Railroaders' Nostalgia > Stormy night on the Middle Division-Santa Fe.

I need to set up some things, first. Think of it has a movie trailer. It will probably be easier to follow once you learn about the territory.

The Middle Division ran west from Emporia towards Newton, Wellington and Arkansas City, Kansas. The fourth district ran from Ellinor some 12 miles west of Emporia. It ended up at Wellington. Augusta was a split with a line going towards Winfield, KS. This was known as the Douglas District. It connected with the Third district running into Ark City. Yes, Kansas people call it Ark City. They pronounce Arkansas as Ar-Kansas as in the Arkansas River.

Santa Fe never did call their cabooses as cabooses. They were way cars on the Santa Fe. Thus, my screen name!!!!!

This period was before the way cars went into the shops for rebuilding. The bright red way cars came out after the rebuilding.

A conductor working the chain gang had a way car assigned to him. It was changed out at the terminals. The conductor had a radio packet set. This is not what you thinking in this modern day railroading era. It was about 18 inches wide, 4 inches deep and about 14 inches tall. It had a strap that you could carry around your shoulder. They were good for about 50 car lengths, sometimes less and sometimes a little bit more. The conductor would keep the packet set locked up. He would have a key as well as his rear brakeman. If both were laying off, then the extra crew would not have access to the radio packet set.

Now, we will get into the story.

I was working with an extra board conductor J. V. Bilderback. I was the rear brakeman which meant that I was off the brakeman's extra board. The head brakeman was Trent Flagg, who was off the brakeman's extra board. So, the whole crew was off the extra board. When we were called out of Emporia, I was called first and Trent was called second. We had made a trip to Ark City. We came out of Ark City in the evening. When we arrived at Augusta, we notice lighting north of El Dorado. We knew that we probably would run through some thunder storms north of El Dorado. This area between El Dorado and Ellinor is called the Kansas Flint Hills. We ran into rain running through Aikman. It wasn't real bad, some light showers. As we traveled down towards Matfield Green, it was really coming down. As we went through Matfield, I made the comment to J.V. that I sure glad that we don't have to walk our train!!!!! This was the wrong thing for to say!!!!!!

We never notice anything strange during our trip. We had several locations that we would let the engineer know that we were on the main line. Everything seem fine, as the engineer would talk to us. We lost radio contact after we left El Dorado.

Matfield Green is milepost 144 and Bazar is milepost 136. There was a HBD (Hot Box Detector) at MP 138.1. We could use Bazar as a set out point or Gladstone which is 5.8 miles beyond Bazar. This in case, that a car needed to set out, if it was actually a hot box. If it was brakes sticking, we would cut the air out of the car, then bleed the car off getting all the air out of the system.

Like I said it was raining cats and dog. When we went through Matfield, you couldn't see two feet beyond the cupola. We got near Bazar, then we stopped. J.V. and myself didn't think anything about this stop. We tried calling the head end, but no reply. We couldn't get the packet set out since it was locked up. We just set up in the cupola. We were sitting there for about twenty minutes.

All of a sudden, we felt some one get on the back steps of the way car. I made the comment, who the hell was this person. It was Trent. Guess what he was soaking wet!!! from the rain. About the time that he reach the way car, it stopped raining. First thing Trent did was cuss us out. He accused being asleep. The car was about twenty five cars ahead of the way car. We got off the way car. I looked at the generator belts. We didn't have any. This is why that we had no radio contact with the head end. We walked up to the car. Sure enough it was a friction bearing car. It had to be set out. We were on the main line at Bazar. We needed to make a cut, run pass the east switch at Bazar, then back into the siding. We had to set the car into the stock track. I got off at the east switch of the stock track. I could get the derail off, wait until JV had the head end of the train in the siding, before I could line the switch. This was TCS, which the Santa Fe term for CTC. Trent was near the east main line switch and JV rode the train back towards the stock track. We had to spread out, so we could pass signals. We got the car into the stock track. We put our train back together. Then headed towards Emporia.

When we arrived at Emporia, we went into the eastbound yard. JV told the yardmaster that the way car, what ever the number was, needed generator belts. He did this over a speaker. The car had to be put on the RIP so the belts could be put on the car.

There was a taxi that picked JV and myself up at the west end of the east bound yard. The head end crew set the power over to another track, as Emporia was adding a fill on the head end. When Trent got into the cab. I said thanks for coming back and letting us know about the hot box. The only thing that he could say was "Two words which I am sure that you can guess, all"( XXXX you all). He got soaked to the bones walking back to the way car. Funny thing was JV or myself were completely dry. Trent was a summer brakeman. We had worked together the year previous. I started my railroad career and Trent was attending school getting his degree. He was out the following summer as a summer brakeman. I never did talk to him about this one trip that we had.

Sometimes it is best to let sleeping dogs just lay there. He was positive that we were asleep on the way car!!!! We weren't.

Gary A. Rich
Aurora, CO



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/14 14:16 by waycar_rider.

Another great story of life on the RR.
JB