Nostalgia & History > four of a kind was a great hand to be dealt

Recently up in the Cumberland and Altoona areas, I realized once again how railroading has morphed in so many ways since the chaotic but exciting 70s. The power of todays diesels is nothing short of awesome, but fairly standardized, especially on CSX. I didn't hang around the graveyard that was once Cumberland for long. There is so little there now in the way of activity that it makes me sad. I went up to Altoona, and though intermodals hold the activity scale deep in their favor, the traffic mix is still quite impressive at times. As in my early Penn Central visits, helpers still do their thing in quantity on both sides of the mountain west of town. The helpers are standard cab units, which are refreshing changes from the wide cab invasion. Watching a helper in 8th notch blast out of Altoona has lost none of the drama that was always there at that moment. What is impressive is that most trains go single, because of the power of the head end units. It seems that manned helpers may still hold forth there for awhile, until the powers that be figure a way to dehumanize that operation. This takes me back to CSX forerunner B&O and its Chessie morphing years. The old B&O West End from Cumberland to Grafton and its four impressive grades were the best helper show in the east. B&O standardized helper operations on three of the grades that were compacted together in roller coaster fashion. Four unit sets of SD35s held down the pusher assignments on Newburg, Cheat River, and Cranberry grades for about a decade and a half. It was up Newburg, down Cheat River then up Cranberry in rapid succession for any eastbound. The challenge for B&O was that the heavy coal, and occasional grain trains moved east on this coaster.  The 17 MIle Grade to the east was separated a bit too far from the other three, and had its helper operation stationed at Keyser.There was no more thrilling sight than watching a coal train come off of Cheat River grade in a cloud of brakeshoe smoke, blast through the service area at M&K Jct. in Rowlesburg, and dig its power into the torturous 12 miles of Cranberry grade. Helpers would tie on west of the Newburg grade, and stay on through all three grades, cutting off on the fly at the top of Cranberry at Terra Alta.
The images here, taken throughout the early 70s are all but one, taken on Cranberry grade, which was the most dramatic of the three.

top... Eastbound near Amblersburg WVa.

middle...this is the exception...Newburg grade west of Town of Newburg

bottom...light helper moving west down Cranberry

 

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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top...Cranberry somewhere in the middle of the grade

middle...going by M&K Jct. Helpers are jus beginning their shove of an eastbound trailer jet that to this point had no helper attached. These helpers were put on at M&K Jct.

bottom...Front end of a coal train at Amblersburg.

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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You saved your best for last - Another set of excellent photos.
Bob

refarkas Wrote: > ... Another set of excellent photos ...

I will certainly second that notion. Especially the "as usual" part!!

Your thread title reminded me of an amusing tale, although it's off-topic. During my 23 years working for MRL in Montana I learned to play poker. There were 2 very common games in Montana live poker: One was "Texas Hold 'em" with 2 cards dealt to each player just like we used to see on ESPN. The other common game was called "Omaha" with 4 cards dealt out to each player. This game was played in either straight High or High~Low split versions. And each player uses 2 & ONLY 2 cards out of his/her hand to combine with any 3 of the 5 'community' cards that eventually hit the table. Those who are familiar with Omaha will understand right off that being dealt a 4-of-a-kind in hand is about the worst thing that can happen to you. One day I was playing Omaha High and the dealer dealt me ALL 4 ACES! I immediately folded the hand. But I was sitting next to the dealer and told him to hold aside, then look at my 4 cards after the hand was over. When he did look at them he showed the whole table, exclaiming he'd never done that in all his years of dealing. Two guys at the table piped up in unison and told me in perfect living stereo: "Lance, you should go but a Lotto ticket!" The whole table got a good chuckle out of it. True story...

Lance/199  

refarkas Wrote:
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> You saved your best for last - Another set of
> excellent photos.
> Bob
I also agree with Bob, all great photos.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

Nice!  (And a somewhat surprising number of window on those cabooses!)
SR

Should have declared low Lance, or can you not do that in Omaha?

Great story Lance!! I can say for a fact that I saw many a crewman lose more than a few coins playing poker while waiting for their trains. Never picked up th curse myself.

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

going to add one more image into this thread. Just found this negative of an eastbound coal train banging through M&K Jct. in 1978. He is just transitioning from braking off of Cheat River grade to accelerating to get a run at Cranberry grade.

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/19 09:26 by Roadjob.

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Great looking series Bill, thanks for sharing.  I really like that first shot.  The B&O helpers remind me a lot of the SP.

Kent in CArmel Valley

Hard to believe with that much HP shoving against that light caboose, they didn't push them off the tracks all the time

SeaboardMan Wrote: > ... Should have declared low ...

No can do! In that version of Omaha you always play 2 cards out of your hand, and they have to be of different ranks. So the hand wouldn't qualify for low. The best you can do for high would be a full house. BUT with 2 Aces you would have to have 3 of a kind in the community cards on the board. Say you play your 2 Aces with 3 Queens (or any other card rank) on the board. With a full table of players all holding 4 cards there are very high odds that fourth Queen (or whatever) is in somebody's hand. All they have to do is show that 4th card with any ol' kicker to make quads and scoop the pot. When you get 4 of a kind dealt to you, you have 2 options. Fold right away, run out real quick and buy a Lotto ticket. Or you can bet/raise/re-raise like crazy, bluffing you ass off, getting several players to fold. Then 2 pair MIGHT win. Maybe. But the typical result of your wild bluffing: your ass is gone, and you're out of chips...  ;^)

Lance/199

Yes Bill, This was undoubtedly the best Helper show in the East. These photos of yours are Fantastic !  Watching the crews transition from braking to power on those rollercoaster grades was really something to see.  I've asked this before and maybe someone out there can tell me when the third Drag Track was removed on Cranberry Grade?

Not sure of the exact year of the third track removal but it was sometime between 1973 and 1976.

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD