Nostalgia & History > TOOTD 1/16/1980 BN Belt Jct (Houston) TX

Tonight's order group is from the Joint Texas Division, a.k.a B-RI or T&BV, assembled for a for a Rock Island train two and a half months before the shutdown.

The BN had the dispatching responsibilities during this period - if I'm remembering correctly, until the shutdown, dispatching responsibility rotated between the two.

This one is a rather large group, and at this point the BN had completely moved over Xeroxed orders.

1005

---

---

---

next three

---

---

---

and the next three

---

---

---

three more

---

---

---

last one.

Thanks for looking

1005
 

---

Extra 278 North is going to have a long SLOW trip to Teague. Plenty of 10 and 25 running. 

The old Joint Texas was pretty bad shape then. Jointed rail and cinder ballast. 

 

Looks like all but one train mentioned in these orders was CRIP.
Interesting to see that no reporting marks used, only engine numbers.
 

Robert Pierce
Sugar Land, TX
SWRails.com

TexBob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Looks like all but one train mentioned in these
> orders was CRIP.
> Interesting to see that no reporting marks used,
> only engine numbers.
>
Thanks for this.  I was wondering how those Alco numbers got to Texas.  If this was the
former Burlington-Rock Island, I would think this joint trackage and the rules would allow
these engines not to be identified further.  Just guessing, however.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA  

Was the Rock Island doing the maintenance on the track at this time ?  With all the slow orders it looks like a old Rock Island or CNW branch line that I used to work on ---

During this time the BN was handling maintenance and was trying it's best to make up for the deferred MoW work the Rock Island was responsible for.  My fuzzy memory recalls BN's five year turn for maintenance began in 1978 but I could be wrong. At the time BN's subsidiary Fort Worth & Denver was one of the poor relations in the Big Green Machine and the maintenance guys worked hard with what little they had.  A lot of the line was still 90lb stick rail with a 1929 roll date and as mentioned previously was ballasted with pumice rock mined from a cinder cone near Folsom, NM.  A carload of the stuff was extremely cheap but being a porous rock it clogged easily with silt and in some cases the rock would actually float. Lots of mud-pumping rail joints up and down the line.  It took a while for the BN to get the line back into shape after the Rock died.  A year or two after the shutdown the FRA visited and put a 10 mph speed restriction for the 27 miles between Belt Jct and Tomball.   

I noticed several of the orders were put out John Holloway.  John was a great guy who worked for the Houston Belt & Terminal and held the second trick operator slot at Belt Jct.where the B-RI began and was crossed by the Missouri Pacific.  He was tolerant of railfans-provided you didn't do anything stupid-and great to work with.  I learned a lot about the intricacies of his job from him and on occasion when he got really busy he would ask me to hand up wheel reports and hang train orders for him. 

In contrast to BN Xeroxed train orders the Rock Island was putting out mimeographed ones.  Remember those?

Tom Kline
Houston, TX

theshoe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Was the Rock Island doing the maintenance on the
> track at this time ?  With all the slow orders it
> looks like a old Rock Island or CNW branch line
> that I used to work on ---

Hopefully, in the not too distant future date, I'll be posting some of the mimeographed ones - on the yellow letter-sized "The Rock" logo paper.

The mimeograph ink faded pretty rapidly, so only have a couple that are still readable.  Believe those came from either Silvis Yard and/or Eldon, IA.

1005

I spent a lot of time around MP 67, the North Houston yard. FRom where my family's house was, I could hear northboundsfrom as far away as 43rd Street all the way to Little York. The track was bad, but the crews were generous and I got to ride quite a bit with the switcher, when no one was around, of course...