Railroaders' Nostalgia > Ever work with the Roadmaster on rerailing cars??

I did on a few occasions . You took orders from him and they were all good at what they did.
Now working "work trains" was usually a damn good call to get. If you loved making your dough on "spot" this was the job for you.
There were always co-ordination problems involved between the various people involved which made things interesting.
But now here it gets tricky; a cable is tightly connected to your power at the knuckle and at that point the Roadmaster becomes your conductor.
You take signals from him, nobody else. He's the Boss. This requires some real intricate throttle work on your part. Sometimes just inches of movement before you are signaled to stop.
It can get hair raising. The cable is stretched to the breaking point. The cable is now singing; you know instintively that a singing cable could snap at any moment cutting people in half
within a 100 foot radius. Just plain dangerous. This battle between the cable and the cars to be moved or righted could and did take hours. You keep your eyes glued to the 
Roadmasters signals. "High ANXIETY" just like the movie. We spiked both ends of the siding and then tied up for the day.

Re-railing was right there with spreading ballast on my "least favorite things to do" list.

We tried re-railing a couple of cars one afternoon that were buried so deep that our little EMD four axle couldn't budge them. So....the T/M hauls us several miles back to our on-duty point, and puts us on a couple of GE wide bodies. Run back down there, MU to the four axle, and start over. By the time we got done, it looked like a farmer had drug a plow through there. But everything was on the rail.

I liked to rerail cars...and dump ballast. They were out-of-the ordinary jobs and satisfying as well. The best rerailing tale
I remember when 2-4 scrap cars got kicked WAAAAY too hard into some other cars. Scrap flew into the air on impact,  
before they things went off the rails and consequently creating more scrap. The mechanical foremen showed up the next
day while it was getting cleaned up, but not nearly fast enough for the foreman...not enough 'elbows and assholes' (but
his arrival did increase the latter by one). So he got down under one of the gondolas to show 'em how it was done. He was
barking orders to bring this and do that. They brought him a frog, while 4-5 of us watched him work his magic. It's important 
to mention that he always wore a tie...important people always do. So he wrestled around with a rerail frog, got it where he
wanted and dropped it. Done! But he wasn't going anywhere because he dropped it on his tie and thankfully there was one
guy left (the rest had disappeared so he couldn't see 'em laugh) to help him escape. He went straight to his truck without a
word and left. Somehow those ol' car men managed to get it cleaned up on their own. 

Good one Skinum. I always liked to dump ballast,pick up and unload rail and even pick up trash.
I was doing that on 9/11. The section crew had replaced ties between Jesup and Folkston and the powers that be wanted them hidden fom the officer's special that would take everybody to the Greenbrier for the stockholdeer's meeting. That was one good paying job. Crew management would not put us on duty at Jesup, we were on duty in Savannah by the job advertisement and train orders although the orders were sent to Jesup. The conductor and I stayed in the hotel at Jesup, and were paid 140 miles car mileage, 12 hours, and a seperate dh of 130 miles an Monday and Friday. That one paid very good. People wondred why I wasn't on a thru freight pool job.  And the officials didn't bother us.

Sam

The SP had two of the most skilled rerailing formans at Taylor yard Oscar and Tony Caruso. These 2 were geniuses . I knew when they showed up with the crew the job would be over quickly. The crew would use hardwood blocks and only took signals from them. Rarely did we ever have to do a redo.

Posted from Android

Tony Caruso did most of his communication by his whistling, as I recall. 

JGFuller Wrote:
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> Tony Caruso did most of his communication by his
> whistling, as I recall. 


Thanks Jack..for the memory reboot.. Who was the other long time foreman? Wes Bagley ?

Posted from Android

My dad always told a story about a wealthy business owner (Rockford Hide and Fur) that showed up one day and gave everyone an ass chewing.  He was so angry that when he stormed out of the shop , he accidentally got in the back seat of his beautiful Cadillac.  I guess the guys had a belly laugh out of that. 

Dave

Ha,  I was a Roadmaster rerailing cars !

Some engineers were really good, ask for 3/4" movement and they had it. Others, well others were terrible. Tell them to back up 6 inches and they'd go 18 inches and mess up all the blocking and spread the rails and do more damage. Some you just couldn't trust to know what they would do. Most of those guys were engineers who thought they should also be the roadmaster and seemed determined to be in charge. That is when there had to be an understanding of who was in charge and how it was going to be done. PERIOD.

Also trainmasters, yardmasters and anyone else with two feet and a mouth liked to chime in and try to explain as things were happening just how they would do it if they were me.
GET LOST !!!

train1275 Wrote:
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> Some engineers were really good, ask for 3/4"
> movement and they had it. Others, well others were
> terrible. 

Did you have any control over which engineer(s) you got?

Pretty much No.

sf1010 Wrote:
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> train1275 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Some engineers were really good, ask for 3/4"
> > movement and they had it. Others, well others
> were
> > terrible. 
>
> Did you have any control over which engineer(s)
> you got?

I have doneit ...it will test your fine throttle modulation technique for sure.....

engineerinvirginia Wrote:
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> I have doneit ...it will test your fine throttle
> modulation technique for sure.....

It's a lot easier with an EMD than a GE.

SanJoaquinEngr Wrote:
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> JGFuller Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Tony Caruso did most of his communication by
> his
> > whistling, as I recall. 
>
>
> Thanks Jack..for the memory reboot.. Who was the
> other long time foreman? Wes Bagley ?
>
> Posted from Android

Are you referring to the the wrecker boss in Los Angeles back in the 60's known to all and sundry as Mr. Baggs?

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO.

tehachcond Wrote:
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> SanJoaquinEngr Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > JGFuller Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Tony Caruso did most of his communication by
> > his
> > > whistling, as I recall. 
> >
> >
> > Thanks Jack..for the memory reboot.. Who was
> the
> > other long time foreman? Wes Bagley ?
> >
> > Posted from Android
>
> Are you referring to the the wrecker boss in Los
> Angeles back in the 60's known to all and sundry
> as Mr. Baggs?
>
> Brian Black
> Castle Rock, CO.

Yes....met him 54 years at a derailment at Salvia...

RetiredHogger Wrote:
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> engineerinvirginia Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I have doneit ...it will test your fine
> throttle
> > modulation technique for sure.....
>
> It's a lot easier with an EMD than a GE.

So very true

Had several opportunities to do derailment clean up and work trains.  The roadmasters were all professional and easy to work with.  The first time I was directed bring it back 6 inches I almost asked "are you nuts?"  Instead, I shut up and moved the required 6 inches.  It became challenging and down right fun after awhile.  Just like maintaining 1.5 mph on a heavy grade with ballast cars and smaller speed increments on work trains.  Always enjoyed the experience.  What those guys could do with small wooden blocks in derailment clean up was always impressive.  Reminded me of surgeons discussing where and how to make the next incision.  

ApproachCircuit Wrote:
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> I did on a few occasions . You took orders from
> him and they were all good at what they did.


Well... mostly.
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,4105599,4105599#msg-4105599

TAW