Nostalgia & History > The words a road crew hated to hear!

It is November 1975, and you are on  NY 100 on the Erie Lackawanna. This is a hot eastbound piggyback that was delayed several hours because of a loading problem in Chicago. Technically it is yesterday's train. Once again I was given the unsanctioned honor of playing engineer for short stretches of the trip between Hornell NY and Scranton Pa. Because of the extreme lateness of NY100, we were given the railroad all the way to Scranton, and the legitimate throttle jockey worked the speed limit to shall we say excess. What made us not so popular were the other eastbounds who had to stop to let us pass. The photo shows us about to overtake a stopped BC2 outside of Elmira. I am "running" U33C 3312, and am still at a brisk 40mph. The crew in BC2 had gotten the words so hard to hear, from the operator at FS tower in Elmira. "You'll be there for one eastbound to get around you." EL was first in first out, so the crews of the three Scranton bound eastbounds we jumped on our way to town were not exactly members of my crew's fan club. They will get trash talked by all of them in the next couple of days for sure.

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/19 03:10 by Roadjob.

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Is that location Horseheads NY?

east of Horsehead, Just coming into the old EL yard area in Elmira.

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

Location is MP 274.5 west end of Elmira Yard. Signals are the Westbound Home signal for "VO" Interlocking. To the right is the former GE Foundry which had a 25T GE which I think is now owned by the Rockhill Trolley Museum. The tracks left to right are Westbound Siding, Main One, Main Two and Eastbound Siding. Today the Eastbound Siding is gone along with the signal for VO.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/19 07:26 by PCCRNSEngr.

During my career, more to the point, watching engineers' reactions during my career I don't know which was worse: Having a DS tell you ahead of time he was gonna 'run you in at XYZ' or taking the hole at XYZ and discovering the main line signal at the other end already lined up for a runaround. Most engineers I worked with just took a runaround in stride, but SOME of them thought it was the biggest sin in the Bible... perpetrated on them, of course. Depending on the circumstances I just considered it another opportunity to hit the ground and shoot a slide or 2 during the roll-by...   ;^)

Lance/199

santafe199 Wrote:
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> Most engineers I worked with just took
> a runaround in stride, but SOME of them thought it
> was the biggest sin in the Bible... perpetrated on
> them, of course.

I had to point out to many folks that working a pool means today you're being run around and you're complaining - tomorrow you're running around and someone else is complaining...and I don't want to hear it.

Then there were the ones dumb enough to threaten to go eat if they got run around.

TAW

First in, first out.  Lost money on the run-around.  Today with held away payments and holding your spot if you get run-around,  Lost held away.  The pig trains make more money.  No winning. Getting run-around costs money.  And adds at least an hour to your day.  Which is OK if you make overtime, not cool for a long pool guy.

Eng.Shadetree