Railroaders' Nostalgia > 23 loads, 2 worn out geeps, and 1 steep grade...

For a year back in 2009-2010 I worked with Railserve, mainly as a locomotive operator. I was always interested in railroads and locomotives growing up, so naturally I loved the opportunity to get hands on experience with them. The site I worked at was a large Cargill plant in Eddyville, IA; Railserve had a worn out collection of four old Geeps that we used to switch out the facility.

Although it was nerve-wracking at first, my skills behind the throttle quickly progressed, and I was considered one of the better locomotive operators within a short time. One of the things I had to do on a regular basis was shove loads up the hill. For those not familiar with the site, Cargill built track south from its plant to the BNSF main line. This track winds its way up a steep hill, splitting into triple track about halfway up. We built unit trains on the sidings for BNSF to come get. One track was for DDG hoppers, while the other was used for syrup cars. I have no idea how steep the grade is going up the hill, but all I can say is it is bad.

As an inexperienced operator, one of the scariest things was shoving blindly up the hill at 10-20mph, heading to a hook with only my groundman's car count over the radio to guide me in. I worked the night shift, so flying along blindly pushing in the dark while trying not to blast the hook could get a little hairy at times. However, I got better and better, and every assault on the steep grade was a fun challenge, especially when I had several loads going up. The track was so steep and the geeps so worn out that 20 loads was about all they could handle.

My best memory is one day as the plant operator shoving loads up the hill in early evening, just after starting my shift. I was at the controls of the #8358, a battered ex-IC GP10 that had changed owners a few times before ending up with Railserve. Behind me was the #61, an even more worn-out high hood GP9 that had still wore its old Indiana and Ohio RR red and white paint, just covered with grease, grime, and oil. In front of me were 23 loaded syrup cars to go up the hill. My heart was already racing as I backed out of the yard and drug them out onto the main. 23 loads? Did I have a chance making it up the hill?

I backed north down the main to get a good run as my two groundmen waited on the point of the first tank car. At the north end of the plant I stopped them and started heading south. We were supposed to have a 10mph speed limit going up the hill, but I was probably going 20mph as I raced towards the sharp curve at the bottom of the grade. As I felt the locomotives rock and roll, I back off the throttle a little, scared we would derail in the plant. As my locomotives got into the curve, I cut loose on the throttle and listened to the sound of the generator whine go up an octave behind me.

We had barely gone up the hill at all when my speed began to drop alarmingly. I began to throttle back as my amp meter began to rise. 8,7,6,5 I dropped the throttle down, watching my amp meter climb towards 1,000 and knowing I could start slipping any second. My speed dropped to a crawl, and the amp meter pegged at 1500, yet the old geeps kept right on pushing. We slowly crawled into the siding for the syrup cars, but there were only a few cars in there already, so we still had a long way to go. My speed dropped so low that Jay and Shane on the point got off the tank car and slowly walked beside it. They told me later that a couple of times the car actually stopped moving before bumping back along. They nearly told me to stop, but the geeps kept their slow crawl and wouldn't spin out.

I have no idea how long it was, but I kept pushing up the hill towards the hook, with the amp meter buried at 1500, barely moving along doing perhaps 1mph. I even notched back to 3 to try and drop the amps a little, but the needle stayed all the way over. Yet, the old girl refused to even slip once. As we got closer to the hook, I looked back and saw smoke coming out from underneath the rear of the frame. I told the groundmen that I had to hop out as soon as we hooked to see if I was on fire. Finally we made it to the top of the hill and hooked. I dashed from the cab with my fire extinguisher in hand and scrambled down the rear step-well. Looking underneath the locomotive, all I saw was faint smoke. The sizzle of burning grease was quite audible, and the smell of burning traction motors and oil was enough to make a man sick. The motors had gotten so hot that all the sludge on them had begun to burn off. Years of collected goo was warming up and coming loose.

We came down the hill light power, with me grinning from ear to ear having conquered the hill and setting a personal record for loads taken up. I still get a smile thinking back to that day. I may have fried the old girls, and they probably never pushed that well after that day, but I can still say I had them at 1500 amps for 15-30 minutes without slipping a wheel. Somehow they just dug in and wouldn't let go.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/14 18:19 by RI_SD40-2_4790.

Nice story! Reckon you will have enjoyed yourself there. I wonder what the grade is/was.

Bob

I've heard 3% before, but I don't think it's quite that bad. Any BNSF guys who run the Ottumwa Sub might know, especially if they ever run 664/663.

Why not just double the hill and save the smoke?

Kimball Wrote:
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> Why not just double the hill and save the smoke?

As the locomotive operator I didn't have any say in that. We ran 2-3 man crews, and one of the groundmen was always designated Crew Leader. The Crew Leader has a list of orders for the day, and they are the one that decides all the moves. All you do as an operator is follow their instructions.

Your story reminds me of this one from "Tales of the Krug"- http://krugtales.50megs.com/rrpictale/kiewit/kiewit.htm It's about shoving coal loads up a hill with an old locomotive.

mapboy

RI_SD40-2_4790 Wrote:
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> Kimball Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Why not just double the hill and save the
> smoke?

You also have to remember that we were in a very busy plant that had UP and BNSF running in and out of it, not to mention a full work order on top of it. Sometimes we simply wouldn't have had time to do something like double the hill. Also, we were running completely worn out junk, so people weren't exactly worried about breaking it when Railserve never cared to keep them in good working order in the first place. If the company didn't seem to care about how hard we had to work those engines to get things done, why would any of the people there want to go the extra mile to baby them? There were times where we might start the night with 4 locomotives, and by the end of the night end up with 1 still running. Many times we had done nothing wrong to work them too hard; it was simply junk equipment falling apart. I can't tell you how many weeks we came in down a locomotive or two to start things off. They failed left and right due to the poor shape they were in. If both of those geeps I had that day were in good shape, I don't think they would have had to work so hard to get up the hill. One locomotive could take 12-15 loads up by itself on a good day. 23 shouldn't work two of them that bad. But as an operator, they told me to take 23 up, so I did. I didn't get stuck, so I call that a win.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/14 11:06 by RI_SD40-2_4790.

AS i'm fond of saying at work (also as a hogger) "I'm a decision taker, not a decision maker!"