guy in the blue jacket might be his brakeman Dwane Brandon ...

You may very well be right. You knew those E.D. guys way better than I did. I just assumed he would be on the other side. I've seen a few times where the 2 guys boarding a moving waycar on the same side got tangled up because the first guy didn't get a clean step...

Lance 

Lance, I'm sure you remember Dean Strand. Sometimes he had trouble with depth perception, from something he ate or drank. About a dozen of us were standing around on the Emporia platform waiting for trains in both directions. We were all watching a westbound, making it's on-the-fly crew change. Dean's brakeman had his grip in one hand, gracefully grabbed the curved grab iron, and swung aboard like he'd done a thousand times. He went up the steps, around the corner, and into the car. Dean was next. We all watched as he lifted his foot, stuck out his hand, ready to board, but missed the grab iron and step completely. Missed them both by 6" at least. The way car was about a car length down the track, and Dean was just standing there with his hand and foot up in the air, wondering where his caboose went. The brakeman radioed the engineer, and instead of saying "Hiball, everybody's on", it was Stop the train, stop the train, Dean didn't get on again".

I used to love watching them do that at Ft. Madison.  No more.

Andy