Railroaders' Nostalgia > Shenanigans aka bird bombs

One of the past times around the railroad has always been practical jokes. I'm sure we could fill many pages on TO talking about things we've done, things we have seen done, and things we have had done to us personally. This story was one that was supposed to be done to me but the wrong target was pranked and it almost cost a guy his job.

A few years ago, I was sitting in the crew room talking to a friend of mine about pranks and he told me he had planned to "bird bomb" my window when I went by. Bird bombs are toilet paper wraps that you put water in. When tossed, they explode on their target like a big spit bomb. The toilet paper comes in the crew packs and you typically use a single water bottle to pour water into the middle of the TP. Like a WW2 bombardier, you have to judge your speed, the target, and then plan for a release. The perfect shot usually ends up with the bird bomb exploding on the window of the said target and makes it an absolute mess.

"Chris" was coming south and thought I was leading a parade of northbounds on the north side of Cincinnati headed towards the Toledo subdivision. It was still pretty early and there was a bit of fog still hanging in the air. Chris decided it would be a good day to prank his ol' pal and set up a bird bomb as he saw the headlights round a curve. I don't remember if he was stopped or if he was moving or not. As the train approached, he either knew it was going to be mistake or truly was confused, but he ended up bird bombing AMTRAK's Cardinal crew. They did not find it nearly as funny as I would have. They quickly toned up the dispatcher to let him know what had just happened to their windshield. The wipers wouldn't clear off the window and there wasn't a way for them to climb out front to clean the window off.

Apparently, Chris had to speak with a trainmaster when he got in to the yard before putting off duty. It wasn't his last time of bombing my engine nor my last time attempting to prank him either.

-Joe

Chris huh? Some things never change. 😏

Lol this never ever happens on the rails today. Nope.

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On the UP, the SD-40's used to have an air valve, in the front of the cab, with about a four foot hose. It was intended to be used to blow the dust out of the cab but guys would fill the hose with water and wait for an open window to pass by. I imagine someone finally put an eye out because they eventually disappeared.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/17 22:58 by crackerjackhoghead.

One of the required skills for SP/Caltrain-Amtrak engineers on the San Francisco Peninsula was an ability to accurately place a loaded plastic water bottle (sans cap) squarely in an opposing engineer's widow using an elegant hook shot. I had the best of trainers (the late Engineer Pat West), and I can say with no particular humility that I got pretty good at it after awhile. My wife raised chickens and we always had spare eggs, so one day I loaded up a carton and began distributing its contents on opposing trains. As most engineers knew exactly who was running on the railroad, it was all great fun - I got payback via a large variety of fruit, vegetable and unmentionable items in the coming days. My last egg was what I regard as a masterful shot, a perfectly placed lob on the opposition's window at a closing speed of more than 120 mph. Better yet, I had egged one of our more clueless engineers, so I immediately heard over the radio, "AMTRAK SAN JOSE CONTROL! EMERGENCY! I'VE JUST BEEN EGGED BY SOMEBODY AND I CAN'T SEE A THING! [break] HEY ED, DID YOU SEE WHO DID IT?" With that I figured that my skills in this particular task had peaked, and it was time to move onto something else, so I began throwing lighted firecrackers under my student fireman's seat in tunnels. My peak moment in that activity came later, when a deadheading engineer was sleeping in the fireman's seat across from me. Not only did the explosion cause him to leap out of his chair with an "unmanly" scream, it caught his sack lunch on fire.

EO

ROFLMAO!!

We used to have a large group of guys on the same prank on my sub. I used to spend a lot of the trip prepping the perfect "spitball", (grime free from crew packs really helped). Glad to know it wasn't just us... At the height of the game, when you pretty much expected to get bombed, I remember climbing up on a tank car a few cars back for the delayed sneak attack.. With cameras everywhere, and seriousness at an all-time high, the fun and games have sadly all but ended.

I used to have to take the siding at Del Mar and wait a few minutes for an eastbound San Diegan. We were still using the Del Mar station, no Solano Beach back then. The regular engineer on my meet was on sick leave and a new engineer had the job on hold down. She was gorgeous! At least in my opinion. She wore pink coveralls and was just plain hot. So here I am relaxing and she goes by and WHAM, I get nailed with a bird bomb. Okay, it's on! the next day here she comes and I nailed her with one. We had those old Amfleet cabcars then so it wqasn't easy but, I got her right in the middle of the windshield. No easy task. We went at it for about two weeks until she bid out to some midwest crew base. Sure miss those days.