Railroaders' Nostalgia > “Amen”

When I hired out, I was told by the old heads to say “Amen” if ever I happened to be caught “praying” in a reclined position on the engine. With all of the talk lately about attendance, work/rest policies, etc.,(which is all tied to fatigue)
do any Rails out there have any good “resting my eyes” stories?

Heh heh heh….

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A SP brakeman got caught sleeping in the bay window of a caboose.  At the investigation he was asked if he was sleeping due to his head being down.  He answered no, I was watching this little red bug climbing up my shirt.  Had the nickname red bug after that.

Some conductors were not so affectionately known as “Grade Indicators” based on the position of their heads; Uphill-back, downhill-forward. There was even a couple of engineers who could fall under that category, kinda scary!
In their defense though, trying to keep your eyes open at 3 am, grinding uphill at 12 mph after getting out on your “rest” for the 10th time in a row is a challenge. It doesn’t matter how much caffeine you consume.
I think the ones who were called “Grade Indicators” were the chronic sleepers. They’d get on board, make their nest, get the sidewall heater nice and toasty and be comatose before the rear end even cleared the initial terminal, sleep the whole trip, then have the audacity to tell the outbound crew at the crew change that it was a “good outfit, no problems!”

For better or worse, footage from inward facing cameras has weeded out most of the chronic Grade Indicators.

Maybe where you are, But some dont care, Cameras havnt even managed to stop cell phone usage while moving. 

In September 1962 I, as a student fireman, was riding the middle seat of a Southern Pacific F-7 going "Up the Hill" between Oakridge and Crescent Lake Oregon about dawn and I was the only person awake. It was disconcerting to say the least!

wp1801 Wrote:
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> In September 1962 I, as a student fireman, was
> riding the middle seat of a Southern Pacific F-7
> going "Up the Hill" between Oakridge and Crescent
> Lake Oregon about dawn and I was the only person
> awake. It was disconcerting to say the least!

You were obviously an early version of an alerter!

wp1801 Wrote:
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> In September 1962 I, as a student fireman, was
> riding the middle seat of a Southern Pacific F-7
> going "Up the Hill" between Oakridge and Crescent
> Lake Oregon about dawn and I was the only person
> awake. It was disconcerting to say the least!

I had a similar experience in my UP days. We were westbound going through Ontario/Montclair on the LA Sub in a brand new SD60M. This was one of the so-called "triclops" units, which had a seat for the brakeman dead center in the cab, which was my perch for the trip. It's pretty much downhill all the way from Montclair to LA and we were trucking along at 60MPH in the wee hours and I was fighting to stay awake. But somewhere just before Montclair yard I dozed off as we bounced along heading for East Yard. Then all of a sudden I woke up and when I became aware of my surroundings I realized nobody was blowing for the crossings as the gates and lights wizzed by us in silence.

So I glanced over at the conductor and he was in a deep sleep, oblivious to the world. Then I rotated my head toward the engineer, and she was slumped sideways snoring away. So I got up and stepped over to the desktop control stand and started blowing for the next crossing, which woke her up and pissed her off. How dare I touch her precious control stand! Anyway, that jarred her awake long enough for us to get to LA. I must have only been asleep a couple minutes based on the distance that I have no recollection of, but I have no idea how long she was out. The conductor didn't wake up until we hit Vail Avenue. 

One afternoon while on a yard local our Trainmaster (Who was not well liked) climbed aboard to do a ride check. Shortly after sitting down on the left hand side he was in La La Land and I had my camera laying on the cab floor between my feet. How tempting it was to grab a shot but the shutter would most likely wake him up so the camera stayed where it was. 

There was an old head SP engineer nick-named “The Mummy”. Legend has it that while snoozing in the crew room between switching duties, one night, at Taylor Yard in Los Angeles, he was abruptly woken by the yard master on the intercom to go back to work, where upon he staggered outside to go get on his engine and fell into the turntable pit.

Way back in 1975 or so, I was the Assistant Trainmaster at SP's Tweedy Yard.  Tweedy (South Gate) was located between Firestone Park and Compton on the SP's San Pedro Branch and supported the General Motors South Gate Assembly Plant.  Normally there were no through trains on this portion of the San Pedro Branch and all tracks, including the main track of the branch were usually occupied by loaded auto parts cars and multi-levels supporting the plant.  The parallel former Pacific Electric (PE) Wilmington Branch served as the usual route for haulers between Los Angeles and Dolores thereby avoiding Tweedy on the San Pedro Branch.  On occasion, however, the Wilmington Branch might be blocked with an inbound coal or potash move and the hauler had to use the San Pedro Branch to get back up to Los Angeles.  One early morning about 400am while the GM plant was being pulled and ready to be respotted here comes the Dolores Hauler up the San Pedro Branch without warning or communication.  The switches at the east end of Tweedy Yard were lined for the GM plant and the derail was off.  Two big SD39s and about 100 cars head right up the yard lead, into the GM lead, through Earl M. Jorgensen's steel plant, over the side street and right into the GM plant until they hit the bumper at the end of the longest track in the plant.  Turns out everyone on the head end was asleep and were rudely awakened as the lead SD39 hit the bumper and caused quite a bit of damage to the plant.  Everyone got a long unscheduled vacation as a result of this little incident and I remember the wife of the engineer calling me a number of times pleading to get her husband back on the job because she couldn't stand him being at home and they needed his salary so she could buy some new furniture.  My SP friends probably remember this incident and the Engineer whose initials were VE.

Pete
Oxnard, California

As in Edmondson.
G

A yard foreman had layed down on a bench in the north end shack at one of the yards in Savannah while on his minutes. The crew tied him to the bench he was on with zip ties, finished the day and went home. The afternoon crew showed up and had to cut the zip ties off so he could get home to take another drink.

After the Sacramento Northern Chico Branch was removerd between Live Oak, Ca where it crossed the SP, and Durham where it closely paralleled the SP, the SN local came on the SP main track and ran up to Durham where they had to hand throw to get off.  

One night they went up there with an NW2 and eight or ten cars, and everybody went to sleep leaving Live Oak.  Normally the local would disappear from the dispatcher's board between Richvale and Chico, but this night they went right thru Chico on red signals, and got about another 30 miles up the main track before the dispatcher got the first train they were going to meet stopped, and the SN lined into the siding.

Then they had the SP put down torpedoes and whistle at the local as they went by.  That woke them up, and they didn't have a clue where they were.

They got enough time off to get plenty of rest!
G

I attached hooks on each end of a hammock that fit perfectly from cab window awning to awning, still have it. And, to this day, I cannot fall asleep sitting in a chair at home but no problem in an idling locomotive.
JB

Here's one of a few I have.  After the old Burbank Jct. Tower was torn down it was replaced by a tin shack a few yards down from the old tower's location. The interlocking plant was replaced by a tiny CTC machine that controlled the interlocking. On one of my assignments off the Telegraphers' extra board I was at 3rd Burbank Jct.  3rd Burbank Jct. was a popular spot fo the night trainmasters to visit and see if they could catch the operator napping. The old tower was easy as you could hear someone coming up the steps. I devised a method that worked. I lined up three chairs and laid across them for "forty winks". If I heard anyone crunching the ballast I'd kick the chair under my feet, toss the one under my head and sit up straight in the one under my butt. It was a while back but I recall putting it to the test one night. 

Have fun, be safe, 

Bruce "Doc" Jones  Sierra Madre CA

Beowawe came up with the great story of good old "Red Bug". Red Bug was an SP Trainman who worked locals out of Tracy and Stockton towards
the end of his career. Good old Harry Ballance was the Officer that was involved in Red Bug getting his new monicker! I worked with Red Bug many
times as the engineer on various locals out of both Tracy and Stockton. For the life of me I can't remember his real name, he was always just Red Bug.

I knew a guy years ago who had been a hostler on the NP at the end of the steam era in Seattle. He told me he was taking a nap on top of the tender of an oil burner that must have had a full tank of oil. Apparently the tank heater was on and the bunker C overflowed and spilled all over the top of the tank, but apparently not waking up Don. When he DID wake up, the spilled oil had cooled and he was completely stuck. They had to cut him out of his Big Macs to get him loose.

   One time, the "Mummy" went to sleep on me during a setout at City of Industry.  We had pulled down over the switch, and I was ready to back up, when he went to sleep on me.  He wasn't answering the radio, and the usual procedure in a case like this, was to step in and bust the air, thus waking him up.  The Red Zone rules had recently gone into effect, so that took that arrow out of my quiver.  The Crest ATM drove up to see what the problem was, but he figured it out on his own.  Away to the head end he went in a cloud of dust, and shortly after that, we finished the move.
   When I got back on the head end, he angrily accused me of turning him in, and he told everyone that would listen, how I'd ratted him out.  The main answer was, "Yeah, sure F.."  They knew him and they knew me.

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO.