Railroaders' Nostalgia > My Dumb Luck: the AFT years 5

5 San Diego CA Jan 15-18 / San Juan Capistrano CA Jan 19-20

On the evening of Jan 18th I was on my way south aboard San Diegan 776. (the only remarkable thing I remember about the trip was that the trainset included an ATSF Pleasure Dome)

The AFT was on display at Miramar Naval Air Station. I'd calculated Del Mar was closer than San Diego itself, so I stepped off 776 there. Oops. The station was as dark as the surrounding area! No town really- just the sound of the ocean below. Great. I had 2hrs to figure this out.

There were 3 men at the far end of the platform smoking and talking quietly. I wandered down and sheepishly explained my situation...
They were a Santa Fe crew called in to help with switching the AFT! And they saw no reason I couldn’t just ride up with them! (Do you see the pattern of “Dumb Luck” developing here? I'm telling ya... ) 15min later a switcher and caboose rolled in, and we were off. I rode the cupola up to Miramar. We ran past the wye and backed in towards the Base gate. I was out on the rear with my grip when we braked to a stop- and there was Greg.

“You talked the Santa Fe into a lift?! Well, OK, I don't how the hell you arranged THAT. I 'spose it means you're gonna fit in well enough.” He turned and shouted, “Dave! New guy! Find him a bunk!”
Dave (Head of Day Operations) hustled me down to the 200 Car, my new home. He pointed to an upper full of boxes, “Clear that one out, and it's yours. Don't wander off, stay out of the way, and what ever you do: DON”T GET HURT! In fact, best if you stayed right here”. With that he banged back through the door and into the fray.
I was alone.

What I observed was a bewildering blur of what looked to be carefully orchestrated chaos. Switching, power on and off an on again, guys working alone and in groups, with little talk, and lots rushing around. At about 1am the crew (about 10 guys) piled onto the car and fell into their bunks, fully dressed. Dave was back. “Try and get some sleep- you've got about 2hrs, if that. Then we'll put you to work.”

It was a short 60-odd mile trip to San Juan Capistrano.

Sleep was impossible. The noise & motion were just too much when combined with adrenalin. My upper had no window, so I couldn’t guess what direction we were moving or our speed. However... I could hear the '49 working twenty cars forward- that was kinda cool!

I was part of the Operations Dept. We were, in a sense, the AFT's version of the Navy's SeaBees. The minute the train was spotted and flagged, we were the boots on the ground.

First up, the flat cars needed to be unloaded. The ramps for this were in racks below the car's frame. They were heavy enough to be dangerous. In classic gandy-dancer fashion movements were done to song to keep everyone in step. The favorite was a jingle from a bra commercial- someone yelled “Lift!” and we answered with something like, “Lifts you, holds you, and never lets you down!” I can't remember the exact words.
Ramps in place, we split up- a few to spot all the various support wagons, but most to build the train's entry & exit ramps. Meanwhile electricians were dragging cable to power those parts of the train separated from the main consist and it's generators. All those wagons would be fed power too. Once it looked like we could be spared, the “night” crew would assemble and set to cleaning the train's interior of dirt tracked in from the previous night's stand. (I was part of this group- I ended up the “Vacuum Cleaner Guy”) (Insert sophomoric suck joke here) The mood was urgent. The set up process took about 5hrs.

Finally we released the train to those departments who were the public face of the AFT.

The Freedom Train was open for business.

And I, for one, climbed up into my upper and slept like the dead.

SR

No photos yet, they'll start next week.
Oh, OK.. One photo...

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Darn good engine you got there!

Both of them are pretty good, but I'll take 610 any day..and a pretty good story about that day too.....

Photo has to be Ft. Worth Texas. Frank Kent and family have been "Cadillac" there for many, many years.

FWandDC

No doubt it's Fort Worth. They had a hell of a time (or so it seemed to me) getting 610 out of Houstons' old Union Station. They had to pull 610 out, then put the train together with the ATSF unit, then head out for Fort Worth. THAT was a long day!

Sorry, forgot to caption this- It's on the afternoon of Feb 25, 1976. We're at Tower 55 in Ft Worth having just arrived from Houston. (I didn't have any photos from San Diego or SJC, so I just picked a random shot from my album. Next weeks post, and all those following, are illustrated. For the first few days I was spare with the camera- I felt I'd best display a proper work ethic.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/14 20:53 by BoilingMan.