Railroaders' Nostalgia > The Trainmaster Son of a VIP

At some time in the early-mid 80s, I was the Spokane Division day assistant chief dispatcher. I was working with a brand-new, not fresh out of the box because he was never in one, trainmaster. He was not a management trainee. He was in charge of the BN Coulee City (CW) and the Palouse (P&L) branches. He was also the son of a BN VIP.

There was heavy grain loading on the CW, exceptionally heavy. Regular service was three days out, Spokane to Coulee City Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and three days back, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The railroad was in…..let’s say transition. Senior management was pushing the railroad toward terminals running the railroad and chief dispatchers answering the phone and saying yes. However, there were no official written instructions to that effect. I still considered it my railroad to run (as did others who fought the system until realizing that it was over). My responsibility as chief was to be sure that the trainmaster had the means needed to move the traffic. His responsibility was to ensure that the plan was executed. One might expect trainmasters to communicate trends and needs in advance, but most of us didn't depend on it.

Back in those days, the chief dispatcher kept running track of the cars on hand to move on line and the traffic to move in yards and terminals. We weren’t allowed to let terminals get plugged nor allow cars to sit on line waiting to move for an excessively long time. Each of us on the chief jobs had our own set of COMPASS (the BN Information System) inquiry cards to run when we came to work. Yes, each of us had a deck of IBM cards, a couple of inches thick, that we put into the card reader when we came to work. Later, it was a file in the Yard Management System computer, but we still called it cards because COMPASS was a mainframe computer that only spoke cards. The computer inquiry files were still formatted like 80 column IBM cards. Running the cards would result in a pile of greenbar printout a couple of inches thick. Any of us could spend 30 minutes going through it page by page and have a clear understanding of what was happening and what would happen. That information would be supplemented by phone calls to yardmasters depending on the situation. For example, 150 cars for Pasco at Spokane is not a big deal if they have been on hand for a couple of hours. They would still need to be inspected and switched. I’ll talk to the yardmaster in a while. 150 cars for Pasco that have been on hand for 20 hours takes a call to the yardmaster right now.

An example of my cards on the Spokane Division chief job:

Block consist lineup (for each train shows ETA and breakdown of train consist by load-empty-tons-feet per block / destination) for Northtown, Minot, Havre, Shelby, Whitefish, Yardley (Spokane), Wenatchee, and Pasco.

Power consist lineup for Shelby (many trains get new power at Havre so not much sense in looking at power east of Havre), Whitefish, Spokane. We kept power on the sheet for trains on our railroad (Whitefish – Yardley – Wenatchee) but the power lineup provided condition and maintenance due for reference.

Yard list by block (loads, empties, tons, feet by block and hours on hand) for Northtown, Minot, Havre, Shelby, Whitefish, Yardley, Pasco, Wenatchee).

Minor areas (tracks between terminals – COMPASS did not keep detailed track of cars outside of terminals, just car-load/empty-station) Minot-Havre, Havre-Shelby, Shelby-Whitefish, Whitefish-Yardley, Yardley-Wenatchee, CW (Coulee City) branch, P&L (Palouse) branch, and Kettle Falls branch.

Car orders everything between Minot and Wenatchee/Pasco and the CW, P&L, Kettle Falls branches.

After the first pass reading the printout and making notes, it’s time to compare the power on the sheet with the power lineups and be sure that all condition/maintenance notes are marked up. Then call the Parkwater (Yardley) roundhouse to compare the power on the sheet with what the foreman has: condition, dates, facing which way, and where. The where could be important. When setting up power, if the units could be any of several, choose the easiest for the roundhouse to make. When something specific needs to happen, however inconvenient, the roundhouse guys will get right on it without complaint or delay because they know that the chief and the foreman take care of them when possible and switching out a unit from the middle of a line of them isn’t make work.

Now comes matching what the printout says to what the turnover says. If there is traffic out there that isn’t represented in the plan the previous shift left, need to get to work on that first. After that is extending (or fixing if necessary) the current plan, which generally extends 24 hours from when you came to work.

During this particular week, I saw the grain loads and car orders building on the CW branch at a rate that could not be handled by the three times a week CW local (out Monday, Wednesday, Friday, back Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday). The need for a couple of extras on Sunday was apparent by mid-week. Loads were building upon line. Empties were building up at Yardley.

I stuck out a wire (email nowadays) to the Yardley yardmasters and trainmasters, the Parkwater roundhouse foreman, and the branch trainmaster (who hadn’t noticed over 100 grain loads on hand that he hadn’t moved and wasn’t going to be able to). It looked like three trains, not two would be needed in order to get the loads pulled and empties spotted for loading in a day. There was too much work for the regular three times a week train to finish in a in a week.

There was only one day to go get all this business. How is that going to work?

I set it up the same way as I learned to do on the SP West Side line between Fresno and Tracy during fruit rush. Divide the line into blocks separated by a register station. Make use of the register station to keep the trains apart but keep them from needing to flag. Representing the traffic on a useful track car lineup was an additional necessity.

The plan would work like this:

I would need enough power to run three CW branch grain trains simultaneously. On Saturday, I brought local service units from Whitefish and Wenatchee. They would need to be returned Sunday night. I used Kettle Falls local power that had to be returned Sunday night, P&L power, and the regular CW power. This all had to be arranged on Friday.

Train 1 on duty 8am. Train 2 on duty 830am. Train 3 on duty 900am. Each train would come to work at Yardley, register, get their work list and orders, get the engine and train, and leave the main line onto the CW branch at Cheney 90 minutes later. The trainmaster was supposed to leave the list of stations at the Yardley telegraph office for each train to work and the number of cars to get and leave at each station. Switch lists and bills (all cars in those times had to be accompanied by the paper waybill) at each station were in the usual bill box at the station.

The whole operation was going to be tight (Precision Railroading the way I learned it). The CW line was (is) about 100 miles of dark railroad with no open train order offices. There was no dispatcher phone and most of the line could not be reached by radio. There was a register book, yard limits, and a yard limits branch line to Eleanor at Davenport. The register was only used by trains as directed by train order. There were yard limits at Creston and Odair, between Davenport and Coulee City. Trains had to protect anywhere else on the line. That wasn’t a big problem in the days when the crew consisted of engineer, fireman, head man, hind man, flagman, and conductor. Missing two of those people, working at stations became more difficult and a lot slower. For that reason, the regular CW local was fixed with a work order:

ENGINE 1 WORKS EXTRA 701AM UNTIL 701PM BETWEEN CHENEY AND COULEE CITY NOT PROTECTING AGAINST EXTRA TRAINS

When a local was fixed with the same order (usually a work order or a run extra and return), the order was called a rubber stamp. A rubber stamp has the unintended consequence of the crew not even reading the order any more.

The railroad was theirs to work anywhere on the line without the need to send a couple of guys further out into the boondocks (given that the whole line is in the boondocks in the first place) to flag. Working the CW was time consuming enough without that inconvenience. Of course, the track car lineup was useless. If the gandys needed the track, they had to protect against the train, even if it was not coming to where they were working. That affected the MofW budget, not the trainmaster budget, so that was no problem.

The plan involved one train working west of Davenport, one east of Davenport, and one working Davenport and the Eleanor branch. The trick was setting up three trains to work stations on 100 miles of dark railroad without delaying the work for flagging or running slow watching for a flagman.

The set of orders needed to make the plan work looked like this:
~
ORDER NO 1
EXTRA 1 WEST AND EXTRA 2 WEST
WILL REGISTER AT CHENEY
ON ORDER NO 1 OF (DATE)

EXTRA 1 WEST AND EXTRA 2 WEST
WILL REGISTER AT DAVENPORT
ON ORDER NO 1 (DATE)

~
ORDER NO 2
EXTRA 1 WEST WAIT AT
CHENEY UNTIL 930AM
REARDON 1001AM

EXTRA 2 WEST WAIT AT
CHENEY UNTIL 1001AM
REARDON 1030AM
~
ORDER NO 3
EXTRA 1 WEST HAS RIGHT OVER EXTRA 2 WEST CHENEY TO DAVENPORT

EXTRA 2 WEST MAY CHECK REGISTER AT CHENEY
AGAINST EXTRA 1 WEST ON ORDER NO 1 OF (DATE)
~
ORDER NO 4
EXTRA 1 EAST WILL REGISTER AT DAVENPORT
ON ORDER NO 4 OF (DATE)
~
ORDER NO 5
EXTRA 1 EAST WAIT AT
DAVENPORT UNTIL 530PM
REARDAN 601PM

EXTRA 2 EAST WAIT AT
DAVENPORT UNTIL 601PM
REARDAN 630PM
~
ORDER NO 6
EXTRA 1 EAST HAS RIGHT OVER EXTRA 2 EAST
DAVENPORT TO CHENEY

EXTRA 2 EAST MAY CHECK REGISTER AT DAVENPORT
AGAINST EXTRA 1 EAST ON ORDER NO 4 OF (DATE)
~
ORDER NO 7
ENG 3 WORKS EXTRA
1030AM UNTIL 801PM
BETWEEN CHENEY AND DAVENPORT
NOT PROTECTING AGAINST EXTRA TRAINS EXCEPT PROTECT AGAINST
EXTRA 1 WEST AND EXTRA 2 WEST AND EXTRA 1 EAST AND EXTRA 2 EAST

WORK EXTRA 3 MAY CHECK REGISTER AT CHENEY
AGAINST EXTRA 1 WEST AND EXTRA 2 WEST ON ORDER NO 1 OF (DATE)
~
ORDER NO 8
ENG 1 WORKS EXTRA
1030AM UNTIL 530PM
BETWEEN DAVENPORT AND COULEE CITY
NOT PROTECTING AGAINST EXTRA TRAINS
~
ORDER NO 9
EXTRA 1 WEST HAS RIGHT OVER EXTRA 2 EAST CHENEY TO DAVENPORT

EXTRA 2 WEST HAS RIGHT OVER EXTRA 1 EAST CHENEY TO DAVENPORT
~
ORDER NO 10
ENG 1 RUN EXTRA CHENEY TO DAVENPORT AND RETURN TO CHENEY

EXTRA 1 EAST MAY CHECK REGISTER AT DAVENPORT
AGAINST EXTRA 2 WEST ON ORDER NO 1 OF (DATE)

ENG 2 RUN EXTRA CHENEY TO DAVENPORT AND RETURN TO CHENEY

EXTRA 2 EAST MAY CHECK REGISTER AT DAVENPORT
AGAINST EXTRA 1 WEST ON ORDER NO 1 OF (DATE)

EXTRA 2 EAST MAY CHECK REGISTER AT DAVENPORT
AGAINST EXTRA 1 EAST ON ORDER NO 4 OF (DATE)
~

There it is. 10 train orders to fix 3 trains on 100 miles of dark single track with no operators, no dispatcher phone, and no radio. Each can proceed about its work with very little need to consider the other trains.

It took a bit of time to figure it out and the trick job that handled the CW was a busy main line job, so I gave the trick man a sketch (like this example) of how it would work. The trick man would check to be sure I hadn’t missed anything, then spend a big part of Sunday morning 3rd trick sticking out orders at Yardley to the three CW branch trains.

Sunday morning, the operator at Yardley called me. The first CW is there but there is no work message or list for him or the other two. I called the trainmaster. No answer.

I called again and left an answering machine message. I waited. The second CW had come to work and my day was collapsing even if nothing else went wrong. Even though I left a message, I called again…and again.

Finally, I got an answer. It seems that the trainmaster just got back from church.

The first and second CW are at Yardley ready to go except they don’t know what they’re supposed to do. Did you leave them a work message or some lists?

Well, no, I need to do that.

No, you needed to do that…yesterday.

It won’t take long to drive there. I can be there in 30-40 minutes.

I don’t have 30-40 minutes. Read the work to me. I’ll copy and send it to the operator.

Sure, just a minute.

(the sound of the phone handset being put on the table, the sound of footsteps and footsteps and rustling and footsteps, and the handset being picked up)

I don’t have it. I’ll have to call you back.

What do you mean, you don’t have it?

Well….it looks like my wife used it for a shopping list. She just left a few minutes ago.

She just left with the work for the CWs? When is she going to be back?

Oh, I don’t really know for sure. Maybe an hour or so or maybe more. She had a lot of chores to do this morning. I can call you when she gets back.

Ok fine, I’m on the phone with the VIP son of a VVVIP, whose wife wrote the shopping list on the apparently only copy of the work that my three locals, all of which have been on duty for a while, are supposed to do. The whole plan was worked out to let them all work independently and be back in time to mail the units I borrowed back to their assignments.

All three are now in each other’s way, or they would be if they could go somewhere. They might be able to go somewhere in an hour or so or maybe not. A quick run through what would happen if all three blast off in an hour or two or more brought the specter of dogcatches and power not making it back in time to be mailed back to where it was borrowed from. Looking at the power sheet, I didn’t see a readily available way to swap power and mail other units back to where I borrowed from while the three CWs are out there in each other’s way and dying in the boondocks where communication was find a phone booth in a town.

No, don’t bother. It’s not going to work out. I’ll see about something else.

OK, well thanks.

I called the Yardley operator and told him to bust the calls on all three, tell them to put in a timeslip and go home. I just paid 12 guys a day’s pay each to hang out in the locker room.

I called the Yardley yardmaster.

The three CWs won’t be running, so you can just put the trains together and out of the way.

I didn’t get anything on them having a train, so I thought they would just be going with a caboose.

You didn’t have empties lined up to go on them?

No. I wish I did. I’m buried.

OK, I’ll see what I can do.

Now what? I looked at the power sheet. There were no Spokane Division locals that could spare any power for the week. Between grades and tonnage, they all needed their regular assignment of power.

I called the Parkwater roundhouse. I asked if he could resurrect two or three extra units for the CW local out of the shop units, to stay on it all week. There was a pause while he looked through what he had and what they needed. He said that he could, at least two, maybe three.

OK, set it up.

It wouldn’t be pretty, but it would have to do. Hopefully the extra power would allow the regular CW to get the line cleaned up in a week. If not, there’s always another week to try again.

I called the trainmaster back.

The CW this week will have two extra units or maybe three. See if you can figure out how to get caught up this week with just the regular CW and the extra power…and let the yardmaster know what you want in the trains. There is way more in the yard than the regular job will be able to handle in a day or two.

OK, Thanks. I’ll do that.

I don’t remember if the CW was cleaned up in the next week. I think I had already moved to the chief job on the Pacific or Portland Division before the next weekend.

The attached image shows what a quick scratch work trainsheet for planning would have looked like.

TAW

---

Excellent, hair-pulling story, Tom. How did you remain so calm?

roustabout Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Excellent, hair-pulling story, Tom. How did you
> remain so calm?

One can be conditioned to withstand a lot of abuse with training to do so, like a Kung Fu master. In a way, the era of working seven days a week and 12ing, doubling, or even tripling for months on end and was a good thing. It was training for withstanding the abuse and stupidity. However, it was always hard to deal with on coming back from days off. I once made the mistake of taking my four weeks of vacation at one time. I was in no way ready for the abuse and stupidity the night I came back to work. I was pretty wound up over too many things that shouldn't be wrong and after being at work for about 30 minutes, I smashed a red felt tip pen down on the power/crew sheet so hard that it shattered, getting red ink all over the sheet, the desk, and me. From then until I left BN, I never again took that much time off in one chunk.

TAW



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/17 09:05 by TAW.

I don't need to tell you,as an ex railroader myself.I feel your pain.
I enjoy reading your interesting stories.Please post more.If I think
back,maybe I can find a few to share,but they won't be as good as yours.

Uncle Joe
Seffner,Fl.

I knew a fella that when things went to hell like in your story, would go out back start screaming and punch the wall. Then he came back and was fairly settled down.

We had a post beam in one place I worked with a star mark and chalked sign that said "Bang Head Here".

Anyone that came in and had to ask what it was all about could never be made to understand. Those who saw it and knew, got it and didn't have to ask.

Another office (mechanical - General Foreman) I had a sign for a while that said:
"Office of the General Foreman: "Where Fantasy meets Reality" I could not count all the times someone said to me in a difficult situation; "well, all you gotta do is" followed by some inane, insane unthought out action that neither God nor the laws of physics nor all of the gold in King Solomon's mine be enough to make happen.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/17 11:08 by train1275.

tomstp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I knew a fella that when things went to hell like
> in your story, would go out back start screaming
> and punch the wall. Then he came back and was
> fairly settled down.

I didn't often feel the need to do anything like that. The most memorable involved Pete Carpenter, who eventually became Vice Chairman of CSX: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,3352811,3352811#msg-3352811

However, I occasionally used dramatic theatrical fits of rage. I once had the Chief chasing me down the hall begging me to not leave. My last words were about the trainmaster on the phone to the chief, complaining about the way I was running the railroad. I yelled across the office You obviously don't need me. Tell Captain Cupcake (his nickname among the employees, not generally used in his presence) that you obviously don't need me. He can run the railroad, or you and he can run the railroad if you want. I'm outta here. By the end of that, I was already out the door and down the hall. The Chief caught up to me and said Please come back. He's going home and won't call again.

The best was in Havre. Havre west was a mankiller job. Three guys did time off that job in the year that I worked there. https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,4053630,4053630#msg-4053630

One day the Asst Supt and two trainmasters were in my office, talking about how I should work the job better. After a few minutes of that, I jumped up, simultaneously throwing a pencil, which stuck in the acoustic tile on the wall, hooking my heel on the chair to turn it over, and yelling I don't need this shhht! and walked out through the Chief's office, through the door to the hallway, and down the stairs to the platform. I gave it a few minutes and went back. The office was empty, the chair was upright and ready for me to sit in it, and the pencil was on the trainsheet. I never had that problem (in Havre) again.

TAW

You are an incredible story-teller, Tom, and you brings back lots of memories from the old train-order days. I loved that form of dispatching more than any other.  Thanks so much for sharing.

Rich 

That story was rough. What you had planned was so elaborate that I expected to just read, as a high point, about it successfully working. And then... it never got the chance.

I agree -- you, sir, are a superb storyteller,
and we are all very fortunate here on TO that
you post here regularly.

Hey -- you could write a book! Or maybe you
almost have, with your great stories here on TO.

Thank you.

I bet the whole railroad knew TAW and when he came to work at a different job there might have been some managers saying "oh no".

Margaret, you are a little late. I said over a year ago TAW should write a book. I'd sure buy it and I bet everyone on TO would too. When things are quiet for a while I search for his prior posts and read them. I have spent some time on the floor laughing too.

More than anything he is an example of underlings who fought management and won! That'll draw a crowd every time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/17 09:01 by tomstp.

tomstp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> More than anything he is an example of underlings
> who fought management and won!

I won battles but not the war. I only had 28 years in for RRB instead of 30 when I turned 67. Two more would have killed me and I wouldn't have collected anything.

TAW

I am sorry you did not get the retirement benefits because it appears to me you certainly earned them. Or, am I wrong that you did not get any benefit for the 28 years? That was a lot of cash.

The requirement for a "full" pension is 60 years of age and 30 years of service.
At his age, the two year service deduction wouldn't have been too much.

From personal experience, 62 years of age, AND 43 years of service with a lot of earnings during those years, pays over $4300/mo.
G

ExSPCondr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The requirement for a "full" pension is 60 years
> of age and 30 years of service.
> At his age, the two year service deduction
> wouldn't have been too much.


Right - an amount not worth the aggravation. The big hit is survivor benefits because of no current connection.

TAW

Great story.

On the UP in the 1970s, we didn't need trainmasters to do that stuff (or fail to do it). The agents, car distributor and the trick chief dispatchers would line everything up and tell the yardmaster, roundhouse and crew caller what to do. Yards were kept current, branches were kept current.

"Management" could concentrate on more "important" stuff, like hiding in the weeds to do their safety tests, then running the subsequent investigations.

Best regards,

Rob L.

rob_l Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great story.
>
> On the UP in the 1970s, we didn't need
> trainmasters to do that stuff (or fail to do it).
> The agents, car distributor and the trick chief
> dispatchers would line everything up and tell the
> yardmaster, roundhouse and crew caller what to do.
> Yards were kept current, branches were kept
> current.

Correct. One of my biggest misconceptions when I became a road foreman of equipment on the BN's former Frisco territory was that
I would be focusing on engineer and trainmen related issues. Within weeks of my appointment I was informed by my immediate boss, the
assistant division supt. that one of his 'goals' as determined by his boss was to get me promoted ASAP to a trainmaster position; something
that I had not expected nor particularly desired. I soon found myself being immersed in car distributor and agent work, something I was totally
untrained and ill prepared for. The result was inevitable failure and it took about 3 years to happen. I'm surprised I lasted that long.
My biggest problem was that I liked running trains more than trying to fumble my way through the paperwork side of the business and was
greatly eased when mid-level management 'relieved' me of my duties. At least they paid for a house hunting trip for the family and all costs
related to moving back to my seniority.

Charlie

As aggravating as UP's Transportation Control System could be, it did free local management from doing all the 'planning' stuff. One did not have to take so much of the operation in Hand Throw. Just ensure that the Right Cars get on the Right Train, which TCS will describe. That does leave more time to ensure your people don't get into situations where injury or worse could occur.

Another fantastic story TAW. I read this with intense interest as I now work on the CW for the Eastern Washington Gateway RR. I had to share this with my co-workers who also like to read about the history of this line. Things are much different these days using company cell phones to call in for track warrants. Most days are pretty straight forward, but sometimes we can be jockeying around two or more trains working jointly in overlapping territories.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR