Railroaders' Nostalgia > Happiness is a quit, however you get it.

January 17, 1997 I worked a rest day as conductor of the Willamina Local with engineer Ed S, a former SP Eugene Roundhouse employee. We'd gotten our train together on the branch west of Whiteson and did an air test. Once on the power, we headed west to Willamina but didn't even get past the yard board. The locomotive went on the ground first, followed by the first two empty centerbeams. The ride was rough but it stopped quickly at our 'brisk' 10 mph with the locomotive leaning slightly to the hogger's side. Cause was rolled/broken/spread rails, pick one or more...

 I don't remember who said we could go home, maybe I made that decision and our vehicles were a fairly short walk away at Whiteson. Ed was happy with a three hour quit (witness the happy hogger in the first image); what the heck else could we do? Tom C. in customer service wasn't happy and yelled a bit at me but I was already home by then...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/20 21:48 by roustabout.

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Keep them coming please,Lou.

Quits are great but you're only as good as your last run. ;-)

Rolled rail....I will sit there twiddling my thmbs til I run out of time....it ain't my fault so I ain't doing anything but calling out the crane company. 

7 hours is my best time for a quit.

My job at the time was spotting cars at a truck ramp in South Philadelphia down by the piers. It was the day after Christmas and CSX has shutdown for the holiday.

Their was no scheduled outbound Chicago train, and the inbound wasn’t even on our Division yet.

Their was nothing for us to do, and the train master forgot to annul the job. So we played cards for an hour and the yard master called and said “I got nothing for you to do”.

That was all we needed to hear.

It was one of the few times poor planning and mis-management worked in our favor.

Shortly after the UP took over the SP, I was called to be the Condr on the afternoon Chino Ca. job.  Our work was to haul the empties from the day job, work the industries on the branch from Chino to Pomona, set out all the empties and bring the loads back for the day job to spot the next day.  The railroad was all screwed up, and there hadn't been an Eastbound with time or power to pick up the empties for the last three days.  The empties were finally picked up on Saturday, so last Thursday's loads were set out at Pomona on Sunday.
 
The day job was off on Sunday, while the afternoon job was off Saturday.  The afternoon job took the loads down to Chino and left them for the day job to spot on Monday.  When we went to work at 3pm Monday, our work report was the same as the day job's, as they hadn't tied up yet.  I picked up the work report at C of I and drove to Chino where the engines were, to the meet the engineer and the brakeman.

The engineer turned out to be extra also, and the brakeman was a month-old new hire.  The engineer hasn't started the engines, and there are no cars coupled to them.

The engineer and I Iooked around and decided we would go home, which scared the new-hire brakeman, thinking we were going to get him in trouble.  So, we started the engines and ran down to the end of the branch, sure enough, all of the cars on the list were spotted, so we brought the engines back to downtown and shut them off.

As we were both extra, and they were really short of men, if we tied up at 4pm, we both would have been called again at midnight, so we came up with the plan to go home and then come back to tie up on the computer at 1055pm, which was 7 hours and 55 minutes on duty, less than eight hours on duty, not stealing time.

There was a half hour deadhead from C of I to LA, so my phone rang at 6am for 730 on duty the next morning.
G 

I walked into the yard office just before 1830 (after having been run around twice that day, cha-ching!) to work the second four hours of a utility job.  Asked the yardmaster what he needed done first, he pointed to a road crew that was about to set off in the eastbound yard and said "Watch their shove".  I turned my radio on, stepped to the window and protected the rear of their movement.  When they finished, I turned and asked the yardmaster what was next.  The second trick yard crew was already done and gone when I got there.  The yardmaster said "There's nothing else around, will you be near your phone if something comes up?".  I replied in the affirmative and he told me to enjoy my evening.  Total time worked, about five minutes.  Never changed my shoes.  Two claims (one 8 hr. and one 4 hr.) plus a basic day. 

Never to be repeated but it was nice that one time!