Railroaders' Nostalgia > A good Carl story.

A good "Carl" story.  

Back about late 1987, I was working a work train distributing ties and ballast between Santa Barbara and Guadalupe.  We were out in the open all day, and besides #12 & 13, we might have to clear for one freight train. The radio was very quiet. DTC was in effect, and we had to clear up at Sudden for Carl on an Eastbound with Engineer Ken Waage.  
Dave Duran was the Dispatcher, and he had just gotten back to work from being off 30 days for a lap-over.  We released our authority, and Dave calls Carl to give him "SP 8304 East, Conductor Rogoza, you are authorized to proceed East in 7 blocks, Sudden through Santa Susana."  The only problem was Dave with his accent pronounced Santa Susana as Santa Sana.  So Carl answers back with "Ya the SP 8304 East we got 7 blocks, Sudden thru Santa Sana."  Carl gave him Santa Susana back to him exactly the way he said it, but Dave didn't like it, and he was touchy, so he said it all over again: "SP 8304 East Conductor Rogoza, you are authorized to proceed East in 7 blocks, Sudden thru Santa Sana."  Carl sonded just a little upset, and came back again with "Ya this is the SP 8304 East and we got 7 blocks Sudden thru Santa Sana."

Dave comes back with "SP 8304 East Conductor Rogoza you are authorized to proceed East in 7 blocks, Sudden thru Santa Sana," and Carl says "Ya thats what I said, we got 7 blocks, Sudden thru Santa Sana."   There is silence for a few seconds, and then Dave comes on again and says "we are going to do this until we get it right!"

SP 8304 East Conductor Rogoza, you are authorized to proceed East in 7 blocks, Sudden thru Santa Sana."  Carl comes on the radio all mad and just gets out "YA THATS" when we can hear the engineer from the other side of the cab yelling "SHUT UP, SHUT UP!  Carl stops talking,  and a couple of seconds later, Ken's voice comes on with "SP 8304 East, Conductor Rogoza, we are authorized to proceed East in 7 blocks, Sudden thru Santa Susana."
Dave comes back with SP 8304 East that is correct, 104pm. Ken knew that if Carl made Dave any madder, they were going to go in every siding on the railroad.
G
 

When I knew Carl, late 60s and early 70s, I thought his seniority was Taylor Yard east to Yuma. Was there a change in the agreement later that gave Carl (and his colleagures) rights on the territories west of Taylor Yard?

The last time I recall seeing Carl was years later at C of I and he was standing on a flat car passing signals. He was kind enough to let me ride with him on a few occasions when I was still a high school foamer in the late 60s.

Carl had an odd sense of humor.
He could be a smart ass.
He was a good friend.
TAH

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eljay Wrote:
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> When I knew Carl, late 60s and early 70s, I
> thought his seniority was Taylor Yard east to
> Yuma. Was there a change in the agreement later
> that gave Carl (and his colleagures) rights on the
> territories west of Taylor Yard?
>
> The last time I recall seeing Carl was years later
> at C of I and he was standing on a flat car
> passing signals. He was kind enough to let me ride
> with him on a few occasions when I was still a
> high school foamer in the late 60s.

Carl worked on the LA Division as a trainman. The seniority district included LA to Yuma, local assignments in the LA Basin, Gemco, Oxnard, interdivisional run from LA to San Luis Obispo .

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Carl enjoyed blowing the horn. On the older units that had a horn cable he would rig up a set of ropes and pulleys and blow away from the firemans side of the engine. I would hear him on the radio and i would mutter "blow the whistle!". His response was " Dah! ".
During the days of a train with a caboose he carried a piece of paper in his pocket because he couldnt remember how to call the head end. He would say, " SP caboose train 829 calling engine train 829, over ".

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/23 08:55 by SanJoaquinEngr.

The day Carl passed away at Frink here is the back story. He boarded a westbound at Yuma with engineer , Joe S. Carl placed his grip on the front of the engine but forgot to bring it into the cab. The train left Yuma and headed westward. At around Niland he needed something out of his grip. He looked around the cab and couldnt locate it and became very panicky he opened the cab nose door and the grip had fallen off somewhere enroute. According to Joe he was really riled up and complained of chest pains and went into cardiac arrest. Joe administered CPR and called 911 to no avail. Joe was given some time off for his efforts .

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/23 09:09 by SanJoaquinEngr.

I wonder if Carl's grip was ever recovered?

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One more Carl story. My wife and two boys and me had come in from Chicago on #3 and spent a day in Los Angeles to make sure we made the connection to the northbound Starlight in 95 or 96 (#13?). We boarded at LAUPT got our seats and were immediately notified that there was going to be an hour delay or so. We were told there was a bunch of connecting passengers coming in on #1, The Sunset. My oldest son Scott and I got out with our cameras to take some pictures of various activity at the station while my youngest son and Mama kicked back in there seats. Now we got our shorts and tee shirts on and our tennies! We are looking at our power at some point and I am guessing Scott may have pictures of that. I believe an announcement was made that #1 was 20 minutes out or so and all passengers should reboard. Right then the Hoghead comes out to put the units on line and make a final check. He looks familiar and then turns around. Holy crap it's Jay Bell a good friend! He looks at us and asks what the hell are we doing there. I give him the story and he goes why don't the two of you ride up in the cab with me. I say look at how we are dressed,he goes no big deal. He explains to one of the trainmen to open the door at the first stop out of LAUPT on the side away from the station (Glendale?), and come up. I say the Fireman may not be to cool on this idea He explains he has no Fireman and that he will be turning at Santa Barbara with a layover of some hours and taking the Southbound Starlight if I remember back to LA. This all happens and we put Scott in the Firemans seat and put him in charge of blowing for the crossings! I am standing behind Jay and we are talking when he says he has to call a Flagman up ahead on some project to get through...this happens and the Flagman talks us through. We are going 30 or so when he says open the door and wave to the Flagman, I say are you crazy, he says just do it. There is Carl with his pac set when he spies me and Jay waving me in my shorts and tennies. Carl just starts laughing  as we go by and Jay says I'll call you. Both of these Railroaders are now long gone and I miss them very much but my Son and I will never forget that time. Railroading was different in those days!

I first met Carl while working as an Asst. Trainmaster at City of Industry.  Carl was working one of the City of Industry hump jobs and he asked me if he could go work on the locmotives parked over on the Day and Night lead.  After about an hour or two he came back looking very happy.  When the sun rose and the 600am hump job crew went over to the power on the Day and Night lead, we found the two 5300s (SD39s) miraculously both had 5 tone Nathan chime air horns instead of the original 3 tone SP horns.  Carl loved to remove and replace horns on locomotives.  We all looked the other way and enjoyed the melodious sounds of the horns he loved.

Pete
Camarillo, California

   For a time, Carl and Jim "Termite" Hasbrouck were braking together on the old West End out of Los Angeles.  One night, I caught that team off the Conductor's extra board.  Our job was to deliver an ore train to the steel mill at Kaiser and gather up the ore empties.
   While going about our business up in the Kaiser mill, they spotted some old oil switch lamp about the same time.  I thought I was going to have to break up a fistfight!

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO

Haha I can see those two foaming over the lamp. Termite what a character. He always had a pocket full of IBM cards.
In later years he still lived at home with his Mother. Once a week he would drive from Santa Monica to Oxnard to shop at Price club with his Mother to save 1 percent sales tax.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/23 17:23 by SanJoaquinEngr.

Oh my, The good old days around Colton. Called for the Ore empties east from Fontana to Indio.  I was an Assistant Trainmaster and later Trainmaster at Colton. This was just before West Colton opened.  That ruined a good Tranmasters district.

Anyone want to tell a few McKeemy stories?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/23 20:52 by mdo.

mdo Wrote:
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> Oh my, The good old days around Colton. Called for
> the Ore empties east from Fontana to Indio.  I
> was an Assistant Trainmaster and later Trainmaster
> at Colton. This was just before West Colton
> opened.  That ruined a good Tranmasters
> district.
>
> Anyone want to tell a few McKamey stories?

Old head conductor on the west end (LA to Indio) pool. His name was Gail McKeemy. He was a big jerk for a human being. The crew dispatcher s in Indio disliked him immensely. If you worked with him you knew you were going to catch the "train of doom train". The crew dispatchers and the chief dispatcher would purposely put McKeemy on the dreaded ore train or a drag out of Indio yard. Crewdispatchers would call a hotshot for 6pm , McKeemy for 610pm for the crap train and another hotshot for 620pm. I learned from his example that you never screw over a crew dispatcher... They can screw you over 99 times to the one time you can screw them over.

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Same applies for the train dispatchers.

Sam