Railroaders' Nostalgia > Unexpected easy trip

Here is a true story that was told to me, since the party that told me is still around I wont mention his name or the railroad,let's just call him Conductor B and that it took place on a large yellow railroad in the midwest.

Conductor B worked a pool job out of his home terminal, one morning he was called for an empty grain train. When he reported to the yard office he found out that this train was destined to a grain elevator on the outskirts of town, about 2 miles east of the end of the yard.
Conductor B questioned his assignment with the on duty trainmaster stating that this was extraboard work not pool work, the trainmaster was indefrent saying "i dont care just take it".

Conductor B was a bit shocked but figured this would benifit him greatly as he had plans at home he wanted to take care of instead of being on train today. Conductor B quickly found his engineer and told him what was up and both quickly got their paperwork and got a van to the crew change point. (Yard office here is on the very west end of the yard and eastbounds change crews at a road x-ing on the east end). With the engineer on board the train conductor B gets back in the van and drives down 1/2 mile to the elevator switch and lines it into the elevator track. Train comes in, conductor B makes a cut at another county road x-ing inside the elevators track and they then spot the other hoppers and cut off the power.
Dispatcher has them wait for only 1 other train on the mainline, they get permission to come out and reverse the 2 miles back to the yard and tie down the power by the old roundhouse, then with the same van they get a ride back to the yard office and tie up.

So in summary, all conductor B did was take a train 2 miles down and spot it, brought the power back to the yard, was on duty for 1 1/2 hours and since he and his hogger were pool guys they both got paid a 200 mile trip for not really leaving town. Shut up and open your pockets!
JC

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JasonCNW Wrote:
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> ... Shut up and open your pockets!
> JC

No truer words were ever spoken on the railroad.

Sounds like Boone to me.

There would be an outcry from the guys on that pool if this happened in my terminal. Depending on the local pool agreement, the company probably should have vanned them to the AFHT when they were done, keeping them in the correct spot in the rotation. They are supposed to do that even if you go on duty and never turn a wheel. I've done six miles on a train and the other 200+ in the van.

Similarly I've done a hundred and forty seven miles in a van (Barstow to Los Angeles) with the last two miles yarding a train we were supposedly dog catching at Corona, CA, that was actually stopped at Eastern Ave, less than a mile from Hobart yard. How do they not know where a train is!
JB

mojo Wrote:
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> Sounds like Boone to me.

Oh yes me thinks as well. He he he he. 
MILW86A 

3rdswitch Wrote:
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> Similarly I've done a hundred and forty seven
> miles in a van (Barstow to Los Angeles) with the
> last two miles yarding a train we were supposedly
> dog catching at Corona, CA, that was actually
> stopped at Eastern Ave, less than a mile from
> Hobart yard. How do they not know where a train
> is!
> JB

I wonder if this happens with the westbounds that are constantly tied down at Buena Park, just 10-15 miles from Los Angeles?
Every time we drive up or down Beach Blvd. the head end of a stack train is sitting up on the bridge.

Once in AFHT, we were called to go out and recrew a train and bring into AFHT....while we were heading east, I said to my Conductor...who I suspected would be interested..."you know, there's only two crews left in the hotel, we could volunteer to go back to bed...and if we do, we'll automatically be first out! Conductor lit up and said "Ka-Ching!  Tone up that dispatcher!" I did, and Conductor told DS hey we can go back to the hotel when we get in....didn't seem like there was many crews there...DS said he'd check with Chief. Three minutes later, DS calls and says.....Chiefs say Ya'll go to the hotel! Ka-Ching!
Open your pockets....the railroad will fill them up. 

hotrail Wrote:
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> 3rdswitch Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Similarly I've done a hundred and forty seven
> > miles in a van (Barstow to Los Angeles) with
> the
> > last two miles yarding a train we were
> supposedly
> > dog catching at Corona, CA, that was actually
> > stopped at Eastern Ave, less than a mile from
> > Hobart yard. How do they not know where a train
> > is!
> > JB
>
> I wonder if this happens with the westbounds that
> are constantly tied down at Buena Park, just 10-15
> miles from Los Angeles?
> Every time we drive up or down Beach Blvd. the
> head end of a stack train is sitting up on the
> bridge.

They could be waiting for their ship to come in.     Sorry, I couldn't resist.