Railroaders' Nostalgia > Thankful Air Force Guards

In the mid 80s I was working out of SP's Taylor Yd up the Coast, LA-San Luis Obispo, and was called for a drag. In the consist were a couple of missile cars [TOFCs] coupled to them was a caboose occupied by Air Force guards. We would set these cars out at Narlon [?] for Vandenberg AFB. The Air-dales told me they had tons of food and drinks onboard but no way to shower and it had been several days. As the car department had yet to a air brake inspection I knew we a little time, so I hustled the guys over to our locker room which had a shower. [I had a story ready for the Yard Master in case the car-toads released us before the guys were back: "The Air force is inspecting the loads and it will be a few minutes before we can move".] The Airmen were so grateful later on the trip the passed us a bunch of sandwiches, potato chips, about a half-dozen Cokes and a whole half a gallon of Ice Cream!

I loved working the coast and was so pleased when I could hold it regularly. Old school Train Order / Later DTC, hand line switches for meets, decent mileage, unmatched scenery with SLO the best layover town on the system.

Pat

Who guarded the missile cars when they were in the shower ?

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/18 11:21 by biff.

Cabhop Wrote:
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> I loved working the coast and was so pleased when
> I could hold it regularly. Old school Train Order
> / Later DTC, hand line switches for meets, decent
> mileage, unmatched scenery with SLO the best
> layover town on the system.
>
> Pat

I lived in SLO from 1975 to 2007 and worked a half block from the station. Where did you stay when laying over?
Bill Pyper
Salem, OR

Cool story, and thanks for looking after our service men.

For the record, Air-dale is the name for Navy flyers. USAF guards are known as Sky-Cops.

Scott Schifer
Torrance, CA
TinyTrains Website

Those were not Guards on that car, because they would not have left the car they were "guarding" unguarded. They were escorts.
The Guards would have been SAC Security Police. The Escorts would have been Missile Maintenance troops.
And they were there to make sure the missiles and their transport trailers didn't get damaged.

In my time in the U.P. yards in Los Angeles we saw guarded military shipments from time to time. The guards were always watchful, although probably bored.

Only one time did I see the guards being totally on guard. They were outside standing on the steps of all four corners of the caboose or passenger car they were riding on, keeping a close eye on everything in the vicinity, with their guns at the ready as they went by. It would have been interesting to know what was in the car they were guarding. The waybill was no more specific than showing the contents as government goods.

Eugene Crowner

wjpyper Wrote:
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> Cabhop Wrote:
> >

>
> I lived in SLO from 1975 to 2007 and worked a half
> block from the station. Where did you stay when
> laying over?
> Bill Pyper
> Salem, OR

The motel for the freight crews when I went to SLO in 1978, was the Town and Country Motel.

The Amtrak crews stayed at the Mid Town.

The SP guaranteed 20 rooms per night, and the Town and Country owner would call the yard office about 9pm if he was more than about half full, to find out how many LA crews were coming,and about when. If he thought a train wasn't going to be there before about 7am, he would rent out the reserved rooms, and make the crew that had been up all night wait for an hour or so until the maids showed up to clean rooms.

We got so many complaints that I went looking for another motel. The Mid Town didn't have enough rooms, they wouldn't have had any rooms left for the public, so they declined. Fortunately the Frontier changed hands, and they approached us. Remember, the complaints quite often came at 6am on a weekend morning, when I was at home asleep.

The T & C owner asked for a raise about two weeks before the Frontier contract was complete, so I put him off. When we were all set, I really enjoyed giving the owner of the T & C 30 days notice to terminate the contract.

The T & C didn't last a year after losing the guaranteed 20 rooms a night!
G

Rambo did!!!

tinytrains Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Cool story, and thanks for looking after our
> service men.
>
> For the record, Air-dale is the name for Navy
> flyers. USAF guards are known as Sky-Cops.

Speaking strictly as a retired Squid, the USAF pukes were known as the chair force, zoomies or tee-timers.

Regards,
Burlington John
US Navy (retired)

Cabhop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the mid 80s I was working out of SP's Taylor Yd
> up the Coast, LA-San Luis Obispo, and was called
> for a drag. In the consist were a couple of
> missile cars coupled to them was a caboose
> occupied by Air Force guards. We would set these
> cars out at Narlon [?] for Vandenberg AFB. The
> Air-dales told me they had tons of food and drinks
> onboard but no way to shower and it had been
> several days. As the car department had yet to a
> air brake inspection I knew we a little time, so I
> hustled the guys over to our locker room which had
> a shower. The Airmen were so grateful later on
> the trip the passed us a bunch of sandwiches,
> potato chips, about a half-dozen Cokes and a whole
> half a gallon of Ice Cream!
>
> I loved working the coast and was so pleased when
> I could hold it regularly. Old school Train Order
> / Later DTC, hand line switches for meets, decent
> mileage, unmatched scenery with SLO the best
> layover town on the system.
>
> Pat

Hey Pat... the missiles set out at Tangair and were shoved onto the interchange track. The USAF engine would come and pick up the missiles and spot them somewhere on a spur on the balloon track. Only went to the end of the track once to set out or pickup cement loads for the runway extension. Or maybe it was to deliver a missile. Like V memory fades over time.

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There was also a Marine unit which escorted nuclear products from the bunkers.

The naval railway at Earle depot in NJ used them to escort certain shipments.

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