Railroaders' Nostalgia > Attempted cleanliness

An earlier story of washing out a caboose with a hose brought up two memories.

The U.P. "A" Yard shanty in Los Angeles was a rebuilt boxcar on blocks about 3 feet off the ground. It must have been in the early 1960's one of the clerks got the idea of washing the windows, even though that job belonged to the janitor. The clerk managed to fall off of whatever he had climbed up on. He broke one wrist and his other arm. Later in the week the Chief Clerk had a long list of things that had gone wrong. The crowning blow was, as he said, "and I have one clerk that can't even wipe his own a** !"

Another incident involved M.E. "Pete" Davis, a character in his own right. He had worked in the U.P. roundhouse in Caliente, NV. When the steam engines became history, he ended up in Los Angeles as a Yard Watchman. He brought a lot of the desert with him, he always carried a big revolver. He was about the only Yard Watchmen/Special Agent you could really trust. Later he became a Yard Clerk and no longer carried his revolver.

One day when there was no longer a Yardmaster at the "A" Yard shanty, I relieved "Pete", then the afternoon clerk.

As I walked in, the shanty seemed wet. The S.P. Foreman from the S.P. Hauler was shaking his head. After Pete left, the S.P. Foreman said that when he arrived Pete had been hosing down the floor of the shanty.

With the Yardmaster no longer there, the radios and some of the other electrical equipment had been removed. Even so, it had been risky for Pete and at the least could have blown some fuses in the shanty.

Eugene Crowner

The videos on YouTube showing some one at a car wash using the cleaner on the inside of their car are true.

I saw one happen in person. At about 1 AM in Pomona, CA at a coin operated car wash booth. (I was there washing a trailer I was going to be doing painting on the next day.

Great story, Gene. Do you remember the conductor's name that was on the Tuna local out of "C" yard in the late 70s and early 80s. I can't remember his name but I was working the daylight "C" yard lead job going to work at the "C" yard shanty. Every morning when we showed up for work, the Tuna Fish local conductor would be sweeping the dirt in front of the shanty while puffing on his cigar, waiting for his train to depart the yard so he could hop on the caboose as it went by. It was pretty funny watching him slowly and methodically sweeping the dirt.-BMT

I finally remembered who the conductor was, it was J.D. Phillips.-BMT



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/18 09:55 by UPNW2-1083.

I fired for a contrary old engineer who wore a sport coat and tie this was the early 1970's No a/c on engines in south ga. His first order of business was to tell me to go get a broom and sweep the cab. He would show up in about 10 minutes and raise Cain how it wasn't good enough. Nobody could get a cab clean enough for him. I would get the broom and make a half hearted attempt at sweeping. When he finished sweeping,he would empty the water can in the floor,swish it around and go complain about the dirty water can.(he was usually close to right on this one). He would get more water to his satisfaction and away we would go. In his defense, he was a pretty good engineer, would take up time with a fireman, and give you his explanation of why things were done a particular way.