Railroaders' Nostalgia > Tales of the Belch fire

Having read TAW's story about the old Alco gurgling and all it brought a memory to the top.
I was working the daylight switcher here in Cheyenne and we got a call from the yardmaster to stash our switcher(NW2) in the cab track. He was sending the paddy (crew) wagon down take us out to a coal train at the east end. The road crew had run out of time and had it tied down. It was time to yard it and get it ready to go to the Hanna mines.

So we got to the train and on the head end was UP 2809, a U28C, which was a rare breed on the UP. I got up in the cab, sat in the engineer's seat and noticed a large iron handle throttle. Also strangely it had a 16 notch throttle. Half Notches?? This was intriguing as I was very familiar with GE's (honorary Alcos). So once the hand brakes were released I started out on the throttle. Now I had a couple of SD40's behind the Uboat so I knew I could get It in the yard. Notch 1 and a little smoke came out the stack. About notch 5 I noticed a ball of fire and thick black smoke this time. Oh Boy, an honorary steam locomotive. So we began to enter the east end of the Cheyenne Yard. As I approached the Norris Avenue overpass I started cycling the throttle from full power down to notch 1 and return a few times. Well directly under the overpass a huge ball of fire erupted upward and a tremendous smoke cloud. It was really impressive.

Well, we got the train in the yard and took the power to the diesel pit. They banned us back to the east end to our switch engine and we went back to work. After completing our next switch list we slipped over to the shack and the switchman told me thanks. I asked for what and he said I wiped out most if not all of the pigeon population nested under that overpass so maybe the crew would have a brief respite from the droppings they had to avoid.

And that my friends was the rest of this story.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

BBQ squab. Yum!

Bob --
Thanks so much for this great and funny story! Seems that that GE was a dual-purpose machine: a combination of a locomotive and a pest-exterminator! LOLOL!

trainjunkie Wrote: > ... BBQ ...

Hmmm... Yes, I can just see it: Bob the Birdman dancing around behind the grill! Sprinkle a little seasoning here... baste a little KC Masterpiece sauce there...VOILA! A diesel-fueled fine foul feast! Of course, the ASPCA might wanna say a word or 2...

;^)

Bob on the WP at Stockton the U23 locomotives would be loaded boxed at the shop and flame would shoot 40 feet in the air and when you shut off the throttle they would throw sparks like the 4th of July. On a hard pull going towards Oakland at night you could see fire as they pulled the hill over the coast range.

Great story -- I hope its okay to share this photo on the thread. I'm in Hammond, Indiana on a cold January day. And this came along on the IHB. I never knew EMD units blew smoke like this. 

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