Railroaders' Nostalgia > Runaway!

In the summer of 1964 I was working as a yard switchman for the Omaha in Minneapolis.  Yes, I said "The Omaha".  At least everyone I worked with called it that, though the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railroad had been absorbed by the Chicago and North Western in 1918 (and that was the name of our paychecks).  Everyone still called it the Omaha.

One night I was working as the Head Man on the eastbound switch job at the West end of East Minneapolis yard (got that?) and the Yardmaster came running out to us, shouting, "Shove in the clear NOW!  The crew working the East end lost control on a couple of cars and they're gonna come rollin' down Track 4 any time now." 

The yard was just about a mile long, on a grade.  In fact the east end was nearly 100 feet higher than the west end - that works out to 1.8% grade.  A Mountain Grade!

We quickly lined my engine and cut of cars into another clear track and signaled the engineer to shove in to the clear, while the switch foreman ran to the mainline crossover switches to line them out to the main track.  He did this so that the cars wouldn't smash into anything in the flour mills area and probably cause great damage and probably really hurt somone.  (The main line was double track, freight only, Rule 251 track and known to be clear.  Notifying the dispatcher would have been nice, but there wasn't time.)  The cars could roll to a low spot about a mile down the hill and stop at Minneapolis Jct.

We waited.  And waited.  Nothin'.

So we cut our engine off those cars we were switching and along with the Yardmaster tip-toed our Alco S-2 slowly up Track 4, expecting to find a couple cars derailed.  Then, a dark shape appeared in the shadows, moving slowly towards us about 2-3 mph.  Must have been enough of a handbrake on 'em to keep moving slowly. 

Another day of the railroad.

-LD

The end result of one getting loose at the top end of Mojave yard  finding a set of power on the bottom end. 

---

Great story.

And that is one long drawbar on that caboose.

SP4360 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The end result of one getting loose at the top end
> of Mojave yard  finding a set of power on the
> bottom end. 

Not only is the cushion under frame totally discombobulated, but the left end of the car was lifted off its truck centerpin! Must have made a loud noise!

-LD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/21 09:55 by LarryDoyle.

LarryDoyle Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SP4360 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The end result of one getting loose at the top
> end
> > of Mojave yard  finding a set of power on the
> > bottom end. 
>
> Not only is the cushion under frame totally
> discombobulated, but the left end of the car was
> lifted off its truck centerpin! Must have made a
> loud noise!
>
> -LD

You bust up the cushions on a caboose these days it goes to end of the rip track and will never move again....they'd just as soon we rode around on old rock gondolas that have a porch on each end. 

Watched an eastbound SP freight come into the yard in Sparks, Nev. one day and it stopped so quickly the slack ran in with a roar and the caboose lifted up so high off the center pin it thought it was going to lose it.  I didn't stick around to see if there were any survivors...


JB - Omaha



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/21 13:03 by Copy19.