Railroaders' Nostalgia > An interesting and profitable day . . .

.   .   .   Working a yard job can be pretty boring at times. During the early BNSF years in Los Angeles management began stretching the limits of agreements and sometimes down right ingnoring them. On a hot August day in '98 the job I was working was told to grab a pair of GP 9's and head east from Hobart Yard, in Los Angeles, forty five miles to the new main line one between the stations of Esperanza and Prado Dam to pick up one hundred and twenty empty pig and spine cars totalling close to twelve thousand feet that had been stored there. Even to this day this seven mile stretch of main line one is used mostly for "staging" inboud and outbound trains. Both yardmen I was working with had never been to Esperanza, they were yard men. We were told to stop at Pico Rivera and pick up another pair of GP 9's. After the required power test we headed east to put together our train. We ended up putting two trains together that had been left out there and of course having to make a Terminal air test, since it was more than twenty miles a transfer air test, which is quicker and simpler, was not sufficient. This was one of those many days during my career when I was glad I was "stuck in the cab", with the air conditioner doing it's job. It is predominately down grade or level most of the way back to Hobart except for a couple mile climb through Santa Fe Springs where we actually needed the extra pair and were working hard making around ten mph approaching Los Nietos. On arrival at Hobart yard it got interesting as NORMALLY you would simply pull through a track leaving as much as would fit there, then double over to another track, then another. The west end lead however was out of service for some un remembered reason to we had to stop partway through a yard track, make a guess on where to make a cut that would fit, then pull the first part in. After this we traveled the length of the yard back to the rest of the train, repeating this procedure two more times yarding the train in three tracks. This made for quite a long hot day, for two thirds of the crew anyway. I always packed a lunch so no problem there. For an added bonus though when the day was done, we got a "double bean law" as well as an extra days pay for going outside yard limits. And, IF memory serves me correctly, this was the longest train I ever handled as this was before todays twelve thousand foot train was an every day occurance. It was nice to get out of the yard and stretch our legs on the main line. Good memories from the good old days of railroading.
JB

---

   Did the Santa Fe pay that outside yard limits day right up front, or did you have to "grieve" it woth your Local Chairman?

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO

tehachcond Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>    Did the Santa Fe pay that outside yard limits
> day right up front, or did you have to "grieve" it
> woth your Local Chairman?
>
> Brian Black
> Castle Rock, CO

He probably had to fight for it. That drives me nuts. I don’t mind going the extra mile, so to speak. I’m not afraid of working hard and getting it done, no matter the task. But when you get denied your just due, often multiple times, I want to reach through the phone and strangle somebody! Cool story JB.

When it was Santa Fe, MOST claims were quick and easy, especially while Carol was our pay person in Topeka. IF you had a question, call Carol, I once called her about how to make a claim account during a westbound deadhead move home from Barstow to Los Angeles, we were instructed to jump on a train tied down at Lenwood, yard it, then get on the train tied down behind it, pull it up to the signal at Lenwood and tie it down before resuming our "dead head" home.  Her reply, put in for a hundred mile day each time you change directions. That deadhead paid three hundred miles, or three days pay. I missed her when she retired! BNSF got a little harder each year before my last few years when they paid nothing extra.
JB



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/20 19:50 by 3rdswitch.

Extending the 3rd track from Esperanza to Atwood has been funded. May start late this year.

Great Story  and nice shot.  You are correct as we were told that Krebs and the Santa Fe way was  to pay the penalty claims..  BN took the decline payment route  and let local chairman handle it.  Some point after the BNSF merger  we ended up with a General Manager  running the Chicago Division.  At a quarterly meeting that he had with the local Chairmen   on the division,  the LC's brought up issue about claims not being paid.  The General manager asked if these were valid  claims,  answer was yes  and he instructed his trainmasters at the meeting  to "Pay the claims".  Was nice while he was on the Division..

Pat

Intersting story , JB!

Randy Lundgren
Elgin, TX