Railroaders' Nostalgia > A Case of Foot in the Mouth

I'm sure most of you are familiar the the famous SP "oil cans" that ran over the Tehachapi between Bakersfield and a refinery near Carson. This service was eliminated in favor of a loading facility just south of Mojave and still ran to Carson. Right after the job was established, I bumped on it as conductor, and worked it for about 2 and a half years until a pipeline replaced it.
Assigned power to the train was four AC4400's. These were good, solid, reliable performers. SD-9043's were experimented on the train, but that's another unfortunate story.
After awhile, we developed numerous workarounds with the locomotive's computer if there was a malfunction.
Anyway, one afternoon in the locker room at the LA yard office, some other guys were asking us about this and that with these engines. I started to tell some guys what we did with one unit. Another engineer, and I use that term loosely, was taking this all in. You LA Division old heads can guess who this character was. His last name started with a "P" and he drank a lot of milk, and was totally obnoxious. He looked down his nose at me and said, "what did you do to get that unit running?"
I said, "I went into level three and a half on the computer and discovered we had an IRQ conflict between the CAB and ENG computers, and I had to re-establish the URL path using the A23 and A25 jumper wires, and it loaded right up."
Now, I'm sure that most of you know that this is total and complete gibberish! The entire room erupted laughing, but this went completely over Mr. P's head. He never did figure it out.

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO

I was working the L.A. basin a number of years ago when we would bring the trains out of the harbor and hand them off to the Yuma or Yermo long pool crews at E.L.A.. The one day, Mr."P" took over my train at the Kirkiby (which is on the mainline right at the 710 freeway overpass). Coming into the Kirkiby is a slight downhill grade but enough that you come down in dynamic braking with the train bunched up. I told MR. "P" that I came in bunched up and with auto racks on the head end, he'd need to pull easy to get the train stretched out. We got in the van and headed for the yard office where I got a call from the Corridor Manager. Kenny Naucler asking what I did to Mr."P" as he had just tore my train apart taking off from the Kirkiby. As usual, he never listened to anyone so he just took off and got a knuckle on the auto racks as they stretched out. He's lucky it was only a knuckle and not a drawbar. Oh, and he had his usual 2 gallons of milk in hand as he climbed onto the unit!-BMT

UPNW2-1083 Wrote:
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> I was working the L.A. basin a number of years ago
> when we would bring the trains out of the harbor
> and hand them off to the Yuma or Yermo long pool
> crews at E.L.A.. The one day, Mr."P" took over my
> train at the Kirkiby (which is on the mainline
> right at the 710 freeway overpass). Coming into
> the Kirkiby is a slight downhill grade but enough
> that you come down in dynamic braking with the
> train bunched up. I told MR. "P" that I came in
> bunched up and with auto racks on the head end,
> he'd need to pull easy to get the train stretched
> out. We got in the van and headed for the yard
> office where I got a call from the Corridor
> Manager. Kenny Naucler asking what I did to Mr."P"
> as he had just tore my train apart taking off from
> the Kirkiby. As usual, he never listened to anyone
> so he just took off and got a knuckle on the auto
> racks as they stretched out. He's lucky it was
> only a knuckle and not a drawbar. Oh, and he had
> his usual 2 gallons of milk in hand as he climbed
> onto the unit!-BMT

We could start a whole thread about that guy.

tehachcond Wrote:
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> We could start a whole thread about that guy.

Please do. I am enjoying reading this. BSB

I'm sure there's more to come.-BMT

As I've stated in other posts, immediately after the merger, when I (a UP hoghead) began getting calls for SP jobs, I usually arrived in the crew room where I would be greeted with jeers and snide comments about getting "one of those UP guys". I had no idea who Mr. "P" was, having never met him but he had taken a vacation hold down on the Guadalupe hauler and I had seniority on him, so I rolled him off it. When I arrived at Gemco the first night, I was greeted with smiles, handshakes and pats on the back which left me wondering what kind of shenanigans they were up to. As I would later learn, they were just so glad to see Mr. "P" gone that they didn't care who showed up!

Back about 1995 or so work got real slow on the UP in East Los Angeles and I could no longer hold a freight pool turn or the conductor's extra board and ended up on the bump board. So I bumped on a foreman only yard job in East Yard.And to add something extra to this thread for all of my SP Brothers,I bumped Manny Logan off of this job.That's right the one time "Little King of Mojave". Any way at that time the UP supplied us with little plastic bottles of pond water to drink.On the LA to Yermo pool we used to get a lot of SP power.About that time period we would find these nice blue tinted 12 ounce bottles of great tasting water. It didn't take long for the crews to raid the SP motors for this treasure and it became to be known as "SP Water" and was highly coveted. While I was stuck in the yard, because of it's value,none was to be found. That was until the SP Hostlers from Taylor Yard showed up with power to hand over to the UP. The job I was on was a utility job,we did everything. The SP Hostlers would call the East Yard Crest to not only let them know they were there with power but if someone could take it over so the could step off it at Spence Street and get in their carryall and go back to Taylor. The Crest would always tell them to take it to Oak Street and they would piss and moan and want a pilot.It was one of these days that a Yardmaster gave in and sent me and my engineer Fillipe Mojaro to take over.Well when we climbed up on the power and shot the crap with the 2 SP guys There it was,two 6 packs of SP water. When they saw us dive all over it and we told them how much we liked it they said,Next time we will bring more". Well that got around to the other hostlers and we were set. They would call on the radio and we would get them to the carryall promptly.Then they must have marked up a new hostler class and among them was that Mr P. No more water. When the good hostlers showed up they told us stories about him being a "know it all" and there was also a smaller version of him. They called them "Big Dave and Little Dave" even though the other one wasn't named Dave.When the hostler call would come over the radio we would ask if it was Dave and if he or the other one that wasn't named Dave answered we would be too busy to help.

You couldn't be talking about the former SP switchman who was off injured for about 20 years and somehow got back to work, and then went into engine service?
G

ExSPCondr Wrote:
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> You couldn't be talking about the former SP
> switchman who was off injured for about 20 years
> and somehow got back to work, and then went into
> engine service?
> G

OH! The former UCLA Hospital steam plant operator. You could tell he was the “Real Deal” because of his bibs and Ball pocket watch.

ExSPCondr Wrote:
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> You couldn't be talking about the former SP
> switchman who was off injured for about 20 years
> and somehow got back to work, and then went into
> engine service?
> G


The story that I heard was that he'd been dismissed but the SP was experiencing a manpower shortage and the superintendent told his secretary to, "Call all these people that are laid off and get them to mark up" (meaning those in LS status) but the secretary called everyone that was not marked up, included ones that were fired, and that Mr. P got his job back because of this secretary's misunderstanding.

BTW- He got fired from Disneyland because he knew too much about steam!

That is the same one, but he was offered a return to service because they were trying to clean up the rosters, and get rid of the names that hadn't worked in years, and instead of just removing his name from the list, the secretary called him to ask about his status. Needless to say, he said he would be right down.

When he got back to work in train service after being pensioned from the steam plant, he found out he could transfer to engine service, and then we were in real trouble! He was an expert, just ask him! (Actually you didn't have to, he would tell you.!)

Now for the story, and I have to explain some of the rest of the circumstances for those that were not former SP from 20 years ago.

A fellow manager from the SP from 40+ years ago now, who had been appointed General Manager of the Harbor Belt Line changed his mind and decided to become a woman. Roy went through the entire process which takes several years, and became Linda. And no, this isn't going to turn out like you are starting to think it is, even though Dave was a bachelor!

The UP bought the SP, and the Harbor Belt which was 50% PE, 25 1/2% SP and 24 1/2% UP, was now all UP.
The next time the contract came up for bid, the crews wouldn't work conductor only, so the PHL out bid the former crews, and everybody had to go back to their home road, including Roy the manager who is now Linda.

The UP wouldn't take her back, so she had to sue, won, and became an MTO.

One afternoon at the Shops, Dave who hated women is one of the yard engineers, and Linda walks up in a dress suit, panty hose, and steel toe boots. In her still gruff voice, Linda tells Dave what she wants him to do, and he didn't like it at all. From what he said back, we all thought he was going to get pulled out of service, but he finally calmed down. The encounter definitely provided the entertainment for the afternoon!

From what I understand, Linda left the railroad and opened a women's large size shoe store in Beverly Hills.

Dave was 39 when he was hired, and I think he died about age 65. Unfortunately Linda didn't last too long either.
G

He was working as a fireman on the short pool out of LA, and one day, he was called for a train that they were to get on at 25th St. When they finally got him in the van and boarded the train, he decided there wasn't enough ice for all his milk and lunch. He told his crew to wait for him while he took the van back to the yard office to get more ice.
By now, they had a green signal and the train was dangling down the Alameda Corridor. It was just a matter of time before the DS inquired as to why they weren't moving.
They knew Mr. P would take close to an hour going to the yard office and returning, so the conductor looked at the engineer, and said, "Do we really need that So-and-so?"
"Highball!" said the engineer, and away they went to West Colton without Mr. P. When they got to Colton, the MOP asked them why they left their fireman in LA. All the engineer said, "We had Mr. P."
The MOP just grinned, and said, "OK. Don't do that again."

Good Stuff.

I am very much enjoying these stories - it sure is nice to see other divisions on the SP had their, ah, misfits.

Based on what everyone says about this guy’s lousy disposition and his constant milk drinking, I would guess he had a serious case of stomach ulcers.
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

The first time I ran into"Big Dave"was about early 1995.We had an Extra Pedro job out of UP East Yard.We were light engines down to Berth 49,AKA Kaiser,to pull coal empties. When we got to San Pedro we changed ends after making our first joint.That was when my engineer found out our new leader had a bad ordered horn. We had a horn but the piping going to it was broken in two and we would need to go back to the Harbor Belt Line wye and turn our power for the trip north. We called the HBL and told them what we wanted to do and were told that an SP job was on the way to spot loads and to wait for them to clear up.When the SP showed up the engineer told us he would pull us up to the wye so we would't have to flag all the crossings.I said that would be great. When they coupled on to our two locomotives I rode on the head end with them. The hoghead was Larry Sitter,who I had worked with on the Harbor Belt Line when Roy Igo was still Roy. Sitting across from him was Mr P wearing the previously mentioned pin striped bibs and old heading me about being Steam qualified and I was in aw,as until then the only person I knew that was steam qualified was Fred C Perry.As he was going on and on I looked over at Larry and he rolled his eyes back and that was when I knew why the conductor was not with them.The conductor was riding around in a Renzenberger van lining switches and spotting the train.My crew and I were amazed at that because UP never did things like that.The van slid into one of the cars due to driving on piles of coal that had piled up on the ground.We knew the driver and found out weeks lather that he lost his job over that.After the Hub was implemented I would see Mr P in Yermo as Connie Sotomayor's fireman. He would sit at the table in the Beanery that would soon be Ray Schafer, The Cat Man's,favorite table with his gallon jug of milk and a large bakery box with I guess was his birthday cake in it.He must have had an awful lot of birthdays as every time I saw him anywhere he had a box with the lid open and was shoveling the cake in his mouth.Shoveling like only a"Steam Qualified Fireman"could do.

The SP only sent the UP the best, Ray and Dave are evidence of that!

After Dave got into engine service by himself, him and a Conductor named Walt were on a train from the harbor bound for LA via the PE side. It was DTC by then, and there was a train of empty stack cars in the Carson block, which is the 'inbound' track between the spring switch at the North end of the Watts block, and the spring switch for the wye and the Commerce block at Slauson.

To go from Dolores to J Yard on the PE, you were given the Watts, Carson, Slauson and Amoco blocks, which the Dispatcher read to you as "four blocks, Watts through Amoco."

Because the cars were stored in the Carson Block, the train had to operate "against the current of traffic," although there isn't one, in the Slauson Block. The dispatcher read them "...three blocks, Watts through Amoco" which they read back and took off in the dark.

Only one problem, they didn't HAVE the Carson Block, but the spring switch was lined, and in they went! When the headlight picked up the empty stacks, Dave put it in emergency, and they both jumped. Walt broke an ankle, the only thing Dave hurt was his huge ego, AND THE TRAIN STOPPED A CAR LENGTH SHORT OF THE JOINT!

After that, the SP changed the way the dispatcher gave out the blocks...
G