Railroaders' Nostalgia > A caboose tale

Within a week of starting my railroad career as a brakeman on the Pacific Electric in October 1962 I found myself
working with a crew of men, all old enough to be my father if indeed not my grandfather. These men had,
for the most part, began their PE careers shortly before or following the great depression of the 1930's.
As is often the case, stories of personal experience as well those retold and passed along sometimes only begin
to flow when opportunity arises. Such was the case in this story.

I was still making my student trips, working a job out of Butte St., PE's largest yard located on the south
side of Los Angeles. The conductor was 'Red'.(I have edited out his last name from my original post to be 'PC'
so as to not to offend the sensibilities of some on this board.) Red was a leathery faced fellow of about mid-50's
whose nickname was well earned owing to his still healthy mane of dark red hair then sharing his pate with a sizable
amount of gray. The name of the rear brakeman is lost to my memory but, like Red, was of the same vintage.
We were on a transfer movement taking cars from Butte St. to Graham yard, just north of Watts. The yardmaster at
Graham was holding us out until he had room in his 'garden' for our cut. Just what I was doing riding the caboose
as a student is again lost to my memory since almost invariably a student was banished to the head end there to be
coached by the head man, motorman and trolley-pup, in that order.

After we had been stopped a while, Red, looking at the fresh gray paint on the floor of our wooden caboose, smiled and began
his story. Back during the war years of 1941-45, apparently liquor in its various forms was either rationed or severely
restricted. Railroaders as a group have been known to be familiar with liquor and along with the general population felt
the pains that went along with those restrictions. Red was working a night job that had among its regular customers a
place that received tank car loads of wood grain alcohol. Now I am not a an imbiber but I understand that wood
grain alcohol is what they call 200 proof and in that form is not consumable as a beverage. It must be 'cut' with something,
such as juice.

The tank cars that Red placed on the customer's spur were of a type that unloaded their contents by gravity through
a pipe at the bottom of the car. Somebody on his crew reasoned that a tank car that had been emptied and ordered pulled
by the railroad most likely contained at least a small amount of alcohol left in the car.
It was decided that when the next alcohol car was ordered out they would put their plan in effect.
Shortly, they had their chance. After they coupled their motor to the car, the cap beneath the outlet valve was
screwed in place insuring there would be no spillage of the precious liquid. A crew member climbed atop the car and
with a wrench opened the outlet valve. Next the motor rocked the car forward and backward a few
times to fill the pipe between the bottom of the car structure and the cap at its bottom. Next a bucket was placed
beneath the pipe and the cap unscrewed allowing the alcohol to fill said bucket. Ah Ha!, it worked. Soon the entire crew
was in the caboose and the party had begun. Just what Red and the crew used to cut the alcohol, if anything, was not
told in his story that day.

The next thing anybody knew was that it was broad daylight, many hours after they were supposed to be tied-up. Somebody
among the culprits had either kicked over the bucket containing the illicit booze or spilled a major amount of it
inside their caboose and the paint of that faraway crummy's floor had succumbed to its action by crinkling beyond hope.

The shock of what they had done did not escape them. They had as the saying goes been 'blind drunk' and they scrambled
to get back to their tie-up point before being found out. Red did add that they never tried that again. Or so the story goes.

Charlie



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/12 20:21 by cewherry.

That is funny!

Charlie,
I remember working a daylight goat at Butte St. yard with Steve Piechock. I was the field man, John(JJ) Whalen was the pin puller. In those days guys wore a "Car" coat to work. It was a coat that reached to midway between the waist and the knees. We went out into the yard and started switching from the top end. As the morning wore on, John seemed to have more and more trouble pulling pins, pulling the correct amount, and trying to stay in an upright position. Finally we went to beans at the yard office. We noticed John staggering a little(quite a bit actually) towards his locker. He opens the door, reaches inside his coat and starts fooling around with something up near his shoulder. Well, seems he had a piece of rubber hose running from the inside pocket of the coat up to the inside of the coat collar. The tube stuck out about 1/2 an inch of the collar and that was where he would take a pull from the pint bottle that was in the inside pocket and at lunch time he would change bottles.

V

SLOCONDR

Charlie,

Those are the stories that need to be kept. Thanks for putting it out for all of us the read.

Oh. ya! There are others, which I am sure will come up on this site.

Thanks again,


Nudge

(Hey V, about those false teeth at Lompoc ? )

<<<<<<<<I was the field man,>>>>>>>>>>

What is a field man, and what did he do? Thanks.

mustraline Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> <<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>
>
> What is a field man, and what did he do? Thanks.


When switching in a yard the rear brakeman, or field man(same thing), would line switches and ride cars to tie down. As he would get all tracks tied down he would assist the Conductor in the hadling of switches on the lead. The head brakeman, or pin man (or pin puller, all 3 the same) would pull the pins.


V

SLOCONDR

That crew was lucky that they didn't get methanol (wood alcohol) instead of ethanol (grain alcohol). Methanol is poisonous, as some boozehounds found to their sorrow during prohibition. They must have been hard up for hooch to try a stunt like that.

tomstp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That is funny!

To some this may be humerus but to others it is better described as "Pathetically Stupid".

SLOCONDR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mustraline Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > <<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>
> >
> > What is a field man, and what did he do?
> Thanks.
>
>
> When switching in a yard the rear brakeman, or
> field man(same thing), would line switches and
> ride cars to tie down. As he would get all tracks
> tied down he would assist the Conductor in the
> hadling of switches on the lead. The head
> brakeman, or pin man (or pin puller, all 3 the
> same) would pull the pins.
>
>
> V
>
> SLOCONDR

Thanks. Sounded like a good duty assignment.

mustraline Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SLOCONDR Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > mustraline Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > <<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>
> > >
> > > What is a field man, and what did he do?
> > Thanks.
> >
> >
> > When switching in a yard the rear brakeman, or
> > field man(same thing), would line switches and
> > ride cars to tie down. As he would get all
> tracks
> > tied down he would assist the Conductor in the
> > hadling of switches on the lead. The head
> > brakeman, or pin man (or pin puller, all 3 the
> > same) would pull the pins.
> >
> >
> > V
> >
> > SLOCONDR
>
> Thanks. Sounded like a good duty assignment.

Pin man is the better assignment. You wear out a pair of boots alot quicker keeping the lead lined up than you do pulling pins.

jkchubbes Wrote:
> Pin man is the better assignment. You wear out a
> pair of boots alot quicker keeping the lead lined
> up than you do pulling pins.


I don't know. When I was still working, the preferred job was the field man.

V

SLOCONDR

SLOCONDR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> I don't know. When I was still working, the
> preferred job was the field man.
>
> V
>
> SLOCONDR

Before I got my card, I was often field man to a guy who was an artist as far as pin man goes. Back when we were kickin' and grinnin.' Running locomotives for him was pretty good, too. Never sawed switches, ever, and almost never double handled anything. We'd actually have spectators, railfans who knew they were seeing something special, would park and watch us work.

roustabout Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Before I got my card, I was often field man to a
> guy who was an artist as far as pin man goes.
> Back when we were kickin' and grinnin.' Running
> locomotives for him was pretty good, too. Never
> sawed switches, ever, and almost never double
> handled anything. We'd actually have spectators,
> railfans who knew they were seeing something
> special, would park and watch us work.

Depending on where you worked - different yards handled things in different ways. And, some foremen were true artists (and mathematicians). On the Q, where I spent most of my time switching, the Yard Conductor (Foreman) pulled his own pins, and threw signals at both the engineer and to his headman and fieldman. Flash lantern signals down the ladder to tell the head and field men where the next several cuts were to go, turn to the engine and give a kick then stop. Then double or tripple cut cars down the lead about 100 feet apart. Kept the men on the lead movin', I'll tell ya. And, Woe Unto Him who missed a signal!

Mathematics? These guys would look over the wheel reports of two or three incomming trains at a time and figure out their moves before the incoming power had headed for the pit. They'd know exactly where to cut each inbound for each pull, then bat those cars out with an absolute minumum of reswitchig and doubling, to put cars into proper order for three outbound transfers - each transfer properly blocked - to a total of dozens of setouts - in an 8 track yard!

The master, in my book was Charlie Schindel.

-LD

I love the story, but it had to be grain alcohol (ethanol) and not wood alcohol, or as previously pointed out, you'de all be extremely sick or dead! It doesn't take much to kill a person with wood alcohol (methanol). About a cup and you're done for!

patd3985 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I love the story, but it had to be grain alcohol
> (ethanol) and not wood alcohol, or as previously
> pointed out, you'de all be extremely sick or dead!
> It doesn't take much to kill a person with wood
> alcohol (methanol). About a cup and you're done
> for!

Thanks for the correction. As I typed those lines the thought occurred to me that someone
out there who knew more about the subject than I would chime in to set the record straight.

Charlie

I should have prefaced my dissertation on alcohol with: "I'm not a chemist or a doctor, and I don't even play one on TV, but this is what I've learned (but not the hard way) about alcohol:"

Also, I was under the impression that grain alcohol for industrial use had additives to make it unpalatable to even the thirstiest booze hound.